Seymour’s Bret Perry drives toward the basket during the Owls’ game with visiting Floyd Central.
Tribune file photo
Seymour’s Brady Harpe, center, looks to pass during the game against Jeffersonville this season.
Tribune file photo
Seymour’s Jaylan Johnson hauls in a pass during the game played on the road against Floyd Central in 2023.
Tribune file photo
The Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium was a place for a celebration Friday night.
When the Seymour boys basketball team defeated Floyd Central 49-28, it gave the Owls at least a share of the school’s first Hoosier Hills Conference title since joining the conference in 1995. Seymour’s last boys basketball conference title came in the old South Central Conference in 1994.
Seymour won its first HHC baseball tournament last spring, and the school won its fourth HHC football title in 2022.
Senior Bret Perry has been a key member of all three of those HHC title teams.
“It feels great, especially because I know how much hard work I’ve put into it over the past four years,” he said.
The Owls had to work hard to secure all three HHC titles.
Perry quarterbacked the football squad, and several of the 2022 games weren’t decided until late in the fourth quarter.
Seymour also had to play 12 innings to defeat Floyd Central in the HHC baseball finals, and this year’s basketball team went 5-1 to clinch at least a share of the basketball title. Four of those games went into overtime.
“For sure, we came through under pressure,” Perry said. “These guys have been here before in all the sports I played. We’re just calm in the moment. We know what to do, and we trust our preparation.”
Perry scored the winning basket in the win at Jeffersonville.
“It’s kind of surreal,” he said. “I know for basketball, it is the first time it has ever happened, and it feels just as great as football and as baseball. It’s just a testament to the hard work all these guys put in. We love each other. We’re like a family. It’s just about being together as a team.”
Several Seymour athletes have been a member of two HHC-winning teams. Brady Harpe and Parker Thompson were on the baseball and basketball teams, Mikey Wright and Jack Pennington were members of the football and baseball teams and Jaylan Johnson was a member of the football and basketball teams.
“It feels really good,” Harpe said. “We had never won it in baseball or basketball. This high school is really coming around. We have really good athletics right now, and we’re feeling good. We believe in teamwork and always staying together and always playing your best. It takes hard work.”
Most of these athletes started their athletic careers on elementary school teams and played travel ball at a young age.
Harpe said that is important.
“We had coach (Jeff) Nicholson coaching us,” he said. “He is a big part of why we’re here today.”
Baseball coach Jeremy Richey said Perry had two hits against Floyd Central, while Harpe was coming off an injury and went 0-for-1, Thompson was a pinch runner and Wright pitched the first seven innings of the game.
Johnson is leading the Owls in scoring during the basketball season as they are 13-4.
“This is one of the happiest times I’ve ever been in, something for the school for the first time,” he said. “We’re going to go down in school history forever.”
After cutting down one of the nets last Friday, he said this is something special.
“I love pressure. I think we really strive under pressure,” Johnson said. “We’re a very together team. We’ve been through it so much that it’s like everything else now. If we’re going to win, it’s all about the team. We play like a team, and coach (Kirk) Manns preaches that every day.”
Johnson also was a 400-meter dash champion in the HHC in track and field.
“We’re going in the right direction,” Manns said. “That is really important, and we’ve got kids that are working hard right now, and I think we’ve got a pretty good athletic culture right now. We have a lot of multi-sport athletes, and it gets harder and harder to do that. We’ve got guys that are dedicated to working hard. We’ve had a lot of good fortune, and I like to believe that fortune was made by our play.”
Dave Urbanski, assistant athletic director at SHS, said, “As we move forward and provide opportunities for our student-athletes to get better, we will see continued success in our conference, and more importantly, prepare them for life after high school.”
Hoosier Hills Conference champions
Boys
Baseball-2023
Basketball-2024
Cross country-2015
Football-1999, 2000, 2001, 2022
Golf-2001
Swimming-1999
Soccer-1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2016, 2018
Girls
Softball-2019, 2021
Basketball-2007, 2016
Cross country-NA
Golf-1996, 2000
Soccer-1997, 2003, 2020
Tennis-2015, 2021
Swimming-1997, 2001, 2002, 2003
Volleyball-2011