Cook That was a nice student section at the Bearettes’ playoff game against Bullard in Tyler Friday night.

They did a lot of the cheers with the cheerleaders, put pressure on opposition players shooting free throws, and exploded when our Bearettes made a good play.

There were homemade signs, hands in the air and then down on made free throws with a “whoosh” sound or something like that, and their were letter jackets sprinkled here and there among the students as athletes from other sports came out in support of their classmates.

It was really cool.

Heck, they even had me yelling in support from time to time.

•••

Hats off to those same Bearettes for a very nice, 28-6 season that saw them ranked among the best in the state for most of the season.

And it was a true team, one not dominated by one particular player although there were those play- ers that could “carry the load” for her team- mates on occasion.

As Coach Fred Griffin told me after one game, this year’s Bearettes were a defensive team. They had there success stem from stopping their opponents’ offense. And that took teamwork.

It was a great year and I know that I enjoyed the basketball I saw this year.

•••

Recently, I wrote about my one-year anniversary here at The Statesman.

One other “anniversary,” although it’s an ongoing one. It’s one that some of the coaches, and folks at the scorer’s table in the gym, know about. I’ve shut up about it, just so they don’t have to hear about it all the time.

But...

Just have to make note of it in the paper.

After 37 years, I’ve managed to quit smoking ... I think.

At least, as I write this (on Tuesday as we put together this week’s paper), I’m marking 12 weeks without a cigarette.

The cravings are long gone ... I’m blessed for that since that first weekend “without” saw me climbing the walls ... and the habit of reaching for one is almost gone.

I still slip on that one every once in a while and reach for a pocket like I’m going after a cigarette ... but, for the most part, even that’s going away.

Although I did have a dream the other night about smoking a cigarette and how good it was.

Fortunately, I didn’t wake up and find one in my hand.

So, I’m hanging in there.

And I’ll shut up about it. After all, you gotta quit counting at some point, huh?