The sectional champion 1995-96 Columbus East boys basketball team was honored at the Olympians game against Seymour Jan. 17. Head coach Ty Platt is at right.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
When Columbus East won the boys basketball sectional title in 1996, little did the Olympians know it would be their last for at least another 30 years.
That 1995-96 East team, coached by Ty Platt, won a sectional made up of Bartholomew and Shelby County schools in the next-to-last year of one-class basketball. The IHSAA went to four classes in the 1997-98 season, and the Olympians have been one of the smallest 4A schools ever since.
“They’ve played in an unbelievable sectional,” Platt said. “You have to play the Bloomington schools and (Columbus) North, you’re up against a heck of a gauntlet of a schedule with the regular season and then in the sectional. It makes it hard.”
The 1995-96 team was honored for its 30-year anniversary at a Jan. 17 home game against Seymour.
Platt, who previously had been at Southwestern (Hanover), was in his first of four years at East. He later coached at Norwell and Huntington University and now is retired and living in Huntington.
“It was my first year here, so we got to know each other quickly, and it went well that first year,” Platt said.
The Olympians went 14-10 that season, and they entered the tournament on anything but a roll. They lost their last four regular-season games, including a 20-point defeat at Bedford North Lawrence in the regular-season finale.
But East got things turned around in a hurry. The Olympians beat Waldron 80-50 in the first round of the sectional, then beat North 64-58 in the semifinals. East had lost to the Bull Dogs in the sectional each of the previous three years, including by one point in overtime in 1995.
That win against North in the 1996 sectional turned out to be the final game in Bull Dogs coach Bill Stearman’s illustrious career. The next night, East beat Southwestern (Shelby) 73-52 to win its first sectional since 1990 and its last until this day.
“I remember beating North before we played (Southwestern), and obviously, that was big, beating North,” Chad Young recalled. “North had won that sectional for years before that. I remember shaking Stearman’s hand and it being his last game.”
Young’s father Gary had been the coach at East prior to the 1995-96 season.
“I remember as a little kid, going out there and cutting down the nets,” Chad Young said. “I had always wanted to do that. It was awesome to do it.”
The Olympians’ run came to an end in the North Regional, where they fell to Lawrenceburg 65-55.
“We were a little disappointed we didn’t go further in the regional, but that was a special year,” Jason Campbell said. “Teammates were phenomenal, and we got at it every game. It was just a special year to be a part of.”
“It’s the best group of guys I played with,” Jason Cox added. “We’d kid a lot, but when we got on the floor, we all knew what each other was supposed to do. We played as a team, especially defensively.”
Campbell averaged more than 20 points a game as a senior that year and went on to play at Gulf Coast State and IPFW. Besides Chad Young and Cox, other members of the varsity team included Milan Atwell, Fuddy Graham, Marcus Hunter, Nick Kurts, Phil Mize, Scott Perez, Ricky Roberts, Alan Thompson and Kurt Williams. Assistant coaches were Marty Beasley, Mark Meier and the late Chuck Grimes.
“We had some really good shooters and some guys that just played really well together,” Platt said. “Obviously, Jason Campbell was our leading scorer and was a just very good talent and could go get you points, and when you have a guy that could do that, it cures a lot of ills at times. But we just had a group of guys that wanted to play and win and put winning ahead of everything else. It was a good group of guys, just solid individuals and they loved to play the game, so they had a lot of fun.”
