As the early part of our senior year of basketball progressed, we were surprisingly undefeated, with a holiday tournament scheduled for us to travel to Carlsbad, New Mexico to compete. Though, year in and year out, we had one of the best basketball programs in El Paso, we were not expected to have a great season this year. Nevertheless, due to the reputation of Coach Goodwin’s program, we were one of the teams to be invited to a prestigious tournament that spotlighted the best teams in New Mexico and some from Texas year after year.
Unbeknownst to most fans outside of the West Texas area, the elite New Mexico teams were just as talented and well coached as the elite teams from Texas. Annually, teams from Hobbs and Carlsbad were considered the best high school teams in the country, despite their relative obscurity.
Also scheduled to compete in Carlsbad was a team from Midland, Texas that was ranked #2 in the state at the time. With that lineup of the best teams from two states, we were not expected to go very far, much less win.
However, the Midland team had endured the highly competitive early rounds of the tournament and were victorious over the best teams New Mexico had to offer and made it to the finals as expected. Though we had made it through a tough bracket to the finals as well, no one expected us to be competitive against this highly talented team from Midland. Their program regularly rivaled any in the state and had sent their graduates to such major basketball programs as the University of Nebraska as well as UTEP.
To begin with, our tallest player and starter, Emmitt, stood 6-foot, 3-inches tall. Midland’s team had a front line of a 6-foot, 11-inches; 6-foot, 7-inches; and 6-foot, 5-inches. It was quite an imposing and intimidating group of athletes. Though dunking was outlawed in official high school games at the time, the assumption was one could dunk while warming up. At least, it appeared that most referees tended to look away when a player dunked. This Midland team spent much of their warm-up period making sure that all opponents noticed that a majority of the team could dunk the basketball. It was indeed ment to intimidate.
In addition, Midland had lost in the state tournament finals in Austin the previous year to Houston Wheatley, perennially one of the top-ranked teams in the country. The Wheatley program regularly sent their top players to such elite basketball schools as The University of Houston and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
What transpired was in the final of this tournament was nothing short of miraculous. We held our own against Midland and led most of the way, with our physical conditioning, hustling on defense, our full-court press and our smart shooting. We befuddled a much more physically talented and taller team. We played beautiful, disciplined basketball and won the game by six points, 47-41.
Prior to that game, we were reluctantly convinced that we were good and could play against anybody. But I didn’t think that we would keep going at the level of excellence that we displayed in New Mexico. Some people said that Midland took their championship for granted by the time they met us. Perhaps they were taken by surprise and did not respect or take our team seriously. Nevertheless, with that prestigious tournament championship win, our team was on the map and rising in the rankings. Even our own fanbase took notice earlier in the season than usual.
As always, Coach Goodwin valued having a very well-conditioned and deep team. Everyone on our team was accustomed to playing their best basketball all at the same time. We did not rely on one or two superstars to score or play well. It took an entire team effort and Coach Goodwin would send out our entire roster each game. This approach would exhaust and frustrate our opponents who could not send out as many of their players to combat our all-out effort, speed and stamina. As the season went on our confidence increased game by game and our belief in Coach Goodwin’s system became complete.
As we returned from the tournament in Carlsbad, our heads were held high, and our confidence soared. That win against Midland, a team that was expected to crush us, solidified our belief in ourselves and in Coach Goodwin's methods. We were no longer the underdogs; we were a force to be reckoned with.
The local newspapers buzzed with headlines about our unexpected victory, and suddenly everyone wanted to know about the team that had taken down the giants from Midland. Our families beamed with pride, and even the school administration began to take notice of our accomplishments.