This is the last of my series on the great Warsaw teams of all time.

There are a few more teams that need to be mentioned. Again, these are teams that set themselves apart over the course of time and they are in no particular order.

Boys basketball, 2010: It would be wrong to not mention this team in this discussion. They are the only Warsaw team to advance to the state championship game in Class 4A basketball.

Nic Moore, who ultimately became an Indiana All-Star and finished second in Mr. Basketball voting, led the Tigers through one of the most competitive sectionals in the state, regional victories over two teams from the Region, and a second win against a Carroll Charger team that only lost four games all season.

They did it with sophomore starters Lucas Grose and Jordyn Coon, who each played important roles in the success of the season and the length of the tournament run.

Softball, 1991: Rod Yoder led the Lady Tigers to the state title that June almost 30 years ago.

That roster featured a perfect combination of true softball players and athletes, hitting and pitching, and plenty of confidence.

Oh, and they were clutch. The championship game’s defining moment was a diving catch in its final half inning, and no one who witnessed it or heard Brad Ellis describe it on the radio will ever forget it.

Boys golf, 2005: Warsaw’s boys golf team had been to the State Finals before—13 times before—including 2004 when they finished third. Four of the five team members from the 2004 lineup returned: Jake Brodhead, Chris Hanson, Jon Clevenger and Grant Slater. Add Tad Nieter, who recently stepped down as Tiger girls golf coach, and you had people with experience in state competition, knowledge of their own game, and a Jedi Master coach in Ben Barkey preaching “course management”, and you have a state champion.

Girls basketball, 2013: Michelle Harter’s best team found themselves in a similar position as the 2004 team did—regional champs and coming home for a one-game semi-state in the Tiger Den.

Led by Lindsay Baker and Jennifer Walker-Crawford, the Lady Tigers started the season 18-0 before losing to NorthWood in the Panther Pit.

Defensively, they treated the basket are as if they were guards at a maximum security prison. They gave up just 35 points a game, and only 3 teams managed 45 points or more in a game all season.

They lost that semi-state game in the Tiger Den 47-44 because a girl hit three 3-pointers in a quarter when she hadn’t made 10 all season.

Remember at the beginning of this series when I said I really am uncomfortable with the whole concept of “best of” lists, rankings and the like.

This is the point in the discussion that makes me feel that way.

Sure, I could write another 20 articles about teams who had successful and impactful seasons. It’s at this point when you, the reader, realize that a team you thought should be on my list isn’t going to be.

For example, several of you wondered where the football team of 2019 stands in this discussion. A team that won a football sectional for the first time ever, and did it by beating Penn for the first time ever, should be in this discussion, right?

They are not. Not yet, anyway.

The picture of greatness of a sports team or an American president or a CEO or in any position of leadership only becomes clear after the passage of time. Like a finely cooked dish, it has to bake for the proper length of time in the proper temperature to give us what we are looking for from it.

We are just months removed from this team making its mark, and that’s way too soon to try to quantify that or compare them to others. It wouldn’t be fair to them.

It doesn’t mean they won’t be considered there, but we can’t be prisoners of the moment and cast them in that place right now.

Ask me again five years from now, or 10.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane.