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March 8, 2010

Les Dixon - The Way It Is

Les Dixon, Sports Editor The Times-Tribune

CORBIN — It’s another day in the books and I’ll be honest, I’m very, very tired.

I believe the Times-Tribune and the Harlan Daily Enterprise are the only two print media that has covered the entire 13th Region Tournament.

Today should be an interesting day with three games on tap.

The boys’ semifinals should give high school basketball fans two good games and of course, I know the girls championship game will be entertaining.

So with that said, it’s time to ramble.

• It didn’t take long for Whitley County athletic director Mike Campbell to start preparing for next year’s 13th Region Tournament at The Arena. For you that don’t know, Whitley County High School will be the host in 2011 with Barbourville and Harlan County to follow.

Campbell said he has started working on a few things for next year’s tournament.

“I took three pages of notes this past Monday night,” he said. “We’ve already started working on a few different things and we’re excited to be able to be the host.”

Despite the rumors of some saying there might be a vote to bring the tournament back to the high schools, Campbell said he doesn’t think that’s true.

“Probably not,” he said. “I think when these small schools see all of the revenue that has came in, they’ll be happy. As far as for getting the boys’ and girls’ ready for Rupp Arena and Diddle Arena, they’ll be ready to play in a bigger venue because this is a nice facility. I think overall it’s a nice venue.

“The only thing I don’t like is that the seating is too far from the floor, but that’s just my opinion,” Campbell added. “The first year in doing something, you’re just trying to figure things out, but the second year you need to work out all of the kinks, so we’re ready to go.”

• I’ve talked about coaches, fans and players during the past five years that I’ve covered the 13th Region Tournament, so today I’m switching gears to talk about Harlan Daily Enterprise’s John Henson.

I’ve known John for more than 10 years and no one, including myself, knows the history of the 13th Region like John does.

He’s a multi-tasker that loves to cover the game of basketball. If he’s not at a high school event, he’s covering AAU games or even middle school games, when he has time, all because he loves the game of basketball.

If you don’t know who John is, he’s the guy sitting on press row with around 40 or 50 notebooks of filed information on each 13th Region team. Stop by and say hello, John is a very nice fella.

• The atmosphere at The Arena has been fantastic the past couple of days. To be honest, sitting on press row and hearing the fans reminds me of when I’m covering the Sweet Sixteen games at Rupp Arena.

Today’s crowds should be huge with two solid semifinal matchups and the girls title game should bring in a lot of fans, too.

North Laurel athletic director Jimmy Durham is going to spice both the girls’ and boys’ title games up a bit and I can’t wait.

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