GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Clay High boys basketball history got a jolt of history and frivolity in a Sunday reunion of team members from the Blue Devils’ Final Four teams of 1990 and 1995.

With 1990 coach Lemont Jones, now coaching in North Carolina, one of the marquis invitees, former players from both teams “chucked” around for nearly two hours at Hogan Gym on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in a reunion of two of the last teams from Clay County that advanced to the state semifinals.

“I was here from 1985 to 1992 and I had most of these guys from about seventh grade on into high school,” said Jones. “Leroy Ryals and Craig Jackson were the two leaders of that team. That 1990s team was the one that upset Bolles to get into the Final Four.”

Jones’ engineered a 65-64 upset win at Bolles, the two-time 2A defending champions, to advance to the Final Four. Clay would eventually lose 74-51 to Mulberry High with the Blue Devils registering a horrific 27 turnovers.

“They had a 6-foot, 6-inch center that we couldn’t stop,” said Jones, who will start his 32nd year of coaching in the fall. “I vacation in Dayton Beach and they contacted me to visit.”

In the 1995 season, with head coach Mark Pittman, Clay was led by all-everything center Mike Gibbs, who was unable to get to the reunion. Clay stormed to a 20-9 season record with playoff wins over Baldwin and Chiefland putting the Blue Devils into the state semifinal against St. Andrews of Boca Raton. St. Andrews surged in the fourth quarter to win 62-55. Clay, up 45-44 after three periods, allowed a 12-2 run that spelled doom for the final score. Gibbs finished with 21 points.

In attendance for the reunion showdown were names like long-time Clay coach Ron Riddle; Frank Gayle, a point guard now with 24 years of U.S. Army service who appeared to be the fittest of the entire group; Ryan Heath, a NASJAX firefighter and Guns and Hoses boxing Hall of Famer who hit a pretty reverse layup after thumping the breakaway layup he attempted with no defenders around; Antwan Coleman, a guard who showed off some behind-the-back dribbling skills; Corey Binderim, the “Bill Laimbeer” of the group with a Will Farrell-look uniform and the muscle under the boards; Shannon Asbell, who coached football at Clay High; Scott Gann, more reknown for his baseball prowess and an integral part of a senior year upset of baseball power Bolles; power forward Bruce Griner, now a Lakeside Junior High basketball and football coach; shooting guard Steven Snell, who still had the long-bomb touch in the scrimmage; 1995 big man Calvin Dell, a 6’-6” power shot blocker with Gibbs on the 1995 team, and Stacey Burney, who executed some Peter Maravich-like open court passes.

Griner, who graduated in 1997, was a member of the 1995 team and remembered that the Final Four game was a laugher.

“I can’t remember who we lost to it was so embarassing,” said Griner, a shooting forward for Pittman. “1995 squad was a great squad.”

For Gayle and Asbell, both players for Jones and graduates in 1993 and 1994, respectively, the career move was a Christmas classic game against a team from Canada.

“The ball was going out of bounds at the end of the game and I dove to save it to Steven Snell, “ said Asbell, who was confirmed by Gayle about the shooter on the play. “Everyone jumped on us after the buzzer and I couldn’t breathe under the pile.”

Binderim, nicknamed “Bend-the-rim,” for his dunking prowess on the 1990 team, was a strong forward and claimed to be the guy sent in to guard the other team’s shooter. Binderim was also a standout football player for Clay.

“Most times, the other team would not foul me if I headed to dunk the ball because they didn’t think I could dunk,” said Binderim, who admitted that the full court session was daunting at first. “Coach Jones would put me in to wear down the good guy.”

Gann, who was famed for baseball and men’s volleyball at Clay, recollected the Blue Devils’ win over Bolles in baseball. Gann was invited as a member of a group of friends that played more pickup games than at Clay High School.

“I left this town when I graduated, but came back,” said Gann. “My shining moment was against Bolles when I went from first base to third on a bunt and run.”

Dell remembered the 1995 team started out at 0-3 before going on a run to finish the season at 20-9.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen, the 0-3 start,” said Dell. “We turned it around pretty good.”