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Archives 11-24-99 Sports
Members of the 1999 Livingston Academy Wildcats boys basketball team are, kneeling, managers Rob Medley, Cody Boles, Jeremiah Savage, and Shauz Daniels, standing from left, Jesse Wolfram, #10, Rob Richardson, #23, Jerran Allen, #21, Joseph McGill, #45, John Thrasher, #52, Eric Emerick, #43, David Stockton, #42, Jeff Aldridge, #15, Andy Allred, #25, Chris Everley, #4, Coach Danny McCoin, Matthan Houser, #12, Andy Beechboard, #20, and Josh Cravins, #30. (photo by Dewain E. Peek)
When last we called Danny McCoin "Coach" at Livingston Academy, he had led the Livingston Academy Wildcats football team to a 9-3 season, concluded in the second round of the 1995 state play-offs. Football demanded so much of his time that he missed his family, so he gave up coaching after three years at the helm. The next three years he didn't coach anything. Then, last year he went back to coaching the Livingston Middle School Tigers boys basketball team, a team he had coached when he first started teaching and continued coaching while serving as a Livingston Academy football assistant coach to Terry Melton. When Melton stepped down, McCoin was named the head coach at LA. Now another coach has stepped down, Howard Miller who has guided the LA Wildcats boys basketball team since the fall of 1990, and McCoin is again a coach at LA. "I really love coaching," McCoin said. "I missed coaching, whatever it was, it didn't matter what sport. I got into the grade school last year. I got the bug, I got the fever back all of a sudden. "When the opportunity came open here when Howard stepped down, I decided these windows don't come around very often. If I was ever going to do it, I'd better jump on it right now. "I love football, it's probably number one, but I love them all." The 35 year-old takes over a Wildcats team that graduated four seniors last year. "We're not going to be that young. We're going to be inexperienced a little bit, maybe, but we're not going to be young," McCoin said. "I've got four seniors and five juniors.Ó McCoin is stressing the fundamentals in practice, to do the little things right. "We're just trying to learn to do some basic fundamentals, that's all I'm trying to teach right now," he said. "We're going to have to be sound, just take our time, make good passes, take good shots. We're not going to be, in basketball terms, athletically as good as some of the other teams. We've got some good athletes, but in basketball terms not as good as some of the other schools. We're going to have to be a little smarter and play a lot smarter. "We're quick, that's the one thing we've got going for us. We are quick, we've got agility. We've got quick lateral movement. We can get up and down the floor if we need to. "Right now we are playing good defense, I mean, we could always do better, but right now the defense is by far way ahead of our offense. I don't think we'll have problems with defense. "We don't have a lot of size. We will rely on being patient.Ó Coach McCoin puts up a caution sign when looking at the season ahead. "Don't expect too much too soon. Be patient with us," he said. "We're going to make some early inexperienced mistakes. "Hopefully, what they're going to see is a basketball team out there trying to find its identity, that's got a real good work ethic, got a real good attitude, disciplined, that looks like they're trying to make the effort. Right now that's what I'm trying to instill in the boys is a good work ethic, a good attitude. "The little things I tell them are real minute but they take care of the big things. "Give us a few games to get under our belt and see what happens." McCoin played for Livingston Academy from 1980 to 1983 under local legend Derward Vaughn. McCoin hopes to forge his Livingston Academy Wildcats in the image of the best of Derward Vaughn's Wildcats teams. "Anything I know about basketball has come from Derward Vaughn. I haven't played for anybody else,Ó Coach McCoin said. "I've learned some from Coach Gore over at the middle school, a very intelligent man. I've learned some from him, but basically my work ethic, my attitude, even the X's and O's that I'm teaching come from Coach Vaughn. He probably instilled in me a long time ago a lot of that ethic, or moral values, in me more than any other coach that I ever had, and I'm just trying to carry that on over to these kids right now. "Back then we played slow down basketball; well, we're trying to slow it down now. We're trying to be patient and get the good shot. "Most teams today, they want to go up and down the court fast as they can go, how many shots can they get in, hit or miss. We're not like that right now. Maybe we'll get that one day, but we're not like that. "I think people will see some resemblance in this team and some of the Coach Vaughn teams, as far as the look. We may not have the execution down like some of his teams had, but the look will be very similar to Coach Vaughn's teams." The Wildcats will begin season play this week when they play in the Pickett County Thanksgiving Classic at 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 26 against Chattanooga-Notre Dame, then will take on Meigs County in the 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 27 portion of the Classic. Into the season opener, Coach McCoin will take a team made up of four seniors - Jerran Allen, David Stockton, Chris Everley, and Matthan Houser, five juniors - Rob Richardson, John Thrasher, Eric Emerick, Andy Allred, and Andy Beechboard, and four sophomores - Jesse Wolfram, Joseph McGill, Jeff Aldridge, and Josh Cravins. LMS
Girls Win Derward Vaughn Title Livingston Middle School hosted the 1999 Derward Vaughn Classic from November 4-20. The semi-finals saw matchups of some of the top basketball programs in the state. In the girls semi-finals, Livingston Middle School defeated Pickett County 57-37 and White County defeated Avery Trace 45-29 to set up the championship game between two old rivals. LMS opened with full court pressure, which forced several White County turnovers and allowed the Tigers to take a 19-8 lead after a quarter of play. The Tigers outscored the Warriors 24-7 in the second period to take a 28-point lead at the half, 43-15. LMS went on to win by a final score of 62-29. The win moved LMS to 8-0 on the season. In the girls consolation game, Avery Trace defeated Pickett County 36-33. The boys semi-final winners were White County, defeating LMS 43-31, and Avery Trace, defeating Pickett County 50-46. LMS was defeated by Pickett County 44-42 in the consolation game. The boys championship game was a classic between White County and Avery Trace. White County took an early 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Warriors extended the lead at half time by outscoring the Raiders 15-14 in the second quarter to lead 29-24. Avery Trace rallied in the third quarter by outscoring White County 14-8 and led at the end of the period 38-37. The fourth quarter of action saw the lead change hands several times before Avery Trace won 59-54. Two Local Golfers
Get A Hole-In-One Two golfers at Hidden Valley Golf and Country Club each recently achieved a hole-in-one. Gary McConaha never had a hole-in-one until this past week. He recorded two within eight days. Playing with Scott McCormick, Roger Ruble and Jerry Monday, McConaha aced the eighth hole, 150-yard par 3. The second one came on the third hole,135-yard par 3. McConaha used a nine iron on both sides. Mitch Winton also had a hole-in-one on the eighth hole. Winton using an 8-iron on the 150-yard par 3 was playing with Fred Phillips, Tony Logan, and David Hunter. In another unusual golf shot, Jerry Monday had a double eagle on the fourth hole, 490- yards par 5. Monday hit his second shot in from 185 yards out. Playing with Monday were Mark Ogletree, William Holman, and Gary McConaha.
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