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Speed happy to get back home, rejoin Longhorns

By Matt Hill

MOUNTAIN CITY — Last year around Christmas time, J.R. Speed was turning heads as an outstanding freshman for the Johnson County High basketball team, only to then see his life take a complete 180-degree turn.

Speed went from being a freshman phenom for head coach Austin Atwood to having to move to Meridian, Miss., with his family to take care of the family business following a fatal car wreck of his uncle.

The experience was a very difficult one for Speed, but now he is back in Johnson County as a sophomore starter and back with his Longhorn friends and teammates — and is happier than ever.