INDIANAPOLIS
More than 1,000 Center Grove football fans were crammed into Gate Ten Events just south of Lucas Oil Stadium prior to last year’s Class 6A state championship game.
The experience was such a great one, Aaron Hohlt said, that he wanted to do it again this year — so at the risk of hexing the Trojans, he booked Gate Ten again two months ago.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“I personally didn’t tell but maybe one person,” said Hohlt, whose sons Trevor and Sam are a senior and sophomore, respectively, on this year’s Center Grove team.
Just across McCarty Street from Gate Ten, a large contingent of Roncalli fans was braving the fall weather and celebrating the Rebels’ first state finals appearance since 2004.
Most of those fans have had Roncalli ties for generations. Joe Kuntz, a 1986 graduate who played on the Rebels’ first championship team in 1985, has two sons on this year’s squad — senior Alex and sophomore Connor. He was one of several parents tailgating Friday who had suited up for the Rebels while growing up.
“Roncalli’s a special place and a special community,” Joe Kuntz said, “and then the football program has been just an awesome experience for so many people, me and my sons included.”
Mike English, a 1979 Roncalli alumnus, and his wife, Joanie, have sent five of their sons to the school. Their youngest, Will, is a senior captain for the Rebels this year, and their oldest, Ryan, was a member of the unbeaten 1999 state championship team. There has been an English on the Roncalli roster 16 of the last 18 seasons.
“It’s a circle,” Joanie English said during the pregame tailgate. “We started here.”
For the families of Center Grove’s seniors, the extended football lineage feels similar. Scott McCoy, father of senior running back Titus McCoy, noted that most of the players have come up together the past decade, from youth football all the way through Friday’s grand finale.
Having one last chance to celebrate together was pretty special, Scott McCoy said.
“Still seeing the same faces and the smiles that everybody gets to share when all of this kind of goes together, it’s just awesome,” he stated.
The inside of Gate Ten was decked out in Center Grove red Friday afternoon, with two state championship banners hanging from the ceiling. A shoulder-to-shoulder crowd was expected inside by 4:30 p.m. — when everyone spilled outside to greet the team buses as they passed by on Missouri Street.
“This group of people enjoys supporting their students, and they also enjoy hanging out together,” said Mike Garrison, president of the Center Grove Athletic Booster Club.
Though the atmosphere was a festive one on both sides of McCarty Street, the mood was somewhat bittersweet for the parents of the seniors on both teams.
With this being the last hurrah for so many, there was more of an emphasis on soaking up the atmosphere and cherishing one last day of friendship, family and football.
“You kind of take it in,” Scott McCoy said. “You take deep breaths, and you just enjoy the moment.”
