COLUMN: The deafening beauty of playoff basketball

We're two weeks into the MSHSAA basketball postseason and the main takeaway I've had during my coverage is how a small gym can come to life when it finally gets to host a district tournament, or even better, a sectional round.

St. Vincent recently won its first district championship since 2005 and picked a good year to do it, since the even districts host on even years. Since it's been nearly two decades since they made it this far, the small gym was not only as packed as it had ever been but also louder than ever.

"I mean our opponents hate this gym, but I love this gym. I've been here 37 years, I played in this gym when I was in high school, so I lived here my whole life," St. Vincent head coach Bruce Valleroy said. "When you get this place packed, you cannot hear and their coach will tell them the same thing. You better give sign language or just figure it out because you cannot hear."

Both benches were in front of the side of the stands that were filled with fans from the other team, the winning team. With every Puxico basket that got them closer to a 72-49 win, the cheers from their supporters grew progressively louder and both teams were covered in a shroud of noise.

"Everybody accused me of yelling at my kids over the years," Valleroy said. "I said I'm not yelling at them. I'm yelling because they can't hear."

The Puxico fans have followed their Indians from Thayer to Perryville and even outnumbered the home crowd to the point where there had to be an extra set of bleachers on the stage above the cheerleaders.

"They traveled with us everywhere we went this year," Puxico head coach Bryant Fernetti said. "The community support that these kids have, it's second to none. I just always try to tell the kids not to take it for granted because this type of stuff doesn't happen everywhere."

The Delta girls' basketball team will host the Class 1 quarterfinal round on Friday, March 1, against a Walnut Grove program that has won a district title every year except last year since 2011. During that run, the Tigers have reached the final four 10 times, played for the state title seven times, and won five times, most recently in 2020.

I remember going to Delta last year for a regular season game and not finding a place to park outside the gym or a place to sit inside the gym. It looked like the entirety of Delta’s population was packed inside the gym.

Delta head coach David Heeb equated his team to “the Beatles” because of their ability to draw fans through their dominance. With that in mind, Friday’s game is going be the basketball version of the Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones.

And that’s the best part of high school sports, and really, sports in general. It’s the event that makes it great. The level of play, whether it's the pros or little Joes, doesn’t matter nearly as much as the level at which the community cares about the contest taking place. A packed game at Capaha Field will bring a better experience than a St. Louis Cardinals game at a half-empty Busch Stadium.

Take it from someone who regularly attended Miami Marlins games.