The fall sports season came to an end for Abingdon-Avon High School last week with a Tornado volleyball regional quarterfinal loss. It’s time to begin the winter sports season for A-Town. Both the Tornado boys and girls basketball teams are coming off successful seasons and have high hopes coming into this year. The Tornado boys ended last season at (20-14), losing to Peoria Christian in a regional championship match. The Tornadoes were below .500 before winning 9 of their final 10 games of the season. It was the second time in the past 3 seasons that A-Town has made a late-season surge that ended in a regional championship appearance. Abingdon-Avon High School Athletic Director Reid Kelso says that is a product of having a challenging early season schedule to prepare for the postseason.
The Tornado girls basketball team might have the highest expectations of anyone around the area. The ladies lost only one senior and return all five starters from a team that went (26-8) and made it all the way to the sectional championship game before falling to class 1A state runnerup, Illini Bluffs. It’s fully expected that the Torando girls will carry a class 1A state-ranking into the season. Athletic Director Kelso says the Tornado girls are ready to live up to those high hopes.
Once again this winter, Abingdon-Avon High School will host both a girls and boys basketball shootout. The annual highly anticipated shootouts that contain many intriguing match ups throughout the day will take place on Saturday, December 14th for the girls and Saturday, December 21st for the boys.
For the full interview with AD Reid Kelso, go to the SPORTS PODCAST section.
