To understand the story of Niangua’s basketball team, you need to rewind a few years.
“I would have to guard him like everyday and [Ethan] just absolutely cooked me in elementary,” said Niangua senior Clayton Henderson. “He was so much better than me in elementary.”
“He never played before and I was really that kid that pushed him,” said Niangua senior Ethan Scheetz. “Sometimes I picked on him and it grew our relationship a lot.”
What was once a competition, is now a highly successful friendship between the two. In their four seasons at Niangua, the duo have helped the team win more games than it did in the six prior seasons combined.
“These kids as eighth graders were undefeated,” said Niangua Head Basketball Coach Kalem Copling. “They saw that success so they just brought it up and kind of pushed everyone everyday.”
“It’s our ability to push each other farther,” Clayton said. “We don’t have a lot of people like fighting for a spot necessarily, but it’s just on us to go in every day and work harder.”
Last season the Cardinals lost to Chadwick in the district championship. But this season is a new chapter, Niangua avenged that loss by beating Chadwick with a come from behind victory.
“That has been the mentality since that buzzer went off last year, we’ve been thinking about this game,” Kalem said. “This rivalry has been big for us.”
“This is the game we always look toward to, but this one was a little bit different,” Ethan said.
“We just wanted to prove we could beat them,” Clayton said.
As these Cardinals continue to write their story, it’s just one page closer to the happy ending.
