St. Elizabeth R-IV School District

COLUMBIA -- St. Elizabeth has done a lot of heavy lifting in the past 12 months.

Last June, the baseball team raised a state trophy in the air, the Hornets’ third state title in four seasons on the diamond. In November, the softball team successfully defended its state championship, adding another trophy to an overcrowded display case located outside the school’s gym.

Then, on Thursday, the girls basketball team wrapped up its first trip to the Final Four with the program’s first state title, defeating Delta 68-64 at Mizzou Arena.

At the moment, St. Elizabeth is currently the reigning Class 1 state champion in all three sports. It’s a rather remarkable feat for the small school in Miller County that only fields teams in four sports, the fourth being track and field.

So with the Hornets’ and Lady Hornets’ recent success, it only seems appropriate to start referring to St. Elizabeth as “Title Town.”

What does it take to become Title Town? Well first, there has to be talent on the field and on the court.

“We have athletic kids,” St. Elizabeth sophomore Kinley Kemna said. “We have gifted kids.”

That has to be coupled with skilled coaching, which St. Elizabeth has with Caleb Heckemeyer (baseball and boys basketball), Sheila Oligschlaeger (softball) and Quentin Voss (girls basketball).

“The coaching is amazing,” Kemna added. “We all have team chemistry and it all works together.”

Kemna would know. She has played 22 postseason games between softball and basketball, and she has only lost in one of those games -- an overtime defeat in last season’s girls basketball state quarterfinal game at Walnut Grove.

Work ethic also has to play a role in St. Elizabeth’s success. The coaches have noticed players want to put in extra work beyond their regularly scheduled practices.

“We all show up, we all want it so bad,” St. Elizabeth senior Reagan Wobbe said. “We work hard for it.”

But St. Elizabeth athletes are also aware their success goes beyond the players and the coaches.

“Our community is amazing,” St. Elizabeth senior Olivia Oligschlaeger said.. “I mean, if you would look out there and see the amount of fans we have, it’s unreal. I bet there are about two people in St. Elizabeth right now. The fact that everybody is able to show up, and we can show out for them, is amazing. And they’ve been doing that for how many years?

“We have a huge fan base. I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re so successful.”

A tough schedule in every sport has St. Elizabeth prepared for the postseason.

• In the 2025 baseball season, the Hornets only played four of their 26 regular-season games against Class 1 schools, all of which were Show-Me Central Conference opponents.

• In the 2025 softball season, the Lady Hornets’ first 11 games were against Class 3 opponents or larger.

• In the 2025-26 girls basketball regular season, St. Elizabeth had more wins against Class 4 opponents or larger (eight) than it had games played against Class 1 opponents (six).

“That plays a big part,” Wobbe said. “They get us ready because the toughness that they bring helps us get better every day.”

With Thursday’s win, St. Elizabeth won fall softball and girls basketball state championships in the same school year. The last school to accomplish that feat was Platte County in the 2008-09 school year.

Four of the Lady Hornets’ five starters on the basketball team were also starters on the softball team. Not all skills from one sport translate to the other, but the big game experience from softball carried into the girls basketball postseason.

“Being able to come into this game with a little bit of experience, knowing how state is and the atmosphere, we know we can go out there and win,” St. Elizabeth senior Allie Williams said.

But there was the difficulty of getting over the hump in basketball. St. Elizabeth has six baseball state championships and six softball state titles, but not one title in basketball -- boys or girls -- before this month.

The boys have won at least one game in each of their eight Final Four basketball trips, but the Hornets have been unable to go 2-0 to reach the top. The girls, before this season, had a 2-11 record in their basketball state tournament games.

“This had never been done in school history, by the boys or the girls,” Wobbe said. “Nobody had ever won a state title in basketball. It feels amazing that we finally got it done.”

Many of the players used that loss to Walnut Grove in last year’s postseason as extra motivation for this season.

“We’ve had some really tough paths to get to state, and we’ve fallen short so many times,” Wobbe said. “But this year, we finally succeeded and made it all the way.”

The Lady Hornets’ coach knew they had all the ingredients to put together a special season.

“I told them, ‘Guys, we’re here. You might as well go show everybody how good you are,’” Voss said. “‘You’re here, you made it. Now just go show them.’”

Wobbe, who made the game-clinching free throws against Delta, finishes her career as St. Elizabeth’s all-time leading scorer with 2,448 points. What will she remember the most about this season 30 years from now?

“Celebrating a state championship with my friends and my teammates,” Wobbe said.

Now comes the next step, trying to defend a state championship. Baseball is up first this spring, followed by softball in the fall and girls basketball next winter.

But one thing these St. Elizabeth athletes aren’t lacking is confidence. It’s something they have earned during the past 12 months.

“It’s definitely going to be a lot of pressure,” Kemna said. “I think we’re going to be able to do it, though.”