NEW MARKET — A successful school year for Southmont’s female student-athletes continued Thursday as the basketball team defeated North Montgomery 55-45.
The win puts the Mounties girls one step toward a third-straight county title, but winning has been the order of the day at South.
A soccer sectional title was the third in a row. A volleyball sectional championship was earned in the fall. The golf team won the school’s first-ever sectional.
Eight of the nine Southmont girls who played Thursday night against the Chargers was on a sectional championship team in 2019 if you stretch back to last spring and the softball team also winning a sectional.
Talk about a success factor.
“It’s been a huge deal winning four sectionals,” noted Natalie Manion, the junior who was on the softball and volleyball teams and had a double-double in the hoops game. “It has brought everyone into focus, but maybe it has added a little extra pressure. What it has done is boosted the confidence of all the Southmont athletes. “We watch other teams succeed, and it makes us want to succeed.”
Senior Claire Remley has started on the three soccer title teams and on the softball team. She had nine points, five rebounds and two steals Thursday.
“It’s been lots of fun,” she said of the success. “Everybody on every team supports all the players on the other teams, and we know we have the support of those other athletes and the kids at school. This all started last summer during workouts. We would switch from sport to sport and we started to realize that all our teams were pretty good.”
Addi Charles, who has been the second-leading scorer on the basketball team, also has been a part of the soccer success.
“I’m just blessed to be part of these amazing teams,” the junior said. “We have amazing coaches and our success had pushed us to work harder to keep the level of success high. We as athletes support the other teams and get that support right back. I’m just so happy for all my teammates and the success we have had.”
There is much work left in the basketball season. A win is needed over Crawfordsville to capture that third county title, and the gauntlet of the basketball sectional is just over the February horizon.
But one thing is certain — this group of Southmont female student-athletes have figured out ways to win, and have picked up the confidence from that winning.”
