Logan’s Run: Brookville senior named POY in two sports

Playmaker. Floor leader. World-beater.

You name it, Logan Thomas did it for Brookville’s boys basketball team this past season.

He led the Bees to the Group AA, Division 3 state playoffs for the first time since the late 1980s before losing to eventual state champion Cave Spring.

“He did everything for us, to some degree,” coach Chris Young said. “He was a game-changer, a kid who could take over a game.”

Thomas changed the momentum of many a game with his thunderous, and electrifying, dunks, like the one-hander he had in the Seminole District championship game against Liberty. He went on to score 11 points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter to help the Bees erase an 11-point deficit and win their third consecutive tournament title, 52-49.

The vocal, and versatile, senior was equally dominating on defense. He and fellow 6-foot-6 forward Corby Weiss formed an imposing pair, preventing post players from getting open looks in the lane.

They were particularly stifling in a 48-43 upset victory at Robert E. Lee in the Region III, Division 3 quarterfinals, when Thomas accounted for more than half of his team’s scoring with 25 points.

“He played a phenomenal fourth quarter and overtime period,” Young said.

“We had a superstar player and a bunch of role players who knew their roles, which is what made us more effective than any team I’ve had as a coach.”

Thomas, The News & Advance boys basketball player of the year after earning the same honor in football this past fall, understood his role was to be a floor leader and to do whatever the situation required.

“I played offense and defense,” he said. “I would take a 3-(pointer), play point guard, or post up, whatever they needed me to do. I just try to make my teammates better.”

That’s the same attitude he will take when he joins Virginia Tech’s football team on a full scholarship this summer.

Thomas is blessed with a unique blend of size, athleticism and competitive drive.

“I can’t step into any environment and not want to win,” he said.

That is especially true come crunch time with the game on the line.

“I tried, when the fourth quarter came around, to step up my game and help the team get ahead,” he said. “I would get into a groove where I would hit some big shots at big times in a game. I just fought to the very end trying to get a win.”

It took Thomas a few games to make the transition from the gridiron to the hardcourt, after quarterbacking the Bees to the Group AA, Division 3, state championship on Dec. 6.

“After he got his football legs out of him, after the New Year, he really just caught fire,” Young said. “The last 10 games, he averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds and three to four blocks.”

By the postseason, he showed he has the talent to play more than just football at the college level, should he so choose.

“It’ll be a challenge, but if it comes down to it, I believe I can do it,” Thomas said, noting basketball was his first love.

Besides playing beside Weiss at Brookville, Thomas will miss the support he received from the Bees’ faithful fans.

“The home crowd was crazy,” he said. “A Brookville crowd in any sport is awesome. That’s what I will remember the most. It was a pretty amazing year.”