Greenwood Christian’s Kevin Gierke, right, brings down an Edinburgh player earlier this season.
Daily Journal file photo
It isn’t as if Greenwood Christian coach Andre Dobson was carrying a clicker to count down the days before his program was invited to pull up a chair at the adult table.
In his mind? Maybe.
Five months and four days … four weeks and a day … two weeks … tonight.
And now, finally, it’s here.
The Cougars’ Class A sectional opener against Eastern Greene, to be played on the artificial turf at Beech Grove High School, is another major step forward for a program that debuted in 2022 and has sped to an early level of significance.
At 7-2, GCA, which plays its first-ever postseason game after a two-year trial run, sports the best record among Johnson County’s seven schools.
“This is what we’ve been talking about since the beginning,” Dobson said. “We’re excited for (tonight), looking forward to our opportunity and probably our biggest crowd ever. I think it’s going to be beyond packed.
“I’ve said many times before that we have very high expectations, and the tendency is the kids will rise to it.”
Young men such as senior receiver Zach Haynes, who recalls noticing fliers promoting GCA’s upcoming football program during the spring months of his freshman school year.
Wait, what? Football at Greenwood Christian?
“I had gone to GCA ever since kindergarten, and we didn’t even have a football program,” said Haynes, who through the regular season emerged as the team’s co-leader in receptions with 28 for 475 yards and six touchdowns.
“We have a lot of guys who have really bought into football. It’s started by the coaching staff. Coach Dobson had a pretty clear plan.”
One that started with the aforementioned 2022 squad opening in blistering August heat at Brownsburg against the Bulldogs’ C team.
A 46-12 victory by the Cougars — the second half wasn’t played due to lightning in the area — immediately instilled a certain level of confidence that grew over time with wins over junior varsity and small-school varsity opponents that initial season.
But if one wants to measure the rapid ascent another way, consider the following:
Two of the Cougars’ road games two years ago were at Clarksville and Shortridge, losses that resulted in a total point discrepancy of 96-8. GCA hosted the same two teams this season, winning both by a combined score of 84-44.
Apples, meet oranges.
Senior running back/linebacker Evan McIntire and junior quarterback/free safety Trey Dobson have, like others, been around to experience the ground floor of what they’ve helped build.
McIntire is GCA’s second-leading rusher with 573 yards, is tied with Haynes in receptions (28) and is the team’s leading tackler with 61. Trey Dobson’s borderline ridiculous sum of 1,371 all-purpose yards is broken down from his contributions running the ball, returning kicks and punts and interception returns. And that doesn’t count his passing; Dobson is 95 of 175 through the air for 1,786 yards, 22 scores and only seven picks.
Senior center Cayden Pasch anchors the Cougars’ offensive line, which also includes two more seniors in left tackle Eli Jackson and left guard Jack Franey. Daniel Honeycutt, a junior, plays running back, while junior receiver Isaiah Johnson has made 27 catches for 639 yards and eight TDs.
Honeycutt, a strong safety on defense, is the second-leading tackler with 47, followed by Jackson (39). They’re followed by juniors Brandt Kieninger (32) and Kevin Gierke (28), Dobson (22) and senior tackle Tad Speedy (20).
Junior Bo Campbell, the leading goal scorer for the semistate-bound GCA boys soccer squad, has split the uprights on all 27 conversions and both field goal attempts.
Since the beginning, Cougar coaches and players have stuck to the process, absorbed the anticipated lumps along the way, continued to believe and are now about to enter the exciting new world of postseason competition.
Culture matters.
“I truly feel like these guys are a brotherhood,” coach Dobson said. “The older players have really taken their younger guys under their wing, and gone out of their way to include them.”
FRIDAY’S SECTIONAL QUARTERFINALS
Class 4A
Shelbyville at Greenwood, 7 p.m.
Northview at Roncalli, 7:30 p.m.
Class 3A
Edgewood at Indian Creek, 7 p.m.
Class A
North Decatur at Edinburgh, 7 p.m.
Eastern Greene vs. Greenwood Christian, 7 p.m.*
* – at Beech Grove HS
