I like high school basketball, especially this time of year. It’s an Indiana thing. Our interest in it makes us Hoosiers a little different from folks in other states.
Some say it’s not what it used to be, but try telling that to the thousands who attended sectional tourneys last week. My Carmel team didn’t win this year, but that’s the way it goes. They win their share, and they’ll win in the future.
I like history too. So in the meantime, here is a little story about Fishers which was widely reported to have won its first sectional this year.
First? Well, that depends. Fishers can trace its first high school team to the early years of the last century. The original FHS operated until 1968 when a consolidated school district, Hamilton Southeastern Schools, was created.
It operated with a single high school, HSE.
But, by 2003 school officials in the rapidly growing district decided a second high school was needed. Fishers High School was re-established with the same name, school colors, and mascot as the original FHS.
Here is the interesting thing: Fishers won the local sectional in 1922, its first and only title until this year if you count the present school as a continuation of the first.
That’s 102 years between sectional titles. So, maybe no one should begrudge Fishers a big win this year. They have waited long enough.
Columnist Fred Swift has worked in newspapers for decades. He has been sharing his opinions in the pages of The Reporter since it began. Email him at swiftfred19@gmail.com.