AST: Can Carmel three-peat with the All-Sports Trophy?

By Mike McGraw
Executive Director

We are rapidly approaching the start of the 2008-2009 sports season, meaning there’s only one thing left to take care of from last year’s frenzied competition.

We need to award the 3rd Annual Hoosier Authority All-Sports Trophy!

As the ’07-08 school year began, the overwhelming question was whether anyone could keep the award from becoming an annual rite at Carmel High School. Despite carefully crafted rules to provide smaller schools with an equal opportunity to lay claim to the title, the Greyhounds had captured both of the previous awards.

Over this next month leading up to the start of the ’08-09 school year, we will provide you with the season-by-season story of last year’s chase for the trophy. We’ll begin with Fall 2007.

Last autumn, Carmel certainly didn’t do anything to indicate it would be any easier on the competition than it had ever been. The Greyhounds won the 5A state championship in football. They also fared well once again in state cross country competition, and the ’Hounds placed a squad in the volleyball finals. The defending champion amassed well over 400 points.

However, the champs ended the fall campaign looking up in the standings to an unexpected challenge.

The surprise of the fall season came out of Columbus, where the North Bull Dogs scored points in every sport and ended the season on top of the standings. The charge can be attributed to a strong football squad, a boys tennis team that generated a long run in the tourney, and the volleyball squad.

Early on, it seemed to be a big school parade. There were several other schools that fared very well last autumn. Among the programs mounting early challenges were Indianapolis Cathedral, Evansville Reitz, and Lake Central.

If you are wondering about small-school contenders, the fall is a bad time to judge. It is the season that encompasses the most sports that are not contested in small schools.

Sheridan, which once again claimed the 1A title in football, did not score another point in the year’s first season. Fort Wayne Luers managed only 37.5 points past the performance of their champion footballers.

Here is a list of the Top 10 programs after the Fall ’07 season. Remember, we have not added in the small-school multiplier yet. We will do that after we take you through the entire year.

I know – it is cheap self-promotion. But we are good at it. See you soon!

All-Sports Trophy standings following Fall 2007
1. Columbus North 487.5
2. Carmel 442.5
3. Indianapolis Cathedral 407.5
4. Lake Central 367.6
5. Evansville Reitz 337.5
6. Center Grove 285
7. North Central (Indianapolis) 267.5
8. Chesterton 265
9. Munster 262.6
10. Bloomington North 255
10. Floyd Central 255

Think
Carmel can be toppled? Share your thoughts on our All-Sports Trophy Feedback
message board.