End of an Era: Sagamore Conference enters summer of change
In doing so, it also ended the way the conference has been for the past quarter of a century.
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With the end of the year, five of the eight members – Crawfordsville, Frankfort, North Montgomery, Southmont and Western Boone – are off to be part of the new Monon Athletic Conference, which will debut this fall with Cascade, Greencastle and North Putnam.
Tri-West, who originally was going to stick with the Sagamore, will also be leaving for the newly formed Hoosier Legends Conference.
Harrison and McCutcheon will be joining the Sagamore next year, with Terre Haute North and South coming the following year to create a six-team Sagamore Conference with Lebanon and Danville.
While it is a lot of change, this isn't the first time the conference has had a makeover.
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Founded in December of 1966, the conference was originally made up of teams with some of the oldest IHSAA histories in Lebanon, Brownsburg, Carmel, Crawfordsville, Frankfort and Noblesville.
That group stayed together for seven years before Carmel left in 1973, with Noblesville following them in 1979.
North Montgomery was added in 1975, with Western Boone coming in 1983 and Southmont two years later before Brownsburg left the conference in 1985.
The six schools remained the same until the 1999-00 season, when Tri-West and Danville joined to become the eight teams the conference had for the next 26 years.
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During the last 26 years, the conference has been one of the more successful conferences for its size in Indiana.
The eight schools have combined to win 380 sectional titles over the past 26 years, with every school capturing at least 23. They have added 66 regional titles and 15 semi-states.
The schools have won 12 state titles over the last 26 years, coming in four different sports, and seven of the eight teams have played for a state title during that time frame.
The eight schools added 23 individual state champions as well and numerous All-State athletes.
In a perfect world, the conference would stay together.
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But in the changing world of sports at the high school and collegiate level, it just wasn't realistic for the long run.
Size wise, Lebanon already has 200 more students than the second largest school in the conference in Danville, and is expected to continue to grow as LEAP district continues to develop. With 1,033 students, Lebanon has more than twice the enrollment of Western Boone, Southmont and North Montgomery.
And while the overall conference titles were fairly evenly distributed across all sports – Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville dominated the big three sports of football, boys basketball and girls basketball – especially in recent years.
In football, Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville combined to win at least 19 of the 26 titles, with only nine other schools earning at least a share during that stretch (Western Boone had five of those).
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Over the past five years, those teams went 64-7 against the five schools leaving for the Monon (Western Boone accounting for five of those wins) with an average margin of victory of more than four touchdowns.
In boys basketball, the three schools have won at least a share of 23 of 26 conference titles, with seven other teams earning at least a share at some point. Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville have a record of 63-11 in 74 games against the five leaving for the Monon, with an average margin of victory of 18.6 in the wins.
Girls basketball has seen the three win 22 of 26 titles, with only six other teams earning at least a share over the past 26 seasons. They won 70 of 73 games against the teams leaving over the last five years, with a average margin of 34.1 points a game in those 70 wins.
In the end, the five schools leaving did what they had to do to find a more competitively balanced conference to help all of their athletic programs, and will be in a conference with every school being in the the upper enrollments of Class 2A or in Class 3A.
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And Lebanon and Danville were able to find some new conference partners that will test them and help elevate them in the years to come.
The good news is the schools agreed to separate on good terms, and they will continue to play in non-conference action in several sports – keeping together some of the good rivalries that have been created over the decades.
And while it is technically the end of the Sagamore Conference as we have come to know it, the legacy that it created over the past 26 years will be remembered.
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