By JIM STEELE

Five Days in Murfreesboro

INTRODUCTION

It’s hard to believe that more than two years have passed since a gritty group of McKenzie Rebels hoisted high the Class A state baseball championship trophy. What a day it was. McKenzie was poised to play a very powerful Forrest team for the cheese. Forrest had won 24 straight games, set numerous state tournament records for home runs and basically romped through its side of the draw, which included a pretty good Huntingdon team, a Mustang team that had beaten McKenzie 8-7 for the Region 7A title.

But this Rebel team was on a mission. This was a team of goal-oriented players. McKenzie may not have been the most talented, fastest or most explosive team in the draw. During one of the state tournament broadcasts, my colleague and pal Larry Joe Smith remarked that McKenzie was “built for comfort, not for speed.” But it had eight seniors whose leadership mantle may prove to be bigger than we think it was, even today. The shockwave of what those eight seniors brought to the dugout is still being felt today and this year’s juniors and seniors are feeling how heavy the burden of leadership really is.

On May 27, 2006, the McKenzie Rebels fought, battled, stiffened their resolve and shocked the Forrest Rockets 2-0 to claim the crown. And what a great feeling it was. The victory capped a magical week that fans still talk about today. And when they do, you can tell that chills run up and down their spines as they reminisce. But McKenzie was ready to break out. You just knew that something was going to happen athletically 2005-06 and that McKenzie was going to win a title of some sort.

Truth be told, McKenzie won a BUNCH of titles and experienced much success during the 2005-2006 season. The Rebels were second in Region 7A in football and reached the second round of the Class A state playoffs. The golf team won the District 13A-AA and Regional 7A-AA titles and finished sixth at state. McKenzie’s boys’ cross country team finished as regional runners-up and advanced its team to the Class A-AA state meet for the first time in school history. The boys’ basketball team captured the District 13A title and the girls were district runners-up. The MHS soccer team advanced to the second round of the District 13A-AA tournament. McKenzie senior Rick Colognese reached the second round of the district tennis tournament. Andrea Swan was eighth at the state shot-put competition. The Lady Rebel softball team finished District 13A and Region 7A runner-up and lost 5-0 at Trinity Christian during substate play. And of course, who can forget the Rebel baseball team’s achievement.

McKenzie won the prestigious Best of the West trophy for having the top Class A athletic program in West Tennessee. McKenzie High School principal told me that this was the most successful athletic season in school history. He was understating the obvious. It was a significant athletic campaign.

The common tie with much of the success is knotted up in eight seniors: Craig Broadbent Beau Brown, Drew Hayes, John Kermit Laughrey, Brice Priestley, Marshall Smith, Jonathan Wheat and Justin Wilson. Broadbent, Brown, Smith and Wilson played on the state golf team. Hayes and Laughrey played on the state-playoff football team. Priestley ran on the state-bound cross country team. There was a lot of state experience going into the baseball championships. As you will learn, that state experience in other endeavors helped the Rebels win this baseball title.

During the baseball banquet, McKenzie senior Brice Priestley took his place behind the lectern and offered some extemporaneous remarks about the championship season. Priestley suggested the seeds of this championship may have been planted at the completion of McKenzie’s appearance in the Region 7A basketball tournament at Trenton. A hot-shooting Halls Tiger team upended the top-seeded Rebels 79-64 in the quarterfinals, ending the Rebels’ season at 24-7.

Priestley told the crowd at the banquet that losing the Halls game was a painful experience. Just a year before, in Lexington at the Region 6AA tournament, where the Rebels were bounced out by eventual 2A state champ Bolivar Central, a wide-eyed Priestley begged MHS basketball coach Larry Joe Smith to keep the gym open, that he was going to do whatever it took to be a better basketball player and help McKenzie become a better team.

“Whatever I need to do coach, whatever it takes,” he said, very enthusiastically, as if he was ready for practice to begin tomorrow. “We’re going to do it next year, whatever it takes.”

Priestley had high expectations for the basketball season, but those aspirations were dashed by a quick-scoring Halls club. He explained to the banquet guests that he felt a lot of pain following the loss.

“I sat there on the bench and I wasn’t ready for basketball season to be over. I told Drew Hayes that I wasn’t ready for it to be over, that I wasn’t ready to start on baseball,” he said, as if he was carefully picking his words. “Drew told me that we need to get ready for baseball. Let’s go win the ‘Ship.”

“The ‘Ship” was Rebel parlance for the state championship. The loss to Halls burned in the bellies of those basketball players who parlayed their misery into a new focus.

At that same baseball banquet, Rebel baseball coach Jeremy Maddox talked about the pre-season. He said he had a checklist of goals. He also conveyed that his goals were steeped in realism. Maddox read off the checklist to the banquet guests.

“I thought we could win the regular season district championship and we did that. Then I thought we could win the district tournament and we did that. Then I thought we could get to substate and we did that. Then I wrote down that we could win at substate and we did that. Then I said we could win a state championship and we did that,” Maddox said.

“The only thing I didn’t write down was ‘win the region’ and Huntingdon beat us,” Maddox said with a laugh. That man’s Ouija board must have been working overtime. Thankfully, Maddox wasn’t wearing a “moo moo” and bizarre headdress often adorned by TV psychic “Miss Cleo.”

Huntingdon, indeed, defeated host McKenzie 8-7 in a thrilling high school battle, sending McKenzie to Adamsville for substate and eventually to the state draw opposite Huntingdon…and Forrest.

But during the first practice, Maddox gathered his team and conducted a poll. He wanted to know where his team’s head was. He started with then-sophomore catcher Drew Brown. What was his goal this season?

“Brown told me, ‘to win a state championship,’” said Maddox.

Truth be told, Brown had been saying that since school started in August. This was on his mind in a big, big way. He said he even posted his aspirations on his “MySpace” page, which, if I watch the entertainment news correctly, is one of those silly teeny-bopper networking pages.

Then, as Maddox continued to conduct his inquest, to a man, each Rebel uttered that goal. The die was cast.

It was reminiscent of Don Durden’s Greenfield boys’ basketball team during the 1983-84 season. Durden gathered his team in the corner of the Yellow Jackets’ gym and asked them what their goals were for the season. They talked about winning a state title. And much like McKenzie playing a Forrest team with a pro-prospect pitcher in Mikie Minor, the Yellow Jackets stunned a Bolton team that featured future NBA performer Sylvester Gray for the state crown at Vanderbilt.

Greenfield defied the odds that year and 22 years later, so did McKenzie.

The Rebels shook off a shaky end to the regular season and hit their stride, cruising through the district tournament, securing a substate bid, blasting Adamsville at sectionals and heading to Murfreesboro for an unforgettable run to a state championship. For the McKenzie nine, those five days in Murfreesboro will live on in the memories of the players and fans who were there. It was an unbelievable run to the gold. Even two years later, many fans who were lucky enough to watch even one of those state tournament games are still saying that it was one of those memories of a lifetime. People tell me they still get chills recalling and re-reading about that incredible week. It was, for me, a working vacation and a run to the gold I’ll never ever forget.

This is the story of the McKenzie Rebels baseball team, their magical run to the state title in 2006 and my impressions as well as excerpts from my accounts of that memorable dash to the title.