The Barren County Trojanettes were playing in their first Region 4 Tournament championship game since 2009, but the team wasn’t without valuable experience in a region title game.

As a senior guard in high school, Trojanettes head coach Piper Lindsey helped Barren County win the region title and her previous coaching stop at Mason County High School included a trip to the semifinals of the Girls’ Sweet 16.

With Tuesday’s 47-35 win over Bowling Green, Lindsey came full circle – leading the team she played for to its first region title since 2007.

“I can’t even put it into words,” Lindsey said. “I am so excited to be their coach. These kids – I wouldn’t trade them for the world. They are a special group that I love so much. I am just so glad that I get to go and be their coach at Rupp Arena.”

One of the people watching Barren County’s win Tuesday night at E.A. Diddle Arena was Lindsey’s former coach John Butler. He said he’s not surprised that Lindsey has had the success as a coach that she has had.

“She has good bloodlines,” Butler said. “Her dad (Billy Lindsey) was a pretty good coach for years, so (I knew). She was a guard, a smart player and played hard. She’s been around it all her life, so it didn’t surprise me. She’s done a tremendous job with them.”

It’s been a four-year journey for Barren County under Lindsey. When she took the job in May 2015, she inherited a team that hadn’t won a District 15 game since 2012 and hadn’t made it to the Region 4 tournament since 2009.

From the beginning, Lindsey said she told the team to trust the process and the players bought it.

“That’s one thing they had to do from their freshman year – if they trusted in each other and trusted in what we were doing – that we would get here,” Lindsey said. “I’m proud of the girls for staying in the fight and continuing to get better every year and finally getting the big prize.”

Senior forward McKenzie England said having a coach that had success as a player at Barren County was beneficial.

“Knowing that coach Lindsey has been here before, knowing that she has been in our shoes before, I think she can relate to us a little more,” England said. “It means a lot that we could find a great coach like her to help us exceed at region and go to state.”

The success didn’t come right away.

Barren County finished 12-16 her first season in 2015-16, with another winless record in district play. The Trojanettes finally broke the district streak and the region tournament drought the next season, finishing 20-13.

Last year, Barren County won the District 15 tournament title and finished 25-7 but lost in the first round of the region tournament for a second straight year.

This season, Barren County entered the year as preseason favorite and lived up to the promise. With Tuesday’s win, the Trojanettes improved to 31-4, the most wins in a season in the program’s history.

But Tuesday’s title didn’t come without a couple of scares.

Barren County needed a 3-pointer from England at the horn in overtime against Allen County-Scottsville, a play drawn up out of a timeout, to escape from the opening round of the District 15 tournament. In the opening round of the region tournament against South Warren, Elizabeth Bertram’s three-point play with 3.4 seconds left – a play that happened after Lindsey opted not to call a timeout when the Spartans took the lead with nine seconds remaining – proved to be the difference.

Butler said both of those coaching decisions were the perfect call and part of the reason the Trojanettes were able to complete the quest for the region crown Tuesday.

He also said it’s a small example of why Lindsey has been the perfect choice to lead Barren County’s resurgence on the court.

“She’s from here and she’s young,” Butler said. “She related real quick to the kids. She’s the perfect person for the job and I couldn’t more proud of her.”

And like her former coach, Bertram said Lindsey was the perfect fit for a program hungry for another region title.

“She knows what she is doing,” Bertram said. “She’s led us through the whole thing. We couldn’t have done it without her.”{&end}