Prior to 2004, Van-Far didn’t have a team state championship to its credit.

Then, a group of boys came together to win 27 straight games and a state championship in front of a huge swath of community members at the Hearnes Center in Columbia. Coaches and players from that team were supposed to be recognized last week during Van-Far’s home games with South Shelby before the winter weather forced their cancellation, but memories from that season are still intact.

Mike Smith, who currently lives in Columbia, was a sophomore when the Indians went all the way and made a name for himself early as the team’s leading scorer. Smith went on to be the school’s career leader in rebounds, steals, blocks, consecutive games played, consecutive games started and double-doubles, and the three-time all-state player 96 career double-doubles from 2003-2006 are still a MSHSAA record. The moment Van-Far won the championship obviously is among the most memorable moments, Smith said, but all of the moments when the Indians were together stick out to him.

“The brotherhood that we had as far as teammates and coaching staff is what really made us special,” Smith said. “We had that bond and were able to trust one another on the court and off the court.”

Smith pointed out that some of the group had played basketball together since grade school so there were some already strong bonds established. He said was a year or two behind players such as all-state point guard Garon Suddarth, Joe Basinger and Chris “Juice” Nation, who had already made some postseason runs.

The Indians believed they could win a state championship despite its unprecedented nature in Vandalia, Smith said, and enjoyed each other’s company whenever they were together just hanging out or with then-head coach and current Missouri Military Academy athletic director Brian Meny.

“The camaraderie on the team was really good,” Smith said. “Coach Meny would always have us over to his house, watching film and having us over for pizza. We really bonded together.”

Meny said he can’t believe it’s been 20 years since he remembers the season vividly, though, some of his players now have children that he has watched play and his son, Trevor, who was five or six years old as the ball boy has played Division II basketball. He describes himself as a tough coach that expected much out of his players and Meny ended up getting more than enough.

After reaching the quarterfinals multiple times, Meny said Van-Far was finally able to break through with the state championship. He said there certainly was a togetherness in the sense that everybody liked each other but also in the sense of competitiveness.

“If you watched us in practice, you would think those kids never got along because it was all business on the court in practice, in games, it really didn’t matter,” Meny said. “We played, if I recall, 23 schools that were larger than us so we bulked the schedule up.”

Meny said that competitiveness rallied together early when Van-Far started 1-3 as some key players were dealing with injuries. He said Smith had a hip pointer carry over from football season and Chad Reading, who was one of the Indians’ leaders and an all-around player, had a staph infection in his foot. Expectations were high heading into the season after several close calls in previous years so Meny was a little “on edge.”

The Vandalia resident Reading, who Meny called the “smartest basketball player” he’s coached, still has a shirt to commemorate Van-Far’s trip to the state Final Four that year, despite the writing on the shirt being impossible to read now.

“It said something about heading to the Final Four or something like that,” Reading said. “I can’t even remember what it says, and you can’t read it either. It was a team shirt only so it was neat to have our own little T-shirt.”

Reading admits the Indians were still coming together as a team when they started 1-3 and were adjusting after graduating some kids, including all-stater Matt Smith, and not having a “stellar summer.” He said the team knew it was going to be solid but had to lock on to an identity.

The season turned around and losing eventually became a distant memory for the Indians when Reading said they gained that “one extra punch” of having a full roster that knew what they wanted to accomplish on the court. Reading said there wasn’t a selfish person, or “me monster” as the former coach calls them, on the roster.

“Our team identity was definitely hard-nosed basketball, especially on the defensive end,” Reading said. “There were no easy buckets, and we worked very well as a team to make sure we were always in the right positions defensively. There was no ‘me monster’ in the group. We shared the ball well, we were always helping on defense and that was the glue that we’d been growing up together and playing together.”

The all-state wide receiver Basinger, who is the head coach of the Montgomery County girls that have allowed under 40 points a game for five straight seasons, would “hound you” defensively, Reading said. The “very creative” Suddarth “made a lot of things happen” and is the school career record holder with 6.79 assists per game, which is 12th in the MSHSAA record books. Tanner Fennewald was a “deadly 3-point shooter” that defenders couldn’t stray too far from, and Smith was somebody who could get easy buckets and absolutely needed scoring opportunities.

Smith said Van-Far played fast and pressed on defense to find some easy buckets on offense and just had a toughness that carried the team through the season.

“Toughness was our identity,” Smith said. “We didn’t have anybody trying to do anything of what they were capable of doing. Joe Basinger was a defender, Shane Brookshier was a defender, Garon Suddarth was a really good point guard that could get his own and also get his teammates involved, Chad (Reading) was our do-it-all as he could get a basket, he could defend, he could rebound, and I could score and play a little bit. Putting all those pieces together is really what our identity was, everybody knowing their role.”

After Van-Far made it past the quarterfinals this time with a 79-77 victory over Harrisburg, the Indians defeated Senath-Hornersville 73-52 and then came out on top of a defensive battle with Marionville 46-40. Meny said Marionville slowed Van-Far down after the Indians averaged over 70 points a game, but Van-Far came on top.

Meny said there are little moments that stay with him like when Reading’s shot gave Van-Far a bigger advantage before he fouled out.

“We ran a little cross-section screen and brought Mike Smith to the ball. I knew they would go with him and brought Chad back and he hit about a 14-foot jump shot from the elbow,” Meny said. “I told him in the timeout, ‘Chad, I know you’re going to catch it and you’ll be wide open and try to drive it and get fouled. I don’t want you to do that. Just catch it and shoot it because you won’t miss.’ He caught that ball and he was wide open, shot it, made it and that gave us a 3-point lead.”

Reading said there was about a minute left in the game when he fouled out. When the game clock reached zero and the Indians ran out on the floor, that’s when Reading noticed the size of the crowd.

“I never really noticed how big the crowd was and everybody cheering until it was all over,” Reading said. “You look around and see all the support, happy faces and teammates, it was a pretty significant time for a young man at that age. There were a lot of people there and a lot of black and gold.”

Reading went on to coach seven years at Mark Twain and has eight years under his belt as an official, but Reading said the fact that he is still asked about 2004 shows how special it was to the community. When Van-Far was in its home gym, Reading said it was at full capacity with standing-room only, people on the sideline and people on the bleachers on the stage.

“It was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to call the fire marshal in here. This is getting a little out of hand,’” Reading said with a laugh.

Smith said it felt like “almost the whole town” of Vandalia was at the state title game and it was pretty special seeing the community come together the same year the Indians came together on the court. He remembers Van-Far’s gym being packed even in the following season.

“The community played a big part in it,” Smith said. “A lot of the games were standing-room only so the support we had from the community was vital in winning a lot of those games.”

Meny said there isn’t anything like the experience when a small community is headlining the state finals. He said it’s like the whole town shuts down since everybody cares so much about the success of the local team.

“The community was behind us 100 percent,” Meny said. “You move on to bigger schools and you just don’t get the feeling of the small schools when they’re winning.”

Meny said it was a case of “you’re only as good as the people you put around you” and that definitely applied to his assistant coaches Ron Stallcup and Todd Cripe. Stallcup was presented with the Distinguished Service Award from the Missouri Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association from Meny at an earlier Van-Far home game this season. Cripe is the current head coach of the Wellsville-Middletown girls, who are coming off a second-place district season and their first winning season in 13 years.

Reading said Cripe was a great coach to have on the sidelines and did a lot of good things for the team.

“He could break down film, he knew basketball well and was a tough coach,” Reading said. “He would work you hard and was a big part of why we were successful, seeing the thing coach Meny couldn’t see as a head coach and bringing things to light.”

Meny said Van-Far needed everybody that season to win the title and said it is the “most mentally tough” team he’s coached that would “come at” teams rather than worry whenever the Indians trailed. At the end of the season, he said he had four kids average double-figures and one off the bench averaging about eight points.

“That was a special group because I had kids coming off my bench that ended up with college scholarships,” Meny said. “That’s how deep that group of kids was.”