Halls ready to continue historic season

HALLS, Tenn. — Halls boys basketball coach Winston Jarrett has practically seen it all. The longtime coach has been on the Tigers sidelines for 36 years.

Jarrett couldn’t predict an undefeated season and No. 1 ranking in the state coming this year, but he knew he had a special group long before the season began.

“They had gone to the region [tournament] as sophomores. I only have two seniors. We hadn’t been since 2008,” Jarrett said about last year’s team.

Both Halls’ top ranking in the state and perfect regular season has never been done in school history.

The implementation of pre-season camps and scrimmages has paid dividends.

“I started three years ago out of necessity,” Jarret said. “The thing was the players just needed to play. You can drill them all you want to. Until they get it in an actual game situation, you don’t know what you have and they don’t know what you can do.”

Halls will begin a new season on Monday in their district tournament. Their first obstacle to a state championship will be against either Greenfield or South Gibson.

Jarrett hopes the team’s unblemished mark and lack of adversity doesn’t hurt their postseason aspirations.

“That advantage of losing in that situation, you really win because you know how they will do or get up for the next game,” Jarrett explained. “So now we’re in a situation if you lose, we don’t need to know how you’ll get up because it will be over.”