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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIn addition to making big personnel and structural changes this year, Indianapolis Metropolitan High School also made history.
Its boys’ basketball team won a state championship for the first time in the team’s four-year existence. The Pumas picked up the Class 1-A title in a 59-55 victory over the Triton High School Trojans March 26.
Indy Met’s team was the epitome of an underdog:
It wasn’t ranked at the beginning of the season and the Pumas won as many games as they lost the last two years. Players practiced and played home games at a community center because Indy Met doesn’t have a gym.
Indy Met Superintendent Scott Bess, himself a former basketball coach, credited the team’s success to the family-like atmosphere Head Coach Nick Reich developed among members.
He encouraged players to spend time together outside of practice and had them spend the night at his house before the big game.
“The biggest thing they had this year was that sense of togetherness and family,” Bess said. “The players have grown up a lot together.”•
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