Lewis Cass’ football factory continued to operate at peak efficiency in 2009 thanks in large part to its foreman.

Quarterback/safety Damon Foreman led the Kings to a 9-4 record, a share of their second straight Mid-Indiana Conference title and their third straight Class 2A sectional title. He started on all three of those championship squads.

Foreman’s play in 2009 made him the clear choice for Most Valuable Player of the Kokomo Tribune All-Area Team.

“I’m kind of surprised, but it’s really neat,” he said.

Foreman continues Cass’ record streak of MVP winners. Garrett Segraves won the award in 2005 and again in ’06, Rory Mannering followed in ’07 and Colton Zeck won it last year.

“I was hoping we’d be able to get somebody to be the MVP this year, to keep that going. That’s really cool,” Foreman said.

Foreman missed 31/2 games with a shoulder injury that required postseason surgery, but the 6-foot, 193-pound senior still finished with a team-high 13 touchdowns and an area-best seven interceptions.

“He is probably one of the handful of players I’ve been able to coach at Cass who was able to create things offensively that you just don’t practice. He was able to come up with big runs on our option plays, he was very good at running the quarterback sneak and he had a knack of finding our deep receivers sometimes,” veteran Cass coach Scott Mannering said.

“Defensively, I think he is one of the most intelligent players that we’ve had. If you completed a ball in front of him once or twice, he’d make a play on it the next time. He is just an all-around, really good football player.”

Like the Cass players who won the All-Area MVP award before him, Foreman was at his best in the big games. Consider:

• Against Western in a Week 9 battle for a share of the MIC championship, Foreman directed Cass on a 76-yard scoring drive in the final three minutes to erase a one-point deficit, scoring the game-winning TD on a three-yard run with :17 remaining.

Foreman was brilliant on both sides of the ball in the 34-27 win, rushing for 102 yards, completing 11 of 15 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns and recording 10 tackles and a game-ending interception.

• Against Tipton in a Sectional 28 semifinal game, he ran for 104 yards and two touchdowns to send Cass to a 15-0 win.

• And against Northwestern in the sectional final, he once again made big plays on both sides of the ball, leading the Kings past the Tigers 28-7. Offensively, he ran for 85 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 92 yards and one TD. Defensively, he recorded two interceptions — including one when Northwestern was driving for a potential game-tying score in the final two minutes.

“To me, the mark of a truly good football player is what he does against the best competition. I thought Damon raised his level a notch every time we played someone that was better. When we played Western and when we played Northwestern in the tournament, he was at his absolute best,” Scott Mannering said.

Foreman enjoyed the Kings’ late-season run.

“We played really well against Western in that conference championship game, that was a really fun game, and just played really well throughout the sectional,” he said. “Then in our last game against [Fort Wayne Bishop] Luers, we played about as well as we possibly could, but we were just one yard shot of going on.”

Luers beat Cass 54-53 in double overtime in a regional game. Luers stopped Foreman a yard shot on a two-point attempt on the game’s final play.

Luers went on to win the 2A state championship while Foreman headed for surgery on his injured throwing shoulder. His collarbone had separated from the AC joint during a game against Hamilton Heights in Week 4. He sat out the next three games with the exceptions of a stint as the place-kicker and a few defensive plays, then returned to play in the final six games.

“I know he was in some pain, it was in his throwing shoulder, but he never complained about it,” Mannering said. “He did what he could in practice and I think he played on a lot of adrenaline in games.”

Foreman said it all worked out well.

“It was painful, but it was worth it [to play] because I wanted to play my senior year. I had been looking forward to that forever,” he said.

Foreman closed the season with 565 rushing yards, averaging 5.2 yards per carry, and 769 passing yards with eight touchdowns on 48-of-97 accuracy. Defensively, he had 391/2 tackles and seven picks.

Foreman left his mark on the Kings’ program. As a sophomore, he started at a cornerback position on a team that won 11 games and sectional and regional titles. As a junior, he started at QB and safety, helping the Kings win a school-record-tying 13 games and reach the state finals for the first time. And as a senior, Foreman raised his play to All-Area MVP level.

“I said at our banquet that I’ve been here too long to pick out who are best guys were, but he’s definitely one of the best that I’ve had the chance to coach,” said Scott Mannering, who has led the Cass program for 24 years. “There are a couple games that really stand out for me. His junior year, the Bremen game in round one of the sectional, he almost single-handedly beat them and if that doesn’t happen, we’re done. He had a couple games like that at the end of the season this year. He was just an exciting player to watch.”

First-team offense

QB: Jonathan Keith, Eastern

RB: Jake Askren, Western

RB: Jordan Woodard, Clinton Central

WR: Seth Jacobs, Tipton

WR: Brayden Merrell, Northwestern

TE: Tyler Harnish, Eastern

Utility: Andrew Troutman, Cass

OL: Trevor Buckalew, Western

OL: Hank Grosvenor, Tipton

OL: Andy Jacquet, Clinton Central

OL: Ryan Mercer, Northwestern

OL: Jake Rouch, Cass

PK: John Reeder, Western

First-team defense

DE: Cody Larimore, Cass

DE: Joey Price, Eastern

DT: Andy Hunkeler, Northwestern

DT: Drew Pullen, Cass

DE/LB: Logun Taylor, Western

LB: Jonathan Bush, Carroll

LB: Kevin Moats, Tipton

LB: Tommy Monroe, Taylor

LB: Abe Ridlen, Northwestern

DB: Corbin Orr, Cl. Central

DB: Phillip Newbill, Maconaquah

DB: Michael Schulte, Northwestern

DB: Derrick Worden, Cass

P: Kelly Kingseed, Eastern

Honorable mention offense

Trevor Gibson, NW QB; Ross Schulenburg, Tipton, QB; Tanner Langley, Tipton, RB; Cale Roark, Eastern, RB; Brenner Stage, Maconaquah, RB; Blake Donson, Eastern, WR; Jake Dye, Tipton, WR; Luke Primerano, Peru, WR; Danny Turner, Northwestern, TE; Levi Byers, Cass, OL; Pat Fountain, Western, OL; Koby Roudebush, Tipton, OL; Braden Schlegelmilch, Cass, OL; Blake Surber, OL, Clinton Central; Sean Ryan, Eastern, K.

Honorable mention defense

Blake Day, Cl. Central, DL; Ethan Glascock, Carroll, DL; Travis Sheets, Peru, DL; Clayton Smith, Eastern, DL; Andy Baldwin, Mac, LB; Evan Depew, Cass, LB; Brody Edgerly, Cass, LB; David Griffy, Cl. Central, LB; Johnny Grosvenor, Tipton, LB; Kenny Parson, TC, LB; Walter Wheeler, Taylor, LB; Brandon Williamson, Carroll, LB; Austen Conwell, Taylor, DB; Caleb Gibson, Eastern, DB; Indy Mathew, Western, DB; Drew Yoder, Carroll, DB.

NOTE

The All-Area Team draws players from 11 schools — Carroll, Cass, Clinton Central, Eastern, Maconaquah, Northwestern, Peru, Taylor, Tipton, Tri-Central and Western. The team does not include Kokomo because of the disparity in schedules between Kokomo and the other area teams.