Rob Hunt: Championship for all Bulldogs
Feb. 9—I know I'm supposed to be a neutral observer, and — for the most part — I am. This is especially true when two of our area teams are playing one another. My job is simply to observe and document what happens in front of me with no partiality whatsoever.
This was not the case Saturday night in Selma. As a quiet and stoic observer, I watched the Lapel girls start strong, fall behind and storm back to defeat Winchester for the Sectional 40 championship, the school's first since 2007.
What was happening inside my head was a different story.
The voice in my brain was screaming its approval as the Bulldogs got it done, quieting the Golden Falcons fans who were quite loud just moments before.
When I first began covering high school sports, one of the first people I met in the fall of 2014 was Lapel girls basketball coach Kevin Brattain, who was working at the ticket gate for the football game I was covering that evening and was at the game Saturday to support the program he had once guided with much success.
He invited me to come visit with him and talk about the upcoming season and the exciting team he had for that year.
I was still working part time as a stringer while I was going to school, so I didn't cover a ton of teams that year, but the Lapel girls were my main focus. They were a fun team to cover, entering sectional with an 18-3 record led by senior point guard Kirsten Rich, junior sharpshooter Natalia Campbell and freshman prodigy Breanna Boles. Despite being the favorite to win their sectional, they had their worst shooting night of the season and fell to eventual champion Shenandoah.
During the next seven seasons, the Bulldogs came close. They averaged better than 15 wins per season, but could not quite get over the sectional hump, including falling in last year's final to eventual state runner-up Frankton.
So, while the Bulldogs were wrapping things up at Wapahani on Saturday, I couldn't help but think of some of the kids that came through that program during that time but did not get to experience a sectional title. Kids like Rich, Campbell, Boles, Samantha Kern, Peighton Dobbins, Morgan Knepp, Delaney Peoples, Kylie Rich, Makynlee Taylor, Ashlynn Allman and many others flashed into my mind.
That's why I enjoyed seeing several in attendance Saturday and enjoying the championship the next generation had brought home to their alma mater. Boles — who now is an assistant at Alexandria — Allman and Taylor were on hand. Taylor had recorded a double-double in an Anderson University win earlier in the day, then traveled to Selma to resume her assistant coaching duties. I'm sorry I didn't get to speak with Allman, but I saw her smiling from ear to ear, and I'm sure her feelings of joy were similar to Boles and Taylor.
It was a sentiment that was not lost on Lapel coach Zach Newby.
"Finally, Makynlee gets to hold that trophy, and that's what it's all about," he said. "They are as much a part of this as every kid here. I tell them all that what they did was lay the groundwork so we could get it done. They're very much a part of this."
Every time one of the smaller schools wins a championship at any level, it is always shared with the entire town, but especially with the alumni who led the way.
Yeah, Zach, that is in fact what it is all about.
Contact Rob Hunt at
or 765-640-4886.
