Coming back to school after winter break is always one of the most dreadful times of the year for me. Teachers always assign a lot of homework when we come back, the weather is always too cold to do outside activities, and coming back marks the end of our last semester as seniors. The one thing that keeps me attentive and excited when returning to school is sports. The sports still going on during this time are basketball, wrestling, and swimming. Basketball is definitely the most interesting and fun to watch of the 3 for me. Also, we are fortunate enough to host the girls basketball sectional again this year.  I look forward to watching our Lady King’s Basketball Team advance in the sectional tournament and make a run in the playoffs.  However, the sectional does bring many benefits to our community.

First of all, let’s talk about the history of the Indiana basketball playoffs.  As many of you know, Indiana’s playoffs are different from many other states.  In other states there are only a certain number of teams who get into the playoffs based on their record, strength of schedule, etc.  The fascinating part about Indiana high school basketball playoffs is that every team gets a chance to play and win.  This means a team may have not won a game the whole regular season , but could still win the state championship.   

There could be a few underdog teams in this year’s sectional, like the host team.  The Lady Kings plan to play spoiler to the highest ranked opponent in the sectional and the 10th ranked team in 2a, the Pioneer Panthers.  Pioneer already snuck away with a win in the opening round on Tuesday night against the Wabash Apaches.  The Panthers are led by Division 1 basketball recruit and Ball State commit Ashlynn Brooke.  After a back and forth, high intensity game the Panthers were able to score as time expired to secure their chance to keep playing.  Brooke scored 27 points and helped lead her team to a buzzer beating win.   Another team that looks to spoil and shake up the tournament is the Winamac Warriors.  After a head coaching change, the Warriors looked to be rebuilding but will try to take down the North Miami Warriors.  North Miami seems to be the second best team in the sectional behind Pioneer. 

There are many benefits to hosting a sectional but it comes with hard work and the help of others.  Our athletic director, Greg Marschand, does a good job of getting kids to help with the necessities of hosting the sectional.  Some of those tasks are showing and escorting the teams to their locker room that night, cleaning the floor at halftime, and making sure the ball rack is on the court for warmups. However, a few benefits of hosting the sectional are raising money for the school, exposing our facilities and amazing gym to other schools, and our small town restaurants get more business.  It also allows the community to come together and show our senior basketball players our support for them in what may be their last game.