BROWNSTOWN
Brownstown Central volleyball coach Jennifer Shade said she’s never ordered a state runner-up ring.
Had she decided to do so, she’d have seven of them with little red ruby centers.
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But one of the state’s most successful volleyball coaches decided to wait until the stone in the middle would be blue.
At halftime of Saturday night’s boys basketball game against Providence, the 2019 Class 3A state champion Brownstown Central volleyball team received their state championship rings in front of a packed house at BCHS.
Now, the Braves have all their hardware after capturing the school’s first team state title in its 55 year history by defeating Bellmont 3-1 at Ball State’s Worthen Arena this past November.
“It’s something we’ve wanted for a long time,” Shade said of the state championship rings.
But one ring was just never going to be enough.
Always thinking of the next game or the next season, Shade is already laying the groundwork for, hopefully, another successful campaign in 2020.
“At great as this season was,” she continued, “we’ve got to start looking into next season. We’ll start practicing April 1.”
Many of the underclass players from the 2019 championship team are well into their club seasons — as are many volleyball in Jackson County — eager to improve their skills for the next high school season.
Though only the volleyball players, coaches and managers received rings on Saturday night, Shade was quick to note how large of a role the Brownstown community played in bringing home the school’s first team state title.
“It’s just such a cool thing for our community,” she said. “It’s for anyone who’s ever played sports here or ever had been to a state final; I think they all wanted a team state championship.
“We got all of this together.”
The volleyball state championship was just the first of many accolades for the girls’ sports teams this scholastic year.
First the volleyball team took home Mid-Southern Conference, sectional, regional, semistate and state titles; and then the girls basketball team followed it up with league, sectional and regional championships of their own.
Shade hopes this is just a sign of things to come for BCHS athletic programs.
“I hope this just snow balls,” Shade said. “I wish every kid in every program could experience this.”