We’re getting to the end of basketball season, meaning the biggest games are about to be played for all of our local teams. Last year, the Keith girls won the 1A championship and the year before Dallas County’s boys took home the 5A championship.

Statewide, Dallas County as a whole has developed a reputation as one of the best areas for basketball in the entire state.

With many very talented teams this year, we’re confident that can continue, but our local schools will need some help.

We’ve written in the past that our schools receive a ton of support, especially when playing other county schools. There might not be another area of the state that draws as big of crowds as the local rivalries do in Selma.

However, the crowds are much smaller when one of our local teams is playing a school from a different part of the state. Usually, those are the most important games of the year.

Area tournaments mark the beginning of the Alabama High School Athletic Association playoffs and are played during the first two weeks of February. Many teams — like Selma, Southside and Dallas County — will have to hit the road for tournaments, but Keith will be at home.

Whether at home or on the road, our student athletes deserve our support in their pursuit of a championship.

In basketball, teams often feed off the crowd for energy. If there’s enough support, that energy could carry another one of our schools to Birmingham for the state finals.