Most Surprising Teams This Season
This season is already halfway over with the holiday tournaments and county tournaments complete. Now, the grind of the season starts but we take a look at some of the biggest surprises of the season. In this, we look at one team from each class that has surprised everyone the most with their play and their record and look at what they have coming up.
Tri-County – 11-1 (1A)
Overview: Tri-County has done really well this season with their only loss to 3A ranked Twin Lakes. They have taken care of business with every other team on their schedule including big wins over Clinton Prairie, Rensselaer Central, South Newton, and Rossville. Last season, Tri-County finished the year 19-5 but fell short in OT in the first round of Sectionals to North White. It wasn’t that they weren’t expected to be good, it is just that they are not losing at all and the second half of their schedule is easier.
Key Games Down The Stretch: The Hoosier Heartland Conference will be really tough but all winnable games. Outside of that, look for Pioneer to be a difficult matchup. They could conceivably win-out the season.
Henryville – 13-2 (2A)
Overview: This was a team that had their two best players last year but might have been just a little too young at the time. Now, with Braxton Robertson and Nick Walker leading the way, Henryville is 13-2 and have already matched their win total from last year. This looks to be their best season since 2003-04 when they won 21 games. To this point in the season, they have played quite a few different styles of teams and have been victorious. They have played against speed, size, length, and plenty of better teams. Their only two losses came to Corydon Central (3 points) and Danville (2OT loss by 7).
Key Games Down The Stretch: The best game on their schedule is Providence who is 11-1 coming up next. If they can get past that one, things start to open up but look to February 17th against West Washington. Could be a game to watch.
Brownstown Central – 12-0 (3A)
Overview: To see this Brownstown Central team having a good season isn’t a big surprise, however, nobody thought they would be undefeated at this point in the season after losing a ton of seniors in the offseason. Being 12-0 with wins over Salem, Evansville Reitz, Barr-Reeve, and Silver Creek really speak to the ability this team has to reload every single season. Things have worked out well for them in the first part of the season but the second half might have some struggles.
Key Games Down The Stretch: Brownstown’s schedule in the first half was hard but the second half might be tricky. With games coming up against Columbus East, Bedford North Lawrence, Floyd Central, and Providence. Those will all be tough games that can give Brownstown a run for their money.
Warren Central – 11-1 (4A)
Overview: Warren Central is the biggest surprise of the season with their 11-1 record with some massive wins this season over Ben Davis, Lawrence North twice, Hamilton Southeastern and with their only loss coming by four points to the best team in the state in North Central. Once Beyers took over Warren Central, we thought they could be good with time but this is way ahead of the timeline. They are legit and have some depth to the roster.
Key Games Down The Stretch: North Central comes up in two weeks and will their biggest test but just like the first half of the schedule, the back half is littered with good teams. Carmel should be marked down as well as Crown Point on January 28th.