1984 Belfry Girls Basketball
The 1984 Belfry Girls basketball team set the 15th Region on a path it had never taken. The Lady Pirates had everything it took to be a legendary team and they did not fail in that endeavor.
They went through the 15th Regional Tournament easily, defeating Millard 74-38, Betsy Layne 73-70, and Sheldon Clark 61-45, capturing the Regional crown and heading to the Sweet Sixteen.
They had been in Regional games twice previously. In 1981 they had fallen to Sheldon Clark in the championship game, and in 1982 they were beaten in overtime by Allen Central, 47-46. So this was their first trip to the State Tournament.
These girls did not fold their tent at the big show. In that Sweet Sixteen they squeaked by Southern 52-51 in their opener, hit 52 points again in a win over Franklin-Simpson, defeated Atherton 40-35 in the semi-finals, and took a great Marshall County team to the final buzzer before falling 55-53. Spinks and Sabrina Tussey were chosen on the All-Tourney team.
That 1984 team set the all-time Belfry girls’ record for wins, finishing 32-4. This is the first girls team in the 15th region to ever get that far in the Tournament in the modern era, and they did it in their first entry into the Sweet Sixteen. Paintsville had gone to the finals in 1932 before they fell to Woodburn by five points.
The starting seniors that season: Sabrina Tussey, a wing player, went on to play basketball at Central Florida but later transferred to Pikeville College. These days Sabrina Tussey Dowd is a dermatologist in Danville, Pennsylvania. Stuart, playing mainly in the post, took her game to Chattanooga. She now teaches at Pikeville High School after coaching Allen Central, Belfry, and Pikeville. Spinks at center played collegiately for the great Pat Summitt at Tennessee and won a national title while there, She went into the nursing field and is pursuing that in Tennessee.
The two junior starters: Rhonda “Sissy” Charles, the other wing player and Tammy Tussey, who quarterbacked the team at point guard, went on to play at Pikeville College. Both went into teaching after college. That is another great distinction of that team: all five starters went on to play college basketball.
