C'mon, man, not Carmel!

     If the National Football League lockup runs deep into October – which is unlikely – the best football in Indianapolis may be played this fall in the Class 5A Sectional 5 tournament.

     The IHSAA recently realigned the Class 5A Sectional 5 by adding Carmel to arguably the strongest sectional in the state. Carmel will be among four Metropolitan Interscholastic schools competing for the sectional title with Warren Central, Lawrence North, and North Central. The MIC has had a team play for the state championship 11 of the past 12 years. Last season, Fishers defeated Lawrence Central to break up the MIC’s streak of 11 straight state titles.

     This means that North Central may have to play one of the conference powerhouses twice.
     Carmel will make Sectional 5 even tougher than the past tournaments. Over those 12 years, the Greyhounds won only one state title – coming in 2007 – but they have been a state runner-up three times in the last 12 years. But they also won state titles in 1986 and '89, and they will be talented again this year.
     But the sectional will also feature a few interesting non-MIC teams. Newcomers to North Central will be Perry Meridian and Arsenal Tech. State runner-up Lawrence Central rounds out the sectional teams.
     In the immortal words of Terrell Owens, “Get your popcorn ready!”