Indians wronged? Saturday, December 3, 2011

Controversial call sets stage for TL semifinal loss.

By Chad Husted

LAFAYETTE — With time winding down in what would be remembered as either a bitter defeat or a rousing victory between Twin Lakes and Lafayette Jeff, nothing in between, a scrum ensued for an awkwardly loose ball just outside of the three point arc of the Twin Lakes basket.

Out of that tangle of limbs and bodies, Bronchos senior Rashad Richardson heaved the ball in the direction of the basket, and with a whistle came the call that ultimately left the Twin Lakes crowd searching for answers in Jeff’s 52-51 win.

Richardson’s shot came after a furious comeback for the Indians, which had appeared to have the game under control with four minutes to play when Lafayette Jeff put together a finish by DeShonte Townsend on a tipped ball and a steal and finish from Peter Ripke to gain a 48-43 lead. Senior Jordan Crabb then drew a charge call, sandwiched by a driving finish and two made free throws from senior Brian Moore to pull the Indians back to a 48-47 deficit with 2:00 to play.

Jeff sophomore point guard Darian Green then traveled under pressure, allowing Crabb to find a cutting Ryan Connell under the basket to take a 49-48 lead with 1:12 to play. Jeff again turned the ball over on the ensuing possession, allowing Moore to pad the lead to 51-48 with 0:54 to play with two made free throws.

Richardson nailed a pair of free throws in the ensuing minute of play to bring the Bronchos within one point, setting up the scrum. Twin Lakes’ Sam Hickman made a play for Richardson’s dribble, with the ball eventually coming out with four seconds to play. The officials called for a shooting foul, as Jeff was not in the bonus, but allotted only two shots for the shooter instead of the three that would have been required had the shot taken place from the vicinity of the tussle.

Richardson hit both free throws, topping off his night with 8-for-11 from the line in a game that the Bronchos only shot 14 free throws total to TL’s 21. Moore’s sprint down the right sideline and finish at the basket was completed before time ran out, but the final Indian shot bounced twice off of the rim as time expired.

“Nothing. Not a word, I have no idea,” Twin Lakes coach Kent Adams said when asked what explanation he had received for the apparent misappropriation of shots for the final free throws. A technical had also been called on the TL bench in the second quarter.

“They said it was shooting foul, but if it was shooting it was shooting three because he was behind the 3-point line. It’s unbelievable.”

Twin Lakes’ own chance to secure the win had several stages, with the Indians holding Lafayette Jeff to just 38 percent shooting on the day as a zone defense kept the Bronchos from developing too much at the rim. Twin Lakes buzzed out to an early lead that came back down with a 19-12 second quarter going to the Bronchos. Lafayette Jeff coach Scott Radeker saw his team become frustrated with the TL zone, opting for too many 3-pointers, but wouldn’t have wanted anyone but Richardson taking those final shots.

“(Twin Lakes) deserved to win the game as much as we did today. We didn’t get the ball inside against the zone enough,” Radeker said, adding that the call went Jeff’s way in the end and his team took advantage. “There were certain times in the game that we executed and got the ball inside, but … our execution on offense wasn’t very good to be honest with you. I was pretty disappointed with our execution offensively.

“I wasn’t sure what they were going to call, but of course I was wanting a shooting foul. It kind of looked like he was shooting, and I don’t know who he would have been passing to. The call went our way, and we went to the line and capitalized.”

Radeker was also adamant with an apology for his team leaving the court after the final buzzer.

“It’s not excuse, but they got caught up in the heat of the moment and sprinted off the floor. We came and got them and we ran back out, but of course I wouldn’t have waited for them either. I just want to apologize to the whole Twin Lakes community,” Radeker said. The Bronchos had stationed themselves outside the TL locker room after the game, but left before exited.

TL couldn’t rely on late free throw shooting the way it had in previous games, however, with the Indians going 5-for-10 from the line in the fourth quarter. The chance to put the Indians up three before the final possession was lost when a long inbound intended for Connell resulted in a hard foul on the TL senior. He was forced to leave the game with blood on his head, with sophomore Cody DeBoy then entering the game and missing the pair of free throws.

A win would have been Twin Lakes’ first against Lafayette Jeff since as far back as 1993-94, and would have been for the Indians’ first appearance in the J&C Hoops Classic championship game.

“Our kids played so hard and we played so well. Sure we made some mistakes, we did some things that we would like to take back,” Adams said. “We’d like to make some more free throws, and we made some turnovers that were baskets for them, but I think for the most part I think we did everything that we could possibly do and we fell a little bit short.”

Moore led all scorers with 20 points, while Crabb snagged eight rebounds to lead the Indians. After posting a 20-plus game Monday, sophomore Cameron Bennington couldn’t find room on the outside for long range shots, taking just two and hitting one. Bennington had five points, while Crabb placed second with 12 points for TL.

Twin Lakes will now face McCutcheon in the third place game. Lafayette Jeff will still miss junior Lucas Wallace with an ACL injury, but expects to have Jarlon Garrett back after serving his suspension in the first three games. The Bronchos will play West Lafayette at 8 p.m. tonight.

Accompanying column

Rapid reaction to final call at Lafayette Jeff

There’s a reason that the fans in the stands don’t call the game. The vast majority of so-called bad calls are judgment calls, likely to be colored by whatever tint your glasses have developed by flag you wave, and anyone who looks at a basketball game impartially knows that they have a way of evening out.

The righteous indignation and frustration exhibited by Twin Lakes’ contingent at Lafayette Jeff Friday night had something else to it. It wasn’t so much the call for the shooting foul (whether a player should be rewarded for a desperation heave from the floor in the final seconds is debatable, but well within the official’s rights to call), but Friday night’s game became a martyr when the outcome didn’t match what was being called on the floor.

Through several quick conversations with media members and with my own account from the opposite corner of the floor, a consensus was quickly developed that Rashad Richardson had been beyond the arc when the ball went up. The call hadn’t been for an intentional foul, as Jeff would have retained possession after the shots, and the Bronchos were not in the bonus. The call makes sense only if Richardson was within the arc, but this isn’t the NBA, there weren’t 20 cameras to show every angle to anyone’s satisfaction. Coach’s tape will have to be the final determining factor on whether that was true.

Even if the final call doesn’t match up, it comes down to the players on the court. Richardson made the shots he was allotted, while Twin Lakes’ strong free throw shooting abandoned the Indians in the fourth. Even after the shots, TL coach Kent Adams said the Indians perfectly executed their final play to get a shot with four seconds remaining, and it was a breath at the wrong time from going in. The saddest part is how some will try to take away how much both teams battled by blaming circumstances outside their control.

Article and column written on deadline after local team fell just short of first win over largest school in Lafayette, Ind., and six-time winner of tournament.

All-County designs, November 25-26, 2011

Full page designs for the 2011 All-White County volleyball and football teams. Cutouts done for the volleyball players, while the football team was designed to resemble old-school football cards with de-saturated photos.

Just out of reach, Saturday, October 15, 2011

Just out of reach

Bluejays unravel Indians with big plays

By Chad Husted

For the briefest of moments, momentum visited the Twin Lakes sideline on a Friday night.

Not just an interception, but a leaping, field reversing interception from first-year Indian Will Rogers. Not just a score to break a tie that had lasted into the second half, but a 22 yard scoring run from backup fullback Michael Griffin. After four straight losses, Twin Lakes had a lead and the confidence to go with it.

All was undone in two plays from North Judson. The Bluejays answered on the ensuing drive with a 46 yard run from Wes Derflinger to tie the score 6-6, then finished in the fourth quarter with a 66 yard pass from Caston Sanchez to Erik Beckman.

Both scores came on effective plays that became game-breakers with broken tackles, Derflinger bouncing off of a TL linebacker and reversing field for the score, Beckman breaking Josh Hankins’ tackle after a 30 yard catch before running the final patch of green to put the Bluejays up for good, 13-6.

“We thought things were going good, but we let them go down and answer (after Griffin’s score). That was big, really, really big,” Twin Lakes coach Brad Urban said. “But it is what it is. We just didn’t make the plays down the stretch. They made one more play than us.”

Both Twin Lakes’ and North Judson’s defenses were ready when most needed, as both allowed the other to gather in the yards in gulps while still keeping the score to goose eggs through two quarters. Twin Lakes again totaled over 200 yards on the ground, led by Hankins’ 63 on 13 carries, while Sanchez threw for 125 yards against TL’s pass defense. While not the prolific passing that has been TL’s downfall in recent weeks, on a windy night that sent a mild chill plunging into hat-and-gloves weather, Sanchez was able to sling seven completions and put the ball downfield on plays that caught the breath of TL fans and defenders alike.

Twin Lakes’ offense switched smoothly between its QB duo of Zach Diener and Sam Thomas, with clearly defined roles forming through the game. Diener made the most with his athleticism, including a crucial first down run on the Indians’ doomed drive to tie, while Thomas’ rainbow pass to Tyler Widner set up Griffin’s sprint to the end zone.

The buckling of the Indians’ chance to force overtime came before the final drive, however, as Diener made two pinpoint passes with seven minutes remaining in the game, only to see both bounce off of hands and onto the dirt. The first to Widner, the second to Jared Thayer on third and fourth down respectively from the NJ 45 yard line, but the Bluejays couldn’t keep the Indians from another offensive possession after the turnover on downs.

After Diener’s run, Thomas sent two off target throws downfield, followed by Griffin’s run that finished inches short of the first. On fourth down, the Indians lined up incorrectly for the intended dive. That allowed a Bluejays outside linebacker to make the tackle for loss, ending the comeback attempt.

“Anytime you lose the close game, and this is the second one, that’s tough and it’s tough for the kids. They’re really positive we had a great week of practice,” Urban said. “Defensively we played well enough to win. We gave up two big plays in really the whole game. That’s unfortunate and we have to get better.”

Following senior Christian Winkle’s exit in the second half with an apparent head injury, Griffin finished with 55 yards on nine carries. He twice broke through to the second level, both times just barely being brought down before a chance at the wide open field.

“Michael did a good job, he has a burst of energy and is probably the quickest guy on the team,” Urban said. “He could have lowered his shoulder a bit, but that’s his inexperience. A little bit different style of running (from Winkle), and with the way the game was running that was a change of pace for us.”

Hankins also left the game late, as did Diener. Hankins is the more crucial situation, Urban said, as the junior tailback looks to have a pulled hamstring. Urban called Winkle questionable for sectional play at Western Boone.

“(Hankins is) probably the one that we’re worried about the most,” Urban said.

Photo, Herald Journal, Friday, April 15, 2011

Photo, Herald Journal, Friday, Sept. 16, 2011

Photo, Herald Journal, Friday, Oct. 8, 2010

Photo, Herald Journal, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011

Photo, Herald Journal, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010

Photo of Friday night football action from 2010 season.

Herald Journal, Thursday, May 5, 2011

Front page of Herald Journal from Thursday, May 5, 2011. Combined with article looking back at RMD Tri-Meet's history.

Herald Journal 9/11 Special Article, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011

Up in the air

Local pilot was in the air at time of attacks.

El Paso to Chicago, a trip that Bruce Grove had taken plenty of times before, and his flight on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, wouldn’t be any different. That year would be his 33rd in the air, his 17th flying for American Airlines, and the flight would continue to be routine until the plane entered Kansas on its way north.

A fulltime resident alongside Lake Shafer and recently retired from his piloting career in August of this year, Grove’s position in the crux of that day’s events didn’t prevent him from getting the news the same way that most Americans received it. With communication between air traffic controllers, American Airlines and news radio transmissions, Grove was charged with piloting his plane while trying to glean information from as many sources as he had available. Brief spots of information, from the first notification of an accident involving a New York skyscraper to a fax from the company notifying pilots that one of their fellow planes had possibly been hijacked, Grove’s view of the day’s events would be no clearer until hours later.

“When the second airplane hit, it all kind of came together. Because initially, you kind of thought when they hit the World Trade Center, what kind of idiot pilot is that?” Grove said.

His concern would be much more immediate than what was transpiring on the East Coast. With the plane in the air, Grove and his American Airlines jet would be part of the massive grounding of all flights over the United State, a ban that would not be lifted for three days as international flights were diverted away from U.S. territory.

“At that point, I can’t remember if it was before the second airplane hit the other tower or not … but (the air traffic controller) started kind of randomly, as far as we could tell, picking airplanes and telling them they had to land right away,” Grove said. With the flight originating from the border town of El Paso, Texas, Grove pondered what threats might be coming his flight’s way, or whether the individual planes being directed off their planned courses were facing their own issues.

“Initially we thought that maybe there was some threat in those airplanes, and in the back of my mind I’m thinking, we’re coming from El Paso. It wasn’t an international flight, but we’re close to the Mexican border.”

The next several days would be a microcosm of what air travel has become in the 10 years since 9/11. When the ban on air travel was lifted, Grove and his copilot ferried the aircraft from Wichita, Kansas to Dallas, where then piloted a plane with passengers to Chicago the following morning. The flight to Dallas was a strange one for the pilot, who called it “eerie” to see no other flights in the air that he could monitor (a roughly 40 mile radius) and no one on the radio other than his air traffic controller on the ground.

Theirs was only the fifth flight in the nation that day.

Security procedures changed at a whim, as the massive apparatus that services our ability to travel across the country in hours instead of days faced its most arduous task to date. Grove reflected on that first flight with a full cabin, and while he didn’t know any of the flight crews associated with the attacks personally, it wasn’t hard to put himself in the same situation as he took off for home.

“You think of what they might have gone through, then you get on the airplane and it’s fresh in your mind,” Grove said. “You just kind of wonder what your reaction would be.”

In the years since, security has come under suspicion of going too far, as the public grapples with the decision to secure the air while protecting civil liberties. With programs like Federal Flight Deck Officer (which gives the option to qualified pilots to fly armed anonymously) and the focusing of Federal Air Marshalls around priority targets, Grove feels security will continue to evolve, but so will those who feel security goes too far as it is.

Grove admits to never having been scanned by the controversial body scan imaging machines, instead being directed to the more common X-ray detectors, but crews are still subjected to the same security treatment as passengers.

“People complain about that, but if they were involved personally in a situation like (a terrorist attack), they’d be the first ones jumping up and down because (security) didn’t do enough,” Grove said. “It’ll have to keep evolving and keep improving. I’m not sure where it will all end up going, but I can’t imagine where there will ever be a point where we say, ‘OK, we’ve got it covered now. We don’t have to worry about them anymore, just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll be fine.’ ”

The foreseeable future for Grove won’t have many more takeoffs and landings, and sits fine for the recently retired Monticello resident. With wife Pam, Grove plans to see more of his daughter and grandchild, and with the winter coming, there will be more worries than security that are off of his mind.

“I look out and see nasty weather, and thinking about winter too, hearing about a snowstorm coming and I have to drive to Chicago,” Grove said. “Now I can just sit back and turn the heat up in the house and say, ‘Well, I don’t care. I don’t have anywhere to go.’ We’re having a good time in our short retirement that we’ve had so far.”

Part of a special section commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Herald Journal cover story, Thursday, May 5, 2011

RMD TRI-MEET, Three communities stay united through the decades

Front page story commemorating the 2nd longest running tri-meet between three northwest Indiana high schools.

Those who have participated in an RMD Tri-Meet, the long-time track and field competition between Rensselaer, Twin Lakes and Delphi, are understandably proud of its history.

The 96th incarnation of the tri-meet will be run today at Rensselaer Central. It will mark the
100th year since the triangle meet between the schools began, but not the 100th RMD. It hasn’t run concurrently since its inception in 1911, with the meet at least once being canceled on account of a flu epidemic and that little issue of World War II bringing a pause over several years, but it still stands as one of the longest running tri-meets in the nation.

Several have taken a crack at researching the meet’s history, and while it is generally accepted to be the longest running meet in Indiana, organizers have taken care to not get caught claiming a bit too much history. A triangle meet in Texas was begun in 1899, putting the RMD in the running for second.

“We used to advertise in our program that it was the second oldest track meet in the United
States, and somebody said, ‘Well what’s the oldest?’ ” said Gene Edmonds, who coached track at Rensselaer from 1960 to 1991. “Well we don’t know, but we didn’t want to say that we were the oldest, we weren’t sure. So we called it the second oldest.”

Plenty has changed since the RMD meet was first organized. Now used as an early May jump start meet for conference and sectional meets to come, the RMD used to be a competition far and beyond sprints finished, poles vaulted and shots put. It was a competition stretching the breadth and width of the school, meant to draw entire communities to it. Edmonds believed the intersection of the three communities along the railways made the trio an easy selection, and currently all three reside in the Hoosier Conference with plenty of rivalries in other sports.

The member schools still retain memories of these competitions, which included speech contests along with academic competitions and debates to go along with the athletic displays that have outlasted them. While not as all-engrossing as those early competitions, the modern meet has taken on a certain distinction among the three participating programs.

When other tri-meets or relays may be canceled if the original date is rained out and another cannot be readily found, the member schools are adamant to keep the RMD going, Twin Lakes coach and former RMD participant Mike Wright said.

“We try to impress upon the kids that it’s not another triangle meet,” Wright, who attended Twin Lakes from 1964 to 1968, said. “I like to bring up that this was a big meet when I was in school, and some kids get into it, like ‘Wow, that must be an old meet. How long have you been out of school?’

“I’m like hey; they were doing it many years before I was around.”

Wright had a first-hand look at the time when the “M” in RMD became obsolete. In 1963, the shuffling of consolidated schools, among them Idaville, Burnettsville, Yeoman, Adams Township and Monticello, ended with the formation of Twin Lakes. Monticello High School might no longer exist, and with it the end of the true-to- name RMD Tri-Meet, but the conglomeration of athletes made the continued competition at RMDs a change for all involved.

Monticello was on par with Rensselaer and Delphi in attendance before consolidation,
Wright said, with Twin Lakes’ formation putting the school on a path to a larger attendance class that it continues to hold.

“You’re coming from a small school, where you only had a few athletes who were pretty good, and you’re bringing them all together (to see) who’s the real cream of the crop,” Wright, who originally would have attended Idaville before consolidation, said. “I think it’s all for the good athletically, and academically too and financially.”

Generational ties are the cornerstone of the RMD’s appeal. Besides the rivalries between the schools, the continuation of an competition that could have seen a grandparent and grandchild run in the same event and strive for the same record is a quality not seen in many schools. The aspects of a school prior to consolidation may take form in the hanging of the swallowed schools’ banners in the new gym, but the continued presence of Monticello in RMD allows those same races to be run anew each year.

“It’s kind of fun, and when that week comes up for an RMD or a sectional … I put (records) up on the board and kids will say, ‘That’d be hard to do.’ ” Wright said. “It’s kind of neat for the kids to see that, to see it’d be hard for them to do it now, to accomplish some of those things. And some kids rise to the occasion.”

The RMD doesn’t hold the same place in each community as it once did, but the continued push for the traditions in the forms of old photos or clippings to be pulled down from an attic or out of a dusty garage keeps those accomplishments alive. All so that should the RMD hit its actual 100th running and continue on, the athletes of today can do the same.

“A lot don’t know the tradition of it, and if we don’t tell it kids aren’t going to know. There’s a lot of parents and grandparents that have participated in it, and they need to be recognized a little bit I think, to keep promoting the traditions,” Edmonds said.

The 96th RMD Tri-Meet begins at 6 p.m. EST today at Rensselaer.

Herald Journal, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010

Front page for sports section of 2010 football preview edition.

Herald Journal, Thursday, May 28, 2011

One page of a two page preview for the 2011 baseball playoffs.

Herald Journal, Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Full coverage of two sectionals involving three county teams and a total of three games in one day. I covered two games personally, including photos, then edited a contribution from a sister paper's reporter on deadline.