Sammy Smith can’t escape at this time of the year.
If it’s not someone calling on his cell phone, someone is coming by to say hello, to ask a question, or to offer their help. After 18 years, everyone knows that if it is almost Christmas in Columbus then it is time for the annual Joe Horne Columbus Christmas Invitational.
That thought never crossed the mind of Smith, the longtime Columbus High School boys basketball coach, and Scott Tallent, the former Columbus High girls basketball coach, first dreamed of organizing an annual basketball tournament.
Smith admitted Saturday, as well-wishers passed by and waved their hellos, that the initial thought was to have the tournament filled with local teams, particularly from Lowndes County. But that notion changed and motivated Smith to get on the phone to friends and businesses in the community to encourage them to take part in the event. The support he received enabled the tournament to grow to the point where this year it welcomed a team from Texas — Wilmer-Hutchins High — and a team from Arkansas — Marion High.
Smith said Saturday several of the teams that were involved in the event, including the Texas team, which is coached by former Mississippi State men’s basketball player and Noxubee County basketball coach T.J. Billups, want to come back next year.
The mark of a quality event, though, is Smith has to caution those people because he has a waiting list. That’s why Smith won’t be surprised if girls and boys basketball coaches from across the nation continue to light up his phone during this holiday week.
When Smith thinks that all of it has been done in the memory of Horne, a former scorekeeper for Columbus High basketball and a longtime supporter of the school’s sports who died in 2003, it makes him smile.
“He supported marbles, jacks, cross country, jump rope, skeet shoot, tiddlywinks, whatever it was,” Smith said. “Joe Horne supported the guys and girls.”
Smith said Horne played an integral role in his life. He said Horne helped him get a job as boys basketball coach at Quitman High School. He said Horne gave him confidence to know he was doing things the right way and that he was making a difference in the lives of kids. Those words of encouragement and advice helped him get through tough times.
Smith has talked for years about getting the best teams in the state of Mississippi and from across the country to come to Lowndes County. He feels Billups’ familiarity with the event — his Noxubee County teams played in the tournament — will help extend the reach of the Joe Horne Columbus Christmas Invitational. If that means adding more games and starting the tournament earlier, Smith is willing to do it.
Adding more teams would mean Smith or his friends or people who help the Columbus High basketball programs like would have to make more visits to Walmart to pick up drinks or snacks or other things that help a tournament run smoothly.
That’s fine with Smith because he hopes the tournament can continue for another 18 years so more people learn about Joe Horne and what he was about and what he meant to the school.
“Joe Horne has made me get up at 6:30 a.m. and be here at 7 o’clock,” Smith said. “It made me go home Wednesday night at 11:30. It is going to make me be here tonight (Saturday, late) amongst everything else that is going on (around the holidays).
“When we finish tonight, my next thought is, ‘Joe Horne Classic next year.’ You’re talking 365 days out of the year and 12 months of the year. I am literally thinking about Joe Horne Classic every day of my life. In front of that is Joe Horne and his family. You can’t beat that. I do this thing every day of my life, and that’s what it is all about because he means so much not only to us, but also to the community, and I think they appreciate Joe Horne, even in his death.”
Smith appreciates Horne. He coached at Lee High in Columbus and left before the school was consolidated to coach at Quitman, where Horne grew up. He said Horne was the first person he talked to when there was an opening for a boys basketball coach at Columbus High.
Eighteen years later, Smith can smile that he worked in a place like Quitman that Horne said might not have looked like much. Back then, the notion of a Joe Horne Columbus Christmas Invitational probably didn’t look like much either. But thanks to the hard work and the generosity of countless individuals and businesses in the area, the tournament helps people remember a man who gave back to students at a time of the year when that feeling is all around us.
“You never would have thought it would grow this big or go this long,” Smith said, “but as it grew, it is bigger and it is better. … We are going to keep it going. As long as I can be a part of it and help out, I am going to do it. I don’t know how long that is going to be, I don’t know, but I am going to do it the best I can.”
Adam Minichino is sports editor of The Dispatch. He can be reached on email at [email protected]. Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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