Glenwood’s Trip Day selected as All-Bi-City 1A-3A Boys Basketball Player of the Year

Glenwood basketball player Trip Day got a taste of a championship as an eighth grader on the Gators’ 2013 state title team. But entering his senior season, he was left still wanting more.

Day played about seven minutes per game on the 2012-2013 team and even scored in the title game. That championship was the ideal debut to high school basketball, but for Day, there was a need to top it.

“It was special, winning in eighth grade, but it wasn’t like the greatest thing in the world (to me) because it wasn’t my team, necessarily,” Day said. “I always wanted to go up with the guys I grew up with and win one with them.”

After three years of trying to replicate that success, Day and his teammates broke through in 2016-2017. The Gators went 24-3 and made it to the AISA Class 3A championship game, knocking off familiar foe Tuscaloosa Academy to clinch the fourth state championship in school history.

Day’s efforts, which included scoring 30 points in the championship game and taking home tournament MVP honors, earned him the title of 2016-2017 All-Bi-City 1A-3A Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

“It’s been awesome this year,” Day said. “Me and those guys have been together since like eighth and ninth grade. We’ve been so close every year and just never really got the result we wanted to. Pulling it off senior year is really the best way to go.”

Day said he noticed something different once the team began practices for the season. Before, the team had spent a lot of time on the court goofing off and joking around. With constant talk of the senior class going out as champions, the lollygagging and laid-back nature of practice was replaced by high-energy efforts on both sides of the ball.

Those intense practices served Glenwood well through the regular season. Day was consistently the Gators’ top scorer as the team piled up wins and set their sights on taking the next step in the postseason.

Their victory over rival Lee-Scott Academy set the Gators to the championship game, where they would face Tuscaloosa Academy.

The chance to go out as a state champion is enough to get any high school player ready to suit up and hit the court, but beating Tuscaloosa Academy would deliver a sense of justice few outside the Glenwood program could fully appreciate.

“Lee-Scott is the rivalry game, but Tuscaloosa is the kryptonite-like team we always played in the state tournament,” Day said. “They beat us my freshman, sophomore and junior year in the state playoffs. We just knew we had to come out and play hard. We knew if we got a lead, we weren’t going to let up.”

Day’s 0-3 postseason mark against Tuscaloosa Academy, which included a three-point loss in the championship game his freshman year, motivated him to put the game on himself. He told his teammates before the opening tip to give him the ball, and to keep doing it if he got hot.

Day’s first shot of the game was an awkward, off-balance fadeaway that had no business falling through the hoop. However, the ball got the perfect role upon impact with the rim and fell through.

“From then, I just knew I was feeling it,” Day said.

Day and the Gators certainly didn’t let up against their pesky opponents. Glenwood blew out Tuscaloosa Academy 50-31, sending Day and his fellow seniors out as champions.

“It was really special,” Day said. “It seemed like everyone was involved, from the coaches, the main players and the bench players. Everyone was 100 percent into it. Once we won, it was like the greatest thing. It was such a great relief off our shoulders.”

With his high school days winding down, the 6-foot-8 Day will continue his basketball career at the University of North Florida. He said North Florida head coach Matthew Driscoll has the vision of creating a Gonzaga-like program out of the Atlantic Sun Conference team and that he’s excited to help make it happen.

Day will leave Glenwood as a player fit for “The Mount Rushmore of Glenwood basketball,” according to Glenwood head coach Dusty Perdue. In Day’s eyes, the entirety of his time as a Gator was special, but the send-off in his final game is what he won’t soon forget.

“It was a great season, and it was the best way to go out,” Day said. “Winning the state tournament, it took away all the loss and and the bad memories of losing in the tournament. That was exactly how we wanted to end it.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Glenwood’s Trip Day selected as All-Bi-City 1A-3A Boys Basketball Player of the Year."