INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Every month, WISH-TV highlights a local school district with “The Morning Bell,” a conversation focused on new or exciting programs and accomplishments within Indiana schools.

To start this new series, Darren Thomas, the director of athletics at Indianapolis Public Schools, joined News 8 at Daybreak to discuss success both within sports and within the classrooms at Indianapolis Public Schools.

The country will be focused on Indianapolis with the NBA All-Star game in February, and IPS is celebrating with a special tribute at Crispus Attucks High School.

“‘A Touch of Glory‘ (is) a play coming to Crispus Attucks High School,” Thomas said. “It’s really going to be awesome. One thing we think about when we think about Attucks and basketball in Indiana is you can’t really tell the complete story about the history of basketball in our great state without touching on the Crispus Attucks High School story.”

“A Touch of Glory” tells the story of Crispus Attacks High School, its basketball program in the 1950s, and the team’s historic victory that marked the first time an all-Black team won a state championship in any sport in the country.

The play is scheduled during Black History Month and the NBA All-Star Weekend in downtown Indianapolis. The district says it promises a captivating narrative that transcends time.

The current boy’s basketball team at Crispus Attucks is ranked in the top 10 in the state and will be competing in the Indianapolis’ City Tournament Championship game Monday night.

“They’re doing really well under coach Chris Hawkins right now,” Thomas said. “And so, we’re excited to see what they can do tonight. They’re actually going to be competing for the City Tournament Championship. They won last year. So tonight, they’ll play Cathedral at Arsenal Tech and hopefully, they’ll come out with a win there.”

Attucks Football also had its best season on record. IPS touted that all of the traditional high schools also fielded girls’ flag football teams as a part of an inaugural girls’ flag football season that was driven by the Colts.

Thomas said to News 8, “When we run reports, we run data, we look at their graduation rates, we look at GPAs, we look at student attendance, and behavioral discipline rates – all of those things are substantially better for our student-athletes than our non-student athletes in our high schools.

“And so, we really want to put that together and then encourage more and more students to participate in athletics. But we have to make sure that we’re giving them good programming to participate in, make them want to participate, and continue to stay in IPS and participate in those programs quickly.”

The district is also upgrading its athletic fields with money from the Rebuilding Stronger Plan.

Listen to the full interview with Thomas in the video above.