In 19 of the last 21 years, the Second Region boys basketball championship has run through Hopkinsville.
If first-year Tigers coach Anthony Babb, first-year University Heights Academy coach Melvin Brown or second-year Christian County coach Toby Miles get their way in 2021-22 — that dominance could continue.
The toughest challenges, of course, almost certainly reside in Eddyville and Madisonville — where Travis Perry and a pride of Lyons, and Jon Newton’s Maroons pose powerful threats to the coveted crown and lone ticket to Rupp Arena.
But the city of Hopkinsville and its teams have one thing Eddyville and Madisonville teams don’t: an impending consolidation of its city and county school into one massive metroplex. It weighs on the minds of coaches and players from the programs, and to say UHA and Heritage Christian Academy — new to the ranks of the Kentucky High School Association — won’t be affected in some way would be a fool’s errand.
Asked the ultimate question during Tuesday Hopkinsville Rotary Club meeting, Babb and Miles each had their take on the situation — both noting that unless they’re playing against each other for Eighth District supremacy, they’re rooting for the city’s success out and around the Second Region and beyond.
Miles and Brown haven’t been immune to the talk of teams like Lyon County or North Hopkins, with the Colonels looking to bounceback from a year filled with COVID-19 cancellations and losses, and the Blazers holding tight as defending Second Region champions after saying goodbye to six graduating seniors.
Miles noted he remembers Hopkinsville stunning Lyon County in Eddyville to open last year’s Second Region Tournament, while Brown added someone’s got to be the underdog.
Babb has been coaching for 33 years — 17 of them at Hopkinsville — and he believes his Tigers will have to rely on leaders like Kensington “KC” Cabiness (4.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg), Daisjaun Mercer (9.2 ppg, 2.4 rpg), and Christian County’s leading scorer from 2020-21 in DeTravious “Bubba” Leavell (8.6 ppg, 1.1 rpg), if they’re going to go as far as they want to go.
Brown is a 2002 UHA graduate who spent four years playing at Berea College, and for the last four seasons served on the sidelines as an assistant alongside nine-year coach Grant Shouse.
The Blazers will be young, he said, with zero seniors — and lots of pedigree.
Miles — a Memphis native who played at Lindsey Wilson with marital ties to Madisonville — said he loves the up-and-down style of the city of Hopkinsville’s basketball talent and the Second Region, and that he’s going to be leaning on a couple of seniors like Jalil Farrow (3.0 ppg, 2.4 rpg) and Kevontrez Vaughn (3.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg) to help anchor this season.
The Tigers open their season tonight at Livingston County. The Colonels open their season tonight against Muhlenberg County. The Blazers open their season tonight at Caldwell County.
