Promise to high school basketball manager leads to memory of a lifetime

GATE CITY, Va. (WCYB) — Gate City is a special community, something to which football lineman Jacob "Bobo" Bowman can attest.

"It means everything, the pride and tradition we have here: it’s just an awesome place to be. Wouldn’t rather be anywhere else," he says.

It's why he took a shot this year, becoming manager of the high school basketball team to be with his friends.

"He’s the heart and soul of this team," says junior guard Gabe Johnson.

Others have similar praise, with senior guard Eli McMurray adding that Bobo "loves every second being around us" and senior forward Gunner Garrett simply stating "He’s one of us.

"I love these guys, and I love being around," Bobo said in response, whether it's playing guitar hero, or filming for the team, and even working on his jumper -- with hopes of possibly doing it one day in a game.

I've been apart of a lot of championship teams here at Gate City, and championships aside this group is special,"Gate City head basketball coach Chris Fugate said.

This special group already won the regular season district championship, something Fugate wanted to commemorate by getting a special banner made.

"Rolled it out and showed everybody," Fugate explained. "Bobo kind of looked over his shoulder and said, 'What’s number 20 doing by name? He said, 'You going to let me play against DB [Dobyns-Bennett]?' I’m like 'Yeah, yeah I’m going to get you in Bowb [sic]'," said Fugate.

That plan came to life in the Blue Devils game against Dobyns-Bennett, down four with nine seconds left in the game.

I said, 'Seniors, stand up here. What do you want, do you want me to play Bobo?' And they were like, 'Coach put him in we’re going to win anyway,'" says Fugate.

Off the inbound pass, Bobo got the ball, and put up a three-point shot that hit off the backboard, and went in.

"Everybody started jumping all over me and I couldn’t believe it at first. It was awesome," recalled Bobo.

When he hit the shot, I didn’t care if we won the game, Bobo hit that big shot and that was all that mattered to us," added McMurray.

But the script wasn't finished yet. A turnover by D-B off the inbound gave Gate City the ball back with just seconds left. Enough time to give Gabe Johnson a chance to make a last second shot, to win the game.

"Coach Poore from DB told me in the handshake line, 'Coach that’s storybook, that’s storybook ending'," recalled Fugate.

A story that wouldn't have been possible without Bobo.