SPARTA – Banners hang on the wall of the gymnasium at Highland High School serving as a reminder of past glory. One banner in particular has Christian Toombs’ attention. It’s of the 1998 boys basketball state championship.
Toombs is building a program from the ground up. His basketball program hosted a pair of camps over the last month in that vein.
“The biggest thing is learning about our culture,” Toombs said. “We have such a rich culture here in basketball and we’ve gotta get these guys to understand how it was built and why it was built and what they need to look forward to one day.”
The first camp was for seventh- and eighth-graders and was held July 28-30 and the second was for first- through sixth-graders on Monday through Wednesday.
“(The middle school camp) turned out really well,” Toombs said. “We talked a lot about our defensive and offensive philosophies. We broke down and did some drills that our high school team does to show them what they’re going to be getting into one day. With all that aside, we played a lot of games.
“The youth camp was) a lot more broken down into the fundamentals with our ball-handling and working with our pivot moves.”
The kids didn’t go away empty-handed either. They all got candy and t-shirts. The shirts a firm reminder of the what the program is trying to achieve. Etched on the back are the initials of team’s mantra, ‘IOD’.
“It doesn’t matter what grade the guys are,” Toombs said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re a senior in high school or a kindergarten or first-graders. They’ve gotta understand that we started this ‘It’s our Duty’ mantra last year and we’re not going to let up on it. We have such a rich tradition in basketball that it is our duty honor our past, to excel in the classroom, to enrich the community and to be great teammates. That doesn’t change.”
Awards were handed out at the end of the middle school camp. Eighth-grader Zach Church won the Leadership Award, which was handed out to the athlete that showed “tremendous leadership”.
“I’m pretty proud of myself for getting the Leadership Award,” he said. “I’ve always taken pride in myself in being a good leader in every sport that I play. It makes me feel good to get recognized.”
Seventh-grader Bransom Newsome took home the IOD Award, given out to the player that showed “commitment to the program standards”.
Christian’s son Gavin, an eighth-grader won three skills competitions.
“We just learned a lot about Highland basketball works,” the younger Toombs said. “What we need to in high school to get better and to win championships.”
Towering over the competition at 6-foot-3, Gavin finds joy outside of winning contests.
“Just being with my friends and hanging out,” he said before adding with a wry smile. “I won the Hot Shot, the Free throw and the Half-Court contests. It was just fun because everyone gets mad when I win stuff.”
The middle schoolers were also given dribbling goggles, water bottles and summer workout kits. They were also treated to a guest speaker – Tom Barrick, who is the president of the National High School Basketball Coaches Association.
The youngsters heard from former Highland player Noah Dado, who currently plays at Wilmington College.
Both speakers focused on the mantra and it’s stuck.
“We really recognize our past – our alumni players – and try to do them proud and continue the tradition of being a successful program,” Church said. “We’ve had a lot of success in the past – especially in our basketball program. (We want) to set our goal to be as good as them or at least close.”
