JHS Basketball puts twist on annual Gatorade Scrimmage

By Gary Scott on November 17, 2017 at 12:51pm

The annual Gatorade or Soda Scrimmage for the Jacksonville High School basketball team returns tonight with a bit of a twist.

While in the past, the junior varsity and varsity teams from the high school would scrimmage. Now, with Jacksonville Middle School identifying as the Crimsons, the seventh and eighth grade boys teams will be participating.

But that’s not the only twist to tonight’s scrimmage. While the program will continue to accept Gatorade for the price of admission, they are instead asking for each player as well as the public to bring a set of hats and mittens.

Jacksonville High School basketball Head Coach Cody Gray says the program, and the kids in the program, have been relatively fortunate, and this is a chance to give back to the less fortunate.

“I think that, as a program, we’re pretty blessed to have lots of opportunities to get the things we need. Throughout the season, we have access to water everyday, Gatorade is something they can get access pretty much anytime they want to, and if there’s a kid that can’t get it, I think they have an obligation to help them out,” explains Gray.

Gray is a teacher at Lincoln Elementary, and his assistant coach Corey Bunner a teacher at Washington. Gray says that he and his team felt that they could contribute to the community in a unique way, given the need in town.

“That’s why we sent them a letter  that went home to the kids too, to let them know, please feel free telling them to feel free to bring a Gatorade because we need to keep supporting that endeavor. But at the same time, I’ve been teaching at Lincoln for a couple of years, Coach (Cory) Bunner teaches at Washington, we know there’s a great need in our community for lots of different things. And a lot of our kids, our future basketball players funnel in from those programs and those schools,” says Gray.

Tonight’s scrimmage starts at 6 p.m. at the JHS Bowl. The varsity scrimmage is scheduled to start around 7:30.