Friday, December 19, 1997

Area team to play in Reunion Arena Saturday

By Ted Dunnam / Abilene Reporter-News

Just when you thought you wouldn't see a competitive game in Reunion Arena this year, the Breckenridge Buckaroos have come to your rescue.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, head coach Kyle Short's team will take on Ponder in one of four high school basketball games scheduled that day.

Then, if you feel so inclined, you can stick around and watch the 5-19 Dallas Mavericks take on the 8-16 Sacramento Kings in the day's, uh, featured attraction at 7:30 p.m.

Short has been trying for four years to get his team a date to play in Reunion Arena, and this season he finally hit the jackpot.

"It's a very difficult thing to arrange," Short said. "First of all, you have to have a game that falls on the same date the Mavericks are playing. Then the team you're playing has to agree to play in Dallas.

"Then you're competing against a bunch of other schools that also want to play in Reunion Arena. What it boils down to is the luck of the draw. And basically, the Mavericks only set aside about 10 dates a year for this. After the first of the year, you can't play there because everybody is starting district."

Short said he received a call from the Mavericks in October, informing him that Breckenridge was one of the fortunate few to earn a date with Reunion Arena.

When the Bucks take the floor at 1 p.m., they'll be through at 2:30 p.m. -- no questions asked.

"About five years ago, there were two Class 5A teams playing in Reunion, and they went into overtime and the score was tied. Mavericks officials told them they had to get off the court," Short said. "But that's the way it goes. The Mavericks get the court at 5 p.m.

"You can't blame them. They've got a very important game to play. If you're playing four games there, you've got to squeeze them in somehow. You've got a very short halftime, too. But it's a great experience for the kids. Their eyes really light up."

But just getting selected to play in Reunion Arena, doesn't mean it will actually happen.

"The Mavericks send you 150 tickets that you have to sell," Short said. "If you don't sell all of the tickets, you don't get to play. That's part of the deal. We've still got about 30 left, but I've been told by someone that if we don't sell them all, that they'll buy the rest.

"It's tough to sell them at this time of year because of Christmas, but we're doing all that we can do to get those tickets sold."

The experience isn't new to Short. When he was at Fredericksburg, his team played Austin Lake Travis in a game prior to a San Antonio Spurs' basketball game.

"The players think it's neat. I know a lot of our football players wanted to play in Texas Stadium, and if we had won one more game, that's probably where they would have played," Short said.

"I feel sorry for our basketball kids here in the past that didn't get to play in Dallas, but this is the first year that the dates fell right."

Short said that it worked out well for Breckenridge that the Buckaroos get to play one of the early games.

"We'll play at 1 p.m., get through at 2:30 p.m. and then we're going to the top of Reunion Tower," he said. "We'll vacation a little at the West End, then eat and go back for the Mavericks' game. We'll get to see a part of Texas that a lot of these kinds haven't seen.

"This is an opportunity that doesn't come around very often. We're very grateful to the Mavericks. Saturday morning, the country boys will be going to the big city."

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