Greenfield-Central’s Emily Logan has been selected as the 2021-22 Daily Reporter Girls Swimming and Diving Coach of the Year. (Tom Russo/Daily Reporter)
GREENFIELD — Family. There’s no single word more emphasized when it comes to Greenfield-Central swimming.
With both the Cougar girls and boys swimming and diving programs led by wife and husband, Emily and Mark Logan, the team-wide philosophy is direct.
“I would honestly say we have a very strong philosophy that they can’t do this alone,” said Emily Logan, the 2021-22 Daily Reporter Girls Swimming Coach of the Year. “Mark and I do everything together, and he really is the big piece of all of this success.”
While the Logans are intertwined in regards to coaching every single Cougar swimmer, the credit for this year’s dominance in girls competitions by default goes to Emily.
A year after losing hold of the Hoosier Heritage Conference team title to rival Pendleton Heights, the Cougars stormed back to reclaim their championship this season.
Unlike in 2020-21 when the girls team was undercut by COVID-19 contact tracing quarantines ahead of the HHC championships, a full-strength squad proved to be daunting.
Greenfield-Central tallied 503 points to outpace the PH Arabians (395) with ease and seized seven of the HHC meet’s 12 events, including two of the three relay races.
Junior leaders Mary Ellen Stratman and Norah Johnson collected first-place ribbons in four individual events (100-yard butterfly, 100 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke). The duo were also part of the Cougars’ 200 medley relay and 400 free relay winning groups.
Emily Logan rightfully was named the HHC girls coach of the year with a fifth team title clinched in seven years (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022).
“This was a really fun year with this talented group,” Logan said. “We loved having things far more back to normal.”
While fewer COVID-19 protocols gave the G-C program a sense of relief this season, the Cougars’ normal mode of operation never ceased, especially in the postseason.
Logan’s girls team extended its sectional streak by winning its ninth consecutive championship despite the meet’s postponement and delay due to a winter storm this past February.
However, once the Cougars returned to poolside, it was business as usual.
“This was an amazing team with so much talent,” Logan remarked after the sectional win. “They are a joy to coach and watch. So proud of each and every one of them.”
G-C amassed an insurmountable team point total of 518 compared to sectional runner-up New Castle at 258.
At the IHSAA state meet inside the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis, the Cougars made history with four school records set over two days of competition.
Johnson shattered the program’s 24-year-old 100 breaststroke mark with a 1 minute, 4.51 second swim, while Alyssa Osborn set a new 200 IM record in a time of 2:10.46 seconds.
Johnson and Stratman joined Osborn and Rachel Stutz to establish new program standards in the 200 medley relay (1:49.32) and in the 400 free relay at 3:38.22.
The Cougars placed 28th overall at the state meet.
“These girls and all their teammates work so hard day in and day out,” Logan told the Daily Reporter after the state meet. “This team had big goals this year and accomplished so much. We are grateful to our seniors, parents and all who support this program.”
