The past five days have seen some pretty darn impressive performances and accomplishments.

• To start off, what a showing by the Indiana School for the Deaf at last weekend's City wrestling tournament, where the Deaf Hoosiers finished a staggering second place to perrenial winner Cathedral. You may have read this stat before, maybe during the Deaf Hoosiers impressive run this football season, but they have a total of 49 boys enrolled at the school. 49. Think about that for a minute. Each earning second place individual finishes for Indiana Deaf were Jamie Johnson (285 pounds), Corey Burton (215) and Colin Analco (125). Here's a tip of the hat to the athletes themselves, as well as coach Mike Paulone and the rest of the administration for running such a fine athletic department.
• Not to be forgotten, North Central earned a boys-girls sweep at the Marion County Swimming Championships on Saturday, led by the girls 200 yard freestyle relay team of Amy Katz, Brittany Kent, Kristen Lewis and Lauren Massey setting a new county and school record with a time of 1:38.74. And the Lawrence North girls had an impressive finish in second place, getting a county record in the 100-yard butterfly from freshman phenom Julie Ogden.
• And what about the Warren Central boys basketball team? What a job early this season by coach Scott Heady, keeping his team hungry and downright driven after losing standout Walter Offutt for the season. After hearing the news of Offutt's injury, the Warriors went out and defeated then-No. 1 East Chicago Central at the Dec. 8 Challenge of Champions. Then, this past weekend Warren used a spark from guard Jarrin Forte to defeat rival Ben Davis, 73-62. The Warriors are now ranked No. 2 in the all-class coaches' top-20 and have a big one tonight as they host No. 6 Lawrence North.
• Sticking with the boys, how about Perry Meridian's impressive 61-58 upset of No. 17 Franklin Central? Sounded like a great game with a great finish. The Flashes came into that game undefeated at 5-0, rolling along, but this is one sign of many to come that parity will prevail this season. Very few teams have the ability to separate themselves from the rest of the state, which should make for very interesting months of February and March.
• Back in girls hoops, North Central guard Briana Bass played through a severely broken nose in Saturday's big win over rival and No. 10 Carmel, 56-30. Bass posted 20 points in that one, just two days after leaving a game bloodied in the nose. Gotta love a gritty performance like that.

I'll be posting an Editor's Cut on Thursday of my Dec. story on Tony Dungy and the All Pro Dad organization, so be on the lookout for that (if you're into that kind of thing, I don't know). Also, keep in mind that I'm trying to put together a weekly McConnell Mailbag, so feel free to e-mail me at dave.mcconnell@hsstm.com if you wish to ask a question or pick my brain.
Lastly, I'd like to take a moment to wish everybody a safe and happy holiday season. I know I'm looking foward to having a few days off with friends and family, and I bet many of you are thinking the same. Is it really almost 2008? Eeeesh...