Charlie Hood: Sense of community is gone

I remember watching Ezra and that group that came up with him in the seventh and eighth grade and thinking they’re going to be pretty good. The way it is now, you just hope they don’t move somewhere else.

But that ’99 team, they were in Marietta all through their school years. Several of them still live here. Kevin Johnson, my point guard, his dad played for me. Robert Pringle later had a landscaping business in Marietta. Maurice Rhodes came up with Ezra. He went to McEachern for two years but came back to Marietta.

Growing up in a place, you have a regard for what the team means for the community. I’d think you’d have to. I know all players play for the love of the game, but the sense of community and integrity of high school basketball has been hurt today.

We played Valdosta in the championship in Macon. We went to overtime, and Ezra really hadn’t had a great game. He only had about 13 points. We started back out for the jump ball, and I called him back, put my arm around him, and said, “You’ve got to pick it up if we’re going to win.” After the tip, he did his typical crossover move and hit a 3. We ended up winning by 12.

We were coming back at 1 in the morning and here comes four police cars with their lights flashing. They’d come to carry us back to school. The Marietta City Council had us for a visit. A lot of patrons in town carried us out to dinner, things like that. That was a lifetime memory thing.

Can you win with a team that grew up together? Not now. Not having to beat Wheeler and Milton and Norcross and all those teams. Even my last really good team with J.C. Ward, we were 26-3 and had to play Norcross. They had all five starters that had moved in. That was 2007. We had had a great year and beat everybody, but we couldn’t play with those guys.

Not to say that’s all bad or all good, but I’m glad I got out when I did.

As told to Todd Holcomb, for the AJC