Hickory will go into the 3AA West playoff bracket at the #15 seed. The Red Tornadoes will face the #2 team in the bracket, Kings Mountain. The game will be at KM's Gamble Stadium. The Mountaineers, old conference foes during the four-year run of the Southwestern Foothills Conference, are the champions of the Southwestern 2A/3A Conference. Hickory won four straight against Kings Mountain from 2001-2004 but in the past four years the Mountaineers have gotten a new coach who has orchestrated a renewal of the Kings Mountain program. The Mountaineers have always had size and athleticism but seemed to lack discipline and determination. Now they have the discipline, determination, good coaching combined with size and athleticism to be successful. They are champions.
But not only are the Mountaineers former opponents - they are also future opponents. Beginning next season the Red Tornadoes and Mountaineers will resume their rivalry as non-conference opponents. So this will provide an interesting preview of the future for both teams. And Tornado fans are familiar with Gamble Stadium, too. That's a good thing when you consider the possibility of having to go to Charlotte or Winston-Salem.
After all the drama about which team would get the coveted second automatic 3A berth from the CVAC, well...
It turns out that it wasn't much of a prize afterall. After pulling off the upset of the year by beating Fred T. Foard, the St. Stephens Indians did clinch the CVAC's second and final automatic playoff berth. But the Indians wound up getting the #14 seed: just one place above Hickory. It's like this for the Indians:
We shocked the world and ruined Foard's championship season and all we get is this lousy tee-shirt that says "14" on it? wtf??Ain't that a kick in the pants? lol
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