As far as Schulte’s concerned, the best way to do that is to just win.
Through three years of the tournament, named after Schulte’s daughter Tatum who passed away in 2017 at the age of nine after a lengthy battle with cancer, the Eagles have won all nine of their games. That streak continued Saturday afternoon at Joe Lombard Gymnasium, where Canyon routed Childress 56-26 in the championship game to keep the tournament trophy at home.
“I don’t know if it’s emotional, but it’s super special,” Schulte said. “It’s a super cool thing winning every game in this thing so far. There are some great coaches who come to this thing. Some of my really good friends coach in this thing so it’s a really neat thing to have. I’m pretty proud of what the tournament has become and you always feel good when you get a W.”
Canyon (10-7) and Childress (13-4) seemed on a collision course considering how they rolled through their first two tournament games. On paper, that doesn’t look like a surprise since Canyon is ranked No. 17 in Class 4A and Childress is No. 13 in 3A.
Considering that Canyon reached the region finals last season and Childress the state championship game, the two teams have a lot to live up to as the calendar turns to 2024. On this day, though, it all belonged to the home team.
The Eagles never trailed in jumping out to a 25-10 halftime lead. It was the type of defensive performance which was par for the course in the tournament.
In three games, Canyon gave up a total of 72 points, which might even be respectable during football season.
“Defense has always kind of been our calling card,” Schulte said. “It’s always been a non-negotiable for us. The fact that we’re able to play multiple defenses and I feel comfortable with them all right now is a big thing for us. We’ve got to keep staying in the gym and shooting the ball and the offensive end will come along.”
As the score indicated, it was an even tougher game for Childress offensively. Aiden Allen had a solid game for the Bobcats with 12 points, but nobody else for Childress had more than four points.
“We love playing bigger and better teams than us,” Childress coach Wayne Parker said. “I think it prepares us for a tough district and the playoffs. We load our schedule up with tough teams like Canyon, Tascosa, Amarillo High and Palo Duro. It’s a gauntlet but it makes us better and go through adversity to try and figure some things out.”
It was a much more fun way for Canyon to end the year before heading back to District 4-4A play next week.
“We moved up three freshmen and a sophomore for this tournament and that’s what we had one the floor there at the end,” Schulte said. “That was the third game we had a freshman in and we’ve had a freshman score in all three of those games. To have them out there in the lights with the guys cheering for them is a big thing.”
Childress 5 10 20 26
Canyon 15 25 41 56
Childress- Aiden Allen 12, Caleb Moore 4. Canyon- Gage Lunsford 21, Kelson Jones 9, Isaiah Dunham 9. Records: Childress 13-4; Canyon 10-7.
