50 After 50: After breaking school record for victories, No. 48 Indians derailed by mysterious illness

No. 48 — 2019-20 Payson Seymour

The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock counties since 1972.

PAYSON, Ill. — An impressive 67-52 victory over Triopia for the Class 1A Triopia Regional championship seemed to be just the start of what was expected to be a long postseason run for the Payson Seymour boys basketball team in 2020.

Then suddenly, Indians coach Brian Rea was sick. He missed practices on Saturday and Monday. 

And no one knew how or why.

“It was the day before (the sectional semifinal game against Madison),” said Cole Schwartz, a senior on that team. “He literally never missed a day of school, a day of practice or whatever. Then all of a sudden, we got a group text that said how sick he’d been and how he tried to go to the doctor. He wanted to be there, but his body was not allowing him to be there.”

A weakened Rea slept in the back of the car during the trip from Payson to the sectional game at Dupo against Madison. The Indians were sharp early. They led 25-20 at halftime and led 32-28 midway through the third quarter. Madison finally ended a stretch of cold shooting (missing 13 of 14 3-pointers), making 10 of 13 shots in the third quarter to take command for good.

Payson Seymour entered the sectional with the No. 6 ranking in Class 2A and the most victories in school history. A chance to earn the first state tournament berth in school history was just three victories away. Instead, the Indians limped home from Dupo with a 69-57 loss and a final record of 32-3.

“This was before (doctors) tested for COVID, but my doctor later told me he believed it was COVID,” Rea said. “We didn’t know what it was at the time. I just thought it was a bad form of the flu. It was really difficult. I was out of school for a week after the sectional game.”

Madison went on to win the sectional and super-sectional before concerns about COVID-19 forced the Illinois High School Association to cancel the 2020 state tournaments.

“It’s crazy to look back and think, ‘So that’s where (COVID-19) all started,” Schwartz said. “Right after that game is where it all hit.

“You’ve got to give credit to Madison. They were a really tough team. We were doing everything we could without Coach Rea, as far as scouting and going over the game plan. I feel like we would have had maybe a better chance against them (had Rea not been sick) because Coach Rea knows this game better than anybody I’ve ever met.”

Schwartz led a high-powered offense with 19 points per game, and Lucas Loos averaged 18.5 points per game. Those two, along with fellow seniors Hayden Hildebrand and Connor Ehrhardt, had been together since they started playing together in first grade.

“Growing up with the same guys throughout my childhood and then going into high school, we had that chemistry,” Schwartz said. “From childhood friends to high school basketball players, (basketball) was our life. We just bled Payson basketball.”

The Indians steamrolled opponents during the regular season, winning 14 games by 25 points or more. The average margin was 19.7 points per game.

“We had the potential,” said Schwartz, who is recovering from shoulder surgery after playing last season as a freshman at Culver-Stockton College. “If had a few more things go our way, we could have played in the state tournament that year.”

“I know we would have won had I been with them Saturday through Tuesday,” Rea said. “We had a tight bond, and I gave them confidence, just like they gave me confidence. It hurts looking back on it that the illness was going around and having an effect on things. It got me at the wrong time for our team.”