The storied rivalry between perhaps the two most prominent high school athletic departments in the state appears to have come to an abrupt end.
Center Grove principal Jeff Henderson sent an email to parents at the school on Thursday saying that Carmel athletic director Jim Inskeep had informed Trojan AD Joe Bronkella of the Greyhounds’ intent to cancel all of their current athletic contracts across all sports.
A Carmel official confirmed that intent with the Daily Journal on Thursday evening.
In his email to parents, Henderson says that “the sudden request came as a shock, given the collaboration we have enjoyed over the last 25 years.”
The two schools have been linked athletically for a generation. Both were charter members of the Metropolitan Athletic Conference when it formed in 1996, and both were unanimously voted out of the league by the other member schools in December of 2021. Both the Greyhounds and Trojans have since operated as independents.
Filling any Carmel-created vacancies on the athletic schedules should be workable for Center Grove in most sports, but the Trojans will now have four openings on their 2023 football schedule, which has already seen every former MIC rival drop off with the exceptions of Lawrence Central and Lawrence North. Center Grove already has two out-of-state games on its slate — the season opener on the road against Ohio power St. Edward and a Week 3 home game against Louisville Trinity — but it may well need to add more in order to fill out the calendar.
