Our hearts were in our throats last Friday as the Fayette County girls and boys basketball teams chased after their first state titles in school history. Though both the Lady Tigers and Tigers fell short in their quests to two of the best teams in the state, they should be proud of all they accomplished this season.

The girls won yet another region title and the boys made it out of the first round of the state playoffs, something that had yet to be accomplished under head coach Andre Flynn’s reign.

Both teams represented the school and the community well in their battle for basketball supremacy this year and should be commended. The fact that their impressive season came on the heels of a fantastic football season that saw the Tigers run the table on their way to a region title and the second round of the state playoffs makes this academic and athletic year all the more remarkable for the school.

In fact, the entire county has been a hotbed of athletic achievement this school year. On top of everything Fayette County has accomplished thus far, we have also had a state champion (McIntosh) and two state runners-up in volleyball (Starr’s Mill and Sandy Creek), a state runner-up in softball (Sandy Creek), two other football teams advancing to the second round of the state playoffs (Whitewater and Sandy Creek), a state champion wrestler (Whitewater’s Chase Penland) and two state runners-up (McIntosh’s Matt Carroll and Fayette County’s Patrick Blankenbeker), a state champion and state runner-up relay team and two individual state runners-up in swimming out of Starr’s Mill (Kristen Bates and Lauren Scott).

And all this has happened before spring, when last year Fayette County produced two state soccer champions and all four of the Class AAAA boys and girls final four, a state champion track team out of Sandy Creek and a state champion tennis team out of Starr’s Mill.

When you see that list in print, it should blow you away and make you proud of all of the accomplishments of our local athletes.

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