Kessinger named to Junior Indiana All-Star roster

Corydon Central junior Bronson Kessinger has turned heads on the basketball floor at the varsity level since his freshman campaign.
With NCAA Division I offers coming in before his junior year began, Kessinger has become a household name not only in Southern Indiana, but throughout the state.
The 6-foot-7 Kessinger picked up a state-wide honor last week, being named to the IndyStar.com Indiana boys’ Junior All-Star team.
Kessinger will be the first in the Corydon Central boys’ basketball program to participate in the event. Previously, there have been two representatives from Harrison County schools in the boys’ Indiana All-Star series. The last came in 2006 when Chris VanHoose represented Lanesville and the other being South Central’s Craig Schoen.
In addition to eclipsing the 1,000-career-point mark this past season, Kessinger averaged 17.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 steals per outing. The numbers helped the Panthers win a share of the Mid-Southern Conference title, leading to a 19-4 record.
Eighteen players were selected for the Junior All-Star squad with Kessinger filling the roster for the ‘South’ players.
Players in the core group include Ryan Cline (Carmel), Davon Dillard (Bowman Academy), Hyron Edwards (East Chicago Central), Jordan Geist (Penn), Josh Speidel (Columbus North) and K.J. Walton (Brownsburg).
Joining Kessinger as the South players selected are Gary Bonds (Indianapolis Scecina), Harris Brown (Indianapolis Howe), Adam Eberhard (Evansville Memorial), Brennan Gillis (Ben Davis) and Joel Okafor (Richmond).
The North group consists of Ryan Fazekas (Marquette Catholic), Drew Hackett (Munster), Matt Holba (Guerin Catholic), Sean McDermott (Pendleton Heights), Chris Palombizio (Chesterton) and Tahjai Teague (Pike).
Kessinger will have a familiar coach on the sideline as Corydon Central’s Jamie Kolkmeier will guide the Junior All-Stars. He’ll be joined by Chad Ballenger (Hamilton Heights) and Brent Keck (Perry Meridian) as his assistants.
Kolkmeier said it will be neat to have the opportunity to coach Kessinger in the All-Star series.
The Junior All-Stars will play two games against the Kentucky Junior All-Stars on June 6 and June 7. The June 6 games will be at Scecina High School in Indianapolis, with the girls’ game beginning at 5 p.m. followed by the boys’ game. The June 7 games will be at a site in Lexington, Ky., to be determined, with the girls’ game beginning at 5 p.m. and boys’ game to follow.
The Junior All-Stars also will play two games against the IndyStar.com Indiana All-Star seniors on June 9 and 11. The sites and times for these game will be announced later.
The players listed as core group players will play in all four games.
The players listed as North group players will join the core group for one game against Kentucky and one game against the Indiana seniors.
The players listed as South group players will join the core group for the other game against Kentucky and the other game against the Indiana seniors.
The Indiana senior All-Stars will play the Kentucky senior All-Stars on June 13 at Transylvania University in Lexington and on June 14 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.The girls’ game will begin at 5 p.m. and the boys’ game will follow.
The Junior All-Star team is determined by the 22-member Indiana Basketball Coaches Association all-state panel in conjunction with its selection of the IBCA/Subway Underclass All-State Team. The selection process allows all IBCA-member head coaches the opportunity to vote for top players from schools on the traditional regional structure of the non-class tournament format. Representatives from each of those 16 regional areas, plus six at-large representatives from IHSAA districts (two each from District 1, District 2 and District 3), then meet to review those votes and finalize the selections.