Friday night was more than just the conclusion of the 64th edition of the Lanierland tournament.
It made history not seen since the days when Lyndon Johnson was president.
The Lakeview Academy girls won their first-ever championship with a dominating 55-30 win over North Hall. The Cherokee Bluff boys followed with their first-ever title, taking down Gainesville, 62-52, in the tournament finale.
The last time the tournament produced two first-time winners in the same season was in 1964. That year, the South Hall boys (now Johnson) won their first title while the North Hall girls claimed their first championship plaque.
Both the Lakeview Academy girls and Bluff boys had recently been in the finals but could not grab the trophy. The Lady Lions had dropped championship games to North Hall in 2019 and 2021. The Bears lost to Gainesville in the 2020 finals.
“I wasn’t here when they played in the two previous finals,” first-year Lakeview girls coach Ken Huffman said, “but I definitely understood before the year’s tournament how important (the tournament) is to the Hall County community, and especially to the Lakeview community. To be able to get this for the Lakeview supporters means a lot to us for sure.
“The Lakeview community has always been behind the teams but I think this is now going to have them truly believe what we're capable of doing.”
Following the Bears impressive win over the defending champion Red Elephants, Bluff coach Josh Travis also talked about the meaning of finally being added to “the list.”
“Now we’re one of those teams on the list,” Travis said after Friday night’s win.”You’ll open up the magazine next year and we’ll be there. That’s pretty cool.
“It means a lot to the kids. But for the program and the school it probably will mean more next year and beyond when they’ll see ‘Bluff’ in the winners list and then hang a banner.”
It may be the last time the tournament has two first-time winners in a season, unless new programs are added to the field in the future, which seems unlikely. However, three programs are still searching for their first titles so the possibility of more history is not entirely lost.
Cherokee Bluff is now the only current girls team in the field that has not captured a Lanierland title. Chestatee and Lakeview Academy are the only boys teams to have not won a Lanierland crown.
This is just the fourth time in the 64-years of the tournament that it produced two first-time winners in the same season.
In 1960, the first year of the tournament -- and we’ll count it -- the Gainesville boys and East Hall girls won titles. In 1962, the East Hall boys and Gainesville girls claimed their first crowns. And in 1964, the South Hall boys and North Hall girls got their first championships.
In more recent times, the West Hall girls won their first title in 1997. In 2003, the Flowery Branch girls won their first and in 2008, the West Hall boys got their first crown. In 2012, the Chestatee girls captured their first title while the Flowery Branch boys won their first title in 2015.
