TERRE HAUTE —
Siblings are becoming the story when it comes to the Tribune-Star’s Athletes of the Year awards.
After Terre Haute North distance runners Chanli and Tyeson Mundy made the unprecedented step of sweeping the fall sports awards just a few months ago, the same scenario exists for winter awards in Sullivan’s Smith family, where junior Rhagen and senior Rhett are two of the three winners.
Rhett Smith will share his Athlete of the Year award for winter sports athletes — as well as Wabash Valley Player of the Year honors in boys basketball — with Terre Haute North’s Matt O’Leary, but there’s a sibling angle with O’Leary too.
Matt O’Leary is the youngest of four brothers who have been mainstays of the Patriot basketball program for a long time (not to mention Chris O’Leary also being an honored football player for North), but was the first to earn a Division I basketball scholarship and now is the first to earn an Athlete of the Year honor.
He made it known quickly this week, however, that he wouldn’t be holding that over his brothers’ heads.
“A lot of the credit goes to them,” he said of Marc, Dan and Chris. “They’ve supported me all the way.”
The common thread among all three of the honored players from the 2011-2012 season — more so than the points, rebounds and blocked shots they all had in abundance — is winning.
“We were 64-11 the last three years, and [Rhett Smith] had a lot to do with that,” noted coach Jeff Moore of the Sullivan boys team.
“We were 11-11 my freshman year, then 20-4, then 21-4 [last season],” said Rhagen Smith. “We’re gradually getting more wins [every season], and it’s been great to see the improvement.”
And although O’Leary’s North teams were 38-15 during the two years the late-blooming, fast-rising senior (who had honorable-mention status on last season’s all-Valley team) was a starter, he has the trump card over the Smiths, both first-team all-Valley players a year ago — a victory at the Class 4A Hinkle Fieldhouse Regional a few weeks ago that left his Patriots among the final eight teams in the state.
“We accomplished one of my main goals,” he said earlier this week. “Winning the sectional, winning a game at the regional and beating the No. 2 team in the state [that regional win over Pendleton Heights]. I couldn’t be much happier.”
“I felt like we should’ve gone farther [in the state tournament],” said Rhett Smith, whose Arrows won two Class 3A sectionals — losing one of the two regional games that followed in overtime — and dropped a three-point decision to second-ranked Eastern Greene for this year’s Class 2A sectional championship, “but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
“I’d love to get back to the regional and get another shot at [defending Class 2A state champion Evansville] Mater Dei,” said Rhagen Smith, whose team won its Class 2A sectional this year after losing a Class 3A sectional championship game in overtime a year earlier.
As mentioned, however, there is also no shortage of statistics when it comes to the three players voted as the Wabash Valley’s top basketball players by members of the Tribune-Star’s sports staff.
Rhett Smith is Sullivan’s all-time leading scorer with 1,534 points and finished his senior year averaging 20 points, between seven and eight rebounds and approximately three blocked shots per game.
O’Leary averaged 17.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game for North, while shooting 37 percent from 3-point range and 72 percent from the foul line. His blocked-shots average wasn’t as high as Smith’s — although Smith probably remembers a couple of the ones O’Leary did get. “We don’t block many shots in the [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference],” pointed out North coach Todd Woelfle, who supplied the other averages.
Rhagen Smith passed the 1,000-point level during her junior season, during which she averaged 15.9 points, eight rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.5 assists per game. She has a chance to become her school’s all-time leading female scorer, and will certainly do so if she reaches a goal she’s already mentioned to her coach.
“She’s already told me her goal next year is to average 20 points and 12 rebounds [per game], and she means it,” said Julie Meeks. “She’s a great player who is outstanding on the court, in the classroom and as a person.
“She works very, very hard,” Meeks continued, “and she’s a great team player. I’m excited for her [winning this award]. She’s very deserving.”
“He’s very deserving,” Moore echoed when asked about Rhett Smith. “He’s one of the premier athletes in this area. “He’s had a great career at Sullivan High School ... and played more high school games than anybody in the history of the school.”
“I think it’s a great honor, one that is well deserved,” Woelfle said of O’Leary. “He’s put in a lot of hard work to make himself a good basketball player, and he’s a good person.”
Rhett Smith and O’Leary, who are preparing themselves for college play at Indiana State and Loyola of Chicago respectively, are joined on the first team by Rockville’s Lane Mahurin, the other repeater from last year’s first team; Ross Sponsler, O’Leary’s North teammate; and two more Vigo County stars, Jordan Houser of West Vigo and Jeffrey Turner of Terre Haute South.
Rhagen Smith’s fellow first-teamers are two repeaters from last year, Terre Haute North’s Nicole Anderson and Robinson’s Kelsey Dirks, joined by South’s Tasia Brewer, Riverton Parke’s Sara Dickey and Clay City’s Carmela Roeschlein.
Other challengers for Athlete of the Year honors for winter sports were four individual state finalists: South swimmers Grace Padget and Nolan Roach and wrestlers Tsali Lough of South and Aaron See of Northview.
High School
Related Photos
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In traffic: Sullivan's Rhagen Smith draws a crowd of South Knox defenders as she shoots from the paint in the first half of their sectional matchup Wednesday night in Bloomfield.
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Pressure: Terre Haute South's Holden Smith keeps the pressure on North's Matt O'Leary early in the crosstown matchup Friday night in Hulman Center.
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Physical game? You betcha!: Terre Haute North's Matt O'Leary tries to stop a driving Rhett Smith of Sullivan during the Patriots' win in the final of the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic Friday at North.
Discussion
Terre Haute North's O'Leary, Sullivan's Smith share Winter Athlete of the Year honors
Rhagen Smith named top girl in Wabash Valley
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