It didn’t take long for Vidalia fans to pick out the Episcopal player they had heard so much about before Tuesday’s regional round matchup.

Tulane University commitment David Gomez stands 6-7 and makes his Knights teammates look like Frodo and the other Hobbits.

As the teams went through pregame warmups an hour before the game, Gomez was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a clamor arose among Vidalia fans like a boxer making his way to the ring, with an overriding chorus: &uot;There he is,&uot; as they pointed to the far end of the court.

Gomez wasn’t hard to miss before the tip. One of Episcopal’s last drills before the start of the game, includes the entire roster &045; Gomez and Snow White’s 12 dwarfs &045; rushing down the lane and slapping the glass.

While most of the Knights strained like their big brothers dangled something out of their reach, Gomez’s big paw squeegeed the backboard like a New York City bum.

Vidalia was supposed to be just another notch on the bedpost for Gomez. This is the same kid who beat out University High’s Glen Davis, an LSU signee and Parade Magazine All-American, as the District 7-2A Most Valuable Player last season.

Big Lou had other plans. People may have been chatting about Gomez before the game. But they were hollering about Louis McNulty after the game.

&uot;In the playoffs, you’re going to be able to body more without fouling, which is how it should be. I don’t think (Gomez) ever adjusted to that,&uot; Episcopal head coach Chris Beckman said.

Gomez was the worse for wear. Coughing the ball up, missing assignments, playing extremely too passive for a kid that was the apple of so many college recruiters’ eyes.

The win continues to re-enforce my belief that not only does Vidalia have the best athletic program in the area, the Vikings may be the best program in Louisiana you hear the least about.

Vidalia’s athletes continue to excel on the fields and courts, but you couldn’t convince the rest of the state’s media of that.

It’s a graveyard, or at least a different frontier where Captain Kirk and the Enterprise have never gone before.

Yet Vikings sports continue to blossom. A win against defending Class 2A champ Lakeview tonight would return the basketball team to the Top 28 for the second consecutive year; Dee Faircloth’s boys have reeled off 20 straight regular season wins currently and have appeared in the second round and semifinals over the past two years; and a Vidalia baseball team, which is consistently one of Class 2A’s elite teams every year and typically the last public school team standing in the playoffs.

So, while folks like Gomez might draw the red-carpet hype, it seems to be the fellows wearing the All-American colors that end up walking home with the Oscar.

&uot;The odds were against us,&uot; McNulty said Tuesday. &uot;This shows we’re not scared of any challengers.&uot;

Chuck Corder

is a sports writer for The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at (601) 445-3633 or

chuck.corder@natchezdemocrat.com.