Cadon Buckles’ dream season ends with title

* STORY BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN AND FILE PHOTOS BY BOB LILES, & LARRY N. SOUDERS *

CCadon Buckles has played for and rooted for Hampton basketball since he was a kid and his senior season ended like a fairy tale with Buckles guiding the Bulldogs to the 2022-23 TSSAA state basketball championship.

“It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” Buckles said. “It still seems unreal. Hampton has waited for this day for a long time and we did it. It took everybody’s best effort to get it done. We were down by eight when we had a TV timeout and coach said to stay disciplined and he got us refocused.”

The son of Jennifer and Justin Buckles, Cadon will graduate Hampton High School this spring and will have also accomplished a general associate degree from Northeast State. For Buckles a typical day starts with college classes on Monday and Wednesday and the other days he spends working out at the school shooting and doing cardiovascular work.

He intends to complete a degree in engineering when this year is over and he will always cherish his time at Hampton High saying, “The four of us – Levi Lyons, Brody Hicks and Dalton Nave and me – all came up through Hampton Elementary and we won a junior high championship. Dylan Trivett and Hayden Campbell did it the next year.”

A highly spiritual young man Buckles worships at Pierce’s Chapel where he has worshiped since he was very young. “I have been at Pierce’s Chapel a long time and coach (Ned) Smith has been there since I was young.”

A Mr. Basketball finalist, Buckles lost out to Rodgerick Robinson, Jr. of Middleton which is ironically the team the Bulldogs beat in the championship game. Buckles was named Most Valuable Player of the 1A tournament after scoring 29 points in back to back games. He finished as the top scorer in the tournament.