After making his first state championship run look easy last year, Wetumpka’s Mason Blackwell had high expectations for himself and a target on his back entering his junior season. He never got complacent and went back to work to chase after another state title.

 “That’s the best thing you can ask for coming in as a first-year coach,” Wetumpka coach Anthony Byrd said. “It shows the younger kids what being that good looks like. He stayed humble and kept working.”

Caleb Turrentine is a sports writer for Tallapoosa Publishers Inc.

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