BROWNSTOWN — This one’s for you, coach.

On Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day), the Brownstown Central Middle School eighth grade boys basketball team showed their coach, Brent Hattabaugh, some love by winning the final game of the season 49-16, defeating Lutheran Central in the high school gymnasium.

That capped off the season with a 29-0 record, Hattabaugh’s first undefeated finish in his 20-year career.

Even better, the boys finished their career with a 79-0 record, having also gone undefeated in sixth and seventh grades. One step further, the group also went undefeated as fifth-graders.

The game also was Hattabaugh’s last because he announced his retirement.

“It being my last game, we talked about it and I said, ‘I want to go out as a winner,’ and they wanted to go out undefeated. They said, ‘This one’s for you.’ They were pretty fired up,” he said.

For that game, Brian Nuss served as announcer and played music during breaks, the lights were turned off for the starting lineups and there was a big crowd since it involved two Brownstown teams.

“We were supposed to play a tournament the Saturday before, but it got canceled, and the (varsity) girls regional was that day,” Hattabaugh said. “The boys were upset when we thought the season was over after the Thursday before, and then to get the chance to play one game and have closure, we played it at the high school on the main floor, so it was even better. It was a really great atmosphere.”

Hattabaugh began playing basketball when he was 5 and suited up for the Hornets all four years at Medora High School until graduating in 1990. The next year, he began working at Walmart Distribution Center in Seymour, and he’s still there today as a manager.

In 2000, he coached junior varsity boys basketball at his alma mater. After two seasons there, he accepted an offer from Brownstown Central High School head coach Dave Benter to coach eighth grade at BCMS.

Hattabaugh went to a lot of sixth grade practices and games, and the seventh-graders practice with the eighth-graders, so he could watch players develop.

“Man, it makes me happy to watch them have success all the way through,” he said. “Coach Benter’s program, even at the seventh and eighth grade level, we run the same thing that they do at the high school. … I tell all the players it’s a privilege to play in coach Benter’s program, and it has been a privilege to coach in it for the past 20 years.”

Going into this past season, Hattabaugh knew the boys had played together for a while and had not been defeated on the court. He could see their potential, and they dominated most of their opponents, finishing the season with an average margin of victory of 23.5 points behind an offensive average of 46.1 points per game and a defensive average of 22.6 points per game.

The Braves won tournaments in Salem and Greensburg during the 2021 portion of the season and then played in the Mid-Southern Conference Tournament on Jan. 22 at North Harrison Middle School.

They opened with a 45-35 victory over Corydon Central, which they had defeated 37-12 in the tournament opener in Salem. Then came a 38-25 win over Charlestown, followed by a commanding 42-19 win against Silver Creek in the championship.

In the championship game of the Randy Johnson Tip-Off Classic in Salem, the Braves only defeated the Dragons 40-31. Then Dec. 14, Brownstown won 56-50 at home.

The MSC title was Hattabaugh’s second. He said this was only the seventh year for the conference tournament, and Brownstown has been in the championship game four times.

Hattabaugh said playing all 10 players helped them get through three games in one day, and defense was key, particularly against Silver Creek, which the Braves held to six points in the second half.

Braves starters Micah Sheffer and Carter Covert both said the MSC title was exciting.

“Corydon, I think we had one of our best games ever. Jaxson (Johnson) came out and hit three 3s to start out the game. We got it going,” Sheffer said.

“Then the second game, (Charlestown) had a big, big kid. He’s super athletic, and then they have another really good guard to go along with it,” he said. “Hutch (Isaac Hutchinson) played a good game. He had been out on quarantine for a couple weeks. Hutch did an outstanding job because he beat the kid, and the kid was so tired from the game before, so the kid couldn’t do anything. Then the guards did a good job at not letting the other kid shoot.”

While he said it was exhausting playing those three games, Covert thought the title gave the Braves momentum to close out the season.

They won six of their final seven games by double digits. Hattabaugh said the 36-31 victory at Columbus Northside on Feb. 5 was a signature win because the Braves were down by seven points with 4 minutes to go before rallying.

As the popular saying goes, “Defense wins championships,” and that’s what made the Braves successful this past season.

“Just the same thing you see in all of the Brownstown teams,” Hattabaugh said. “They are going to be defensive-minded, they are going to be disciplined, and the biggest thing I’ve noticed with the disciplined part is taking good shots, playing good defense, doing everything that is going to help you win basketball games. I think that we do a good job here at the middle school level of teaching kids how to win basketball games, and that was evident with this group.”

Sheffer agreed about the team’s strong defense.

“Defense is where we make our money,” he said. “We’re not the most athletic team, but I’d definitely say our team works really hard, and we have really good team chemistry, too, for playing so long. We know everybody’s habits.”

Shooting was a strength, too, Covert said.

“We shoot a lot,” he said. “As we got older, we got stronger, and we could take it to the basket more.”

Sheffer, Covert and Johnson began playing together in kindergarten, and others joined along the way. Sheffer’s dad, Joe, coached them early on.

“He coached us forever,” Covert said. “We just played our last tournament with him (after the middle school season), and he taught us a lot, fundamentals and stuff like that, team chemistry.”

In terms of retiring, Hattabaugh said he initially thought about it two years ago.

“I’ve missed a lot with the family,” he said. “I want to have some time with family and travel and do things with them instead of having to worry about going to basketball. It takes a lot of time.”

He leaves knowing he made a big impact on kids on and off the court. Many of them went on to have successful high school and/or college careers, and several became coaches.

“It makes you proud to be a part of that,” Hattabaugh said. “There are a lot of them that have called and asked me to help them with job interviews or their résumé. Anything, I’m there for them. I’ve been fortunate I’ve coached a lot of great kids.”

One example is Michael Leitzman. He had Hattabaugh as an eighth grade coach, played at BCHS and became a coach at Medora and Springs Valley before returning to BCMS to serve as athletic director and coach at BCHS.

“I had a great experience as an eighth grade basketball player. It was one of my favorite years of all of my years of playing basketball,” Leitzman said.

“As a coach myself, I think when you look up at the stands or look around your program and see how many players that graduated and have come back to watch games or support you or coach with you, it says a lot about your program,” he said. “It says a lot about what he’s doing as a coach when he can still have the friendships that he has several years later. It absolutely shows the impact he has made as an eighth grade coach.”

Replacing Hattabaugh won’t be easy, Leitzman said.

“As a basketball program, we really appreciate everything he has done,” Leitzman said. “I’ve been at schools where as a varsity coach, every year, I’m trying to find a new seventh grade coach, a new eighth grade coach, and there’s just so much turnover. It’s hard to get that consistency, so Brownstown has really benefited from having coach Hattabaugh for that many years consecutively.”

As for the players, they are going to take their success and all they learned from Hattabaugh as they transition to high school basketball.

The undefeated seasons will be always be in the back of their minds.

“I never thought it would happen, really … but when it did, it was like it took awhile to set in,” Covert said.

“It is amazing, really,” Sheffer said. “I definitely enjoyed it, and it make it that much more memorable. That will be something that you can tell your kids and your grandkids.”