Kerekes column: This time, the ending was sweet for Meridian

Published 11:10 pm Saturday, March 18, 2017

On one hand, Ron Norman walked into what many would consider the best boys basketball job in the state when he took over the Meridian High School program last year.

Before the season began, many had pegged the Wildcats as the favorite to win the Class 6A championship after being bumped in the quarterfinals the year before. Head coach Randy Bolden’s departure to become an assistant at Holmes Community College left big shoes to fill, but Norman already had a state championship on his resume.

In Norman’s own words when he took the job, there wasn’t going to be a rebuilding effort — all of the pieces were in place for Meridian to have had a successful season. Bolden had coached his players well, and as long as Norman could do the same, the ceiling of the team he had coming back was as high as the tallest point of the Mississippi Coliseum.

On the other hand, anything short of a state championship would have been considered a disappointment. There was plenty of talent on hand, but Norman also had great expectations placed upon his shoulders. As good as these Wildcats were projected to be, I didn’t envy Norman for the task given to him.

We’ll never know just how upset Wildcat fans would have been had the team not won the Class 6A title. Truth was, there wasn’t much about this past season with which Wildcat fans could be upset. Meridian lost only two games — both to 6A teams that also made it to the Big House — and the last game the Wildcats dropped was a 78-72 decision to Brandon on the road on Jan. 13. For the first time since current Utah Jazz Rodney Hood patrolled the courts of the Meridian High School gymnasium, the Wildcats were state champions, stringing together 13 wins in a row that culminated with a 68-59 victory against Murrah in the championship game March 11.

That’s not to say the Wildcats weren’t challenged at points throughout the season. In the state semifinal round, Meridian faced a Callaway team it had beaten twice in the regular season, both in close matchups. The first time the two teams squared off, Meridian edged Callaway on the road 71-70. In the second game, the Wildcats won 86-80. You almost had to expect they would face each other again come the postseason.

There were some bumps in the road. Meridian dropped a 65-53 contest to Forest Hill back on Dec. 23, and the Wildcats also fell to Brandon on the road in the first of two Region 5-6A contests. It was only two losses, but it was to two of the better teams in 6A. It was no time to panic, I knew, but I also knew there would come a time where Meridian would have to beat those types of teams.

The Wildcats did just that on Jan. 20, winning a 71-63 contest against Brandon at home that allowed them the No. 1 overall seed in the Region 5-6A tournament (the eight-point victory was by a bigger margin than Brandon’s six-point win, giving Meridian the tiebreaker). After securing the No. 1 seed from its region, Meridian got a first-round playoff bye, then made easy work of Gulfport in the second round to punch its ticket to Jackson.

The quarterfinals would pit the Wildcats against a familiar foe — Tupelo, which had eliminated them from the playoffs just a year prior, in the same round. Despite a late run by Tupelo, though, it was Meridian that would come out on top, giving the Wildcats a third game against Callaway to determine who went to the 6A title round.

Both previous games with Callaway had been close. It’s extremely difficult for one team to beat another good team three times in the same season. Yet, I told myself before the game I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Meridian didn’t win by a much more comfortable margin than the first two times. Teams improve over time, and if Meridian was truly a team of destiny, the improvement plus familiarity would give the Wildcats an edge.

I went to the Meridian gym the day after the Wildcats beat Callaway 67-50, and I spoke to assistant coach Tony Tadlock ahead following my main interview with Norman. He told me something that would stick with me as I followed the title game against Murrah on Twitter: The season prior, there were a lot of starry-eyed players in the Mississippi Coliseum, taken in by the atmosphere. That’s not to say the 2016 Tupelo squad wasn’t a good team, or that it ultimately is what cost Meridian a deeper run. But the business-like approach Tadlock described the players taking meant it would be a tall task to knock off these Wildcats. They had gotten back home after 2 a.m. that day, and despite a lack of sleep, they were right back in the gym going at it hard.

In the end, though Murrah put up a better fight against Meridian than its earlier 82-51 loss to the Wildcats on Dec. 3, Meridian would come out on top 68-59 to cap off its most memorable season since Hood graduated. After the disappointing ending in Jackson just a year ago, this time, Meridian’s ending was sweet.

Perhaps it was almost bittersweet, as the Wildcats lose several key seniors in Ledarrius Brewer, David McCoy and Jay Malone. There’s still talent, and size, coming back next year, but this year’s Wildcat seniors, with their desire to win and their refusal to accept anything less, was a special group that won’t easily be replaced.

The time to worry about that, though, is next winter. For now, the Wildcats are the champions, and Meridian High has another trophy to add to its case.

Drew Kerekes is the sports editor at The Meridian Star. He can be reached at dkerekes@themeridianstar.com.