Olathe ? The pressure on gifted athletes to concentrate on one sport can begin young and never stops flying at them. Free State High senior Christian Ballard, bound for the University of Iowa on a football scholarship, never took that path. He kept playing basketball because he knew his team needed him.

If not for that decision, Free State wouldn’t be going to the Class 6A state tournament, and Ballard wouldn’t have been able to experience the most meaningful moment of his athletic career.

A remarkably quick man who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 275 pounds with room to fill out, Ballard totaled 18 points and 10 rebounds Friday night in Free State’s 49-34 victory over Olathe South in a sub-state final played at Olathe Northwest.

Ballard played the season for teammates and his school. He revealed after the game he played this one for someone else.

“The first thing I want to say is I’m dedicating this game to my grandmother, who passed away (Monday),” he said of Mary Ballard of Montgomery, Ala. “These last two games are the first two games she’s gotten to see me play. She never got to see me play before she passed away. I wanted to play harder for her than I’ve ever played in my life.”

He was not able to join his parents for the Wednesday funeral in Montgomery. They missed their son’s big game and surely will hear all about it for a long, long time.

Ballard reflected a moment on a favorite memory.

“Me, my grandmother and my grandfather went to a lake in Alabama and went fishing for catfish, and my grandmother went over to a pond and picked up a goldfish, took it home and kept it,” Ballard said. “We fried catfish that my grandfather caught, and it was the best meal I ever had.”

Ballard’s hunger for a state title wasn’t satisfied in football. The Firebirds’ first loss came in the state semifinals.

“After that loss, I set a goal to win a state title in basketball,” Ballard said.

Just eight 6A schools have a shot at achieving that, and Free State, which heads to Emporia next week, is one of them. Lawrence High, which twice defeated the Firebirds, is not. The Lions’ season ended in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader.

Leavenworth smoked Lawrence, 69-48. To a man, this is what happened when a Leavenworth player was removed from the game: He encouraged the man going in for him, went to the bench and focused on the game. He didn’t shake his head and roll his eyes because to do so is to risk making the man going in for him feel worthless. Teams full of players who get how important that is usually win, sometimes by 21 points.

The Lions’ loss came despite team-oriented efforts from departing seniors Nick Wagner (15 points), Nathan Padia (10 points) and Jace McNabb (tenacious defense), and the leader of next season’s team, sophomore Dorian Green (seven points). Those four also knew the right way to head to the bench, and where to keep their heads.

Visit the Booth Family Hall of Athletics inside Allen Fieldhouse, and you’ll see displays featuring athletes who knew the right way to respect teammates and coaches. The Hall has been such a huge hit, by the way, look for an announcement as soon as today that it will be expanding.