Folks at Indian Creek are used to being overlooked and ignored.
As a mid-sized rural high school in the same county as four larger suburban ones, it comes with the territory. So when most of the talk going into this girls cross country season inevitably gravitates toward perennial local powers Center Grove and Franklin, the Braves don’t really sweat it.
They’ve leaned into the David role, and they’re eager to give the Goliaths a fight.
“We’ve never really held back from being a small school,” Indian Creek junior Paige Iaria said. “We don’t let that get in the way of our expectations and what we want to accomplish. You can build something up from anywhere, no matter how big or small you are. We have this amazing coach, and we have a really close and amazing team that works really hard, so we put our minds to it and it happens. We can get anything done that we need to.”
Iaria isn’t just spouting some unfounded nonsense; the Braves have five runners back from a team that advanced to the semistate a year ago, and they’re confident that they can extend this season an extra week and make it to Terre Haute for the state meet.
Among those leading the way is sophomore Phoebe Dowty, who placed fifth individually at the Johnson County meet and fourth in the sectional as a freshman. She and her teammates all treat Indian Creek’s small roster size (six at the moment) as a positive, even if it means the Braves can ill afford an injury to anyone.
“Our size is almost an advantage sometimes, because we’re all so close and we all push each other,” Dowty said.
“We push each other and encourage each other all day every day,” Iaria added, “and when you’re closer and you have a closer bond, it really just means that much more when you can pull each other by the arm during races and push each other to the max.”
Part of Indian Creek’s strength comes from its balance. At last year’s county meet, four Braves finished between 24th and 28th. Dowty suggests that the team should be in a similar place this fall, saying that the team’s goals are for everyone to post 5-kilometer times under 20 minutes and qualify for state.
One won’t necessarily guarantee the other — especially in a brutally competitive semistate that brings northern powers such as Carmel, Noblesville, North Central and Zionsville down to Shelbyville’s Blue River Memorial Park. Indian Creek finished 18th out of 20 teams there in 2020, but that finish plays into the underdog vibe that the team is playing along with as they head into this season.
“Nobody’s expecting us to do anything; we just kind of go out and do it,” Braves coach Brady Devine said. “We’re the underdog, and we probably always will be.”
And yet…
“We’re not afraid of anybody,” he added.
