Year of the Champions!

In the Spring of 2010, around the first or second week of All-Star baseball practice, there was banter about the team, and how much they had improved, etc. The head coach, Josh Mease, said something about the State Championship, and though all heard it, most did not consider it a reality, or frankly, even a possibility.

About 6 weeks later, not only was it a possibility, with a walk off homerun by Kameron Walker, it became a reality.

4 days later, 7 members of the team showed up for football camp at Bethel Middle School's field. Because of his age, Kameron would leave his baseball buddies and join the older football team, the Mites.

6 of them, though -- Keegan Hudson, Gatlin Blanton, Travis Shuford, Brooks Valentine, Hunter Cseledy and Lane Mease would join forces and under the leadership of Johnny James and his most excellent coaching staff, absolutely roll over every one in the division. They became WNC Youth Football and Cheerleading's Association's Western Division Champions.

One week after a narrow Superbowl loss, 4 of the boys, Cseledy, Hudson, Valentine, and Shuford traded the cleats for high tops and the pigskin for a roundball. They reunited with three other baseball teammates Sawyer Trull, Jacob Moore, and Daniel Worley. Together, they charged through the winter, and found themselves as WNC Youth Basketball's Eastern Division regular season champions.

Three championships in one year. A year many athletes can dream of. What will the future hold for these young men? As one young man put it, "Do it again! Except take Association championships instead of just divisions!" Be ready coaches; here they come!