After covering college basketball for several years at Troy University, this season has been my first full-fledged venture into covering the high school and independent school basketball teams.

After watching several games this season, it took me a while to remember what was missing from the game. The answer was all around me – the crowd.

At the Alabama Independent School Association tournament Saturday standing on the sidelines and listening to the crowds yell for their teams, and sometimes at each other, was fun. The youngsters from Edgewood would scream "scoooooreboard," "warm up the bus," and "this one's over," whenever Fort Dale would bring the ball down to the Edgewood end of the floor.

Despite the score of the game, Fort Dale lost to Edgewood, it was even more fun when Fort Dale's fans answered back with the chant of "We've got two rings."

Monday night at Greenville High School the fans in both orange and blue and black and gold were heavily involved in the game. So much so that Greenville's cheerleaders actually left their corner of the bleachers to cheer. With time running down on the clock, the crowd on both sides of the gym were chanting "Go Trojans," and "Go Tigers." It was probably one of the most pumped up games this season. It's that simple.

Griffin Pritchard is the Sports Editor of the Greenville Advocate. He can be reached by phone at 382-3111 ext. 122 or via email: griffin.pritchard@greenvilleadvocate.com