First year Head Coach Michael Sweatt and Wakulla High School will introduce and honor the 1980 Class 2A Florida High School State Basketball Champions on Friday, Feb. 5 at the War Eagle Gymnasium.

Legendary head coach Jerry Davis will be in attendance as will most or all of the team members, former assistant coaches, cheerleaders and other contributors.

All coaches, players and their families from that team are invited to attend without having to pay admission. The basketball program is hopeful that the community will come out for a memorable evening of festivities that begins with this year’s final, regular season varsity game against North Florida Christian at 7 p.m.

There have been five War Eagle boy’s basketball teams to make the state playoffs.

Coach Davis led teams in 1980 and 1981. Coach Robert Golden’s teams made appearances in 1988 and 1991 and Coach Simeon Nelson’s 2000 War Eagles earned a trip. The 1988 team is the last team to win a playoff game, defeating Hamilton County by a score of 68-57.

No one can say that Wakulla has been a basketball powerhouse or that the War Eagles have a long, rich history of state playoff success in basketball like they do in most sports. However, there is one Wakulla team that lives in Florida basketball history.

A team that is now a 30 year memory kept alive by a lone state championship banner hanging high in the War Eagle gym. On Friday night, that team will reunite for the first time in 30 years.

The 1980 War Eagles finished the season with a record of 25-8. They are the only team in school history to win 25 games. They easily won the District 4 title and defeated Port St. Joe in the first round of the playoffs by a score of 56-51. In round two, they beat Chipley 45-44. In the state semi-finals, they defeated Central Clearwater Catholic 73-45, and in the state championship game, they beat Gainesville P.K. Yonge 62-59 in a contest that found the War Eagles trailing badly in the first half before rallying and dominating the second half in a hard fought, come-from-behind win.

Coach Jerry Davis stayed at Wakulla for one more season before leaving for Grand Ridge where he went on to win two more state championships and made numerous state playoff appearances. As of last year, he was still coaching high school basketball in Alabama.

The 1980 Wakulla state championship roster included: Jeff Posey, Farrell Barwick, Dennis Jackson, James Mills, Chris Oaks, Ronnie Harris, Allen Rosier, Tony Costin, Mark Hotchkiss, Mark Hull and Steve Spears. The assistant coaches were David Carraway, Louis Hernandez, and Milton Watson. The managers were Grady Martin, Ricky Jackson and David Sellick. The clock operator was David Miller. Mike Scott was the scorekeeper and Bernard Brooks was the statistician. President George Byrd led a booster club that was 51 members strong and cheerleading coach Debbie Custer led a squad that included: Mary Katherine Pearce, Mina Morrison, Tammy Carter, Bonnie Rudd, Jeanine Aber, Marie Clark, Laurie Moore, Wanda Roberts, Diane Updegraff and Kim Jones.