Published: Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 / Updated: Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 01:26 AM

Former Great Falls player recalls lessons learned from coach Smith

The Great Falls Red Devils begin their quest for another state championship on Tuesday at home against Blackville-Hilda.

They will be one of the most watched among boys teams in the postseason, and not because of the school's storied history in the playoffs or the numbers put up by coach John Smith, who has spent his entire 40-year career at Great Falls.

And not because they are 22-1 and ranked No. 2 in Class A by the South Carolina High School Basketball Coaches Associaion.

Chester County's school board unanimously voted down a proposal to merge Great Falls and Lewisville high schools to help make up a large money deficit, but what remains is a decision to terminate working retirees.

Smith falls into that category, as do several employees within the district who have already been terminated in what has been called the first phase. Smith's future is undecided.

Charlie Brunson played on Smith's first state championship team in 1977. He lives in Sumter and works for Thomas Industrial Service. Along with most of the residents and former residents of Great Falls, he is watching the situation closely.

Brunson said he can't imagine Great Falls basketball without Smith, who holds the state record for most wins by a boys basketball coach, 812, and has won six state championships in 15 trips.

But Brunson said when it comes to Smith, there's more to consider besides the wins and state titles.

We are family

Smith, who is from Lancaster, came to Great Falls straight out of Newberry College. He fell in loves with Great Falls and has turned down numerous offers to coach at bigger schools.

"In the years leading into the first state championship in 1977, there was a lot of racial tension in Great Falls," Brunson said. "There were riots and people were throwing bricks to break out windows in businesses in town.

"When I look back, I give coach Smith credit helping end it. We got off quick, and as the wins kept coming, the people in Great Falls started coming together. I was the only white player on the team, but we didn't pay attention to that. We were like a big family working hard to reach our goal -- the state championship. We were brothers."

Somewhere around that time, Brunson said, J.P. Stevens announced it was shutting down its plant in Great Falls. When it came, the closing put a lot of the town's folks out of work.

And it didn't help that when I-77 was built, it bypassed Great Falls and isolated the small community from the outside world and new business ventures.

But the community had become one, and the success in football and the upswing in basketball allowed residents to take sit back and pull for their beloved Red Devils. Sports, Brunson said, allowed the people an escape from their worries.

The road to victory

Brunson is one of Smith's many success stories. After helping the Red Devils beat H.E. McCrackin, which has since closed, by seven or eight points in the championship game, colleges were giving Brunson a closer look.

At 6-foot-6, he was one of the first Red Devils that the 6-7 Smith could look in the eyes.

Brunson well remembers the road to Columbia in the 1977 season. He likens it to a scene from "Hoosiers," one of his favorite movies. It's based on Milan High School Indians and their Indiana state basketball championship in 1954 over one of the state's biggest schools. For movie purposes, the team was the Hickory Huskers.

Back then, all of Indiana's high schools played in one state championship tournament. That is nothing like in South Carolina, where there are four classifications and each has its own title game.

But that has nothing to do with Brunson's memory.

"There's a scene in the movie where Milan is going to a playoff game and there are cars lined up behind the team bus following it with their lights on," Brunson said. "Every time the movie is on, I watch it. And when that scene comes up, I think of our trip to Irmo to play McCrackin.

"Back then, you had to drive to Columbia from Great Falls on U.S. 21, which has a lot of long, steep hills. Coach Smith, as he always did, was driving the bus. The players were crowded around the back window looking at car lights for as far as we could see. I think the whole town closed down to follow us that night."