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What a year we went through! The Vikings basketball team played, played, and played basketball from the month of November 'til the end of February. We went through many difficult times, from the start of the season! We have three veteran seniors, whom I believed would help us rowing across the long, wavy waters, but as the season unfolded, two of them decided to graduate in the month of December. We continued to play basketball, even though we battled so hard against very strong 'district' schools and lost badly. But the characteristics of the Vikings of the past 'carried' us through! As the second semester started, we lost another veteran senior to an 'old' injury, just before the start of the Mason-Dixon Tournament!

We went to Florida School for the Deaf in St. Augustine for the 56th Annual Boys' Mason-Dixon Basketball Tournament and played with Georgia School for the Deaf in the first round. We played very well in the first half but could not hold that stamina in the second half as those big Georgia players physically wore us out! So we moved to the losers' bracket hoping to get the sixth place honors as we faced South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind in the 'morning' basketball game. Once again, we played very well at the start of the game but down the stretch, those tall, speedy SCSD boys outran us and 'wrapped up' the game! Therefore, we bowed out of the tourney. But we really enjoyed our stay at FSDB.

As the season wound down, we played 'real good' basketball! We participated in the district tournament and gave Greenback High School (GHS) a scare, even though we had only five players playing that night! As you all can recall, TSD had to close due to the lack of power/heating in the month of February and had to send the students home early in the week. I, at first, had to call the host school (GHS) to inform the coach that we had to forfeit the game because we had no players available as the students went home unexpectedly. Things seemed to go just fine but it got more complicated as other schools, upon hearing that we were unable to participate, wanted to change some things in the tournament that was unacceptable to the GHS coach and me. So, with the help from people around here, I was able to 'fetch' only five players from Upper East Tennessee, Maryville, and Knoxville and went ahead to play basketball with GHS as to keep the tournament "running" smoothly instead of an upheaval! We really played very, very well, to a point of "almost" perfection! We got a standing ovation from GHS fans! What a way to bow out of the basketball season!

So, our courageous Viking boys made it through this basketball year! They really played their hearts out for our school, with many obstacles to climb over, but they made it look easier than was thought in the first place! That showed the truest colors of our players, who deserve our 'applause', now and forever. As for me, it was my honor to have them on my 2007 - 2008 basketball team!

Roster: Justin Shell*, Tyler Antrican*, Dakota Thompson*, Michael Carver*, Eric Escamilla*, Heath Tripplett, Martin Sandoval, Delvoskee Bond, Aaron Burnett, Sam Hinton, manager, Ethan Pritchard, manager

(*one of the 'Five' who played in the last game)

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