Central Catholic seniors embrace semistate opportunity

LAFAYETTE — Billy Owens' path to varsity basketball was built on hard work and patience.

After a season of freshman basketball and two years on the junior varsity, the senior knew he had one season as a Central Catholic varsity basketball player.

Minutes have been sparse, but each moment cherished.

"You may not be the best on the team, but you get to train with better players and make them better as well," said Owens, who has played in just 16 of CC's 28 game and scored 15 points this season. "To watch them win, it’s also rewarding because you put in the work to make them better."

It's that kind of unselfishness from one of the team's three seniors that has the Knights one win away from playing for the Class A state championship.

Dave Barrett, who is in his 17th season as CC's head coach, knew this team would go as far as the seniors carried it.

Clark Barrett was the predominant scorer most of the regular season. Clark Obermiller has become an unstoppable force in the postseason. And Owens has continued to play relentlessly, mostly as a practice player, to make sure the Knights are as prepared as possible.

"They’ve been good leaders," said Dave Barrett, who earlier this season won his 300th game as CC's coach. "It’s their last shot and they come to practice every day and practice hard. Obie (Obermiller) went through a stretch where he had a little knee issue but he still suited up and practiced every day.

"Two years ago, he wouldn’t have done that. He would have sat out until he felt comfortable. He fought through it. Now it really feels good and he’s got a lot of lift and has been a monster."

Obermiller knows this is his last run and he's played like it.

Clark Barrett, who is the lone member of CC's basketball team to have played in a semistate game, doing so in a loss to Fort Wayne Blackhawk as a freshman, has deferred to Obermiller and junior guard Tanner Fields to provide the scoring during the tournament run.

Central Catholic will need all of its firepower and that compilation of unselfishness to compete with top-ranked Gary 21st Century on Saturday in Lafayette Jeff's Crawley Center.

"Our mentality is to play our basketball and do what we do, come out and play hard like we have been playing," Clark Barrett said. "That should help us compete with them.

"It’s a team we can play with. Obviously they are pretty good, but if we do what we have been doing, we should be fine."

Central Catholic's only semistate championship with Barrett as head coach came against Gary 21st, in 2017.

The Knights have reached this stage of the tournament seven times now in his 17 seasons leading the program.

The last two semistate appearances resulted in a blowout loss to Blackhawk in 2019 and a blowout victory over Gary 21st.

The other four semistate contests in that span saw four losses by a combined 19 points, with three of those setbacks coming to Triton.

This group of seniors knows about the history and hopes to change it.

It's been their mindset all season, even after coming off a year where CC suffered its first losing record since 1983-84.

"As a senior, you want to win it that much more," Obermiller said. "That goes for every senior on the team. Everyone wants to go down as state champs. We are going to give it everything we have and hope for the best."

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

Class A semistate

At Lafayette Jeff

Central Catholic (19-9) vs. Gary 21st (23-4)

Time: 1 p.m.

Class 2A semistate

At Elkhart

Carroll (24-1) vs. Central Noble (27-2)

Time: 4 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Central Catholic seniors embrace semistate opportunity