A little extra practice never hurts, even if you have to find a way to sneak into the gym.
Over the years, Ken “Buddy” Dill and his Oak Hill Academy boys basketball teammates have found ways to gain access to the school’s gym to play impromptu pick-up games. Sometimes there have been only two or four Raiders putting in some extra work. There also have been times Dill said 25-30 players have been in the gym waiting to get on the court.
That additional practice in the gym has helped Dill hone his basketball skills because time is at a premium when you play football and baseball at the school.
Dill’s extra work will be rewarded Friday when he plays in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Senior All-Star Basketball games at Jackson Prep. Oak Hill Academy classmate Tanner Grubbs will play in the girls game. The games will run from 10 and 11:30 a.m. Friday (girls and boys, Class A/AA) to 1 and 2:30 p.m. Friday (Class AAA/AAAA) at Jackson Prep. At 4 p.m. today at Madison-Ridgeland Academy, there will be a 3-Point Shoot-out and a Slam Dunk Contest.
“I was just trying to do the best I could for the team,” said Dill, who also was named to the MAIS Senior All-Star game in football. “I feel like my efforts were rewarded by this. I was just happy to be able to try it again and go for basketball.”
Like he did at quarterback on the school’s football team, Dill took on a leadership role for the Raiders. He said he wished the team’s season could have gone a little differently and he felt he could have done better in some areas, but he is excited to have another opportunity to play a sport that he loves when it is in season. He said he started playing basketball in the fourth or fifth grade and joined the Oak Hill Academy program in the sixth grade, which is when he started to love it.
“I enjoyed the competitiveness of it and the pace of the game,” said Dill, who also is a standout on the school’s baseball team. “I wish I had another year or two to play, but I am happy to get one more game in the All-Star game.”
Dill said he has matured as a basketball player the last few years thanks to a lot of hard work. He said some of it has come after hours as the result of the unscheduled workouts. Dill said Oak Hill Academy players have been caught sneaking into the gym 15-20 times in the last few years. He feels that work helped the team come together and be as successful as it has in the last few years.
“It was worth it,” Dill said. “That honestly was some of the funnest pick-up games and extra time I had when we got in there later at night and got in there without everybody knowing about it. That was more fun than anything.”
Like Dill, Grubbs played a key leadership role as the only senior on the girls team. She said her role changed from a complementary player to Sarah Dill last season to a player who was looked to to shoulder a bigger role scoring and rebounding. She said she was surprised to learn from Oak Hill Academy Athletic Director Marion Bratton that she had been named a Senior All-Star.
“I had to step up and make sure I was someone all of the younger girls could look up and someone they could follow and I had to lead them,” said Grubbs, a standout on the school’s fast-pitch softball team who also is a cheerleader. “I didn’t have to change my personality because I have played all of the sports and all of the girls know how I am. I like to think of myself as kind of leader because they expected that from me.”
Grubbs feels she handled the responsibility well, even if she acknowledged the team didn’t have the best season it could have hoped for. She said her role changed, too, during the season as opponents double- and triple-teamed her. She said the attention didn’t faze her and she concentrated on trying to get her teammates involved and attempted to do more in other areas, like rebounding, to be a contributor.
Grubbs also believes she was a solid leader and someone her teammates, especially the younger girls, could come to if they had a problem or needed someone to talk to. She said playing that role on the team helped her keep a level head and deal with the frustration she said she sometimes felt being double- and triple-teamed.
Grubbs isn’t sure if she will see that kind of attention Friday, but she is going to enjoy another opportunity to play because she realized late in the basketball season that she might want to keep playing in college. She said she has attracted interest from Millsaps College, Northeast Mississippi Community College, and East Mississippi C.C.
“Seeing those seconds tick down (at the end of her high school career) really opened my eyes and made me realize maybe I do want to play basketball in college, or play more,” Grubbs said. “This is going to make me take more advantage of this game and enjoy every second to be out there with all of my friends and really enjoy one last time playing. Hopefully it won’t be the last time, but I don’t know what I am going to do so I am keeping that option open because I think I want to.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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