The same will be expected today when Lincoln takes on Munford in an alumni basketball game at Lincoln High School at 5 p.m.
Lincoln head track coach and assistant football coach Skylar Mansfield came up with the idea of having an alumni game.
“My entire thought is they do it at Americus (Georgia) which is where I am from,” Mansfield said. “Nobody does anything like that around here where it involves alumni. We are just trying to find something that everybody is interested in. Maybe if this takes off we are trying to make away where it’s an alumni weekend and do something for the entire Talladega County. You could do a flag football game, a basketball game, a dunk contest and a three-point shoot-out like an All-Star weekend. Nobody is really doing things like that to bring the community back together. The kids are going back to school, and it will be something interesting for them to attend. It gives them a chance to see what the older generations used to be like. It is a chance for them to see their parents perform. I think it is something good for the community.”
Mansfield said this is something he has thought about doing for years and it finally came together this past June. He said he didn’t expect that many people to be interested in playing in the basketball game.
“I was just going to do one game, but now I am doing two games because there were so many people interested,” Mansfield said. “We are going to have to do a young alumni game and a legends alumni game. I was very surprised, because I was thinking on short notice that nobody would really want to partake in it, but is really expanding.”
Lincoln’s Principal Terry Roller thought it was a great idea for a fundraiser.
“Mansfield thought it would be a fantastic way to build community support and camaraderie amongst former Lincoln folks,” Roller said. “To continue fosters that healthy rivalry that we have with our sister school, Munford. It is a long withstanding history and tradition between the two having heated, spirited and friendly competition. It is a good way to bring back some old timers and let them get out there to show the young kids. They always want to talk about how good they were back in the day. They can show the young kids how much spirit and competition they have still and how much they support the school. It should be a good fundraiser for us. We want to do whatever we can to support the program and with the economic times as hard as they are, we want to build some money in the programs so they can be self-sufficient.”
Roller said he would like to see more events like this in the future.
“I would like to see flag football alumni games,” Roller said. “I would love to see volleyball alumni games. I would even like to see some 5K-10k fun runs and give the proceeds to a charity. We are going to try and get the clubs more involved and evolve to that level, but with turnover in staff, it is hard to get everything in place at the same time. We want to give back to the community.”
Mansfield hopes that there will be a good turn out tonight.
“I hope everybody comes out and supports it,” Mansfield said. “Hopefully, it will be a big event and we can start doing things like this every year.”
