It’s just not the way it should be. At selected schools across Mississippi and Louisiana, teen-agers are beginning their long-time dream of making it to the state basketball tournament by competing in district tournaments.

Their minds are filled with making the last-second shot that helps their team get to South State, or upsetting the top team in the tournament.

There’s classes during the day, practice in the afternoon and meeting with friends to discuss the upcoming game at night.

Except at Huntington High, where the age of innocence is dealing with a very heavy burden.

When the Huntington boys team takes the court tonight against Franklin Academy in the District 6A Tournament at Trinity Episcopal, it will mark the first time the Hounds will play a basketball game since former teammate Eric Smith was killed in a one-car accident on Jan. 23.

Huntington cancelled its two regular season basketball games last week.

Monday night, Huntington’s Lady Hounds wore green patches with the No. 25 (Smith’s number) on their jerseys and all of the players wore knee pads with Eric’s name and number written in green.

Smith, 17, was driving his 1992 Pontiac southbound on Doty Road when he lost control of the vehicle and ran off the roadway in a curve.

According to Senior Trooper Steve Childers, Smith overcorrected when he ran off the road and went off the road on the other side. It then struck a ditch and overturned. Smith was ejected from the car during the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene by the Concordia Parish Coroner’s Office.

The area had recently received rain prior to the crash.

Smith was alone and no other vehicle was involved.

The cause of the crash is being attributed to excessive speed for the roadway conditions. Smith was not wearing his seat belt and alcohol is not suspected to be involved.

Smith played football, basketball and baseball at Huntington.

Senior Michael Foster said practice was difficult last week.

&uot;It’s different with Eric not out there,&uot;&160;Foster said. &uot;It’s changed a lot. It’s been tough, but we’ll make it through it. He was a real good friend. We definitely miss him.&uot;

Foster said the first three days after the accident were tough.

&uot;You still think he’s going to be there,&uot; he said. &uot;But we have to move on. God has a good reason for everything.&uot;

Sophomore Josh Johns said the whole team had trouble believing the accident was true.

&uot;We would all be waiting for him to show up at practice,&uot; Johns said. &uot;It’s still hard to believe.&uot;

Sophomore Todd Iverstine said he thinks about Eric all of the time.

&uot;It’s tough going to practice and he’s not there or going into the classroom and he’s not sitting in his seat,&uot; Iverstine said. &uot;I miss the way we played around because he was always joking around.&uot;

Crawford Kifer said things are definitely not the same around the Ferriday, La., campus.

&uot;It feels weird,&uot; Kifer said. &uot;We would always be wrestling under the breezeway at school. I miss him being around. It still feels like a dream.&uot;

Smith was buried in one of his basketball jerseys.

Huntington principal Russ Green said Smith’s other jersey will be retired and placed in a trophy case at the end of the season.

Joey Martin is sports editor of The Democrat. He can be reached by calling 446-5172 ext. 232 or at joey.martin@natchezdemocrat.com.