Putting together a list of the top 10 Johnson County sports stories from 2020 was equal parts easy and difficult. The list of contenders wasn’t quite as deep as it has been in years past, largely because the entire spring and most of the summer was completely wiped out by a pandemic.
On the flip side, it’s probably never going to be easier to decide on the number one and two spots than it was this year, which has been easily the strangest of our time in terms of sports (and just about everything else).
1. Spread offense
COVID-19 owned the year. Period. Ranking anything else in the top spot might make for a more cheerful list, but not an accurate one. The pandemic wiped out the end of the boys basketball state tournament, eliminated the entire spring sports season and affected everything that’s happened since. The Greenwood-Whiteland football game was one of hundreds that got canceled during the fall, and a quarantine knocked the Franklin girls basketball and Greenwood wrestling teams out of the Johnson County tournaments. With any luck, the virus won’t cast such a large shadow over 2021 too.
2. The Untouchables
In any “normal” year, Center Grove’s incredible 2020 football season would be a shoo-in for the No. 1 spot. The Trojans were considered the state’s top team going into the year, and they lived up to every bit of the hype and then some during a 14-0 tour of destruction that saw them win 13 games against teams ranked in the top 28 of the Sagarin ratings, posting five shutouts and never allowing more than 14 points. Senior running back Carson Steele was named Indiana’s Mr. Football, the first player in school history to be so honored.
3. GCA girls make history
It took a double-digit comeback in the semifinal to get there, but the Greenwood Christian girls basketball team defeated Jac-Cen-Del and North Central (Farmersburg) to win a Class A regional championship, the school’s first such title in any sport. The Cougars were paced by county player of the year Izzy Reed, who led the state in rebounding as a junior and surpassed both 1,000 points and 1,000 boards for her career. In December, Reed surpassed Whiteland’s Mackenzie Blazek to become the county’s all-time leading rebounder.
4. Grizzly Cub girls shine yet again
Despite heavy graduation losses from its 2019 state runner-up squad, the Franklin girls swim team managed another strong showing, placing third in the state meet at IU Natatorium in February. The Grizzly Cubs got top-three individual finishes from Kabria Chapman (second in the 100 breaststroke) and Sarah Hoffman (third in 500 freestyle) along with a pair of third-place relay efforts.
5. A bittersweet ending
Both the Greenwood and Greenwood Christian boys basketball teams were able to celebrate sectional championships in the first week of March — a particularly sweet moment for the Woodmen, who hadn’t claimed such a crown since 2002. But neither wound up with a chance to advance deeper; the IHSAA canceled the remainder of the state tournament just 24 hours before both teams were set to travel to their respective regional semifinal games. GCA ended the year ranked first in the state in Class A and also won its first Johnson County tournament title.
6. In full swing
During the spring and summer months, golf was about the only sport where anything was happening — and Johnson County represented itself quite well. Noah Gillard was named the IGA Player of the Year after winning two major summer tourneys and Erica Shepherd won the Women’s State Amateur title. Denied an official high school season, the Center Grove quintet of Alex Heck, Peyton Short, Caleb Tidd, Sam Slaughter and Brandon Heffner instead won the IGA’s state team championship.
7. Fit to be tied
The boys swim teams from Center Grove and Franklin enjoyed a back-and-forth rivalry all last season, with the Trojans winning the county meet and the Grizzly Cubs eking out a sectional victory, so it made perfect sense that the two local rivals ended the year dead even, tying for ninth at the state meet. Center Grove’s Ethan Martin was the state runner-up in the 50 freestyle, while Franklin got third-place finishes from Cade Oliver (200 IM, 100 backstroke) and Mac Ratzlaff (200 free). This fall, Oliver qualified for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in three different events.
8. Still fighting
Just weeks after wrapping up his high school career with a third state swim meet appearance, Indian Creek senior Chase Smith found out that Ewing’s sarcoma had returned for a fifth time. Given just three to five months left to live, he got married, graduated and had the natatorium at the high school named for him, earning nationwide media attention in the process. Now, almost four months past that initial five-month window, Smith is still going strong and working as an assistant coach at his alma mater.
9. Ultimate Warrior
Whiteland senior Quinten Gillespie made his final season of high school tennis a memorable one. He won 27 of his 30 matches, avenged his only two regular-season losses by topping rival Ethan Gray of Greenwood in the individual sectional final and advanced all the way to the state singles semifinal, where he was leading in the third set before leg cramps forced him to retire against eventual champion Ajay Mahentiran of North Central.
10. Taking center stage
Center Grove’s wrestling team wound up 11th in the team standings at the state finals, led by three individual podium finishers. Hayden Watson was third at 132 pounds, Riley Rust fourth at 145 and Drake Buchanan sixth at 182. Both the Trojans, who won the county title two weeks ago, and defending sectional champion Franklin are ranked among the state’s top teams this winter.
