When the 2019-2020 Mathews High School boys’ basketball team was getting ready for its first game, coach Curtis Williamson was scared.

He wasn’t worried that he wouldn’t have a good team. Or a great one. In fact, it was going to be incredible. He knew his players had the talent, the potential, the heart to be state champs. And that’s what made him nervous.

“If they didn’t win, it was going to be my fault,” Williamson told the team members, family and friends who gathered Sunday night at the Piankatank Ruritan Club building in Hudgins for the team’s banquet.

Turns out he had no reason to be concerned as his Blue Devil boys ended up winning the VHSL Class 1 state title, and Sunday’s banquet ended with the presentation of championship rings—generously donated by Mathews dentist Dr. Ben Lennon.

“You will go down as the greatest Mathews boys’ basketball team of all time,” Williamson told his players. “Numbers don’t lie.”

Officially, Mathews ended the season as co-champions w...