Sports : Vikings celebrate season at Basketball Wrap-Up

State tourney honor: Viking players and coaches received basketballs from the Iowa Farm Bureau.

The Vinton-Shellsburg Vikings basketball players gathered with their families Monday night to reflect on their historic season, and to say thank you to all of those who in some way helped make the 2012-13 campaign a historic one.

“We are here to celebrate,” said Coach Joe Johnson, who handed out All-Conference and All-State Academic Awards as well as awards for accomplishments on the basketball court.

The evening began with a presentation of basketballs from the Iowa Farm Bureau, one of the main sponsors of the Iowa State Basketball Tournament. Each varsity player and coach received a basketball in honor of their accomplishment of reaching the State Tournament. Benton County Farm Bureau member Bill Newton read a tribute from the state Farm Bureau before handing out the basketballs.

Coach J reminded the Vikings of their successes over the past two seasons, in which they were WaMaC West Champions.

“We were 43-7 and 23-0 at home,” he said.

This year’s Vikings had the best overall record in Class 3A, and led Class 3A in scoring as well as in points differential, outscoring their opponents by an average of 18.2 points per game. They also led the state’s 3A teams in field goal shooting percentage and field goals made. Six of the players scored at least 20 points in at least one game this season.

“You made basketball in Vinton exciting and relevant again,” Johnson told his players.

Even though the season did not end the way the team wanted it to, Johnson said that in the future, the players will look back on their historic accomplishments and realize how great the season has been.

“What you guys did this year does not happen very often,” he said.

The reason for their success included their “unreal chemistry—“ how they knew where their teammates were at all times – as well as their hard work and the many hours spent working both in practice and the off-season, along with scores of games played during the summer.

Several players received Academic All-Conference awards: Max Griffith, Dylan Rippel, Ben Hyland, Taylor Dinderman, Luke Moen, Chase Overton, Tanner Spies, Nolan Sagan and Wyatt Meyer. Manager Whitney Bohnsack also earned the Academic All-Conference honor.

Max Griffith also received an Academic All-State honor during the last night of the State Tournament.

Coach Johnson thanked his assistant coaches and their wives, as well as the parents of the players and managers. He especially thanked them for helping his family after the birth of their fourth child just before the Vikings played Union in the District final.

The Vikings had six players (Grant and Nolan Sagan, Max Griffith, Max Kearns, Kelyn Rickels and Chris Merchant) earn All-Conference honors; Johnson said that with five of those graduating, many people are not expecting the Vikings to win the conference next year. The coach said he hopes the juniors of this season will accept that as a challenge as the 2013-14 season begins.