FORTVILLE — Once Indiana high school sports reopened last July, there was a collective sigh of relief. Be it a cautiously optimistic one.
With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down schools across the nation during the early months of 2020, the IHSAA’s remaining winter sports season’s state tournaments were eventually canceled, and for the first time, there weren’t any spring sports.
No beginning or end for the 2019-20 spring sports season and the class of 2020 seniors.
Yet, as many Hancock County coaches and student-athletes remarked throughout the 2020-21 school year, once competition resumed this past August, there was a new perspective and purpose.
Nothing was taken for granted.
A message the Mt. Vernon sports community took to another level with a historic year of athletic success.
Overall, Mt. Vernon athletics captured 12 sectional team titles in 2020-21 and earned both the boys and girls Hoosier Heritage Conference All-Sports awards. The girls sports award was the school’s first since 2009. The Marauders final six sectional team titles capped their spring return to prep sports with a complete sweep.
“It was pretty amazing to see the kids get a chance to not only complete the seasons but to complete them with success as well. That made it a little bit more meaningful to them,” Mt. Vernon athletics director Brandon Ecker said. “We were calling it the COVID revenge tour because they were coming out and leaving nothing to chance. I think, they really showed that they were dialed in and ready to compete.”
The first domino to fall for the Marauders came in Oct. 2 as coach Gabe Muterspaugh’s boys tennis team seized the program’s second straight sectional championship en route to a single-season record for wins at 21-2.
The team claimed its 13th sectional team title overall and reached the team regional finals for the first time in boys tennis history.
It was only the start as Mt. Vernon’s girls soccer team won 10 games start to reach the Class 3A East Central Regional finals before falling in overtime to Guerin Catholic.
In the process, the Marauders won its first girls soccer sectional since 2015, first in 3A and second of the fall on Oct. 10.
The top-ranked Class 4A Marauders football team kept the trend going on Nov. 6 with a second straight sectional title and sixth overall.
The Marauders set a new standard, finishing the regular season a perfect 9-0 while claiming the HHC title for the first time since 2012.
From there, head coach Julie Shelton’s 4A Mt. Vernon girls basketball team made its mark on Feb. 6 by winning the Muncie Central Sectional title, which coach Ben Rhoades and the boys basketball team followed up by collecting its first 4A sectional and 13th overall on March 6.
In between, the Marauders boys swimming and diving team ended a 16-year sectional drought on Feb. 20.
“We say year after year that competition breeds competition, and I think when kids see other teams have success, they want a piece of that as well,” Ecker said. “You saw it across the board. They went out there and went after it. It’s about expectations. It’s about accountability to those expectations and the buy-in from the kids, their parents and the community. It’s not a secret recipe. It takes those key components, and if people are willing to put in the work, good things will happen.”
The wave reached new heights during the spring sports season, a year after there was none.
“It’s definitely never happened before for Mt. Vernon,” Ecker remarked on the school’s spring sectional title sweep. “A conversation happened during one of our spring AD meetings where no one could recall it happening at their schools in our conference.
“We talked about it before the season started in March that if all our teams played to their potential, every one of the teams has a chance to win their sectional. Every team had a chance to compete, and for all of them to do it was pretty amazing. It was a pretty amazing spring.”
Feeding off the school’s five combined HHC team titles through the fall and winter seasons (boys cross country, football, boys basketball, boys swimming and girls basketball), the Marauders’ baseball, boys and girls track and boys golf teams secured nine total league championships on the year.
From there, five dates in May and one final push in June became milestone moments as the Marauders chased down all six sectional crowns.
“After coming off a year where they didn’t get a chance to compete at all, I think another piece of it that was pretty cool was to see the number of seniors from the class of 2020 that came back and were really a part of the whole process,” Ecker said.
“Several of our seniors came back to watch this year’s senior class and underclassmen put together a special season. They were able to feel like they were part of that.”
The Marauders’ track teams started what became a three-week sprint.
On May 18, the host Mt. Vernon girls track team completed the trifecta, winning the county, conference and sectional titles with its first postseason trophy in 11 years.
Two days later on May 20, the host Marauders’ boys replicated the feat and won their fourth sectional title all time and first since 2014 for the trifecta.
The Mt. Vernon girls tennis team made it two sectional championship trophies in two days and three in a week on May 21 at home. The title marked the program’s 15th all time and seventh in eight years with no season in 2020.
Head coach Veronica Kirby’s 4A softball team increased the spring total to four sectionals for Mt. Vernon on May 27 by upending HHC rival Pendleton Heights in the finals for some regular-season revenge at home by run-rule.
The Marauders’ sectional marked the program’s 11th overall and second in three seasons before the team added a sixth regional title all time and first since 2002 in 2A to reach the IHSAA’s final four.
On May 31, the Mt. Vernon 4A baseball team kicked off its historic campaign with an eighth sectional title overall and first since 2011.
The Marauders set a new single-season wins record at 26-7 and reached the state tournament’s final four after erasing a 50-year regional championship drought by defeating Cathedral in the finals at Plainfield.
“Our baseball team was knocked out by the state champion (Jasper) in the final four. Our softball team was knocked out by the state champion (Roncalli). Our football team was knocked out by the state champion (Roncalli at regional). It’s crazy because when we’ve gone into the postseason, when we’ve lost, it’s not because we’re playing against a team on paper that we should have beaten. We’re playing against top-level competition and we’re putting it all on the line,” Ecker said.
On June 7, head coach Tom Kirby’s boys golf team applied the finishing touch at Hawk’s Tail of Greenfield.
After winning their first-ever HHC team title, the Marauders bested HHC foe New Castle by four strokes 315-319 at sectional to make it a perfect six.
“Everyone was asking Tom (Kirby) going into sectional, if he was feeling the pressure since he was the last one standing,” Ecker joked. “So, it was pretty awesome to see them do that as well. They’re pretty proud of that because they put the last nail in.”
They also loaded up the Mt. Vernon athletics’ trophy case, which the Marauders hope to reload in 2021-22.
“The goal is to keep these kids focused on what’s ahead because there is still so much more that they can achieve. I think they’re just beginning to reach that point where they understand that there’s more out there for them,” Ecker said.
“It’s rewarding obviously, but we don’t do it just for the trophies. That’s fun. It’s one of our goals, but it’s not our purpose. Our purpose is to help turn out some good, young citizens who are going to be contributing to the community in a positive way 10, 20, 30 years from now. I think it’s pretty rewarding to see good coaches do it the right way, and to have kids buy into that and see the relationships that are built along the process where they trust each other. It makes you feel like you have the right people in the right places to find that success.”
