vidalia — Two seasons ago Vidalia High School’s Gary Stewart led the Vikings to a LHSAA-3A State Championship. Now he has his sights set on accomplishing a goal that would overshadow all of his high school accomplishments.

Stewart is a member of the Northwestern State University basketball team, and he hopes this is the season that the Demons crack the field of 68.

“If we made it to the tournament, I can’t even express the feeing of it,” Stewart said. “The feeling of winning a championship in high school wouldn’t compare to the NCAA Tournament. It’s something I’ve always dreamed of and wanted to do. Coming from a small town like Vidalia, I never really thought I’d be playing Division-1 basketball.”

Stewart said his goals are high, but he thinks the Demons (7-6) have a good enough team to make a run at the tournament this season.

“We start conference play next Saturday, and my expectactions are very high,” he said. “I want to be the best team in the conference, and I feel like it’s going to be a hard battle. We have some good teams (in the Southland Conference), but if we play together like we’ve played the last four or five games, we can win the conference. I expect to finish 16-0 or 15-1 and make it to the NCAA Tournament this year.”

Northwestern State has lost six games so far in pre-conference play with three of those losses coming to Cincinnati, Missouri and Mississippi State — all of which are either in the AP Top 25 or were earlier in the season.

Stewart said the Demons have faced several good teams but the best so far was No. 8 Missouri.

“That’s the best team hands down,” he said. “Everybody on that team can shoot.”

Stewart said he liked the way his team played against Mississippi State, even though the Demons lost the game by 15 points.

“We went in there thinking it would be a harder game,” he said. “The first 10 minutes were kind of slow and after that everything started clicking. We were shooting, passing the ball well and everybody was having fun and competing.”

Stewart said the Demons struggled early in the year searching for their identity.

“We were having problems trying to find team chemistry,” he said. “We have like eight new players still trying to find out how everybody plays on the court and our go-to guy. Our record doesn’t show it, but we’re a good team right now. Everybody knows their roles now and is accepting their roles.”

Stewart’s role on the team is a jack-of-all-trades player that can come off the bench and provide a spark, he said.

“I think my role is to come in and play as hard as I can,” he said. “Most of the time I try to get everybody going. If we start off slow, coach (Mike McConathy) comes to me and says, ‘Gary come on let’s get them going.’

“They look for me to score if I’m having a good game and if not the look for me to create and rebound.”

Stewart is averaging six points, two rebounds and one assist per game this season. He has reached double-digit points in three of the team’s last four contests.

Although Stewart’s ultimate basketball goal is still in front of him, he often finds himself reminiscing about his days as a Viking.

“My playing days at Vidalia meant a lot to me,” he said. “The environment was great. I really loved the fans in Vidalia. It’s nothing compared to the fans here. Vidalia fans show so much more support. I wish I could go back sometimes, because I would go back in a heart beat.”

Stewart said he also brags to his current teammates about the success his teams had in high school.

“To this day I still talk about (winning a championship), and my teammates tell me to stop living in the past,” he said. “It was great to come from where we came. Nobody knew about Vidalia and to make it to the championship two straight years and win it the second year was special.”

Stewart said he is currently majoring in psychology at Northwestern State, and if basketball is not in his future he would like to work with young people.

“My hopes are to graduate, most importantly, and if I don’t make it to the NBA, I hope to play ball somewhere overseas or in the Developmental League,” he said. “Then if basketball doesn’t work out I just want to be able to get my degree and come back and do something in the school system like a student counselor.”

Northwestern State will continue their tough non-conference schedule Saturday when they travel to Norman, Okla., to face the Sooners.

“They are going to be tough,” he said. “They are real strong, tall team, and the Big-12 is physical. I think it’s going to be a good battle for us, but if we play how we can play and don’t be timid, I think if we don’t win, it will be a close game.”