It's been 20 years since the St. Vincent Indians appeared in the state championship game. It's been a week since the Lady Indians made it there for the first time.
According to longtime boys coach Bruce Valleroy, the boys team still received some recognition, getting a shoutout during last week's Class 2 state girls championship.
“They honored teams from 20 years ago,” Valleroy said. “They invite them up and you walk out on the floor during halftime of the championship game of that class and our boys finished second in the state 20 years ago. So they honored our boys on the same weekend that our girls got to the final four. So that was kind of ironic that in 20 years in between that we both made it to the final four now.”
While the Lady Indians state runner-up finish greatly overshadowed Valleroy's team this year, he was quick to point out that the Indians, who finished with a 13-12 record, still had plenty to celebrate.
“We got off to a late start because of the football team's success,” said Valleroy, pointing out the 12-1 football Indians' deep run into the state playoffs. “We didn't get into the gym really with everybody until the first week of December. We won our first game of the year, then we kind of struggled there a little bit, trying to feel each other out and trying to get going.”
The Indians beat Oak Ridge 69-50 in their season opener, then suffered three consecutive losses before finding their way back the win column with a 54-47 victory over Kingston in the first round of the Valle Catholic tournament and finished December with a 2-5 record.
After that rough initial run, the Indians came back, winning 11 of 17 games before the district tournament, where they suffered a close 76-70 first-round loss to Meadow Heights.
“It was a good year for us,” Valleroy said, “if you really look at it overall with what we had and the way the season kind of kind of fell for us. We did lose some games we probably thought we could have won, but we felt like we did everything we possibly could, and we're very proud of the boys of how they handled everything.”
Adding another highlight to the season was a more personal accomplishment, as St. Vincent junior Max Wheeler eclipsed the 1,000-point mark.
"He scored in the last game of the year at districts and went over a thousand points in his career,” Valleroy said, “and he's still got next year to go. We're looking for great things from him. If he stays healthy and everything, he will most likely break the school record for most points in a career.”
According to Valleroy, the school record is 1,294 points in a career.
“He's about 290 points away from that,” Valleroy said, “so if he keeps doing what he has been for the past three years, he will probably shatter that record.”
In addition to reaching the 1,000-point mark, Wheeler was named first team all conference in the Jefferson County Athletic Association's small school division, while teammates Colden Prost and Parker Ellis were named to the second team.
Wheeler and Prost also earned all-district honors.
Next season, Wheeler won't be the Indians' only senior. Wyatt Winkler, who tore his ACL during football season and sat out basketball, is also expected to return.
“We'll hopefully have two seniors next year,” Valleroy said, “and then those sophomores will come up with a lot of varsity experience. We feel like our freshmen have come a long way this year, and then we've got some eighth graders that will be freshmen next year that we feel have a great future ahead of them, so we'll definitely give them a look. Hopefully some of them will be able to help us next year on the varsity.”
