2/26/2008
<br>Author: Devin Pickard
<br>Title: More Than A Game
<br><br>Hickman Co. girls keep rolling along<br>Lady Bulldogs earn first sectional berth since '98<br><br>By JEFF LOCKRIDGE<br>Staff Writer<br><br>SPRING HILL — Hickman County began this girls basketball season with nine losses and very little promise.  That was another time and another team.The Lady Bulldogs, riding a postseason wave of momentum under first-year Coach Cory Barrett, edged Giles County 49-47 on Monday in a Region 5-AA semifinal at Spring Hill.  Jaclyn Wise made five 3-pointers en route to a game-high 19 points for Hickman County (12-17), which is assured a sectional berth - its first since 1998 - regardless of how it fares against Marshall County in Wednesday's 6 p.m. region final.  "The program has been down, and we're trying to revive it," Barrett said. "The biggest thing is these kids don't care how many wins they have."  Hickman County's Brittany Powers (10 points, 14 rebounds) missed two free throws with nine seconds left, giving the Lady Bobcats a chance to win it. But Hope Garrett's contested 15-footer was off the mark and Wise reeled in the rebound with 1.7 seconds left.  Hickman County went on a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter, turning a 42-37 deficit at 5:55 into a 47-42 lead on Kelsey Wright's three-point play with 1:25 remaining. Wise drained the last of her 3-pointers from 25 feet to ignite the run coming out of a timeout.  "It was a big game because it was do-or-die," Wise said. "We knew we had to step it up there, play better defense and rebound."                      <br>  (taken from the TENNESSEAN, February 26, 2008)<br>===========================================================<br><br>What is your life’s “win-loss ratio”?  Now c’mon....you know what it is.  Most of us keep score whether we want to admit it or not.  And generally, the losses tend to stick out in our minds much more than the victories.   More important than any game, our life losses are gauged by far more than who has the highest number on the scoreboard at the end of regulation.  Often times, the most damaging losses are inflicted by those closest to us....those who we think would be the last ones to do us any harm or defeat us.  Occasionally our lives (games) may be like the first meeting this year between the Lady Dawgs of Hickman Co. and the Lady Bobcats of Pulaski.  The game was tooth and nail/nip and tuck from the first tip of the ball.  The end result....a slim victory by Giles County in double-overtime.  Losses like that are tough because you give it your best, play your heart out, leave it all on the floor and still come up on the short end of the stick.  I bet some of you feel like that right now....and it has nothing to do with wearing sneakers and bouncing a ball.<br><br>Coach Barrett made an interesting point in the Tennessean article above.  He said the girls “didn’t care how many wins they have”.  He would also tell you they don’t care how many losses they have either.  The Lady Bulldogs have pretty good short-term memory.  It would do us well to learn a lesson from these teen-agers.  Let’s try to put our losses behind us and glean all the positive from them that we can.  You know why?  Like the Lady Dawgs, we will probably face some of the same opposition again.  And, if we handle our lives like these young ladies have handled this season, we too can come out victorious when it matters the most.  I would love to see these girls hoist the AA State Championship trophy in a few days.  But, as exciting as that would be, I know of a far more important trophy to handed out on the other side of eternity....and it won’t tarnish.                             <br>      <br>Go the extra mile - Devin           <br>