I’ve been a little leery of the new gym in Alamo, Nevada until now.
Sure it’s pretty. Sure it has a lot more sitting room. Sure it comes with padded chairs for the players. Sure the locker rooms are nicer - toilets don’t clog as easily and shower-floor fungus isn’t strong enough to eat through your flip-flops … yet.
But that old gym was loud. Intimidating. In the fourth quarter of a close game, you could hear nothing but the crowd. When you went to bed after a game, the ringing in your ears would keep you awake. It was awesome.
I didn’t get that sense at the new gym until this Friday, when Alamo hosted Mountain View Christian.
In the boys JV game, Dustin Poulsen hit two free throws with just seconds left in overtime to seal a victory for the Panthers. Loud.
In the girls varsity game, two techs were called on MVCS. Loud.
In the boys varsity game, Brandon Carr of MVCS made the go-ahead bucket with 10 seconds left. Very loud.
And when there was 0.4 seconds left and the game was all but over, both the home and visiting crowds chanted their team names at the top of their lungs. As I wrote the stories in the quiet of the Hansen living room that night, I noticed a slight ringing in the ears.
I smiled.
Other tidbits:
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Teams played games the following day. Alamo girls and boys took care of Trinity at home. MVCS hosted Lake Mead. The girls game wasn’t reported to NevadaPrep, but I’m guessing MVCS won, since from what I hear the Saints and Alamo are tops in the league. The MVCS boys were thumped by the Eagles.
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MVCS is moving up to 2A next year. Though they won’t be battling the Panthers in league play, coach Ray LeBoeuf said the teams will still battle. ”I’m still going to come here one way or the other,” he said. “I enjoy
(Alamo coach) Brian (Higbee), I loved (former head coach) Mike (Strong), I enjoy (Alamo football coach) Ken (Higbee). I’ve enjoyed the people here. I’ve always felt welcome here.”
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LeBoeuf also discussed what his team has to do to get to Lake Mead’s level. He said the amount of games the Eagles have played this year ”gives them that extra edge to be confident and to play hard for 32 minutes. And that’s what those kids will do.” He added Lake Mead just wears teams down. “All it takes is two, three minutes and they can roll off 10, 15 points on you, and then just play even, play even, play even, then do it again, and it’s a 30-point game. So the big thing for us is to just keep playing hard for 32 minutes, see how close we can get to matching their effort.”
I’d like to know what the toughest, loudest, oldest, whateverest basketball venues in the state are. Please post your comments. I also welcome whatever else is on your mind.
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1 Comment
January 15, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Definately, Gary Batchelor Gymnasium at Moapa Valley has to be one of the loudest arenas in Nevada sports. When you put the raucious fans, the Pirate faithful, and the MVHS Pep Band, which is known around the state as one of the loudest and proudest, in one building , you are sure to get one loud atmosphere to watch a basketball game in. It it also very intimdating to play in because you see that glory that Moapa has achieved. All I know is that if I was a player, I wouldn’t want to have to play an important game at Moapa Valley.