Roadrunners begin title quest

Published 11:35 pm Saturday, November 8, 2014

Dalton State College brought basketball back to the campus last year, ending a decades-long dormancy to a program that was at one time among the best junior college hoops programs in the country.

In its return to the court, Dalton State finished with a 26-4 record, but because it was the school’s inaugural season in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the Roadrunners were unable to compete in the NAIA’s postseason.

Now, Dalton State will get a chance to prove exactly how it stacks up with the rest of the schools in the nation as the Roadrunners will compete for the Southern States Athletic Conference championship and will be eligible for postseason play.

The team will open its home schedule on Tuesday, taking on Erskine College at 7:30 p.m. at the trade center. Even though this is a much-changed team from last season, the Roadrunners already have made believers of plenty of people before tonight’s opening tip with Life University in Marietta.

Dalton State comes into the season picked to finish second in the Southern States and is tied for 15th in the NAIA preseason coaches poll. The good thing about this year’s team is that they take the preseason ranking as a challenge and say they need to play to the ranking and prove they belong.

“I was surprised by the ranking,” said senior point guard Sean Tate, who led the team in assists and steals last season. “We haven’t even won a conference game yet. We had 26 wins last year, but this year is a new slate and a new year, so we’ve got to bring it.”

The Dalton State community and the Whitfield-Murray County area in general came out to support the Roadrunners with good numbers in attendance at the trade center during the 2013-14 season, and the area needs to give that same support — and more — this season.

The Roadrunners aren’t just playing basketball, they are playing basketball with bigger goals and higher dreams this season. The inaugural season was about putting a program together. Now, coach Tony Ingle and the entire program is about winning titles.

There is a title tradition at Dalton State, and even though it has been a long time since the Roadrunners lifted a trophy high, that tradition is still the expectation of the coaches, the players and you, the fans.

So get out and support your team and help them in their title quest.