As the DHS basketball teams gear up to play their last game at the Rec tonight (girl’s game starts at 5p), principal Lauri McKain-Fernandez sends along this recent interview with Decatur’s legendary basketball coach Bob Reinhart, where he talks about his career in Decatur, great games at the Rec, and his anticipation for the new, on-campus facility.

Article and interview by sports writer Billy Banks…

When we moved to Atlanta in 1981 there was one word we heard more than any other, a word uttered on nearly a daily basis — “Sherman.” As in “Sherman burned this,” or “Sherman left us nothing but a dang chimney,” or “we had to bury the silverware so that rascal Sherman wouldn’t take it” and so forth. It was simply amazing to us, raised as we were in a distant border state, how many people talked about W.T. Sherman some 120 years after he left Georgia. When we moved to Decatur in 1987 we had a similar experience, and still do, every time we attend a game at the Legendary Decatur Rec Center. There’s hardly a game where someone doesn’t mention the name “Reinhart,” as in “this is the way we did things back in Reinhart’s day” (although no one’s ever claimed that Reinhart took their silverware). Read the rest of this entry »

With the impending renovation of the Decatur Recreation Center and a new athletic complex much closer to home, the DHS basketball team is arranging their final farewells to “The Rec”.

After 50 years of playing in “The Rec”, Decatur High School has scheduled their last basketball game in the Decatur Recreation Center for Friday, February 13, 2009 against Blessed Trinity.

Next season, all DHS basketball games will be played on campus in the new athletic complex.  To celebrate the final game, players and coaches of the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams who have played in “The Rec” over the years are invited to come to the game for a time to remember and reminisce.  There will be a reception in a hospitality room for all returning players.  There will also be a recognition ceremony for all former players and coaches in attendance between the girls’ and boys’ game. The girls’ game will start at 5:00pm and the boys’ game will start following the recognition ceremony.

If there are any former players or coaches who are interested in attending, please contact Brent Eickhoff at Decatur High School.  His email address is [email protected] and his phone number is 404-643-0669.  Please give your name and year of graduation.  There will be a sign-in table in the lobby of “The Rec” when you arrive.