Collinsville Panthers owned the Dekalb county basketball tourney in the nineties

 A One A school halfway between Birmingham and Chattanooga was the best basketball team in North Alabama in the nineties. They won the county tourney four years in a row and were in the finall two more years. Starting in the fall of 93 with Billy Wayne Clanton they estableished some glory years as the Dutton brothers Mark and Chuckie then Solomon Stanton and Luke Griggs and Delvin George came along. Neal Thrash of Fyffe Alabama was their coach who sidelined in teaching Shakespeare.. 

    What follows was first dictated so it has some flaws but the substance is strong and will be revised and edited. The upshot of it all is the School should honor these players and teams thirty years out, and the county tourney should feature them mid January during the break of the semifinals which historically is a Friday night

      They won the tournament for those six years and they were the semifinals The last couple of years of that decade prominent during that era was Billy Wayne Clinton, Mark Dutton and his brother Chucky, Solomon Stanton and Luke Griggs other notables off the bench Mark Morgan, who went to Duke university academically,Of course Delvin Delvin George, who was a great player himself, but was tempted every time he crossed the half court strike to think he was Kobe Bryant, and would throw it throw it up in room them out more often than a pass,  He beacme a standout baseball player at Tuskegee where his sister before him was a Homecoming Queen.   Solomon Stanton had great COURT  presence probably the best player of that era and the glue that held evrything together. . He  was a beautiful player with the shot and drive toward the basket he would give the ball up. He was probably the best of all, though he and Dutton for sure could’ve probably played small college basketball and even football along with his brother Chucky two of the fastest white guys the brothers in the county at the time

   Mark Dutton was in telligience in the Iraq war and became fluent in Farsi.  

 Sadly, Luke Griggs became a traitor, and in his coaching days a decade later went to Plainview, where he coached the girls and he took his son with him who could’ve been a benefit the last few years for the Collinsville Panthers of Billy Wayne went to work with the Cherokee county electric company, where his family was prominent. He was a nephew of the former principal at Collinsville, high school Sammy Clanton, who was a basketball a stand out at sand rock high school in the 60s in the class of 67 . We’re in Collinsville was still significant in the finals off the bench with Russ Beeene,. In 97  he became a screenwriter did did  adaptation of the internationally known knowledge, Ron rashes novel, 1 foot in Eden who’s in the film adaptation at one point had Jeff Bridges himself attached and a few years earlier Alicia VIKANDER herself and Oscar winner, but The producers were working on a $40 million budget and can only erase 20. I talked to Russ almost every day, working on the first draft of that effort, other notables Brett Gifford, also in the tail end of that phenomenal set of teams silky, which is move to the basket And and also a pretty good baseball player so there were others.

   Stephen Justice was prominsing in 94 but got injured and gimped through the last of his senior year.  Those are the ones that come to mind at the moment the Dutton boys’s father I think won  state tournament in 74 and he was a big fan of Bill Russell. I thought one day he was gonna fight me in the parking lot of the piggly Wiggly because I dare to say that a healthy Bill Walton was a better all-around player than Bill Russell. He won’t buy it Michael Jordan or David Thompson anybody he was a Bill Russell guy hundred percent 

     they’re a couple of stories that Mark Dutton told me that I’ll try to work in to this blog on a revision, particularly, he said they beat halftime of a Plainview game who was a three a team in the late 90s the coach for Plainview kept his team on the court. Then at halftime and when Collinsville came back out, he told his boys look over there at your daddy which I thought was a great story so Collins will beat the Plainview the bad ass Plainview true blue and then beat the favorite Sylvania in the finals so that was a great tournament story so it was just a great run and here’s to the hopes that Kyle has a good sense to celebrate this team. This coming winner of 20  26 have them all there and even better. I think they should be given a presentation during a halftime of a semi semifinal game of the DeKalb county Tournament which is often the third week of January one quick note about Coach trash who these boys love, Mark, who went to Duke and Mark got the one on one game with Shane Baier while he was there after the season and he didn’t score any points in a 15 one point Exercise but Marcus is senior year in Collinsville high school English teacher was out with a pregnancy and coach  Thrash in to teach Shakespeare and Mark says he was as good as teachers he ever had anywhere Collinsville or Duke so that says something for Coach THrash h even though I think Coach Willingham‘s ACT score might’ve been a little higher 27 which is phenomenal for a high school coach at a one levelthe coach Raymond  Weaver the football coach wife had perfect on math in 65 so just a little side there to this up so here’s hoping there is a recognition of this great era and teams come back and get the recognition 30 years later that they deserve