In Adams County, Berne and Decatur lead the tourney title battle with 11 titles each, while Bellmont has won nine, South Adams four, Adams Central and Monmouth four each, Monroe three, and Pleasant Mills two. Geneva and Jefferson Township came up empty handed, while the county had two one-hit wonders, the 1928 Kirkland Kangaroos and the 1966 Decatur Catholic Commodores.

The Kirkland Township school had opened in 1917. Prior to that, kids went to school in Peterson, which had a basketball team, but the students had to go to Decatur, Monroe, or Berne to finish their high school education.

The first coach at Kirkland was James Mitchell. While Mitchell didn’t make much of a name here, he went on to a fair amount of success at both Montpelier and Seymour. Three players from those early teams at Kirkland, Lloyd Bryan, Bill Bryan, and Dwight Byerly, went on to play ball at Manchester College before joining the coaching and teaching ranks.

Bill Bryan returned to his alma mater in the fall of 1927 and promptly led the Kangaroos to their one and only sectional title.

The 1928 Kangaroos, behind the play of Luther Arnold, Walt Meyer, Floyd Arnold, and Jack Bowman, finished the season with a 12-7 record, but knock off Berne, 24-19, Hartford Township, 36-29, and Geneva, 30-18, to take home the hardware.

The Kangaroos weren’t finished yet. In the Ft. Wayne regional they drew Pierceton in the opening game. Kirkland led most of the game before a late rally by the Cubs forced an overtime. Walt Meyer’s 14 points helped the Kangaroos prevail in overtime, 25-23. In the championship game, Kirkland led most of the first half, but Ft. Wayne Central came back to end the Kangaroos’ season, 32-24. Meyer was the leading score in the championship game with 14 points, and was named to the all-regional team.

Meyer and Luther Arnold returned to Kirkland the next season, But Kirkland was suspended by the IHSAA, when it was determined, after a complaint was filed by Lancaster Township of Wells county, that the Kangaroos were guilty of trying to recruit a Lancaster player. Kirkland was suspended from the IHSAA from November 28, 1928 until January 1, 1929.

During this period of time, the Kangaroos could not play other IHSAA schools, so they played the Alumni, the Fort Wayne Comets, (an all-black team), and they played a home and home series with a Frankfort team that was also on suspension. Frankfort would be also be reinstated on January 1, 1929, and they came back to win the state title that season.

Bryan would remain as coach at the school before taking a job at Roanoke in Huntington county. He would win two sectionals there, in 1935-36. He then moved to Pierceton, the school the Kangaroos beat in the 1928 sectional, and won a title with the Cubs in 1941. He ended his coaching career at Lancaster Township in Wells county. His Lancaster teams won the Bluffton sectional in 1949 and 1950, making him quite probably the only coach in Indiana high school history to win sectional titles with four different schools.