Tiny Medora High School had never had much success on the basketball floor. Forty eight years before the 1997 Sectional the little school of approximately 100 students had won its one and only sectional title. Since that time the Hornets had known mostly frustration at tournament time. In some lucky years they would draw one of the other small Jackson County schools and perhaps garner at least one victory in the tournament before bowing out.
In the 1950's and 60's a great wave of school consolidations sweep across the State of Indiana. As a result of this a great many of Indiana's smallest schools were lost to history or greatly expanded with transplanted students. Unfortunately for Medora the consolidation wave missed them altogether. The small county schools that they could normally be competitive with(Tampico, Clear Springs, Vallonia, Cortland, Freetown and Hayden from Jennings County) were now gone leaving only Crothersville as the only other Jackson Co. school and potential sectional opponent of their relative size.
The handicap proved to be too much for the Hornets. Beginning with the 1964 sectional they would not be able to find the taste of victory at the Seymour Sectional. From 1976 to 1984 Medora was reassigned to the sectional at Bedford but with facing the huge schools from Bedford and Bloomington they didn't find it any easier there either as their annual 'one-and-done' sectional trips continued. In 1985 Medora was returned to the sectional field at Seymour but with the same old results. Medora not only lost in the sectional every time but lost big. From 1985 to 1996 their average losing margin at the Seymour Sectional was 42pts. The worst of the beatings came from the host Seymour Owls who pounded the little school by 73 pts, 125-52 in 1989.
After all of those years of beatings the Medora faithful never had a lot to cheer or even hope for. That would change in the final single class tournament in 1997 when the Hornets drew county rival Crothersville in the bye game. Crothersville had only won 3 times during the year and even though 2 of those wins were against Medora the games had been close giving the Hornets fans a glimmering ray of hope this time around.
As the sectional game with Crothersville began it didn't appear Medora would be having any better luck than normal. Crothersville got out to a 8-0 lead and held the lead through the middle of the 3rd quarter. Medora however never trailed by much and finally took the lead on an old fashion 3-pt play by Chad Beesley. By now the Hornets were riding high on momentum and pushed the lead out to go into the final quarter ahead 41-36.
Even though the two teams held a combined 8-32 record, the fourth quarter was exciting for any fan of basketball to watch. Medora clung to their slim lead but it slipped away with 2:20 remaining when Crothersville forged ahead 51-50. Undetered the Hornets answered right back as Jeremy Stuckwisch nailed a 3pt shot for a 53-51 lead inside of 2 minutes to play. Crothersville was unable to connect on a game tying or go-ahead FG and Medora took full advantage. Inside of 30 seconds left to play Nathan Beesley broke the back of the Tigers with a lay-up and a 55-51 lead. Crothersville was able nail on FG in the final seconds but as they were forced to foul, Medora marched to the FT line and iced the game and a 59-54 triumph. Their first sweet taste of sectional victory in 33yrs and their first ever win in Seymour's Lloyd E. Scott gymnasium.
Unfortunately this would be Medora's last tournament victory to date. Even though the IHSAA State Tournament was revamped in 1998 with the introduction of the 4-class system which requires the small schools to only play each other, Medora has still struggled. Certainly the Hornets will break this streak as well. Will this be the year? Time and the luck of the draw will tell.
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