Sundown 'n Nazareth

Saturday in Austin, two local girls basketball teams will play for the state championship.

In Class 1A Division I, Sundown will play Lindsay. Sundown is a town of about 1,500 situated a little southwest of Lubbock. I've been there several times to play their 9-hole golf course and usually manage to hit the oil well pump jack on hole #8 (or #9).

In Class 1A Division II, the Nazareth Swiftettes face off against the Garden City Lady Kats (Bearcats). The Swiftettes have already won 17 state championships, which an ESPN article claims is the most of any public school in the nation. My local TV station states that 18 is the true historic number needed. Nazareth is a tiny place of a little more than 300 people west of I-27 between Canyon and Plainview (the green arrow on the map).

Wright Thompson has an article for ESPN, "Hoops of Nazareth" which talks about the history of the town, the basketball program and its role in keeping the town alive. Interesting, but it comes off as being a little too bleak, striving for pathos. If anyone is from there or has friends or relatives there, I would like to know their opinion of the article. Otherwise, I must delegate my friend, The Red-Headed Stepchild, to go on a road trip and do some asking.

Don't know the teams' cheers, so just consider this some long distance rooting for Sundown and Nazareth.