This is where you can find listings for Hamilton County “Firsts,’’ such as Sports History, Hall of Fame recipients and other significant happenings. Please contact mark@hcsportsdaily.com if you know of any other notable names and/or events that should be added:

We ARE Hamilton County:

Carmel High School: Carmel has a long history dating back to 1887, when the cornerstone for the first CHS was laid on a building located on the south side of the town of Carmel. A second building was opened in 1923 on the present school site and housed students K-through-12 until 1958. Only sophomores, juniors, and seniors attended the school from 1964 to 1995. The current high school building dates from 1958. Since that opening, there has been five additional construction projects that have expanded and renovated the building. The 2005-2006 school year marked the opening of the newest addition, the Freshman Center . . . With more than 4,500 students, Carmel ranks as the largest high school in Indiana.

Noblesville High School: Noblesville was an original member of the Indiana High School Athletic Association, one of fifteen schools listed as charter members in the IHSAA Handbook of 1928.

Other pertinent Hamilton County state achievements:

·         1966 Carmel becomes Hamilton County’s only state wrestling team champion runner-up.

·         1968 – Carmel’s Billy Shepherd scored a single-game record 70 points against Brownsburg. That mark still stands.

·         1970 – Carmel’s David Shepherd scored a state championship game-record 40 points in a 10-point loss to East Chicago Roosevelt. That mark was broken in 2008; David Shepherd’s single-season (1969-70) Indiana high school scoring record of 1,079 points still stands.

·         1970 – Carmel’s first of five state boys golf championships.

·         1975 – Hamilton Heights, with a senior class enrollment of 94, beat big-school Carmel in the boys basketball sectional (Doug Mitchell, a two-time state basketball championship coach (1999, 2010) at North Central, played on the Huskies team.) Mitchell still resides in Hamilton County.

·         1976 – Former Carmel girls basketball coach Judi Warren was the girls first Miss Basketball after leading Warsaw to the inaugural girls state championship.

·         1977 – Carmel becomes only boys state basketball champion, coached by Eric Clark, since deceased; Greyhounds were runners-up under Bill Shepherd in 1970.

·         1978 – Carmel’s first of six state football championships.

·         1980 – Carmel becomes first Hamilton County golf state champion; Noblesville won in 1986 and 1987, and Hamilton Southeastern won in 2003 and 2008.

·         1980 – Sheridan’s first of nine Class A state football championships. Bud Wright is the only coach at the same school in Indiana to win that many football titles.

·         1981 – Carmel’s first of 25 IHSAA state swimming championships, which includes 24 in a row since 1986.

·         1981 – Carmel’s first of five boys state tennis championships

·         1982 – Carmel’s first of 11 state boys cross-country championships.

·         1982 – Carmel’s first of 11 girls state cross-country championships.

·         1987 – Noblesville, coached by Ray Lyttle, becomes Hamilton County’s first girls state basketball champion (Millers were runners-up in 1988, also coached by Lyttle); Carmel won in 2008, coached by Scott Bowen (Greyhounds were runners-up in 1995, coached by Judi Warren).

·         1988 – Carmel’s first of four girls tennis state championships.

·         1990 – Carmel’s first of 12 boys state swimming championships.

·         1994 – Carmel’s first girls state soccer championship.

·         1994 – Carmel becomes first state softball champion; Hamilton Southeastern won school’s first in 2007 (4A), second in 2010.

·         1997 – Carmel becomes first Hamilton County school to finish as the state runner-up in baseball; Westfield was runner-up in 1998 (3A) and 2009 (4A).

·         1998  – Carmel’s first of two girls state track and field championships.

·         2000  – Carmel becomes only boys state track and field champion (coached by Chuck Koeppen).

·         2002 – Noblesville’s Courtney Cox, who led the Millers to three straight Girls Basketball State Finals appearances, highlighted by the state championship in 1987, was the first female to be inducted into the Hamilton County Hall of Fame.

·         2006 – Indiana Soccer Hall of Fame coach Daniel Kapsalis led Carmel to an unbeaten season (23-0-0) and won the boys state soccer championship en route to the Greyhounds being named NSCAA Public School National Champions.

·         2008 – Carmel quarterback Morgan Newton, now at Kentucky, is the lone Hamilton County recipient. That was in 2008.

·         2009 – Hamilton Southeastern, a high school since 1967, won its first boys sectional basketball championship.

·        2010 – In only six years as a new high school, Fishers captured the Class 5A state football championship.

·         2010 – The Indy Racers, comprising 12 players from Hamilton County, became the first Indiana team to win the USA Hockey youth national championship. The Racers won the Tier II Under-14 national championship on April 11 on Wayne, N.J.

.        2011- Carmel’s Kelsi Jones, a two-time Indiana high School Softball All-American,  named Gatorade Indiana Softball Player of the Year.

.        2011 – Noblesville’s Katie Harrison selected as Indiana’s Miss Softball.

.        2011 – Former Carmel quarterback Mark Herrmann, an All-American at Purdue University, entered the College Football Hall of Fame.

Hamilton County Basketball Hall of Fame recipients

Class of 2003-04: Courtney Cox, Noblesville; Mark Herrmann, Carmel; Billy Shepherd, Carmel; David Shepherd, Carmel; Don Jellison, Noblesville (contributor).

Class of 2004-05: Erick Clark, Carmel; Bill Shepherd, Carmel; Larry Hobbs, Sheridan; James Mace, Sheridan; Jack Roudebush, Hamilton Southeastern; Dale Graham, Carmel (contributor).

Class of 2005-06: Dave Nicholson, Noblesville; Glen Harper, Noblesville; Scott Haffner, Noblesville; Judi Warren, Carmel; Bill Nevitt, Noblesville (contributor); Sam McNew (Janus Developmental Service).

Class of 2006-07: Mike Chesser, Noblesville; Kent Carson, Hamilton Heights; Harry Hobbs, Sheridan; J.B. Stephens, Cicero and Noblesville; Tony Oilar, Noblesville (contributor); Kylene Webber (Janus Developmental Services).

Class of 2007-08: Krissi Davis, Noblesville; Stan Neal, Noblesville; Dave Porter, Noblesville; Doug Mitchell, Hamilton Heights; Jack Ford, Noblesville (contributor).

Class of 2008-09: C.A. Core, Noblesville and Jackson Central; Jim Farmer, Westfield; Tony Etchison, Noblesville; Roland Inskeep, Sheridan; Scott Shepherd, Carmel; Dr. James Dillon, Noblesville (contributor).

Class of 2009-10: Edgar Cotton, Carmel (deceased); Tom Coverdale, Noblesville; Ron Fleming, Noblesville (special contributor); Rick McCoskey, Hamilton Heights; Mark Roberts, Noblesville; Larry Simmons, Noblesville and Robert Vestal, Cicero (deceased).

Class of 2010-11: Bill Bowen, former Sheridan player and Hamilton Heights coach; Gary Cox and John  Karaffa, former Noblesville players; Don Morgan, former Hamilton Heights playerwho also played at Walnut Grove;  Mt. Vernon basketball coach Hal Bauchert (deceased); and Hamilton Heights contributor Arnie Cooper (helped with Hamilton Heights athletics as a scoreboard operator in football and boys and girls basketball and currently is the announcer for the Huskies baseball games).

 

Reunited At Banquet

Tom Coverdale, the 1998 Indiana Mr. Basketball from Noblesville High School, is pictured with his coach, Dave McCollough, after being inducted into the Hamilton County Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Coverdale, a former Indiana University basketball standout, is one of three Mr. Basketball recipients from Hamilton County. The others are Carmel brothers Billy (1968) and David (1970) Shepherd.

     - HCSports Daily photo