2019 has been good for local athletics. A new stadium for football and soccer has been built. The George Rogers Clark Cardinals’ football team won their first playoff game, the boys soccer team had their best season in a decade, one GRC team three-peated as region champs and one team four-peated.

This list will show the top five accomplishments from local athletics throughout the year:

5. GRC secures district title in double overtime

The boys basketball team won their second-straight district championship in head coach Josh Cook’s third season at GRC. The team downed Bourbon County 75-72 in double overtime thanks to a Jordan Graham 3-pointer.

“Definitely proud to come out and get a win,” Cook said. “It was definitely a ride. Hopefully, this will give us momentum. It’s games like this where you win by stepping up and making plays at the end. I know our kids are excited but we are going to regain focus this weekend and write another chapter next week.”

Cook said not once did his team give up and their effort paid off.

“We tried to get stops and make plays,” he said. “At some point, it comes down to effort and a bit of guts. You’re going to fail and make mistakes in games like this. I was really proud of our guys hanging in there. They kept believing and they found a way.”

4. GRC athletes sign to continue their careers at the next level

The George Rogers Clark teams had great performances this year, but the individuals had quite a year as well.

The Cardinals saw 10 athletes sign their letters of intent to play their sport at the next level: Hannah Curreri, Mackenzie Cooper, Kennedy Igo, Will Henry, Davonte Boyd, Brooklyn Johnson, Taylor Kelly, Hunter Dunn, Jakobe Buford and Ethan Neal.

This number could go up if you include the class of 2019 seniors who signed before Jan. 1 last year, like Hayley Harrison, who is at the University of Tennessee Martin. And other class of 2020 seniors who have not signed yet, but will likely continue their athletic career.

3. GRC pummels Fillies for 10th Region Title.

For the third consecutive year, the GRC girls basketball team competed in the 10th Region Championship, and for the third consecutive year, they won the 10th Region Championship.

“I couldn’t be more proud of a bunch of kids,” head coach Robbie Graham said. “We’ve gone through so much this season with injuries, sickness and other things. The resiliency of this team is outstanding. We really worked hard to get to this point. We felt like we needed to come out early and attack the basket and be aggressive. We needed to be great on the defensive end and I thought we did that. We got them riled up a little bit. Our size blocked their guards’ shots and we mentally got to them. We did a good job of helping each other. We were rebounding, diving on the floor and taking charges. It came together in all categories for us. We’re very excited to be in this position. What a great group of girls we coach. The smiles on their faces after all this hard work is definitely a great feeling.”

The Lady Cardinals would continue their run for two more games, downing Mercy 65-64 in the state tournament, before falling to eventual state-champion Ryle in the second round.

2. GRC four-peats as 10th Region champions

The Lady Cardinals soccer team entered the season as the three-time defending region champs and had that same goal entering the 2019 season.

The seniors, Delaney Manning and Caitlin Bowling, were looking to run the table in their time as Cardinals, winning a region championship each season.

That they did, downing Bishop Brossart 3-0 in the region championship.

“It’s different, I don’t want to say one’s better than another,” head coach Matthew Abner said. “It’s exciting when you see the smiles on the girls. When they’ve worked this hard and what they’ve put in to practice to earn another title it’s exciting.”

1. GRC holds off Tates Creek after slow start and sloppy ending, wins 34-28 in new stadium

The long-awaited Cardinal Stadium got its first taste of football on Sept. 6, 2019, when GRC hosted Tates Creek in the stadium’s opener.

The community came to support their Cardinals and the packed house helped bring home the win in the opener for GRC against a good Tates Creek team.

After fighting back after trailing in the fourth quarter, head coach Oliver Lucas was proud of what his team did.

“Our kids showed the character I’ve talked about,” Oliver Lucas, GRC’s head coach, said. “They’re resilient and they do not quit. They kept going and they make it go our way.”

But the game was not only a big deal for current players and coaches but past and future members of Cardinal football as well.

Civitan players were brought onto the field to show the future of GRC football, while all past players were welcomed to the field too.

“It’s great to see all my old teammates, I don’t get to see those guys very often,” Tony Lanning, RDC’s head football coach at the time and a member of the state championship team, said. “To come out here on a night like this, it’s pretty special.”