Glenwood basketball teams celebrate state championships in style

When Glenwood’s basketball teams captured state championships in the same season for the first time since 2007 on Monday, the school’s headmaster, Frankie Mitchum, knew he wanted to make the celebration a special one.

And that’s exactly what took place on Wednesday.

Both of Glenwood’s teams celebrated their state championships in a ceremony in the school’s gym on Wednesday. The festivities began with “The Walk of Champions”, which consisted of both teams walking through the school en route to the gym with the trophies in hand as students cheered them on.

After girls coach Julie Humphries and boys coach Dusty Perdue introduced their players, every team member took turns cutting down the two nets hanging in the gym, something Mitchum suggested.

Lady Gators senior Audrey Crowe said the day’s festivities drove home that Glenwood’s 56-43 win over Lee-Scott was her final game with the team.

“Everything became more real, just the fact that it’s over,” Crowe said. “This was my last season being a Glenwood Gator, and it really hit today.”

Crowe, who made the all-state-tournament team, was an important part of the Lady Gators’ run through the 2016-2017 season. Glenwood’s girls went 28-1 on the season and captured its third title in four seasons and the seventh in team history.

“I felt like we’ve had a pretty special group from day one,” Lady Gators head coach Julie Humphries said. “For us to go out every single game and prove that, win it in the end and beat a couple of teams four times to do it is pretty special. It’s a special group, and I’m just glad to be a part of it.”

Humphries was especially grateful to the crowd at Wednesday’s celebration, which included people who have faithfully followed her team throughout the season.

“Our bleacher creatures bring it every night, and it’s just a lot of fun to come back and celebrate it with them,” Humphries said.

The victory by the boys team over Tuscaloosa Academy led to a lot of smiling people come Wednesday. Trip Day, who took home the tournament MVP honors, was among them.

Day was an eighth grader when the Gators won their last state title, This one, he admitted, was just different.

“Winning it as a senior is one of the greatest feelings in the world,” Day said. “We’d lost to them (in the state tournament) three straight times, so to beat them was great. We have so much chemistry as a team. It means a lot to us.”

Day, who has verbally committed to play at North Florida, had worked all season to get the team to the title. With Day as the team’s leading scorer, the Gators posted a 24-3 record en route to head coach Dusty Perdue’s third state title and the fourth in team history.

After working all season long to go out as a champion, Day could relax on Wednesday and instead turn his focus to getting off the court in one piece.

“I didn’t know if the ladder was going to hold up,” Day said.

This story was originally published February 8, 2017 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Glenwood basketball teams celebrate state championships in style."