Occasionally, one sports team is so dominant that there is little doubt they will march to a winning season and a championship.
That was not the case with the Pine Bluff Zebras. They won the state championship game with some ease, but they had struggles and adversity along the way.
Their season start, for one, was inauspicious, with three losses in a row. One of the problems was that not all their players were ready to go.
“We had to start off without having a full team,” Coach Billy Dixon told The Commercial, referring to early-season injuries to senior center Jordon Harris and junior guard Courtney Crutchfield. “We’ve been faced with an enormous amount of challenges. We have. We’re not the only team that goes through that. You must find a way to persevere and get through, and that’s what these guys did.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Once everyone was healthy, the Zebras started cranking out the wins in earnest, putting away opponent after opponent.
Then two nights before the big game, tragedy struck Pine Bluff when two of the team members’ high school classmates were killed by gunfire.
One was 18 and the other 16, both shot to death while sitting in a vehicle outside an apartment complex. The two were students in the Pine Bluff School District, one attending Pine Bluff High and the other attending Dollarway High.
“We take it a little bit different because it’s home for us,” Dixon said. “Outside people look at Pine Bluff, and a lot of times they don’t see the good. They only hear of the tragedy. They only hear the bad things that happened. So, it was really important for us all year. This was one time that everybody comes together. Athletics bring everybody together. Everybody can cheer and be happy.”
Even the game itself had additional drama. Two key players were ailing, one with stomach problems and the other with what sounded like a bad cold. The two young men, however, pulled it together and played, with one of them, Crutchfield, scoring 16 points, making 8 of 12 shots from the field and earning the 5A tournament’s Most Valuable Player award.
“It would have never happened without the guys beside me and the people in the locker room,” Crutchfield said. “Shout out to all of them. I love them. Inside the gym, where no one knows what’s going on, it’s hard work.”
What a finish! Congratulations to Coach Dixon, to his team and to the city. Pine Bluff is always in need of something to cheer for, and the Zebras provided that in stirring fashion.