The recently-completed basketball season for the Jackson County boys teams produced some exciting nights and some games that the teams wanted to put behind them as soon as the final buzzer sounded.
Although none of them brought home a sectional or a conference championship, all of them had things to be proud of, including school records and milestones.
Brownstown Central’s Kagney Fritz reached 1,000 points for his career in the sectional tournament game against Providence Feb. 26. The Braves lost in the semi-finals of the sectional the following game and Fritz finished with 1,015 points to rank 11th on the school career scoring list.
Crothersville’s Josh Couch broke the individual game rebound record when he pulled down 25 against Me-dora in the opening round of the Springs Valley Sectional. The old record was 19 by Kyler Blevins.
Trinity Lutheran set a school record for wins in a season with 12. The Cougars’ 12th win came Feb. 15 against Oldenburg Academy.
Brownstown topped the county boys in wins in posting a record of 13-9. The Braves opened the season with losses to Salem and Seymour, but then had two 3-game winning streaks, and won eight of 10 games through the Corydon game on Jan. 26.
The only time the Braves were able to win back-to-back games during February, was against Crothersville and Paoli.
The Braves were 4-5 in the Mid Southern Conference, and 4-5 in games decided by four points or less. The last two of those close losses came against Eastern, by three points on the Musketeers floor and by two points in the sectional.
Brownstown lost its opening home game of the season, against Salem, then won nine straight on its floor, in-cluding first round of the sectional, before losing to Eastern.
Going into the season, Trinity coach Jon Sprengel had high hopes for his team, and the Cougars opened the season by winning a tournament at Madison Shawe. After a loss to Switzerland County, the Cougars won four of their next five to stand 6-2 at the end of December.
The Cougars won five of six during late January through Feb. 15, but then lost their final three.
Trinity was 5-4 and home and 4-1 in games decided by five points or less.
Seymour was another team that started out with a rough schedule, losing at New Albany and Bloomington South. New Albany has been ranked No. 1 throughout the season, and South was ranked No. 2 for most of the season.
The Owls then played teams that they could compete with, and won five of their next six to stand 5-3 through the first weekend of January.
On Jan. 11 against Martinsville, senior forward Cameron Mousa went down with a knee injury and missed the remainder of the season. The Owls lost four in a row, but followed that with three straight wins to stand 8-7 after beating Madison Feb. 1
Down the stretch the Owls managed to beat Austin by three points and Silver Creek in overtime, then lost to Jennings County in the first round of the sectional to finish 10-11.
Seymour’s biggest win of the season came Jan. 26 at Franklin Central when the Owls trailed by 20 points late in the third period and rallied to win 67-64.
Seymour was 5-4 at home and 5-5 in games decided by five points or less. Seymour won its final two Hoosier Hills Conference games and finished 3-4 in the conference.
Crothersville and Medora were unable to put any kind of runs together.
Crothersville lost its opener to rival Austin, then topped Medora to go 1-1 in November. The Tigers then had a rough December that included games at powerhouses Orleans and Borden, and the result was a five-game losing string before beating Columbus Christian in the Christian Academy holiday tournament.
The Tigers won their homecoming game over Martinsville Tabernacle, but then lost their next four.
Crothersville defeated Columbus Christian and Medora again late in the season, then put together its best performance of the season to defeat Medora 74-39 in the opening game of the Springs Valley Sectional.
Unfortunately, the Tigers couldn’t keep up the pace the following game and lost to the Blackhawks, and fin-ished 6-16.
The Tigers were 3-6 at home, and 1-1 in games decided by four points or less.
Mark Morin took over the coaching duties at Medora this season, and saw his team play some good ball at times. The Hornets lost their opener at Crothersville, but bounced back the next week and whipped Martins-ville Tabernacle.
The Hornets lost their next three before topping Shoals. After losing their next two, the Hornets defeated Holy Cross of Terre Haute, but that turned to be their final win as they lost their last 12 to finish 3-18.
Morin said he was encouraged by the way the Hornets played at Christian Academy and at Union (Dugger) late in the season.
The Hornets were 2-9 at home and 0-2 in games decided by six points or less.

The Seymour Lady Owls had a chance to do something Saturday night at New Albnay that they hadn’t been able to do since 1991: cut down the nets for winning a sectional.
The Owls defeated Bedford North Lawrence 56-52 in the championship game.
The Owls had to work hard to win tournament as they defeated Jennings County 57-52 in the first round, and topped Floyd Central 55-49 in the semi finals.
This sectional was one of most competitive and balanced 4A sectionals in the state as all six teams in the sectional finished with winning records, and five of them won 15 or more games. Seymour is 18-5 going into the Bedford North Lawrence Regional, Bedford and Jennings County finished with 16 wins, and Jeffersonville and Floyd Central won 15 games.
This is Seymour’s first sectional since 1991, and first title since class basketball.
It is also Seymour’s 11th sectional title. Seymor won the first 10 under the coaching of Donna Sullivan: in 1976, seven straight 1981-87, and in 1989 and 1991.
Crothersville, Brownstown Central and Trinity Lutheran fell short of their goals of wanting to win sectionals, but all three had winning records.
Crothersville won a school-record 17 games and finished 17-7, Brownstown won 13 games under first-year coach Karla Rieckers, and Trinity won 12 games.

Jackson County basketball teams will resume their schedules later this week and most of them are hoping to pick up where they finisher December, with wins.
The Seymour girls have won 4 straight and have the best record in the county at 8-2.
The Owls will play host to Columbus East Thursday night in game that will go a long way toward determining the Hoosier Hills Conference champion.
The Crothersville girls are 8-4 and have also won 4 straight, and will be home to West Washington and Christian Academy later this week.
Brownstown climbed above .500 (5-4) just before Christmas for the first time this season and will shoot for its third straight win Thursday against South Decatur.
The Trinity girls will be out to break a 2-game losing streak Saturday at West Washington and will also try to climb above .500 (7-7).
The Medora girls won their season opener, but haven’t won since, and will start off the second half of their schedule Thursday night at Springs Valley.
The Trinity Lutheran, Seymour and Brownstown boys all closed out the December parts of their schedules by winning 4 out of 5.
The Cougars have the best mark of those teams at 6-2, while the Owls and Braves are both 4-3.
The Cougars will be home to Indianapolis Lutheran Friday night, while the Braves will travel to West Washington that night.
Seymour will resume its schedule Saturday night at Charlestown.
Medora won its final game before Christmas, at Shoals, and will shoot for its third win of the season Friday at South Decatur.
Crothersville defeated Columbus Christian, and played a strong second half against Rock Creek Christian, in the Christian Academy, and coach Jim tewart is hoping his team can keep up that level of play Saturday night at Christian Academy.
Kristin Turner of Seymour leads the county girls in scoring, while Kagney Fritz of Brownstown tops the boys.
There are a lot of other outstanding players in the county and deserve your support.

The first big weekend of the season for Jackson County boys basketball teams has come and gone, and left some teams hopeful and others with a lot of work to do.
The rivaly games didn’t turn out as close as I thought they would Friday night as Seymour defeated Brownstown 77-54, and Crothersville cruised past Medora 52-29, spoiling coach Mark Morin’s coaching debut with the Hornets.
Trinity Lutheran came up against its strongest opponent of the season, Switzerland County, and was handed its first loss of the season, 71-4
Trinity bounced back Saturday night at Shoals, while Crothersville got off to a poor start at Rock Creek Christian and lost.
The Owls, Braves and Tigers have conference games scheduled this weekend, and Seymour and Browntown already have one conference loss.
Seymour will be home to Jeffersonville, and Brownstown will be home to Scottsburg in Friday games, while Crothersville travel to Borden Saturday. Borden owns a win over Rick Ceek.
Trinity and Medora, both independents, will be home Friday with the Cougars playign host to Rock Creek, and Medora will take on Martinsville Tabernacle.
Girls teams
The Seymour girls got off to great at 4-1, including a 75-65 win last Thursday at Brownstown. Brownstown bounced back from that loss to defeat Eastern at home Saturday aftenroon.
Trinity had an easy time defeating Medora for the second time this season.
I’m not sure what Medora coach Brad McCammon has asked Santa Clause for Chritmans, but I would imagine it included players that could: 1, score, adn 2, handlt the ball.
The Crothersville girls battled a strong South Central team on even terms for three periods before ending up losing by 10.

Reed May, head football coach at Brownstown, recalled earlier this week, of a conversaion he had with former Seymour football coach Joe Goodman in the ealry 1990s.
The IHSAA announced it was going to add a ninth game to the schedule. “Originally, and I wish we would have went with this idea, we used to have the jamboree, and then when we added a ninth game we went with Mitchell.
“Joe called me and said ‘why don’t we play the first game.’ It was my second or third year here, and I wasn’t too fired up about that idea because we were just starting our program and Joe had been very successful, so I said ‘no’ but I wish I would have said yes.
Seymour’s contract with Franklin ran out two years ago, and the Owls picked up Cathedral last year on a one-year contract.
With Pekin Eastern joining the Mid Southern Conference this year, Browntown changed its schedule, and added Eastern and Seymour and now we come to Friday night.
“I would like it to be the first game of the year,” May said. “It’s a big rival, people would talk about it all winter, and both teams are undefeated, so that’s when I would like to play it.
“I’ve talked to Jeff (Richey, Seymour coach) about it. They open with Columbus North. Maybe in the future we’ll get it worked out that way.”
Columbus North defeated Seymour handily on all three levels, freshman, junior varsity and varsity, this season and Richey has said he wouldn’t mind seeing North go off the schedule.
This will be the seventh meeting between the Jackson County schools with Seymour winning the first six.
Richey says he doesn’t expect his team to have any trouble getting mentally prepared for the Braves.
“I told them ‘if you’re not ready to play this game, then you’re a dead man.’ This should be exciting, first because it’s homecoming, and no matter who you play they should be excited about homecoming with everything that goes on during the week at school, and the build up to the game, and even to the dance afterwards. You hope those things don’t draw away from their focus and their attention to the game.”

The high school football season is one-third over, and for Seymour it has been a rough start, and while Brownstown is 2-1, Braves fans feel like their team should be 3-0.
Owls coach Jeff Richey said, going into the season, that the first three games would be the roughest. Columbus North, Jeffersonville and Columbus East have a combined record of 8-1. Seymour’s six remaining opponents are a combined 6-12.
Of those six opponents, only Brownstown at 2-1, has a winning record.
Richey says the Owls have some things to fix with the two big areas being establishing a running game and stopping opponents’ big plays.
Seymour has only one rushing touchdown in the three games, while all three opponents have scored on plays of over 50 yards.
Brownwstown coach Reed May said before the season that his team would take things one day at a time, and he has generally been pleased with the progress.
The Braves stumbled against Charlestown 35-31, and May was the first to say, “When you score 31 points you should win.”
The Owls hope to climb in the win column Friday night at Floyd Central, but it doesn’t figure to be easy as the Highlanders are coming off a big win over Madison.
Brownstown will play host to unbeaten Salem and May says the Braves can’t afford another loss in the conference if they expect to win the Md Southern.

While vacationing in Detroit recently, and visiting Greenfield Village, I had an opportunity to watch part of a baseball game unlike any I had ever seen.
The game, between two local teams, was played as it would have been in the 1860s.
There were no gloves, no bunting, no sliding, no cursing and no spitting.
In 1867 the job of the pitcher was to get the ball in play by pitching the ball “fairly for the striker” close to the center of home base and where the batsman requested it, according to the program handed out at the game.
However, pitchers tried changing the speed and angle of their pitches to lessen the effectiveness of the batsman.
Pitchers delivered the ball underhand with a straight arm, for ‘the ball must be pitched, not jerked or thrown,’ to the striker.
The striker, or batter, had to place one foot on a line, which was 12 inches from the plate, so as to allow the pitcher a chance to pitch over the plate. He was considered a striker unti he hit a fair ball.
From baseball’s earliest written rules, if the striker swung at a pitch and missed, it was a strike. Thee strikes meant an out. A more recent rule allowed called strikes, also. If the striker did not swing at a hittable pitch, the umpire would give him a warning. After a warning. the umpire would begin to call stikes. Three strikes after the warning was an out.
In 1867, a new rule was introduced. Just as he might warn the striker and call strikes, if fair pitches were not swung at, the umpire now after a warning to the pitcher, could call balls, also. After the warning to the pitcher, “ball to the bat” three more unfair pitches were ruled a base on balls or a walk.
Balls that were hit and landed fair, but rolled into foul territory, were fair balls and in play.
Early rules stated that a ball caught on the fly or on the first bounce put the striker out.
In the early days, of baseball, fielders were almost exclusively bare-handed. By 1867, howerver, the game was getting more competitive and balls were wound tighter and harder. As a result, the use of gloves was becoming more common.
However, gloves of the period were merely fingerless leather gloves worn on both hands. Players not only had to deal with the difficulty of throwing a ball with a glove on their throwing hand, but were also derided by their teammates and opponents for stooping to the unmanly tactic wearing gloves.
However, enough chose to deal with those issues rather than suffer the pain catching a daisy cutter bare-handed to make the use of gloves fariry commonon the World Tournament of Baseball