Basketball Preview Night a Slam Dunk

Saints Bookstore Basketball Preview/Benefit Night is
always one of the most exciting events in the Greenhouse all year. It
symbolizes the changing of seasons and gets Seward County basketball
fans ready for what is to come in the upcoming 2011-2012 hoops season.
Last night was no different as a record Preview Night crowd watched
contests between the fans, the coaches, administrators, and teams before
watching the Saints Cheerleading squad and Saintsations dance team
perform for the first time this year and then they watched as the Saints
and Lady Saints took the floor for scrimmages to show off their talents.

Fans began to line up for autographs before the doors
opened and the Saints and Lady Saints had a good time signing their
posters and chatting with young and older admirers alike. The seats of
the Greenhouse also began to fill up quickly as folks looked for the
prime position and also to watch the Seward County Cheerleaders and
Saintsations warm up for their first performance of the school year.

Once the signings and warm-ups were wrapped up, it was
time to have some fun and the fun started with a friendly game of
Basketball Musical Chairs. Fans of all shaped and sizes were picked out
of the crowd by the Saints and Lady Saints players as the six
competitors started their quest for one of the much coveted free
t-shirts supplied generously by the Saints Bookstore. As contestants
were knocked out one by one in the fierce competition, the winner would
end up being a man who used to don the green and black for Coach Dale
Reed. John Garinger, who helped Seward to its first Region Championship
in school history and played with current Saints coach Bryan Zollinger
in the mid 80’s was declared the winner.

Next up was the Coaches Free Throw contest where Lady
Saints coaches Toby Wynn and Penny Jones put their six contest winning
streak on the line against Zollinger and Jason Sautter for the Saints.
Sautter, the newest member of the Seward County coaching family caught
fire early on and made 17 straight free throws at one point in time
during his minute of shooting and would dethroned the champs as he
carried team Zollinger/Sautter to the win.

The Dizzy Bat contest was next on the schedule and the
contestants would not disappoint the crowd as after each had to spin 15
times around a baseball bat and then try to go to the other end of the
court to make a shot. There were plenty of bodies hitting the floor as
contestants tried to keep their balance and after a roar of laughs from
the onlookers, a pair of SCCC/ATS students would overcome the obstacles
to be crowned the champs.

For the first time ever a pair of SCCC/ATS
administrators went head to head on the hardwood next as President Dr.
Duane Dunn and Athletic Director Galen McSpadden squared off in the
Administrators Challenge. The two raced to opposite ends of the court
for their first task of making a layup and McSpadden took the early
lead. Dunn was helped, kind of, by one of the Saints players to put his
in the basket and both were onto their next challenge of making a free
throw. Dunn would knock down his shot from the charity stripe first and
would move to the final spot, the three point line as McSpadden tried to
zero in on the bottom of the net. The Seward County President would
take the challenge as he did his best Jeremy Jones impersonation from
the top of the key to drain the three and cash in the victory.

Four Lady Saints and four Saints were up next for the
team three point competition. The Saints had their turn first and
Hayden Harris, Irvin Hollinger, Brice Jenkins, and Corieon Pearson but
up a good number in their two minutes of shooting and then turned their
devious buttons on as the ladies took the floor. Sophomores Ashlynn
Knoll, Mattie Yanke, Autumn Miller, and Kelsey Willson stepped up to the
shooting gun for the Lady Saints and with a few Saints players in their
ears for distraction, put up a good fight before falling to the fellas
for the third straight year.

Then it was time for the most anticipated event of the
night, the slam dunk contest. In a last minute, orchestrated
substitution, reigning champion and fan favorite Daveon Boardingham was
a late entry into the competition and wowed fans with his first round
dunk over teammate Thaddeus Smith. 6’10 freshman Edson Avila had the
crowd on the edge of their seats with his dunk over the top of two young
fans and then kept the entertainment factor going as he donned a cape
and mask for his finals round dunk. The winner however, was sophomore
Deverell Biggs who used teammate Corieon Pearson’s pass to wow the
judges and knock off Avila for the win.

The Seward County Spirit Squads were next on the docket
and after the Cheerleading and Saintsations dance teams were introduced
and launched their t-shirts into the crowd, they put on a high paced and
aerial show for a cheering crowd.

As the Spirit Squads performance came to a close, the
lights turned out and it was time for the main event. With spotlights
dancing all over the gym, the Lady Saints and then Saints were announced
one by one and came out of a tunnel formed by the Cheerleading and Dance
squads. At the conclusion of the introductions, the teams had a little
something special planned for the crowd as they squared off in the first
ever Saints vs. Lady Saints dance off. The Lady Saints choreographed
their grooves while the Saints players winged it and even took their
show into the crowd. To close the crowd pleasing event, Saints
assistant coach Jason Sautter decided to break out his moves and it put
his team over the top as a tightly contested fan applause poll gave the
"win" to the Saints.

After all of that, it was finally time for basketball.
The Lady Saints hit the court first and the black team would come out on
top of a lopsided final score as Knoll scored from inside and out to
push her team to victory. When the Saints took the court it was again
the black team that came out victorious. Both sides had highlight reel
plays as Hollinger came up with a big dunk for the white team and
Boardingham for the black. However, the final play of the night was a
perfect wrap up and possibly most impressive feat of the action packed
evening as Trey Starks launched up a half court buzzer beater and found
nothing but the bottom of the net to seal the win for his black squad.

As the evening came to a close, the two teams headed
into the stands to high five fans and to talk with their spectators.
The Saints and Lady Saints snapped some photos with their fans and got
the ultimate compliment from some South Middle School students in
attendance as they told the Spirit Squads that the 2011 Basketball
Preview Night was "the best night of their lives".

The Preview Night means just one thing; it is time for
the regular season to get underway in the Greenhouse. The Lady Saints
will take on Oklahoma Baptist on Tuesday night in Shawnee while both
teams open their home schedules on November 4th in the Pepsi Classic at
6:00 and 8:00.