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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Lewis Cass High School will leave the Hoosier Conference effective at the end of the 2022-23 school year and join the Three Rivers Conference next year, according to a media release from the Hoosier Conference Tuesday.
The move to add Lewis Cass comes one day after the TRC announced that it was removing Tippecanoe Valley from the conference, effective at the end of 2022-23.
The move leaves the Hoosier Conference with nine members and the TRC with 10.
RTC obtained a copy of the media release in which Western principal and Hoosier Conference president Steve Edwards said that the conference will be seeking a 10th member.
Lewis Cass has not publicly acknowledged the move on any of its social media accounts, and the TRC has not acknowledged the move or how it might affect scheduling either.
Lewis Cass had been in the Hoosier Conference since 2015. It moved along with Northwestern, Western and Hamilton Heights from the Mid-Indiana Conference to the Hoosier Conference after the Mid-Indiana Conference dissolved.
Joining the TRC means that Lewis Cass will rejoin a conference with former Mid-Indiana members Peru and Maconaquah.
Lewis Cass’ 2022-23 winter sports season was highlighted by its boys basketball team advancing to the semistate final, where it lost to Fort Wayne Blackhawk. Lewis Cass eliminated two TRC teams, Rochester and Wabash, during its tournament run.
The sectional and regional titles were its first since 2014. Most famously, Lewis Cass won the Class 2A state title under coach Basil Mawbey.
As for its other team sports…
Lewis Cass has not had a winning record in girls basketball since 2003 and has not won a sectional since 2005.
Its football team went 11-2 and won a sectional title in 2019 – current Rochester coach Ron Shaffer was the offensive coordinator on Jeff Phillips’ staff that year – but has won only 11 games total in the three years since.
Lewis Cass has won five sectional titles in volleyball but none since 1996. Lewis Cass went 5-22 in volleyball last fall.
Lewis Cass has won 16 sectionals and seven regionals in softball. Their most recent sectional and regional titles came in 2016. Lewis Cass won the Class 2A state softball title in 2006 and 2008.
Lewis Cass has won six sectionals, two regionals and a semistate title in 2009 in baseball. Its most recent sectional title came in 2018 and its most recent regional win occurred in 2015. Lewis Cass lost to Heritage Christian 11-3 in the 2009 Class 2A state title game. Coach Greg Marschand, who is also the school’s athletic director, is a member of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Lewis Cass does not have a girls soccer or boys soccer team.
Lewis Cass has never won a sectional title in boys tennis. Lewis Cass has won four sectionals in girls tennis, most recently in 2021.
Lewis Cass has won three sectional titles in wrestling, most recently in 2017. Lewis Cass finished sixth at the 10-team Peru sectional in January. Three of Lewis Cass’ four regional qualifiers graduate; the lone regional qualifier expected to return is Nicholas Park, who will be a junior next year and who finished fourth at the sectional at 160 pounds.
Lewis Cass has never won a sectional title in girls golf. Lewis Cass shot a 461 and finished eighth at the Western sectional at Chippendale Golf Course in Kokomo this fall. Lewis Cass won their only boys golf sectional title in 2012. The Lewis Cass were third at last year’s Peru sectional and advanced to the regional, where they finished 13th.
Lewis Cass won a sectional title in girls cross-country in 1998 and a sectional in boys cross-country in 1982. The Lewis Cass boys advanced as a team to the New Prairie semistate this fall, where they placed 19th after taking third at the Logansport sectional and fifth at the Culver Academy regional. Freshman Aftin Griffin was a sub-20 minute strider and an individual semistate qualifier.
Lewis Cass won its second girls track sectional title in 2021. They have never won a boys track sectional.
Lewis Cass has never won a girls swimming or boys swimming sectional title. Lewis Cass finished sixth at this year’s Warsaw girls swimming sectional and ninth at the boys swimming sectional. Lewis Cass finished behind Manchester at the girls swimming sectional but ahead of Rochester, Valley, Northfield and Wabash. They beat Manchester and Northfield but finished behind Valley, Rochester and Wabash at the boys sectional.
