In case you are wondering?

 I have seen a few comments about the "fluke" win that South Iron Panthers earned over the outstanding CBC basketball team on Saturday.  I did not see it that way in my ratings.  I had CBC at a 142 and South Iron at a solid 136 so the spread was, at most, six points.  There really isn't a home advantage with the covid fan restrictions, although the Panthers endured a two-hour bus ride up to St. Louis from Annapolis.  I am quite sure the bus ride home was a lot shorter after their two-point win.

But you have to wonder, how can a town with 387 people and a seven through twelve high school population of 120 students end up with a top basketball program?  How did the Dora team do it the last few years?  It is a story right out of the movie Hoosiers and it involves a heck of a lot of hard work.

My mother went to a school like that back in Minnesota.  Mountain Lake Lakers were state champions several times and in the final four or eight at least dozen times.  There was a culture of basketball at the school in the early 1900s that was perpetuated by coaches and kids that wanted to be like the last state champion. 

I have seen a lot of individual players that have developed by playing up to a higher grade and getting more experience with two or three team affiliations.  Nick Kramer and Larry Hughes Jr both played up a grade to fine-tune their outstanding games.  But there is more to it than that.  Players that want to develop have to work with good trainers and spend a lot of time in the gym.

In small towns that nurture their sports teams, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that most people do not see.  Dusty Dinkins indicated that, like the Dora kids, the South Iron boys started out in a kindergarten league.  The parents were very involved in the K-3rd grade leagues around Farmington, graduating to the AAU spring, summer, and fall schedules.  The Black River Conference has a spring league for elementary schools that runs from March through April with 10 to 12 games and a couple of tournaments.  When most kids are out playing baseball or running around, these budding players were still on the indoor hardcourt.  Dinkins actually coached this league for 18 years and the junior high teams for another 12.  One of the point guards off the 2008 runner-up state team came back to Annapolis and has been teaching and coaching junior high.   Some of the parents have also ponied up to help coach.  The community is invested in the kid's development.  And the kids have played together for umpteen years by the time they get to high school.  Once there, they don't stand pat.  Many of them play on AAU teams across the state to hone their skills.   

According to Dinkins, Stephon Martinez with Dig Deep Basketball started training with this group of Panthers when they were in sixth or seventh grade and you can tell how good the training was by watching them perform. It used to be, a kid just showed up for basketball tryouts in early November and you played ball for three months. It is a different world out there today and you can see the ones who have put in the work to be successful.

It takes a village to raise a child and Annapolis is totally invested in doing that with team sports. I don't expect South Iron to disappear after this season. The pipeline is full of talented young kids that want to be like that 2008 state runner-up.

Good programs just don't happen. They are purposeful. Look around and you will see. Vashon, CBC, Chaminade.... they don't just recruit good kids. They have summer camps and clinics to nurture their future success.

I had a boss who showed me a formula and it stuck with me throughout my career:

Work = Success

Work = Success

Work = Success

Work = Success

Do you get it now? Sucess does not happen without a lot of hard work.

Congrats Coach Dinkins, the work is paying off in Annapolis.