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ANNAPOLIS, Mo. — The unforgiving road into town is skinny without shoulders, like a guard on the freshman team.

After driving (surviving?) the serpentine trip into Annapolis, population 345, you’re welcomed by the white, billowing pillows of smoke from the mining plant. It’s been around for generations, though the most time-honored mining in town takes place up a hill (on Hill Street) to the school (on School Street).

It’s there, in the gym, that the basketball coach mines for greatness. These days at South Iron High School, it’s 48-year-old Dusty Dinkins. He drills with drills, excavates true teammates and digs deep into his players to see if, by the fourth quarters, they can dig deep.

Here, about 110 miles southwest of St. Louis, the existence of the mining plant — which keeps families in town and builds generations built on pride — strengthens the basketball program. Iron sharpens South Iron.

And the result is the quarrying of the quintessential small-town basketball program, not unlike the Hickory Huskers in the film “Hoosiers.� The South Iron Panthers have won three of the past four Class 1 Missouri state championships. This season, the team is 15-3 — and in the past five years, the team is a combined 123-17. Of all the small schools, this is the Goliath of the Davids.

“I can tell you one thing real quick — the kids here have tremendous work ethic,� said Gene Cozine, 89, who coached the 1965 South Iron team that won the state title. “It’s been pretty much like that since I came here. … The kids have seen the players in the past, and they pattern off of those players.�

And, yes, many Missouri towns have players who love basketball or live for basketball, but here, well, basketball truly means something to everyone, like it’s baked into their souls or something.

“I know basketball seems like it’s life here, but it brings a lot of people together,� said former Panthers player Chad Middleton, now the superintendent of the South Iron R-1 School District. “And everybody pulls together.�

Overcoming adversity

In Dinkins’ tight-walled, windowless office, decorated with photos of Panthers past and present, the coach shared that the current team is poignantly versed in adversity.

The starting center suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Two other players moved away.

Dinkins’ father, a beloved town pillar named Gerald, died in December.

And last summer, standout player Sawyer Huff was on a family trip in Costa Rica. The family, Dinkins said, was whitewater rafting and Huff’s father drowned in an accident.

Kyle Huff was 40. He played basketball for South Iron, later served on the school board and was a manager at the town’s mining plant, where he oversaw 200 employees. Kyle’s name has been imprinted on the backs of all the players’ warm-up jerseys.

“We’ve had a couple real hard things,� Dinkins said. “These are moments where we try to teach the players through (inaudible) …�

He spoke softly. I couldn’t make out the word.

Hard?

Or heart?

“Well,� Dinkins said, “both. I said hard, like life is going to be hard, it’s going to be difficult, it’s going to be challenging. And how you respond to those, and how people see you respond and handle those things, might be helping someone and gives them strength by them seeing the difficulties that you’re going through.�

Watching Sawyer Huff play basketball is an emotional experience, even for someone who is new to the story. With his 6-foot-3 height and chiseled arms, Sawyer is an intimidating figure. He drives to the basket with drive, more like a running back. Frankly, he plays his (butt) off. But when he’s occasionally shoved by an opponent, as happened in Friday’s home game vs. Neelyville, you could see him get not just fired up, but riled up. You worry for a moment that maybe he’ll blow a gasket — but he ultimately channels everything into his hustle.

He plays hard.

He plays with heart.

Sawyer Huff was part of two of the state title teams. And he’s being recruited by some colleges. In fact, numerous Panthers have recently gone on to play college ball, most in Division II or Division III. It’s “unheard of,� Dinkins said, for a program this small. One of those college players is Drenin Dinkins, the coach’s kid, a guard for Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo.

Building a culture

South Iron is successful for a litany of reasons, be it the mining and the mind of coach Dinkins, the positive pressure of living up to previous glory, the community’s involvement in supporting the program and the competitive youth hoops in the surrounding areas (“The annual tournament is a pretty neat deal,� Dinkins said. “We have cheerleaders and everything.�). But for a stretch there, Dinkins also coached his son and friends since many were, categorically, “little-bitty.�

Dinkins thus created a culture while the kids cultivated on-court relationships as early as elementary school.

Of Dinkins, coach Cozine said: He’s got character. He’s a prince of a person. Quality, all the way.�

The town of Annapolis, 40 miles from Farmington, was founded in 1871 and, per the State Historical Society of Missouri, named after Anna Allen, the wife of a railroad official.

Today, the tiny town is as tight as its borders.

Before Friday’s game, the stands were packed with people. Sure looked like more than 345. It was a special night, however — homecoming. The school doesn’t have football, so this was its big night for the community.

In a pregame ceremony, they honored the teams from 1963, 1964 and 1965 that made the state Final Four. Then, they welcomed all basketball alumni from all years on the court. There were 39 total retired players in attendance. Incredible.

As the 89-year-old Cozine pointed out, some of his players now are the grandparents of current players.

“We kept those same bloodlines here,� said coach Dinkins, himself a former Panther. �They had that same tradition, that same mindset. I think one of those things that has really been important for our community is there’s a lot of prideful people that are hard-working. People that really are invested in their kids and want to see them be successful.�

Small-town feel

Along with miners, the town is home to farmers and loggers and, of course, educators and coaches at what is, for many, the ol’ alma mater. Annapolis, Dinkins said while driving me around, has just one four-way stop. And one bank. Multiple churches, though. City Hall and the police department are side-by-side inside a tiny ranch house. And while there isn’t a restaurant, the Liquor Locker actually has a vast menu of burgers, wings and the Friday fish special. Over at the South Iron gym, though, there was a Friday “Chili Supper� to raise money for the freshman class.

After the pregame alumni honoring, South Iron principal Rob Harlow took the mic to honor Dinkins on his recent 500th win (the coach took over in 2004).

“Thank you for being the standard that all coaches and men have strived to be,� Harlow said. “And we are blessed, beyond blessed, to call you our coach.�

Then Harlow announced that there would be a postgame cake and ice cream social.

After the national anthem — the singer had one hand on the mic, the other over his heart — the varsity Panthers took the court. Two were under-the-weather. And we know that the team, overall, is undermanned. But it still was the South Iron Panthers out there, a well-oiled machine. They hit 3-pointers with poise, defended with furiously fast feet and happily earned floor burns from diving for loose balls.

But it was a rarity of an evening — South Iron lost at home, 61-56. When it was over, you could see in the faces just how proud the Neelyville players were of the accomplishment.

Still, at 15-3, South Iron looks built to be one of the best teams in Class 1 this year — except there’s one minor problem. Before the school year began, their enrollment number was up one extra student and thus exceeded the cap for Class 1. And so, for this season, South Iron has to compete in Class 2. It’s a different animal for sure.

And so, the miner Dinkins will have to continue to dig to find ways to overcome adversity, which, come to think of it, is his specialty.