Southwood senior Carson Blair looks for room to operate during a game against Lafayette Central Catholic on March 2. Blair has had a memorable season, becoming the county’s all-time leading scorer. Photo by Josh Sigler

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

Believe it or not, basketball was not Carson Blair’s first love when it came to sports.

Those who have watched his career trajectory won’t find it that puzzling, but the physical nature of the game of football drew him in before he developed a passion for hoops.

“Then, about second grade I started to like basketball,” Blair said. “I played at the YMCA and got into it then. My dad played and my brother played, so they got me interested in it.”

Blair went on to re-write the record book for the Southwood football program, throwing for an eye-popping 57 touchdowns with just three interceptions as a senior, leading the Knights to a repeat sectional championship.

Turns out he’s not too bad at basketball either, breaking his father’s school scoring record on his team’s way to the the Wabash County Tournament title before breaking the Wabash County all-time scoring record later in the season on senior night. It’s all happening in a season where the team is enjoying success never before paralleled.
 

By Bill Barrows

Almost every week, I have lunch with a few of my cronies. We discuss sports, current events, social issues, maybe politics will rear its ugly head periodically, but it mostly revolves around sports. This time of year, we discuss spring training baseball, NBA basketball, the upcoming NFL draft and the NCAA basketball tourney. The basic rules are: information is essential, statistics are helpful and opinion is welcome but probably will be challenged. It’s always a healthy discussion with a few personal barbs thrown at any deserving participant.

Southwood's Peyton Trexler splits the defense on his way to the basket during Saturday night's Sectional 54 championship game versus Frontier at Lafayette Central Catholic High School. 

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

LAFAYETTE -- The Southwood Knights avoided a hangover from an emotional win over host Lafayette Central Catholic on Friday night, returning Saturday to rout Frontier 96-42 to claim their second sectional championship in as many years.

“We got that year of experience last year, winning the Oak Hill Sectional,” Southwood coach John Burrus. “That’s kind of carried us in this year’s sectional. Our guys know the course now and they know what it takes. They knew we had to come out tonight and knock Frontier out. We weren’t going to back into this one. We wanted to force the issue.”
 

By Eric Christiansen
echristiansen@nmpaper.com

NORTH MANCHESTER -- Oak Hill showed why it is ranked eighth in the state in Class 2A with a strong opening 59-44 sectional win over host Manchester Tuesday, Feb. 27.

The Eagles started with a 5-0 lead, then answered a Manchester 3-pointer from Weston Hamby with a 5-0 run to lead 10-3 and kept the Squires at bay the rest of the way.
 

By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

Southwood High School senior Kelsey Niccum will continue her volleyball career next year at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Niccum signed a letter of intent to play at IWU in Marion on Wednesday, Feb. 28, during a ceremony at the Southwood library.
 

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

Northfield senior Ava Smith signed a letter of intent Tuesday, Feb. 27, to continue her volleyball career at Albion College, an NCAA Division III school in Albion, Mich.

Smith said the decision was an easy one, and she felt at home at Albion.
 

By The Paper staff

Emmanuel Christian’s boys basketball team captured its fourth straight Indiana Association of Christian School basketball tourney state championship on Feb. 24.

Emmanuel defeated Fishers Christian, 77-52, to capture the title. It advanced to the finals with a 66-33 win over Good News Baptist on Friday, Feb. 23.

The team entered the tourney as the No.1 seed.
 

By Bill Barrows

The boys’ basketball regular season is done. Over the weekend, amid all of the flu and other ailments that seem to come around this time of year, there is a certain sickness in the air that only surfaces in Indiana and has done so over 4 or 5 generations for which there is no cure. Hoosier Hysteria is the name and tournament basketball is the game. It all begins on Tuesday night.