High schoolers are taking a holiday break from the classroom, but not from the basketball courts, pools and wrestling mats.
Area teams are looking to end 2022 by getting momentum into 2023 and the final months of their regular seasons.
Six of eight Hancock County basketball teams are participating in holiday tournaments – while another will have a key conference game — this week.
Eastern Hancock, Greenfield-Central and New Palestine boys wrestling programs are competing in the two-day Connersville Spartan Classic Thursday and Friday. Mt. Vernon is heading north for the Al Smith Invitational in Mishawaka Wednesday and Thursday. Greenfield-Central’s girls wrestling team will also be in Mishawaka, wrestling in the Sarah Hildebrandt Invitational at Penn High School.
While Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and New Palestine swimmers prepare for the Hoosier Heritage Conference meets in early January, Eastern Hancock swimmers are in action in Thursday’s Mooresville Invitational.
Christmas break basketball tournament play begins today.
Eastern Hancock’s boys basketball team, ranked No. 6 in the Associated Press Class 2A poll, is in Richmond at the Bob Wettig Tournament. The Royals (6-1) play twice today as part of pool play.
At 11 a.m., they will take on traditionally strong Class 4A program Bloomington South (5-3) at IU-East. At 3 p.m., the Royals face North Decatur (4-1) at Richmond High School’s Tiernan Center.
Eastern Hancock coach Aaron Spaulding believes playing in the Wettig Tournament is great preparation for the second half of the season and hopes of another long tournament run by the Royals. Eastern Hancock got to the Class 2A semi-state last year, just one win away from playing for a state championship.
Depending on today’s results, Eastern Hancock will open Wednesday against a team from a pool that includes, Indianapolis HomeSchool, Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis Tindley.
Other teams in the tournament include, Greensburg, Seton Catholic, Rushville, Richmond, Monroe Central and Heritage.
“We’re really excited to get to play Bloomington South, who’s a perennial Top 10-type program in the state,” Eastern Hancock coach Aaron Spaulding said. “North Decatur is a solid team. We’ll see where it goes from there.
“We’re looking for challenges for this bunch. We’re going to see people that otherwise we wouldn’t see.”
Like Eastern Hancock’s boys, Greenfield-Central’s girls team, winners of four straight, has a big challenge in their tournament opener.
The Cougars (7-6) take on undefeated Class 3A No. 3 Indian Creek (13-0) to begin play at noon in the Lebanon Bloom Bank Tournament. G-C will play two games today, taking on either Mooresville (10-4) or Lafayette Jeff (0-11) at 4 p.m. or 6 p.m. They’ll also have a game on Wednesday.
Other teams in that tournament are Lowell, Perry Meridian, Pike and host Lebanon.
Mt. Vernon’s girls will play Crown Point (9-6) at 4:30 p.m. in the Twin Lakes Tournament. The Marauders (9-4) will play two games Wednesday. The first will be against either North White (3-10) or Rochester (6-7) at 11 a.m.
Other teams competing in the Monticello tournament include, Westfield, Kankakee Valley, Clinton Prairie and Twin Lakes.
The tournament has been moved from Twin Lakes High School to Staggs Gym at Roosevelt Middle School.
In a non-tournament game today, Eastern Hancock girls basketball coach Shari Doud will go for her 300th career coaching victory when the Royals (11-3, 5-0) play a key Mid-Eastern Conference game, at home, against Monroe Central (7-6, 4-0).
Doud just got her 100th win at Eastern Hancock Dec. 16 when the Royals defeated rival Knightstown.
Doud is 100-58 at Eastern and 299-144 in 19 season overall, which includes stops at Greenfield-Central and Pendleton Heights, where her teams won a regional and three sectional titles.
New Palestine’s undefeated boys basketball team will also be playing in a tournament at Lebanon High School.
The Dragons put their 6-0 record on the line at 1 p.m. Wednesday against Indianapolis Metropolitan (1-3). The Dragons will play either Mooresville (4-4) or Gary 21st Century (5-2) at 10 a.m. on Thursday and will have an additional game later Thursday.
Other teams in the tournament include McCutcheon, Perry Meridian, Evansville North and Lebanon.
Mt. Vernon’s boys team begins play in the one-day Roncalli Tournament Thursday at noon against Floyd Central (1-4). Depending on results, the Marauders (5-3) will play either Roncalli (4-2) or University (6-0) later in the evening.
To wrap up the 2022 portion of Hancock County high school sports, the New Palestine girls basketball team plays at the Plainfield Winter Classic Friday.
The Dragons (7-7) take on Plainfield (5-8) at 10 a.m. and either Roncalli (9-3) or Greensburg (9-4) later in the day.
