Cardinals plan Halloween hoops show

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: October 26, 2014

Practice open to supporters on Friday, season opener at Gadsden City Nov. 6

Sacred Heart coach Ralph Graves (R) puts his basketball team through practice Sunday.

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

It seemed eerily appropriate (given the season) that Sacred Heart parishioners were setting up for the church’s annual Halloween celebration in the gym parking lot Sunday while inside the Cardinals basketball team was practicing for the upcoming season.

Come Friday night – Halloween night — both activities will come together.

Playing opposite trick-or-treaters and the final week of the high school football season, the team will hold its fourth annual Cardinal Night at 7 p.m. to promote its program. Basketball drives the bus at Sacred Heart, so no one has any reservations about going against the other two events of the night.

“I’m competing with the football teams,” Cardinals coach Ralph Graves said. “At Sacred Heart we have our faithful there and the other people are coming to (watch). As long as our Sacred Heart faithful is there, that’s fine with us.

“There’s still business to be taken care of on our end. My job is to make sure our team is ready to play because we play next Thursday and football will still be going.”

And it’s no easy opener. The Cardinals, a 26-7 Class 1A Final Four team a year ago, travel to Class 7A Gadsden City on Nov. 6.

“I’m excited that we’re playing a 7A school,” Graves said. “I respect the fact coach (Reginald) Huff at Gadsden city is giving our school an opportunity to play a 7A school because most 7A schools won’t play a small school because they feel as if they can’t accomplish anything from playing a 1A school.

“When I reached out to him and he said, “Yeah, I would love to,’ that meant a whole lot to me because surrounding schools around here won’t play you.”

The Cardinals have a lot of out-of-area games on their schedule. They play three in Atlanta, have another Atlanta-area team for their home opener Nov. 14, and play several bigger programs during the year. They did the same thing last year, opening the year against Spain Park.

“The opportunity is great and we’re going into the game to win,” guard D.J. Heath said. “It will show us how good we are as a team and through adversity; it will show us a lot.

“We’re looking at it as another game. We don’t look at it as 7A or anything. We’re going to go out and play — play for our school, play for our fans and play for each other.”

Speaking of the fans, for their $2 admission Friday, they will get to meet the Sacred Heart players, watch a brief practice and scrimmage, and see them participate in a slam dunk contest and 3-point shootout with the coaches. They also plan to have candy for the trick-or-treaters before partaking in the festivities themselves.

“I think it’s really exciting, similar to the Midnight Madness all the colleges do,” Heath said, adding he plans on winning the dunk contest. “It’ll give the fans a chance to see how we’re going to be this year and how we look. It’s been a while since we’ve played in front of them.”