Columbus East’s Thomas Houpey, left, attempts to stiffarm Bloomington South’s Ryan Stikeleather Aug. 23 at Columbus East High School.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Three years ago, Thomas Houpey was a 220-pound freshman starting on the offensive line for South Decatur.
Now, Houpey is the starting running back and leading rusher as a senior for a Columbus East football team that has captured at least a share of the Hoosier Hills Conference title.
“I love playing running back,” Houpey said. “It’s a lot more fun. You just get to try to make people miss, and you get to make big plays.”
Houpey had played running back growing up at South Decatur, but was in the same class as prolific rusher Corbin Johnson.
“When I was there, we had Corbin, and we had another kid that was senior, so we were pretty good on the running back side, and they just moved me to where they needed me the most,” Houpey said.
But after that freshman year, Houpey transferred to East. He moved to running back, but was limited to JV eligibility as a sophomore because of the transfer.
Last year, Houpey saw carries on the varsity as a backup to then-senior Tyler Weller. With Weller having moved on, Houpey has been the main ball carrier in the Olympians’ backfield this season.
“I hit the offseason hard and got down to 190, and I continued working hard to try to trim down,” Houpey said. “I think that’s a big reason of why I’m at where I’m at right now.”
“He shared some of the carries last year, and this year, he’s become that guy,” East coach Eddie Vogel added. “The guy has worked his tail off, and he’s done anything and everything we ever asked him to do. He’s got his opportunity to be the guy, and he’s run with it. He’s been a great leader for our team, and I’m super proud of him for how he’s gone about things and gotten to the point where he’s at in getting his opportunities. He’s done it because he’s worked for it.”
Thomas Houpey
Houpey’s success has mirrored that of the East team. After back-to-back losses to begin the season, Houpey has rushed for more than 100 yards in each of the Olympians’ five wins in the six games since then.
“I think a lot of it revolves around how well the line has been blocking, and also how well the defense has been playing, going out and getting stops and turning the other offense over, which allows me to go out and make plays,” Houpey said.
For the season, Houpey has rushed for 645 yards and five touchdowns and is averaging 7.1 yards per carry.
“He works extremely hard in the weight room,” Vogel said. “He’s a big, thick kid. He’s worked really hard to improve his speed. He works hard, encourages his teammates, he leads by example, he’s always working, and he takes care of his body, too. He’s always in the training room making sure he takes care of his body so he’s ready to play Friday night for his teammates and give his best. I’m just real tickled that he’s having the season he’s had, so we want to keep it rolling.”
Houpey is hoping to play college football and has talked to coaches at Wabash and Bluffton (Ohio). But he also wants to study Aviation and has visited Eastern Kentucky, which is in the process of moving up from the FCS level (formerly Division I-AA) to FBS.
The Olympians have bounced back from their slow start to the season and are 5-3 overall and 5-0 in the HHC going into Friday’s regular-season finale at Bedford North Lawrence. East has its most wins and its first conference title since 2020.
“Our team has really come together after the first two weeks,” Houpey said. “I think the whole team was just tired of losing. Everybody talked down on us the last couple of years, and everybody was tired of it. We wanted to get back to the winning that the program is known for. We’re really just trying to take it week by week and just play for us and show people what we can do as a team.”
