Undefeated championship may have meant more for Ashland basketball
ASHLAND, Ky. (BVM) — On the wall in the James A. Anderson Gymnasium at Ashland Blazer High School is a grouping of nine white signs with maroon lettering. The dates on the signs range from 1920 to 1996 and illustrate the long history of the Ashland Tomcats boys basketball team.
On the bottom row, four signs commemorate the team’s state runner-up finishes in 1920, 1940, 1962 and 1996. The next row of four signs recognize the school’s four state championships in 1928, 1933, 1934 and 1961 and above that, alone, sits a sign representing the school’s national championship in 1928. It is the school’s prized athletic achievement. It is further recognized by a plaque on the wall commemorating the team’s achievement and is so ingrained into the gymnasium that the team’s coach is the name that now adorns the facility.
This season, the program could’ve added another sign to its collection, but, it was not meant to be. Not only could this team’s accomplishments have made it on the wall, it may have needed a spot next to the prestigious and practically untouchable national championship.
The Tomcats this season were on their way to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association boys state tournament at Rupp Arena in Lexington with an unblemished record of 33-0. Ashland was the only undefeated team left in the tournament and was chasing down not just its first state championship in 59 years, but also the first unbeaten state championship in the state of Kentucky since 1948. However, the world changed before the Tomcats could even take the court at Rupp Arena.
Due to concerns over COVID-19, the KHSAA in April canceled its Sweet Sixteen tournaments for both the boys and girls. In a town that is so connected to its team and with the spectacular season it was, the news was a heartbreaker.
“It was difficult for high school kids to swallow that pill because they didn’t have any perspective on it….Now they do,” Ashland head coach Jason Mays said. “We talk about how we don’t have victims in our program and if you have done your best to control the controllables, your attitude, your effort and the things you can control, you’re never going to be the victim to uncontrollable circumstances and that’s where we left it.”
This news completely halted any momentum the team had built throughout the season as now, all it can do is look forward to next year.
“They were emotional. They were very emotional. I had to let them have that moment so I told them to go home and hurt on this for a few days, I know I did,” Mays said. “There’s times in a competitive athlete’s life that it’s OK to go home and lick your wounds and to wallow. To say you never want to get dejected and be down, I think that’s impossible.”
The team had built its juggernaut in a way that had not been seen in the state of Kentucky before. Implementing a five guard system and with no player surpassing the 6-foot-2 threshold, Mays and the Tomcats were winning in a way that was hard to defend and aligned with the mindsets of the modern shooting style of the NBA. Using their own style of micro-ball, the Tomcats could defeat a team with speed, three-point shooting or driving the lane.
It was a seemingly impossible offense to slow down as the team decimated its 16th district competition with consecutive tournament victories of 20 or more points. For Mays, this was the best thing he saw from his team this season.
“We could’ve won the semifinal and the final in the regional by 40 points, trust me. We played these teams earlier in the year and they were close games. Just seeing how we were starting to peak at the right time, seeing how well we shared the ball, seeing how well we were shooting, seeing how well we were playing, all of our efforts were coming to fruition at the right time,” Mays said. “That’s the most enjoyable thing to me as a coach taking all these individual talents and molding them into one and they’re executing and playing at the best level they have all year long right when you’re getting ready to go to the state tournament and compete for a state championship.”
During the season, Ashland took its historic program to the next level. With their sixth win of the season over Capital in the Boyd County Roundball Classic, the Tomcats achieved the program’s 2,000 victory, the first team in the state to do so. If that momentum wasn’t enough, a miraculous 27th victory turned the perception of the team from unexpected
Cinderella to a team of destiny. With the game tied 54-54 against West Carter on their home court and with only two seconds left on the clock, Tomcats guard Cole Villars made the game one the home crowd would never soon forget.
Villars, confident in his ability to make a last-second shot, changed Mays’ call after the team broke the huddle asking for the inbound to go to him instead of its designated destination. Villars caught the ball, took two dribbles towards half-court, alluding his defender in the process, and heaved a three-quarter shot to the basket on the far end of the court. With no time left, the ball flew straight and true and splashed at the bottom of the net. Ball game.
The crowd erupted and the magical undefeated season continued.
The play was good enough to be the top play on SportsCenter with broadcaster Kenny Mayne emphatically celebrating with, “We’re going to Cracker Barrel!”
Mays said he felt good that it was Villars who was the one who took the shot.
“That’s why Cole is going to be a special player….He’s the most competitive kid I’ve ever coached….I love the fact that Cole wants the ball and if there’s a kid we’re going to have shoot that shot, it’s going to be Cole,” Mays said. “We were lucky to win the game and everybody there knows that, but that’s just part of our story. We just found a way to win in all kinds of environments.”
Ashland makes ESPN
“We’re Going to Cracker Barrel!!!”
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) February 19, 2020
An undefeated season and state championship would mean more than another sign, a broken record or a memorable season. For the town of Ashland, it would have been a bright light in times of darkness.
The whole community of Ashland is going through a tough economic time. AK Steel shut down its Ashland Works plant at the end of 2019, laying off some 260 people and this year, Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital is also set to close which will eliminate approximately 1,000 jobs. Years earlier, Ashland Oil also left the area. Though the city has had its ups and downs, it always could turn to basketball. That’s how it has been for 100 years in Ashland and that didn’t change in 2020.
“The economic landscape here is changing….So this basketball season came at a perfect time. There’s a lot of people who would come up and say ‘I worked at Ashland Oil for X amount of years, I worked at AK Steel for however many years’ and so this basketball season gave those people a lot of relief in those real life moments that they were having to go through whether it was unemployment, job changing or retiring earlier than they wanted. Everybody could come watch the Tomcats play,” Mays said. “It was a really feel-good story for our community.”
Unfortunately with the announced cancellation, the Tomcats and the Ashland community will be left asking for years, ‘What if?’
“I would remember this (season) with unbelievable favor slash an asterisk,” Mays said with a laugh. “No one can take away the work we already put in. We will always be 33-0. No one can take away the togetherness, the strength of our team….No one can take what we’ve achieved, they can’t take that from us. I will always look at this year as coaching some of the most special young men I have ever coached in my life.”
Although the season is over, Ashland could still benefit from its unbeaten season. The Tomcats, with their 33 consecutive wins, will need 12 wins next season to break the state record of 44 consecutive wins. A record held by none other than the 1928 and 1929 Ashland Tomcats.
