The first Highland Baptist Christian School alumni basketball game took place last weekend at the school gymnasium. 13 alumni came together to form two teams – Green and Gold – that battled fiercely for four quarters with the Gold team winning 32-29.

Tammy Helverston White and her daughter, Breigh White Breaux, organized the event with the help of Gary Roberts, who they described as “the first real athlete to come through the school.”

Roberts (Class of 2015) began attending Highland Baptist in his eighth grade year, the same time that the school built the gym as well as the football and baseball facilities.

Highland Baptist began its athletic endeavors in a small Christian-based league before joining the LHSAA. It didn’t take long for the Bears to achieve success with student-athletes such as Roberts, who led the program to the seccond round of the football playoffs in his junior year.

“A lot of times, you don’t see your fellow graduates but at five or 10 year reunions,” Roberts said. “I hadn’t seen some of these faces since eighth or ninth grade.

“We wanted (current) students to see the atmosphere, know that it’s a great experience here, and see that everyone here is proud to be a Highland Bear.”

Roberts, a member of the winning Gold team, helped his squad secure the victory by drawing a foul late in the fourth quarter.

“We saw other schools putting on alumni basketball games and thought it would be a neat idea to start one here,” said Tammy Helverston White, whose son Blayde is a junior at the school.

“It shows the younger students that our alumni want to come back here, they have happy memories, and they received a Christian education and became successful adults.”