If anything has held true with the first two Arkansas Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps awards banquets, it's that there has been a great speaker each time and the most honored people have been the high school athletes and coaches.
That won't change Saturday.
The 300 athletes and coaches will be the focus of the night, and the guest speaker is one of the most well-known and energetic people on television -- Dickie V, baby.
Dick Vitale, who helped make ESPN a household name, will be interviewed by our own Keith Jackson, the former All-Pro football player and always good guy.
David Bazzel will be the master of ceremonies, and one thing Baz knows how to do is keep it rolling. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is speaking, too.
Previous speakers have been Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, but Tabitha Doddridge, events and sponsorship director for the Democrat-Gazette, has been the driving force behind this extremely successful event and she felt it was time to find someone from basketball.
There might not be a bigger name in college basketball than Vitale, whose first game as an analyst was Dec. 5, 1979, when he called DePaul's 90-77 victory over Wisconsin.
It was ESPN's first broadcast of a college basketball game.
Since then Vitale has become synonymous with big-time college basketball, but he's also done some NBA games.
He's probably the most imitated sportscaster in the world thanks to his well-known catchphrases "diaper Dandy"and "awesome, baby."
Through all the success and notoriety, Vitale seems to have remained grounded and is very gracious and kind to fans.
After the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis in 1991, Vitale was at the airport the same time as yours truly. His gate was across the hall, but when approached he was incredibly humble and peppered this reporter with questions about family and career, which left no doubt that he is humble.
He is also a speaker in demand, and the reviews are always great.
Vitale, who has three more years on his contract with ESPN, was a high school head coach for two years before becoming an assistant at Rutgers, which led to a head coaching job at the University of Detroit.
Eventually Vitale became coach of the NBA's Detroit Pistons. They say timing is everything, and his wasn't good as the Pistons' management were in the process of making one of the worst trades in franchise history. They gave up M.L. Carr and two first-round draft picks to the Boston Celtics for Bob McAdoo, who was injured.
Incidentally, Boston eventually used those picks to acquire Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, partly because Detroit was so bad that it had the No. 1 pick, which had been traded to the Celtics.
Vitale left the Pistons and later was approached by a fledgling startup network, ESPN.
He almost didn't take the offer. He wanted to wait for the right coaching position, but his wife insisted that he give it a try and have some fun.
He has been having fun and bringing entertainment into homes across America ever since, and he will spread some of his magic Saturday night at the Statehouse Convention Center.
No one will be more impressed than him with the young men and women who are being honored, and not just for athletics.
Recipients of the Hussman Community Award, the P.A.R.K. Education Award and Chi St. Vincent Health Award also will be honored.
Only a handful of tickets remain and can be purchased at allarkansaspreps.com. Tickets are $75.
More than likely, everyone will leave Saturday night saying "awesome, baby."
Sports on 06/17/2015