photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Baldwin senior Leo Schoenberger goes for a layup in Baldwin's substate championship win over Paola on Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Baldwin.

Colton Collum started to tear up before the clock ran out in the state championship game against Rock Creek as reality hit him that he and the Baldwin Bulldogs were going to win.

It was the perfect way to end his and his classmates’ Baldwin High School careers. They got to finish atop the mountain and win the state title for the first time in the school’s history. It was rewarding and fulfilling, and it was a moment that boys on the team know will stick with them for life.

“Just the feeling of knowing all the hard hours in the gym that we spent paying off our last year was just almost indescribable,” Collum said.

But the road there wasn’t easy. Collum remembers being shocked more than anything when Baldwin lost on a last-second shot to McPherson in the quarterfinal round of the 2025 playoffs.

It had been three years since Collum and his graduating classmates started at Baldwin, and in those three years, the Bulldogs reached the state tournament all three times. Yet, they fell short each time.

“Right after the (McPherson) loss, everyone was speechless for a time, but once we got back into the gym together, we could feel a new motivation,” Collum said. “It was, ‘Hey, that’s not going to happen again this year.'”

That motivation led to this season, where the eight Baldwin seniors had one final shot at winning a state championship. It was all on the line, and the Bulldogs weren’t going to accept losing in the playoffs again.

Growing up in Baldwin means something to Leo Schoenberger. It being such a small town meant that the friends he started playing sports with at 6 years old are the same friends he is graduating high school with. They go to the same schools, eat at the same restaurants, hang out at the same homes.

So when the eight boys basketball seniors started at Baldwin four years ago, they came with years of experience together both in basketball, other sports and life. It made their connection strong, and it helped them create something special on the basketball court. What made it even better was the city rallying around them. As much as Baldwin made an impact on them as little kids, their winning made an impact on the city.

“There’s not an atmosphere that I’ve played in that’s anything like what Baldwin has created for me coming into high school,” Schoenberger said. “When I felt how the community supported the sport and just how the student section and the cheer team and how the band played… just the atmosphere that basketball created, I wanted to be a part of it, and I wanted to make it as best as I can.”

As the years went on, the eight grew into bigger roles with the team and had a greater influence on Baldwin’s postseason. Cooper Carr became an all-state level player at point guard, and heading into his junior year, Schoenberger went from being someone who “does the dirty work” to being a leading scorer on the team. They improved individually, and they all improved together. But it still wasn’t enough to get to the state championship game.

So for their final year together, the pressure was on to finally get it done.

“We’ve had the four substate championships, and it felt like it was all leading up to this final year, this final run that we had together,” Schoenberger said.

The Bulldogs always had a special bond with each other, but knowing that this was their last ride together made them closer. All that time spent working out, all those nights spent in the gym had to culminate in something.

So the Bulldogs got to work. Schoenberger said the experiences of those postseason losses prepared the team for this season. It prepared them through the summer, into the regular season and through the playoffs.

“It really built our comfort zone in those moments,” Schoenberger said. “During those state games (this year), I didn’t even really feel nervous. I remember in the past, I’d feel a lot of anxiety and nervousness, but I was just being in the moment (this year).”

It wasn’t the smoothest of regular seasons for Baldwin, especially given their standards. The Bulldogs started the year with losses to Paola and Chanute. The Bulldogs had a 2-4 stretch toward the end of January where the team wasn’t playing its best basketball.

The team needed to refocus, and they did so in practice. Collum said the team got “nasty.” The Bulldogs wanted to play assertive and intense. They wanted to be the team to dive after loose balls, make tough defensive plays and be physical in the paint.

“We definitely shifted our mindset from focusing on winning to focusing on the process that it took to win, and that definitely just boosted our toughness, mentally and physically,” Collum said.

Baldwin finished the season on a five-game winning streak after that shift. One of those wins came over 5A Bonner Springs, who was undefeated at the time. That was the point in which Collum knew this was a state championship team.

“That was just like, ‘holy cow, we can do this,'” Collum said. “If we can beat them… the ability to go up against these dudes, we can definitely use that in our league.”

The Bulldogs blew out Coffeyville-Field Kindley 70-23 in the first substate round and came from behind to beat Paola in the substate championship. Baldwin then won the quarterfinal game 50-48 over Pratt and reached the semifinal for the second time in the last four years.

But for the first time, the Bulldogs won the semifinal game. A 20-point victory over Atchison put them in the state championship against Rock Creek.

It was unfamiliar territory, but it’s what the Bulldogs were prepared for. It’s what they’d spent four years working toward, and it’s where they knew they belonged. And after overcoming multiple deficits, the Bulldogs secured the state title with late free throws.

“The amount of happiness I felt from that, and how proud I am of my teammates, and just being able to do it with that group of guys was super special,” Schoenberger said. “That feeling of all the work paying off, and all the late nights and early mornings and all the adversity that we had to battle through… that feeling of ‘We won the state championship, and we did it for our city’ was special.”

The Bulldogs did it for themselves, for each other and for the city of Baldwin. They were driven by passion, and that’s what made the championship all more special and rewarding.

“What separates us from most teams is the passion and love we have for each other,” Schoenberger said. “All of our guys would die for each other, and that’s truly what makes us such a special bond. It’s how loving and caring we are towards each other, but also how we push each other in practice every day.”

As seniors, their time together in Baldwin is limited, and many already have their post-high school plans figured out.

But the bonds they made from growing up together to working in the gym together, all the wins and losses and heartbreaks and accomplishments will always remain. They won the state championship for the first time in their school’s history, and they did it with, for and because of each other and the community.

“Baldwin truly is my home, and I was so glad we were able to pull off a state championship win for this community and for everyone that’s a part of Baldwin,” Schoenberger said.