By FRED SWIFT
The County Line
Is there another state basketball championship this week for Carmel’s storied history of athletic achievements? Maybe, we will see Saturday night when the CHS team takes on undefeated and top ranked Warren Central, a school that’s never been to the state finals.
I don’t write sports, I’m just a fan who’s followed the fortunes of Carmel basketball for half a century. There have been big changes for the sport in general and Carmel in particular. It use to be that CHS was always the underdog and many folks liked the Greyhounds in a tourney situation. Now, lots of folks outside the community will root for ABC, anyone but Carmel. That’s to be expected when they win so often.
High school basketball in Indiana is not what it once was. Class basketball, so many other high school sports and technology that offers so much in home entertainment, have all combined to reduce interest and attendance in what made Indiana famous for its basketball.
Time was when tourney season arrived store windows were decorated, community-wide pep rallies were held, and conversation at the lunch counter or the street corner inevitably turned to basketball. Nevertheless, it’s still a big deal, an especially big deal for participating teams and their schools. On Saturday, Carmel will make its seventh appearance in the basketball championship round dating back to 1925 when the finals had 16 teams. Back then, Carmel was a tiny school playing with the giants.
Now Carmel is a giant playing with the other giants. The school has won 139 championships covering nearly every sport. That’s more than twice the number of any other school. As the largest school in the state, perhaps it is logical that they should win so much.
In basketball, Carmel didn’t even win a sectional for 41 years after 1925, Those years belonged to Sheridan and later Noblesville. But, beginning in 1966 as the Carmel grew larger their teams became an almost perennial threat in the highly competitive arena of Indiana high school roundball. The Greyhounds went to the finals in 1970, 1977, 1993, 2012 and 2013 and won three times.
It’s been fun to watch. Can they do it again this year? Maybe, maybe not, but win or lose, next year looks good for CHS with the number of returning team members they have and the momentum they have built this year.