When one is fortunate to play on a State Championship Team, you do not tend to think about how you are forever linked with your teammates. We just celebrated our 30th Reunion — very hard to believe that it has been 30 years since we won the State Championship in basketball. When we won it, there was only one class of basketball and it was a very special occasion.
Noblesville is now a much bigger city. When we won it all and went 27-0, each class at NHS was about 300+ students. I think it is now double that size and then some… This made it a very special occasion as I think most of us have very fond memories of the police and fire trucks taking us around the town square that was filled with people cheering and then back to a packed gym for a pep rally. That was a very special time that would leave us with awesome memories.
All of our teammates made it back — including those as far west as California and as far east as Virginia. It is amazing that time passes, but when you get back together, it is like time has stood still. High School is a very small glimpse into one’s life; however, it can be a great foundation for the future.
Winning a State Championship in basketball and two State Championships in golf always filled me with confidence that “anything” is possible. It gave me a lot of confidence in college that we could compete and win the Big Tens which we did three times in golf. Furthermore, the high school experience also gave me a lot of confidence that we could become the State’s Largest Chevrolet Dealership.
Many of the lessons I learned in high school about learning to play as a team, having confidence, and expecting to win would carry over into my adult life. I am forever grateful for these experiences that helped shape me. When my sister and I started working at the car dealership, we were selling 135 vehicles per month. When we sold the dealership, we were selling 500+ vehicles per month. This would never have happened had we not had experiences in high school that made us think and expect to win. We expected and were able to find a way to become the largest Chevy Store in Indiana. This success was a big result of the winning experiences and fundamentals that started in high school.
The team that went 27-0 had high expectations and found ways to win. It is always fun to come back and to talk about the “good ole days” along with learning about everyone’s current endeavors. As I fight Stage 4 Cancer, I find these experiences to be even more meaningful. Furthermore, it is also a lot of fun to show your kids what “Mom did” in high school…
The day is filled with a tour of the Hall of Fame in New Castle followed by a dinner with teammates as the Hall of Fame recognized this year’s inductees (which included teammate Krissi Davis) along with our undefeated team. They also have a Silver Anniversary Team that recognizes the standouts in the Class of 1992 and that included my sister so that was also special. The older one gets the more one realizes that winning a State Championship is an awesome accomplishment and will always affect how one looks at future success. I think that as a result of some of our success in high school, we always felt like we should be at the top in business and that helped contribute to our success. We had high expectations and tried to develop fundamentals that helped us become the largest store in Indiana. We recognized the importance of “role players” and “developing talent” and this helped us achieve our goals both in 1987 and now. We are very fortunate to have been surrounded by winning people!!