Quarter century of memories: Riled up Blue Devils run former assistant coach’s team out of gym

Muddy River Sports Editor Matt Schuckman began covering the Quincy High School boys basketball program during the 1998-99 season, and since he recently wrapped up his 25th season following the Blue Devils, he put together a list of his 25 most memorable games. Here is today’s installment:

March 10, 2000 — Quincy 76, Jacksonville 36

QUINCY — What exactly Dan Sparrow said, if anything at all, Andy Douglas can’t be certain.

“To this day, I don’t know,” he said.

What former Quincy High School boys basketball coach Loren Wallace told Douglas, J.D. Summers and D.J. Douglas about Sparrow’s comments to the Jacksonville Journal-Courier riled them up.

The Blue Devils squared off against Jacksonville in the Class AA sectional championship at the Prairie Capital Convention Center on March 10, 2000, and Sparrow was in his second season as the Crimsons’ head coach following a stint as Wallace’s assistant at Quincy, including being on the bench during the 1998 state tournament run when the Douglas cousins and Summers were sophomores.

The QHS graduate’s team was no match for his alma mater. The Blue Devils closed the first half on a 10-0 run, opened the second half on an 11-0 spurt and finished off a 76-36 victory for the 30th sectional championship in program history.

“The difference: Intensity,” Andy Douglas told the Quincy Herald-Whig after the game. “We were up for this game more than we were for any game so far. Everybody played hard.”

The reason? A little motivation.

“We all had a lot of respect for Coach Sparrow, at least us players did,” Douglas said. “He was a great coach for us. When he left, I remember Coach Wallace coming in and telling us he had said some stuff to the Jacksonville paper about D.J., myself and J.D. Summers.

“Coach Wallace pulled us in, and to this day I don’t know if it’s true or not, but what he told us Sparrow said had us playing with an edge. Our focus was on. We wanted to bury those guys that night.”

The Blue Devils left no doubt. Douglas scored 21 points, Summers had 12 points and six rebounds and the Blue Devils shot 59.2 percent from the field while forcing 34 turnovers.

Although he doesn’t know what was true about Sparrow’s comments, Douglas understands why Wallace would use it as motivation. Having wrapped up his ninth season as the QHS head coach, Douglas can relate.

“I’m not going to say I’ve ever lied to my guys, but there are multiple times you have to find ways to motivate high school kids,” Douglas said. “Whatever Coach Wallace’s tactic or thought process was behind it, it worked.”