By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Losing by 13 points to a non-conference opponent in the middle of January would be no big deal for most high school basketball teams.
But Lockwood’s 61-48 loss last weekend in the Golden City tournament championship wasn’t taken lightly.
Lockwood senior Max Schnelle was especially stung by it.
“I can’t stand any loss if I’m being honest,” he said. “Every loss hurts. It hurts bad, but we’ve got to let it hurt tonight and then we’ve got to get back to work and move on. We’ve still got a lot of season left and we can’t let this deter the rest of the season.”
Fortunately for Schnelle and the Tigers, the loss was a rare occurrence. Lockwood entered the Saturday night contest with a 12-0 record and ranked second in the state in Class 1. And it came against a Golden City squad ranked fifth.
As the Tigers reach the halfway point of another strong season, with their goals still intact, Schnelle said he takes pride in Lockwood’s team as a whole.
“Two years ago if you would have told us we’d have the success we’ve had the last year and a half I would have told you you’re crazy but we’ve been working our tails off,” he said. “It’s a grind and we’ve been working for it. We have had some successes; football didn’t end how we wanted it to but we had a great season. Basketball we’re happy with how things are going. Obviously it hurts tonight but I’m proud of our guys and how we’ve been playing this season.”
Schnelle has played a big role in that success. A three-year starter at quarterback for the football team, he guided Lockwood to a 9-2 record last fall and never had a losing season. The Tigers suffered a 28-21 loss to Marionville in the district championship.
Schnelle passed for 1,466 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior and was a first team All-Southwest Conference quarterback and the league’s Co-Offensive Player of the Year. He was also a second team All-State defensive back.
On the basketball court the 6-foot-4 Schnelle is the reigning Southwest Conference Player of the Year after averaging 16.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 3.3 steals per game last year. He helped the Tigers to a 17-9 record as a junior after the team won just nine games the year before.
And his numbers have improved this year; he entered the weekend at Golden City averaging 17.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.7 steals per game.
“This is going to sound crazy because he does lead us in pretty much every stat category, but if he wanted to he could chase stats more than he does,” Lockwood coach Ethan Baker said. “He does play the majority of the minutes, he’s not coming out so he does get the chances but he’s very selfless. There’s different games we’ve had this season where he’s scored 10 points or less and he’s perfectly fine with that. Typically he’s facilitating in those games.”
“If he really wanted to try to be a glory hound he definitely could but he doesn’t try to do that,” Baker said. “His numbers come very organically in what we do.”
Now, with his remaining high school career measured by weeks and months instead of years, Schnelle is focused on finishing on a high note. A district championship would certainly qualify; it’s been a surprisingly rare feat in Lockwood in recent years, despite the school’s success. The Tigers last won a district championship in football in 2017, and it’s been five years since the basketball team won one.
“I want it more than anything,” Schnelle said. “District, it’s what you work for every year. We’ve come up short so far but our goals are set for that and we’re going to work hard every day to get there.”
That’s just one motivator for the Tigers, though, he said.
“We want to win a district championship and make a run in the playoffs but we really have to focus on right now,” he said. “We’ve got the Stockton tournament (this) week, that’s going to be tough. We’re the three seed and there’s some big schools that are really good in it. Then after that we start conference play so things are really kicking in right now and we’ve got to keep pushing through.”
“I think you’d be naive to say nobody thinks about it,” Baker said. “It’s something I definitely want for the kids. It’s something I know they want. At the same time yeah I preach game by game. To me if we think about it as if we don’t win a district championship the season hasn’t been a success then I think that really limits us in terms of the different accomplishments we can have.”
Lockwood won its home tournament for the first time since 2001, he said. The Tigers can compete for a conference championship, too, and winning the Stockton tournament this week would be another nice accomplishment.
It’ll be a senior-laden team that pursues those goals. Lockwood has six seniors on the roster and Schnelle said everyone is more locked in and focused this year.
“We know this is our last shot,” he said. “We’ve got to give it everything we’ve got.”
Schnelle said the Tigers need to improve their shooting and continue to lock down on defense. He said he’s personally struggled from three-point range so far but he’ll keep working on his shot in the gym.
“He’s certainly a leader,” Baker said. “You’ve got some different personalities on the team that sometimes it’s hard to verbally get them going but with him, through football and being around these guys all the time he’s been able to figure out their personalities and I think he knows the right way to communicate with different guys to keep them involved and keep them going.”
