THE HISTORY.........................

There is so much history concerning the Hazard Basketball Program that a book could be wrote but we will try to sum it up in a paragraph.  We are a school of about 290 students that lies in the Eastern Kentucky town of Hazard that is known as the "Queen City of the Mountains".  There is a great sense of PRIDE and SUPPORT within the entire community that surrounds the high school, especially in its extra-curricular activities, that has led to a continued success throughout the history of the school.  The basketball program is a great example of this success.

The basketball teams of Hazard High School have made 35 state tournament appearances (29 Sweet Sixteens and 6 Class A State Tournaments).  That is the 3rd most state tournament appearances in the  history of Kentucky high school basketball and at the same time has captured 3 State Championships (1932, 1955, and 2004) and appeared in one other Final Four (1986). This success just doesn't stop with the boys program as the girls program captured 3 State Championships in the late 1990's (1 Sweet Sixteen and 2 Class A States) which gave them four total (1930).  Not bad for a small school playing in a classless sport. 

With all of this team succes there had to be some pretty good players come through the program except they weren't pretty good; they were real good.  There were players like Morton Combs (game winning shot in the 1932 state championship game), Johnny Cox (All-American),  Freddy Hogg, Jim Rose (started 5 years on varsity), Carl Wallace, Richard Alexander, Terry North, Jon Bentley, Mickey Gibson and Don Smith on the boys side and players like Charlotte Sizemore and Carolyn Alexander on the girls side.  There are so many more that could be mentioned.

The Bulldogs continue to play in  Historic Memorial Gymnasium.  They began playing there in 1949 and it continues today to be a monument to the great history that surrounds this program.  We can thank the City of Hazard and the Hazard School System for their efforts in the restoration of this building and for allowing us to revisit this TRADITION on each game night.

THE FUTURE................................

It will be sort of a rubuilding year this coming year after losing 6 players from last year's squad which follows a year of losing 8 players.  That is tough for a Class A team to take but a challenge that we will definitely step up to and take.  We have some great kids coming back, led by seniors Justin Wallace and Jon Walker, along with a slew of talented underclassmen, led by Justin Hicks, who show a lot of promise, enthusiasm, and a wonderful work ethic.  The pollsters don't give us much of a chance but with the dedication and sacrifice that these kids will put in and with tradition and pride on our side people should not take the Dawgs too lightly this year or they may get "bit".