Gibson County Girls Win State Championship

JACKSON, Tenn. – Family, friends and fans cheered on the Gibson County Lady Pioneers as they made their way across the gym.

It was a celebration for the Lady Pioneers after winning the state championship. The girls on the team say they want to thank all of their supporters.

“All the people around us and all the support,” said McKinnley Burkett. “I was excited the first thing I wanted to do was go hug Coach Heather she’s just been with us and I just love her and I appreciate everything that she has done for us.”

“We’ve had support over all the years and all of our seniors,” said Jaci White. “We knew freshmen years after we lost we wanted to come back for senior year. We knew that was our year to win it all and it feels good to come back home with a goal ball.”

It was an emotional day for the lady pioneers and what makes even more emotional, it’s their last game.

“It’s a lot of mixed emotions because you know it was our last game and its really sad. It’s been 13 years in the making and we’ve worked really hard for it so we just feel really blessed that we were able to get as far as we did,” said Ashton Lannom.

“It’s amazing. I didn’t even have words to describe it,” said Hannah Ball. “There is so much emotion, happiness, a little sad because its our last time playing basketball but mostly i was just so overwhelmed with excitement.”

“We are really excited that we won the goal ball but were also sad because we know our high school careers ended so its little of both,” said KJ White.

Mitch Wilkins says it has been a blessing being able to coach the girls basketball team.

“You know 43 years down, first time I actually had the opportunity to be the state champion, and to end and be able to do it with such a great group of people. These young ladies are just wonderful individuals,” said Wilkins.