David LaRock
Published: March 8, 2006
The 2005-2006 PJC basketball season has come to a close. The players, as well as the coaches, put a lot of heart, sweat, and tears into this year’s basketball season, only to see it come up short of the ultimate goal, a championship. The team did not just lose its last game, but also four outstanding sophomores who will be graduating after this semester.
Ronald Fontenot, Ron Houston, Phillip Wallace, and C.C. Kilbert will all be transferring to other colleges to continue their basketball and college careers.
However, all four have no idea where they are going.
“I want to play somewhere close to home,” says Fontenot, a physical education major. “Possibly Tulane. I just want to play near my family.”
Houston, Wallace and Kilbert all expressed the same feeling of playing close to home.
“Loyola, Mercer, Gardner-Webb, Mercer are my top choices,” says Wallace, who is going after a degree in business advertising major.
Kilbert, a recreation major, and Houston, a business major, haven’t narrowed down their choices either. But playing up north, near home, is a top priority.
Though they will be leaving Pensacola in a few months, they will not forget the memories they have accumulated over the past two years.
Wallace and Fontenot both recall the best memory on the court, a three-pointer by teammate Kilbert against Okaloosa-Walton.
“There was like five seconds left on the shot clock. C.C crossed ’em over, stepped back, and sank a three in that point guard’s face. C.C pointed up at the dude’s girlfriend.just kidding but it was a tight shot,” Fontenot said.
Houston’s fondest memory is of teammate Fontenot’s career day at Enterprise College. Fontenot’s 19-point, 16-rebound performance made a regular game into something special.
“I’ll definitely miss hanging out with Ms. Deb,” Wallace added jokingly. “Oh yeah, and my girlfriend, Coach Rigby.”
Like all memories, some are not all smiles and slam dunks.
“Getting up at six in the morning, going to the track will definitely not be one of my top memories,” said Wallace, who got angry just thinking about the running. “Those 2-20s.put that in quotes. Two-20s!”
What they had in common, however, is nothing short of normal for graduating sophomores who are leaving the Pensacola area:
The weather. The females.
“I’ll definitely miss the weather. Going back up north, it gets too cold,” Kilbert said; he also wanted to add that he is “single for the time being” before he heads back up north.
With so much pressure to succeed on and off the court, these sophomore Pirates are enjoying life one day at a time. The sky is truly the limit for the graduating class of 2006 PJC men’s basketball team.
“The one thing I will miss about this area is that cute girl who works at Old Navy,” said Fontenot, who never got the chance to meet her. “[So I guess] the one thing I will not miss about Pensacola is that cute girl who works at Old Navy.”