COLUMN: How to part ways with a historic Class of 2026

Six years ago, the month of April began a bright spot for yours truly.

In the midst of a pandemic that shut down virtually everything, there was a five-week stretch from April into May where, for about two hours each week, I escaped to the world of the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.

The ESPN documentary The Last Dance pushed up its release date and gained worldwide popularity at an opportunistic time thanks to the worldwide shutdown. Michael Jordan was no stranger to me — I had heard enough stories from my dad about his ability to seemingly break the laws of gravity — but the 10-episode series made me feel like I had actually lived through each of his six championships.

That documentary left such a big imprint on me that I’m just one of many who can sometimes get caught in the trap of referring to any final season for a team or an athlete as “a last dance.” It’s an easy slogan to slap onto a group that has been together for so long and has one last chance to check a box. Sometimes, it’s a fair comparison. Other times, it’s just lazy wording.

When I look back on the 2025-26 high school athletic season, I find that the description is appropriate for more teams and more athletes than I can count. The Class of 2026 was historic in so many ways that I feel like I just watched Episode 10 and the credits are rolling over a dark abyss of black pixels. Where did the time go?

The state championships won by NorthWood’s Naima Ghaffar and Westview’s Noah Bontrager is obviously at the top of the list of accomplishments by this year’s graduating class. Ghaffar (a Grand Valley State recruit) won her second state title this winter. After competing against the boys for two years (and beating many), Ghaffar never let up once girls wrestling was approved by the Indiana High School Athletic Association. She was 86-2 in her final two seasons for the Panthers.

Bontrager deserves all of his flowers following a four-year timeline of distance dominance in the Hoosier State. The four-time state champion and two-time cross country state runner-up earned two more track titles this year and now holds the state record in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. The lone high school athlete from Indiana to run a sub-4-minute mile deserves to go down as one of the best to ever do it in northern Indiana. Notre Dame got a great one.

The prep curtain closed on so many other high school athletes this year. Where does one even start?

How about future Indiana Wesleyan star Brady Scholl?

Before this season, a regional boys basketball title had never been awarded to Northridge High School. It’s no excuse, but the Raiders have long played in the highest class and in a competitive sectional. Turns out that Scholl’s superhero abilities often came to the rescue during Northridge’s best-ever season. The Raiders finished a win away from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, succumbing to Crown Point at North Side Gym and ending the year with a remarkable 26-2 mark.

Scholl, who earned a spot on the Indiana Senior All-Star team, scored over 1,500 points in his career to finish third on the all-time scoring list at Northridge. He’ll go down as an Elkhart County great in more ways than one.

In football, Concord’s Reese Breveard delivered a flashy highlight reel touchdown pretty much every week for the road-ravaging Minutemen. Playing without a true home, Concord trudged through its all-road schedule to earn its first semistate appearance since 2013. To do that, the future Ball State running back had to make a play that typically only exists in folklore.

Trailing No. 2 Lafayette Jeff 45-38 with 1:21 to play in the regional championship game at Elkhart’s Rice Field, senior quarterback Bo Brunner scampered for a 20-yard touchdown run with seconds left.

Because of an unsuccessful two-point conversion, Concord senior kicker Nathan Potter was called on for an onside kick. His connection took a weird hop and Breveard — maybe the shortest player on the field — won a jump ball to give his school one last shot.

“He was two feet above everyone,” Concord coach Craig Koehler said later that night. “He’s ridiculous. He’s the best player in northern Indiana and it’s not even close.”

Breveard’s success led to Potter’s. The kicker nailed a 48-yard field goal that caused a field storm at the horn. Pinch myself? No, I would have needed a rubber mallet to wake me up from that dream experience.

Back to basketball, how about the wonderful careers a few girls wrapped up this winter? Eva Herbert became a 1,000-point scorer at Fairfield and helped the Falcons to a semistate run with then-junior Madison Jones (also a 1,000-point scorer).

In Middlebury, Northridge’s girls basketball established a near-perfect ending to their season by reaching semistate. Lily Scholl’s 42-point game won’t be the final monster performance of her career since she’s got one more season with the Raiders coming up, but seniors Cam Conley and Macey Riegsecker should be remembered by the critical roles each of them played for the fightin’ Doug Springers.

On the boys side, no team made it farther in any sport this season than Westview. The Chandler Prible-led Warriors suffered heartbreak at Gainbridge when the game-winning layup bounced thrice and fell off the rim in the Class 2A state title game. Needless to say, Westview’s 27-2 mark was just the latest indicator that the health of Warrior basketball remains significantly strong, especially considering most of that team returns.

In volleyball, Hilary Laidig took a largely inexperienced group to semistate. In baseball, Zach Benko took a largely new group to semistate. Laidig and Benko have something special at NorthWood in their respective sports. No matter the names on the roster, their teams always mold to fit into the successful form that each coach requires. What’s best, is that each truly loves their student-athletes. That matters first, wins matter second. For Laidig and Benko, they’ve been getting the best of both worlds recently.

Other athletes that ended their prep careers include the Miller twins at Northridge. Baylor and Xavier were remarkable as distance runners, so was counterpart Dakotah Moore on the girls side.

Golfers Alex Reschly (Northridge) and Sophie Richmond (NorthWood) are done being friendly Northern Lakes Conference foes and will team up at Marian University. Expect some low scores to roll in from there.

Bethany Christian’s Sawyer Beachy will continue playing soccer at Detroit Mercy, Goshen’s Levi Sawatzky will play basketball at Goshen College and the senior-heavy baseball team at Goshen will leave after achieving back-to-back sectional titles and a near-perfect showing in the NLC. Braxton Cline, Ryen, Diaz, Bryson Wilson and Karter Marcum all had large roles for historic RedHawk basketball and baseball teams. Take a bow, boys.

I’m going to miss these athletes, as well as several others who didn’t get mentioned here. Their respective last dances were choreographed to near-perfection. The 2025-26 prep season will hopefully be talked about for quite a while.