Columbus East’s Saige Stahl shoots between Columbus North’s Kylah Lawson, Jennings County’s Kali Thompson and Brown County’s Lexie Austin during the All-Area All-Star girls basketball game at Columbus Christian School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Even though the Yellow team defeated the Maroon team 69-56 in Monday night’s annual All-Area All-Star Girls Basketball game, it was more than just an ordinary basketball game.
The bigger emphasis that Monday’s game had was playing for a cause and helping out the community, and this year was no different.
The beneficiary of this year’s boys and girls games is Columbus North junior cheerleader Ariel Roberts, who is battling an embryonal brain tumor that was diagnosed in early January. The money raised will help Roberts and her family with medical costs. About $650 was raised during Monday’s girls game to go with the $950 that was raised at the March 21 All-Star boys game.
“It’s nice to be able to support another student athlete in the community. It seems like it’s grown every year,” Columbus Christian boys coach and athletics director Kevin Roth said. “It’s been great for the community. The kids enjoy it. Several kids, parents thanked me after the game. It’s a situation where seniors can put an ending to their high school careers and move on to college or something else whether it be in basketball or other sports. It’s an opportunity to play with other student athletes you don’t get to play with.”
It’s been a yearly tradition that started back in 2015 by Roth, Columbus Christian superintendent and South Decatur boys coach Kendall Wildey and former Columbus Christian girls coach Ron Bridgewater. Bridgewater originally had the idea after watching his son, former Crusader Nick Bridgewater, and former Columbus East player Connor Umphress practice together in the gym.
The players comprised were from The Republic’s All-Area team from the nine schools across the circulation area. The beneficiary in the inaugural game was former North boys basketball standout Josh Speidel, who suffered a traumatic brain injury from an auto accident earlier that year.
“It was born out of an idea that I wasn’t done watching my son play. We had incredible support, and then when we tied the fundraiser for Josh Speidel to it, it took it to another level. It’s been running great ever since,” Bridgewater said. “Every year, we’ve been looking for a special cause money can go to. Of course with Ariel this year, it’s a really great thing to see the community come together.”
North junior Emma Long, who’s known Roberts since they both went to Ogilville Christian Church Preschool together, became close with Roberts all the way up until this year because of different classes each one of them had. Long did mention that she still keeps in touch with Roberts.
“She’s always the energetic girl that I’d always hang out with at school,” Long said. “We had a bunch of classes together, so I was really upset because I know that’s a bad thing for her. She’s super-active in cheer, so I was down for her, but I always prayed for her because I wanted her to get better.”
In the game, Columbus East’s Saige Stahl finished with a game-high 17 points for the Yellow team. East’s Koryn Greiwe had 13, and Hauser’s Madelyn Poe added 11.
For the Maroon team, Brown County’s Lexie Austin scored a team-high 11 points, and North’s Lauren Barker added 10.
“I love playing with girls that I never even thought I’d be playing with,” Greiwe said. “It’s so fun to see all the talented girls come together, and to have the support of the community is awesome. It was a really fun game today.”
