Tuscola – Sawyer Woodard remembers the locker room inside the State Farm Center and has the opportunity to sit at the same food stall as Coleman Hawkins before an Illinois men’s basketball home game.
“I had to get it,” Woodard said. “He’s my favorite player.”
Kam Sweetnam remembers the police escorts and his other teammates of the Tus Collaborations basketball team that he received in a short trip north to Champaign for the IHSA Class 1A state tournament two years ago.
“These sirens were moving behind us,” Sweetnum said. “It was all pretty surreal.”
Parker James remembers the first shot he took at Lou Henson Court after Tascola opposed the Scale Mound in the 1A State semi-final match on March 9, 2023.
“I aired the first shot,” James said with a smirk. Before the recent practice began, I sat on a padded bench outside the Tascola gymnasium. “It was a different feeling. It was nerve-wracking, but once you get into the flow of the game, it helps.”
Three Tascola Seniors – Some of the eight senior classes this season consist of Aidendevlin, Zack Rennell, Carson Jeffers, Andrew Spielman and Cade Wilcox, all made two seasons ago. He was a sophomore in a historic state tournament run. A run that the Tuscola Boys ‘Basketball team has ever produced.
“When you think about the eight seniors this season, it’s a group that hangs out from the court,” said Justin Bothers, who is in his eighth season as Tuscola coach. “They have a close bond. The big thing about them is that when they come to practice, it’s competitive every day. That’s my biggest takeaway from this group. When do they? They know what to enjoy, but they also know when it’s time to work. They bring it every day. In this long, smelly basketball season, it’s hard to bring it every day Everyone follows their lead.”
And everyone associated with the Warriors program hopes to culminate in two weeks on another trip to Champaign.
Holiday surprises
Beauzas and his wife, Aja, did what most parents of three young daughters do on Christmas morning. Unwrapping presents plans to relax and enjoy the day with your family.
Basketball consumes a lot of time in the Bothers family during the winter. Tascola held the game the day after Christmas and held a stay at Monticello Holiday Hoopra. However, this was a day to focus solely on the family during the basketball season.
Bozarth checked the phone for quick texting that he had received from some of the players.
“I have five text messages from guys who want to know when they can go to the gym at 9am on Christmas,” Bothers said with a laugh almost two months later. “I always say that, but it doesn’t matter if it’s a summer death or 6am on a winter morning. Our morning custodians have one of the doors open. And that’s like an unwritten rule where guys come and film. There are people who just want to be a gym.”
Work drive, combined with many talent, led the Warriors to another promising season this winter. The season that continued on Monday night was 74-29 with Villa Grove in the 1A Regional quarterfinal game, which improved Tuscola to 26-6 ahead of the regional semi-final match against Martinsville on Wednesday at 7:30pm I won with.
This was the fourth consecutive season when Tuscola recorded at least 25 wins, and was the highest success in the history of the program. Six straight tascola teams have won at least 20 matches since 2000-06, and the team has won four consecutive regional championships from 1987-91.
However, it is rare to win at this rate on the basketball court.
“We’ve always been known as a soccer school, so it wasn’t a sport we had expected to succeed, but we changed that,” said Woodard, who is a 6-foot-5, 225-pound presence. . For the warriors. “We want to return it to the state farm center and continue its legacy.”
A trio of seniors leads
If so, and again, Tascola will need to win six matches in the next 13 days to make it happen – Woodard will have a greater effect than the 2022-2023 season. He averaged 3.7 points off the bench, but he understood his role was to help then senior center Chris Boyd actually improve his game every day.
This season it is becoming a reliable option near the basket. Woodard averaged 15.4 points and 6.3 rebounds, shooting 65% off the field.
“He’s a big body there,” Sweetnum said. “You have to have a game plan for him.”
Bothers praises assistant coach Jacob Hilgendorf and longtime Tuscola Coaching Stan Winke for the walk Woodard took on the basketball court. Winke, who coached Tascola Football in 2006 with the 1A state title, is also an assistant track and field coach who works with the Sloes. Woodard competed in the IHSA 1A state tournament in both Discus and Shot last spring, finishing fourth in the discus.
“Physically, he’s just keeping strong,” Beauzas said. “Coach Hilgendorf and Sawyer are constantly working together in post movements. Naturally, you’ve seen his post movements get better and better over time, and his sealing ability. Shot and He also gives coach Winke a lot of credit as much as he is footwork. He’s a real example of a man playing multiple sports who benefits from both sports.”
With Woodard giving Tuscola a bigger body to the post, the Warriors can also rely on more lead guards than they can control during the game.
Sweetnam is a three-year starter that uses his speed and shot-making abilities to consistently baffle opposing defenses. He averaged 15.6 points with 3.6 assists and 2.8 steel, a team-high 15.6 points while ejecting 3-pointers from Team High 65. He took part in Monday night’s match with 1,378 career points. He has been running cross-country and track and field with Tascola point guard Josiah Holtin for the past two seasons, and is now running cross-country and track and field in Louisville, with the primary ball handler mantle on the shoulders of the 5-10, 150 pounds this winter. It’s falling.
“The biggest difference is the sophomore and third grade. Josiah mostly had the ball in his hand, so Cam was caught off guard,” Beauzas said. “Now you’re always watching him look at his balls at his hands. He’s such a playmaker with his speed. We didn’t put him in that position. So he didn’t see that much in his first two years. He’s now creating for himself, but also putting others to score others. , I feel like I’m starting to play some of his best basketball as the lead guard.”
Like James. The versatile 6-3, 165 pound forward was in the Warriors’ starting lineup two seasons ago and hasn’t left. He averaged 8.6 points in his senior season with 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 steel.
“Cam controls the court,” Woodard said. “He’s our leader and we’re going at his pace, but Parker holds us all together.”
A tight schedule is good preparation
The Warriors have other options besides Sweetnum, Woodard and James. 6-1, 170 pound junior guard Logan Kurtz goes on 10.5 points, 6-6, 200 pound junior Caiden Russo, averages 6.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in team high 29 blocks.
But if Tascola, who won the first 14 games of the season and lost only once to 1A school this season, wants to go for another run at State Farm Center in Champaign, Sweetnum, Woodard and James play is likely there. It will be carried to.
This week at Chrisman, Casey-Westfield will be a potential stumbling block in the regional championship game on Friday night. Casey-Westfield was the aforementioned 1A team that beat Tuscola this season, winning 58-55 on January 4th, with Tuscola’s first loss. Tascola’s other losses are opposed to Unity, Tutopolis, Warrensburg Glasam and Bloomington Central Catholicism only by the integrated 31 points. All four of these 2A schools have won at least 20 games this season.
“I knew the first half of the season was much lighter than the second half, but I know there’s a reason to put those teams on the schedule,” Sweetnum said. “We know these teams have set us better for the postseason.”
Create a postseason pass
If Tascola wins the Chrisman Regional this week, they will travel nearly two hours to the southeastern state and play at the Red Hill Sectional in Bridgeport next week. The route to Champaign will then approach on March 10th in a potential ultra-section game at Groniger Arena on Eastern Illinois University campus in Charleston.
Again, all of these potential scenarios will need to unfold themselves in the next two weeks. However, this is the scenario where these Tascola seniors lived before, with Tascola winning the regional title on their home courts in 2023 and winning the 4-overtime thriller 72-68 on Altamont’s home courts. I won the section title.
“That Altamont game was probably my favorite game and was the biggest gym I’ve ever played,” Sweetnum said. “It still gives you chills thinking about it. It’s an iconic game and everyone still remembers it.”
The Warriors then challenged Carbondale and scored a 74-53 victory with Mound Meridian in the ultra-section game to win a spot at Champaign. -46 in the third place game to win the best season at Tuscola Boys ‘Basketball History.
“It’s good that we’re going to experience that,” James said. “Everyone was a little unsure after Altamont won, but when we went to SIU, everyone had high expectations for us. It definitely seemed to come quickly to you. Certainly It was a whirlwind.”
The whirlwind is something that I hope to repeat again before the Warriors seniors hang their last black and gold uniforms.
“Since that sophomore, you realize that this can happen,” Sweetnum said. “It’s not from the norm. We believe we can work for it, trust each other and get back there.”
