This year’s Southeast men’s athletics have been nothing short of impressive. Boys’ Cross Country and Football dominated the regular season in nearly every match they had, with the cross country team winning nearly every meet they attended and football going undefeated in the regular season with blowouts nearly every game. However, both teams, unfortunately, fell just short of winning it all. XC Boys placed second at state to Wichita Trinity, and football experienced a heartbreaking loss in the semi-finals against Kingman after a hard-fought game ending in double overtime. Despite the losses in the final moments of their seasons, these boys proved that SES athletics are nothing to be taken lightly. 

That sort of narrative can be used in the case of the expectations of boys’ basketball. Coming into the season, the Trojans were ranked #2 overall, only being placed under game 1 competitor and previous back-to-back state champions, Hesston. In this first game, Southeast took the win 56-46, with a big statement to be made for how they plan the rest of the season to go. 

The Trojans have a lot to prove this season. After taking a loss in a close semi-finals game against Royal Valley, the Trojans placed third in their consolation game against Thomas More Prep-Marian. The bright side to this season is that the Trojans haven’t lost the majority of last year’s starting lineup, with the current seniors Nakari Morrical-Palmer, Eli Sawyers, Luke Gebhardt, and Drake Augustine, along with junior Daniel Kejr all seeing significant playing time last season.

When asked about his expectations for the season, Nakari had this to say: “We’re definitely aiming to bring in a championship. The guys have played with each other over multiple sports and gotten really close to winning, so it’d be nice to win in a big sport “

Southeast has won the first three games of the season, beating out Smoky Valley and Beloit in the first two weeks of December alone. Tonight, the Trojans play the Abilene Cowboys, ranked #4 in 4A. A fair matchup between two promising schools is sure to make a great game. “Nothing’s free, we have to earn everything we want to accomplish, and we gotta go out to their gyms and beat every one of them, and just go out there and fight.” Says Nakari. With big margins of victory coming from these previous games, it has begun to look like nothing can stop these boys on their path to a state championship.