A family reunion on the hardwood

Generations of Poplar Bluff Mules players and fans energized the E.T. Peters Gymnasium once again Saturday night during the first-ever Mules Alumni basketball game.

With players from as far back as 1987 through the most recent graduates of 2019, the competition brought back memories of the championship history of boys’ basketball at Poplar Bluff High School.

Organized by alumnus and former Mules assistant coach Mike Kilgore (2000), the event featured two games with teams divided by odd or even graduation years, a skills competition and two different three-point shooting contests.

Separated into Team White (odd years) and Team Maroon (even years), game one spanned 1987 through 2004, with White defeating Maroon 89-71. Game two, with alumni from 2005-2019, again saw the White victorious, edging the Maroon 66-63.

Warm-ups were more like a family reunion than a sporting event. Hip-hop and rock music from the 1980s through today echoed through the gym as teammates who hadn’t seen each other in years greeted each other with hugs and tears.

TeeJay Britton (2000), now a professional MMA fighter who goes by the nickname “Bad Newz,” said he was more excited for the alumni game than he was for his most recent bout.

“Being a Mule meant everything to me,” Britton said before the game. “Coach John David Pattillo taught us to be a family.”

Michael Hamilton (1996) agreed, saying, “This feels great, the sense of camaraderie, seeing old friends you haven’t seen in a long time.”

The event began with a tribute to Wesley Lewis, the former campus security supervisor for Poplar Bluff schools who passed away in October. The alumni presented Mr. Lewis’s family with a memorial plaque in his honor.

The skills challenge opened the night’s competition, a display of dribbling and shooting expertise that saw Jay Price (2003) come away with the victory.

Next up, a two-man three-point shootout won by class of 2000 teammates Britton and Kilgore.

The final preliminary contest was another three-point shootout between the older and younger alumni classes, with the players from 1987-2004 claiming the win.

Only the bleachers on the south end of the gym were pulled out for seating, but by the time for tip-off in the first game, they were almost completely filled with hundreds of fans who had come out for the event.

The first game featured the classes of 1987 through 2004 divided by odd (White) and even (Maroon) years. The competitive fire in these players was evident from the beginning, as players dived for loose balls and banged bodies on the boards, contesting every shot.

The difference in the game, however, was the three-point shooting, led in part by Price, who looked as if he had hardly lost a step since high school.

“This is the first time I’ve played in a while,” Price said. “Being a Mule taught me a lot about competition. It feels good to see old friends here.”

White led Maroon 44-33 at halftime, and although the Maroon team gave a valiant effort, with Devon Brown (2004) hitting several threes late in the game, the outside shooting accuracy of the White team was too much to overcome. The final was White over Maroon 89-71.

Charles Redd (1992) described the experience as “like a dream.”

“I never thought I’d come back to play here again,” Redd said. “Poplar Bluff came out tonight to support us.”

Tony Webb (2003), said of the competition, “When you step back on this court, you play like you played in high school.”

“I want to do this every year,” Webb said. “We want to reach out to more alumni and bring back more of them, whether they play or not.”

Game Two, played by alumni from 2005 through 2019, got off to a slower start in terms of scoring, but several players electrified the crowd with slam dunks, including back-to-back slams from Chris Kilgore (2009) to pace the White team to a 29-21 lead at halftime.

The second half was even more competitive with several slam dunks from Kilgore and Nik Rowland (2019). The Maroon team was tenacious, cutting the White lead down to only one or two points on several occasions.

The White team answered these runs with timely three-point shots, including several from Xander Martin (2019), who helped his team hang on for a 66-63 victory.

Mike Kilgore said he felt great about the success of the first-time event.

“The fans got what they wanted to see,” Kilgore said. “Our current players got to see the players that came before them.”

“We’ll definitely be doing it again,” he said.