Keota’s Sawyer Stout Selected to the Class 1A Second All-State Team

Senior captain of the Keota Eagles boys’ basketball team, Sawyer Stout, continued to acquire season accolades, as he was named the Class 1A Second All-State Team and the Southeast All-Star team for the ICBA All-Star Game. 

The senior guard led the Eagles in scoring with 20.9 points per game. He finished with the seventh most field goals and 12th most points in all of Class 1A. 

Stout spoke on the emotions of collecting all these individual accolades with, “It’s awesome. It means a lot to get those accomplishments at the end of the year. I was really honored to be selected to the Second All-State team. I was hoping to get first team, I thought I could if we made it to Wells Fargo (the state tournament). I was also selected to the ICBA All-Star game and get to work with legendary Coach Gingerich from Hillcrest Academy. That will be fun because I know how excellent of a coach he is. I am hoping to participate in the three point contest because I would love to show off my abilities. I work on that stuff everyday. Overall, it is awesome to get these awards after all the team success we had. I was disappointed I did not make it my junior year. That is why it feels great to make the team and to be recognized with the highest honors in the conference.”

Stout was known for ability to leak out in transition to get easy baskets. This was the main identity of the Eagles team: threes and layups. They are either going to try to push the press as much as possible, and Stout lived by that ideology. He described his thought process for the leaking with, “That is set up a lot by my point guard Cole Kindred, and our team basketball. We play good defense, and then I could leak out a little bit for easy transition baskets. If you watch high caliber teams like North Linn, and they play the exact same way. It made me a little sick watching all those teams, and saw all the teams we could’ve competed with. That fast transition basketball is really credited to Cole (Kindred) getting me the ball down the floor. I think we finished the year with the most points per game in Class 1A.”

This Keota team was filled with seniors, and the chemistry was visible to everyone who watched them play. Stout spoke on the closeness of this team with, “We have been playing with each other for so long. We play all these sports together and are in classes together all the time. We are with each other all day, and then we go out and golf or play basketball together after school. During the fall, we would go to football practice together, and shoot hoops right after. We spend all day together, so you build a strong bond with the guys.  They are going to be lifelong friends, and you just have to enjoy every minute of it.”