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Parade worthy

CRAWFORD | Small school, big dreams: Bardstown Bethlehem girls head back to Sweet Sixteen

Bethlehem girls basketball parade
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It is an enduring, and endearing, feature of the Kentucky state high school basketball tournament that you need not be big to dream big. Long after most states have gone to class basketball to allow for championships among various enrollment levels, the KHSAA’s Sweet Sixteen continues to sponsor one championship for all.

And in this week’s girls’ Sweet Sixteen, Bardstown Bethlehem is back. The private school a mile or so down the road from My Old Kentucky Home State Park has an enrollment of around 250.

It also has a girls’ basketball team with a great deal of ambition. Two years after their first taste of the Sweet Sixteen, the Banshees are back to try to win it.

They scheduled as many top schools as they could, and head to Rupp Arena with a record of 25-4.

“We played a really hard schedule this year, probably the top eight schools in the state of Kentucky as far as girls’ basketball,” principal Sara Thurmond said. “And we competed in every one. So I feel like the coaches and team really got our girls ready to compete in the postseason.”

IMAGES | Bardstown Bethlehem girls' basketball: Send-off to state

They are a small school, but far from an underdog. They enter this week’s tournament ranked No. 3 in the state by MaxPreps. They lost to top-ranked Anderson County by one in the regular season, and to No. 2-ranked Ryle by four. They also lost to No. 6 Boyd County by one.

They have victories over No. 4 Marshall County, No. 10 Elizabethtown, No. 11 Sacred Heart, No. 17 Bardstown, No. 21 Apollo, and No. 24 Breckinridge County.

And with a previous trip to the Sweet Sixteen (a 6-point first-round loss to Owensboro Catholic in 2019) behind them, they have some tournament seasoning.

“It has been a lot of pressure. We feel like we have a target on our back,” senior Ella Thompson said. “But we like it. We like the competition. . . . The lights were super bright last time and I feel like we’re more used to it now, and we’re ready to go.”

When you accomplish something like this in a town the size of Bardstown, it’s a bit different. The blue balloons start to pop up all over town. And on Monday, the team paraded through town on a fire truck, around the historic court house, and through downtown, waving to well-wishers along the way.

“It feels amazing. We love all the support,” senior Amelia Hodges said.

“It’s great,” added Thompson. “We love to get our community all together and celebrate – and hopefully to keep it rolling.”

In the first round, Bethlehem will face a familiar foe. Though they didn’t play Bullitt East (22-2) during the regular season, they know all about the Chargers. In the KHSAA’s RPI, Bethlehem is ranked seventh in the state, Bullitt East No. 8. They are the fourth- and fifth-highest rated in the Sweet Sixteen field.

“We know this team,” Thompson said. “We’ve seen them play all year. They’re not strangers to us, so it’s very exciting.”

The teams play Thursday at 2 p.m.

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