[clipperw]

I didnt really start following high school basketball until I went to college. I graduated from South Floyd the year they played Clay County in the state tournament. I think I was one of the few from the area that didnt go to the game as I hadnt quite discovered how great it was. Now I love going to games and watching many more on TV/internet. One of my favorite events is a holiday tournament or classic where you can watch 4 games or more in a day. I loved attending the Pikeville Invitational Tournament when it was a 8 team field. Hopefully next season we will have some normalcy and I'll be able to go back to the Mountain Classic. The last time I attended was the 2017 event which Knox Central won.

I got to know a few 13th Region players thanks to attending Alice Lloyd College with them. Tim Parks and Rodney Mitchell from Clay County were two of the nicest guys I met over there and both played for ALC. In 2002, ESPN had a documentary produced called "The Season" as it chronicled the 2001-2002 season across Kentucky that aired that summer. Red Bird was featured in it. Jamie and Jeremy Jackson were seniors on that team that year and they wound up at Alice Lloyd where Jeremy wound up earning a spot on the basketball team. Just about everyone on campus called him "Redbird." Like Tim and Rodney, those guys were great people.