Community takes pride in state tournament team
Community takes pride in state tournament team
New Town provides first-class send off to show its spirit
By MARVIN BAKER
EDITOR
It has been 30 years since a New Town team has been in a State Class B Boys Basketball Tournament and 31 years since the Eagles won the tournament and the community of New Town wanted to make sure it threw its full support this year into this dynamic team of basketball players.
Signs in store-front windows, newspaper and radio ads describing the town’s pride in the team, several pep rallies to ignite the team spirit and finally, a police escort out of town included all the ways in which New Town supported its Eagles.
The New Town Eagles going to the state tournament was the talk of the town for more than a week in the interim between their Region 8 win over Watford City and their opening round state tournament win over Fargo Oak Grove.
There were all kinds of scenarios playing out on the street, in the school, in homes and among the players, although they won’t admit it. What if they beat Oak Grove and Linton beats Grafton? What if Standing Rock and New Town get the title game? What if Minot Ryan and New Town play again? All scenarios were talked about, analyzed and played out in people’s conversations.
That was before the tournament.
During the three-day event at the Minot State University Dome, New Town brought huge crowds of students and adults, making a lot of noise and holding up signs, posters and placards to keep the boys excited as they took on Fargo Oak Grove in the opener, Grafton in the semifinal and Dickinson Trinity in the third-place game.
In the opening round game, No. 3 New Town escaped with a thrilling, two-point win moving them into the semis to play the Grafton Spoilers, a team that defeated Linton in its opener.
Unfortunately, Grafton was true to its nickname and “spoiled” New Town’s bid to get into the championship. Grafton held New Town to its lowest point total of the season and held Eagles scoring machine Alex Baker scoreless.
That loss placed New Town in the third-place bracket against the Dickinson Trinity Titans, a game that the senior-loaded Eagles weren’t going to let slip away. New Town fell behind early, but came storming back to win the game and bring the third-place hardware back to New Town High School.
