Southern Rams' Historic Winter 2019-2020 Athletic Season
by Trevor King
There are not enough superlatives in the dictionary to accurately describe the success achieved by the Southern Rams during the historic 2019-20 winter athletic season.
To put it more accurately, the Rams entered the season with high expectations across the board and managed to blow them out of the water. Southern’s winter featured a three-peat state champion wrestling squad, an undefeated bowling team, and 1A Final Four berths by both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams.
Wrestling
• Third consecutive 1A Duals State Championship
• Won the 1A state semifinal and championship matches by a combined score of 118-33
• Qualified seven wrestlers for the 1A/2A State Tournament
• Head Coach Dave Taylor inducted into the Maryland Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame before the season started
Girls Basketball
• Finished the season 23-2 overall and were likely the favorites to win the state championship if not for the Final Four being canceled due to Covid-19
• This marked the third time this senior class advanced to the state semifinals and was the program’s seventh semifinal berth since 2013
• Junior point guard Brooke Davis was named Western Maryland Athletic Conference Player of the Year
Boys Basketball
• Finished the season 22-3, making this the winningest two-year stretch in the history of Southern boys basketball
- Of those 22 wins, 17 were by 20 or more points
- This team accomplished this after replacing eight seniors from last year’s state runner-up team. Five of those eight seniors were starters and seven were in the main nine-man rotation
• Of the 45 wins accumulated by this senior class in the last two seasons, 43 were by double digits
• Punched ticket to the Final Four for the second consecutive season after beating Surrattsville 59-58 in what was one of the greatest games Ram Arena has ever seen
• Sophomore forward Isaac Upole broke the long-standing sophomore scoring record by racking up 468 points (previous record: Brett Rice in 1989-90 scoring 459)
Though the pandemic ultimately cut short what could have been one of the all-time greatest winter seasons for any 1A school in Maryland since the turn of the century, it didn’t lessen the impact that these athletes made on their school and the Ram community.
They were the embodiment of what a Southern Ram athlete should be and have managed to pen another important chapter in the rich history of Southern Garrett athletics.