Can the Falcons win state?

It’s the right question.

With the sectional tournament concluded, it is no longer premature to ask whether the 2012 Frontier volleyball team can take the program further than last season’s barrier-breaking squad that made the final four.

Tonight is the first step.

The talk around Frontier has been focused on early November since the preseason, but it has taken until now to see the clear path forward for what teams get to make the trip to Muncie for the state finals.

Actually, I doubt anyone connected to the Frontier program will want to speak about anything further than the regional match tonight against Riverton Parke. Messing with the karma of sports is never a good idea, and looking past an opponent is possibly the most dangerous of those transgressions.

That doesn’t mean we don’t get to speculate though.

Thus far, the 2012 Falcons have accomplished almost every realistic goal for the regular season and sectional. Midwest Conference champs, check. Sectional repeat champs, check. The Falcons avenged a few regular season losses from 2011 along the way as well. There was no undefeated streak this season, and it was possibly that 0-1 start and opening loss to Lafayette Jeff that kept the Falcons mired at the bottom of the Class 1A rankings throughout the season, even dropping out of the top 10 at one point before earning
wins over higher ranked foes Pioneer and Rossville in the second half of the regular season.


Whether the Falcons indeed follow through on their goals to move past last season’s accomplishments will be determined by no one else but Frontier’s players and coaches and the opponents they see across the net.

These are the reasons Frontier is in the conversation:

2011 vs. 2012

While Wes-Del proved how far ahead it was from the rest of Class 1A in 2011, the Falcons’ three-set loss in the semistate finals against the eventual state champion doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s a reason 2011 Frontier had yet to drop a set in the state tournament before the final four, and it’s not a provocative one: Frontier was good. Good enough on the court to challenge for a state title in fact, but Frontier had yet to be forced into a position to handle any shortcomings before Wes-Del presented the Falcons with a giant problem.

While Frontier enters the 2012 postseason with a better record (and has again not been forced into a fourth set in either of its sectional games), it has come with a new set of trials and a less wide-eyed approach
to the regular season. There have been few times this season that players and coaches haven’t mentioned
the different framework of how this roster has come together. Coach Shelly  Pullins doesn’t believe that it is empty rhetoric either.

“You have six seniors starting on the floor. They’re very tight, they’re very close knit, and I think we had breakdowns last year where we didn’t play together as a team,” Pullins said. “I think with these girls, that’s not happened very much this season. Overall I don’t think that’s going to happen the way it did before.”

The rotation

The difference in a year is more than just a mindset. Frontier has only gotten better since last season’s finale, both with its star players and the rotation around them, and the depth now displayed for the Falcons has been the key in 2012.

The offensive statistics don’t go very deep, with only four hitters holding significant kill totals, but what they show is a team that has learned how to best utilize its players. Senior middle hitter Jenna Sullivan was a force before 2011, but it has been a season of role change to get to where the Falcons are now. Sullivan’s offensive tools have been more showcased in her senior season, already eclipsing her 2011 kill total
by 47 even with nine less sets on the year, and the 6-foot-3 athlete has added nearly 100 blocks to her
2011 total while holding her own in the back row instead of rotating off of the court.

Kattie Lee, the addition for last season that moved Frontier from an also-ran to a power, is no longer as much of the focal point for every Frontier possession even as her impact has remained unchanged. While her total attack opportunities have dropped over 100 from last season, her errors have lowered just as precipitously even as Lee’s average kills per set remains close to its previous level, a drop from 3.98 to 3.78.

After besting Rossville for the sectional title, Lee said the performance was an example of what the Falcons can do when they are at their best.

“I think once we get in a rhythm, we’re unstoppable. Clearly tonight we had our moments, and we held (Rossville) under 10 (points) in the first game, being as good a team as they are, I thought, ‘Well, OK,’” Lee said. “Our passing and our serving really came, our offense and defense came ready to play, and I think it will always be there for us defense-wise.”

The emergence of Alyssa Marzke (147 kills) has provided another outside threat for the Falcons, while Jesah Marlatt ranks just behind Lee in total digs while having 100-plus kills of her own. Added with setter
Megan Doyle (who has been in the position for a full year as opposed to one month in 2011), defensive specialist Corin Runk and libero Brynleigh Jensen, and the full rotation is rarely altered. That kind of consistency has worked thus far.

Sullivan credits the inherent competition felt throughout the roster as the difference.

“One thing that we have that a lot of teams don’t is that everyone on the court is always competing. We have that competitive drive, and we always have it within us,” Sullivan said.

The bracket

Having been beaten by No. 5 Cowan for the sectional title, Wes-Del will not have a chance to defend its state title. No. 3 Loogootee knocked off No. 1 Barr-Reeve in Sectional 63, further thinning the pack. Not counting Frontier, six of the state’s top 10 ranked teams made the regional level, and four were placed in the Loogootee semistate bracket.

Frontier, in the Caston semistate bracket, does have king-slayer Cowan as a possible future foe, as well
as No. 6 Pioneer whom the Falcons beat 3-1 to secure the MWC title.

“I think that if these girls play, for instance the way they did (against Rossville), and they can and they keep
things consistent, it’s going to take a really good team to stop them,” Pullins said. “They’re so deep on their
hitters and they’re so good on defense. I think if they play their game, they can go all the way.”

Frontier will begin the post-sectional tournament tonight at 7 p.m., playing Riverton Parke at home for the regional title.

This column was printed in the Oct. 23, 2012 edition of the Herald Journal.

Paterno persona never true to real life

One description of the adulation and, to be blunt, worship directed at college football coaches has always stuck with me.

The questioner could not understand why intelligent individuals would become small children again in the presence of those in charge of an athletic program, and the response placed those coaches, those pivotal figures in the most popular sport in the country, as the modern day equivalent of Scipio Africanus, Caesar, Alexander the Great or possibly even Hector of Troy. Sports are a modern supplement to the warring of our previous societies, it was argued, and those in the lead are put on the same pedestal.

I can’t buy into the designation entirely, mostly because it is usually a poor idea to be glib about the actual sacrifices of modern warriors in our military branches in comparison to games, but the hero worship involved in college athletics can’t be denied. My own family is not immune. Bo Schembechler, the former Michigan great, passed away the same week as my father in 2006, and you would have thought my great big family that worshiped at the altar of the Big House was saying goodbye to both.

Most people that claim to love Joe Paterno have never met him. They know him vicariously, the image that is projected on their television set and through targeted media by a staff that has been built with the sole purpose of projecting that great persona. That Joe Paterno, the Joe Pa that was listed as among the most noble among his profession, will forever remain untarnished in the eyes of those who loved him, and that’s fine, because he was never real.

I don’t begrudge those who still defend Paterno, even after revelations have come forward that he was far more involved in the Jerry Sandusky scandal than he portrayed himself to be. Joe Paterno lied, it’s best to start saying it out loud, but the image cultivated in Penn State fans’ minds can remain untarnished because the truth had very little to do with it in the first place.

It’s best to just start saying that too. 

Column printed in the Herald Journal on Saturday, July 14, 2012.

Local racer preps for spot at IRL peak, Saturday, March 17, 2012

Brandon Wagner is picking a tumultuous time for his best shot at the apex of his sport, and that’s the way he wants it.

The IndyCar Racing League is ushering in a new era on the heels of one of its most horrific tragedies, and it is into that maelstrom that the Lafayette native will make his strongest bid yet for a seat among the top racing names attached to the famed Indianapolis 500. A 2005 graduate of Lafayette Central Catholic High School, Wagner has made his home on Lake Freeman since graduation as he has pushed his racing career from the go-kart tracks of Benton County and local midget racing leagues to the doorstep of an Indy 500 opportunity.

“There’s nothing like it in the world. The Daytona 500 can say it’s the best race in the world, but it’s not even close to the Indy 500. Everyone wants to win the Indy 500, or at least be a part of it. It would just be nice to be one of those people in the event,” Wagner, who has raced four times at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the IndyCar Light Freedom 100, said.

Building the Future

Beginning with his family racing team in the United States Auto Club circuits, Wagner’s racing potential skyrocketed after an opportunity to test on an IndyCar Light racecar led to an introduction with IRL driver Davey Hamilton. Now a four-year veteran of the final stop before the IZOD IndyCar Series, Wagner took his first win at the IndyCar Lights level in the final race of the 2010 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He followed up with three top 10 finishes in 2011, pushing his career total to six, while building a reputation for speed and smarts that led to his carrying another team’s number in the final races of 2011.

Team Moore Racing, based in Pittsboro, Ind., needed a driver to carry its No. 22 car through the final races of the season after a fast start was put in jeopardy by original driver Gustavo Yacamán’s financial woes. Owner Mark Moore asked Wagner to race the final races in combination with Davey Hamilton Racing, and wound up with the best finish among four replacement drivers that season, fourth at Kentucky Speedway, and was the only driver to take on more than one race for Moore.

“A lot of time when you get called up like that, it’s because they know you’re good but that you’re also going to respect their equipment,” Wagner said. “They know you won’t wreck their car. Obviously things happen, we all know that, but they at least have faith that you’re going to run hard, give them a chance to win, but they know that you’re going to bring that car home with all four corners on it.

“It was a respect thing, that he called me and said hey, we want you to do this. And it was nice that he put that trust in me.”

Wagner is now hoping to use those top finishes to convince financial backers to take a chance on a young racer. With Hamilton’s help, Wagner has been put on a publicity tour that puts the young racer in the comfortable position of talking about racing but also in the new position of building relationships as a brand spokesperson.

“The part people don’t see behind the scenes is the meetings and the trips. It’s so much marketing and advertising. You’re selling yourself, so you’re meeting with sponsors all over the country about all kinds of things,” Wagner said. “Companies want to sponsor a guy who is well spoken, that doesn’t go out there and make an idiot of himself, who isn’t arrogant and mean to people, they want people to go out and be the face of their company. So they’re putting trust in you to go out there and make their company look good on track but also off track.”

Wagner’s hopes are as high as he will allow them to be after several stalled attempts at the same goal. He hopes to be able to run a full IndyCar Lights schedule besides Streets of St. Petersburg on March 24 while participating in four oval track races on the full IndyCar level. Having been brought up on ovals, as opposed to road courses like most international drivers, Wagner’s learning curve will be a steep one, but he hopes to have company on the slope.

Now or Never

Wagner’s spur to action comes as IndyCar introduces its first new chassis since 2007 as well as its first introduction of new engines since 2006. Wagner hopes that the new components will set each team back a step, allowing him to make up some ground as a rookie, even while the powerhouses like Chip Ganassi Racing and Penske Racing use their resources to get the quick advantage.

“It’s a good time to come into it, because it’s going to be a little more of an even playing field. The big guys, like Penske and Ganassi, have a leg up because their budgets are huge,” Wagner said. “But the old car, they’ve run it for about 10 years, and they have endless amounts of data pretty much … but it’ll be a more even playing field on the new car and it’s easier for me to come into it while everybody else is still learning. I’ll be learning no matter what, so as long as they’re learning also, my learning curve will still be steep but they’ll be on a learning curve as well.”

The car won’t be the only change. The IRL will begin the 2012 season without one of its top names, as British driver and 2011Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon lost his life in the final image of the 2011 IRL season in a 15-car crash in Las Vegas. Wagner said this year’s Indy will be surreal, given how the most recent champion’s face graces the tickets of each 500, but that he has grown to accept the dangerous nature of his sport.

“You know something can happen, but you want to be pushing it every lap, and if you have that doubt in your mind, that’s when you should get out of the car. You’re going to be worried, you’re going to be running slow, and that’s when things can happen,” Wagner said, adding that his own experience with the crowded field in Vegas for the Lights race was an intense one.

“After the race, I said that was a lot of fun, but it was crazy. Even our Lights race was insane. I had three tires with wheel marks on them from hitting tires, and you just don’t do that in IndyCars.”

Family Ties

What began as a family endeavor has become much more for Wagner. Combined with his partnership with Hamilton, a racer who has seen everything that IRL has to offer in the form of a second place series finish in 1997 and a crash in 2001 that put him out of racing until a return in 2007, Wagner now hopes to take his local roots to racing’s biggest stage while completing his other family legacy.

The son of Dr. John and Shari Wagner, Brandon is pushing himself to complete his pre-chiropractic degree at Purdue University in between his racing career so that he might follow in the steps of his father and sister Julia in the family practice. His current career, however, is more based around his and brother Nick’s passion, as the brothers grew up challenging each other on the race track.

For the Wagner family patriarch, the new team combinations that have led to Brandon’s push to the top of IRL have given him the chance to take a step back as team owner and step into a more familiar role: Dad.

“We just enjoy spending time with all three of the kids … We’re supportive of all of our kids and we’re excited for (Brandon),” John Wagner said. “If I tell you that I’m not nervous watching him getting into the car, then I’m just lying to you. That is definitely an emotion. But I trust his skills, I trust the passion he puts into it, and seeing him accelerate has been so much fun.

“When both (Nick and Brandon) get out of the cars after they race, they always thank me for allowing them to be in the cars. Brandon doesn’t get out of an IndyCar Light car without giving me a hug and thanking me, and I just say, ‘I’m your dad, Brandon.’ It’s an emotional rollercoaster some days, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Brandon now hopes to take on the Indianapolis 500 with his local roots still intact. Carrying several Lafayette-based sponsors like Triple XXX Family Restaurant, Nine Irish Brothers and Harry’s Chocolate Shop, Brandon holds on to hope that a born Hoosier can find the track in May.

“I live on Lake Freeman still, love going out to The Sandbar on the weekends when I’m not racing, and it’s nice to have the local support,” Brandon said. “When you go to places like Indy, where you have a lot of (racers) who are (from) oversees, and everyone says Indy is so special and I think it is special, but it’s so much better for people who are from the state and really realize just how big the history is of the whole racing at the Indy 500 and the speedway is just unbelievable.

“I’ll just be happy and be very pleased just to have my name attached to and be a part of the best racing in the world.”

- Feature article on local racer on the verge of finalizing deal for a ride and spot in qualifying for Indianapolis 500.

Host with the Most, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012

It’s not uncommon to expect certain privileges as a high school senior.

Maybe the rules are a little more lax, some schools allow open campus, and there is of course the all-important spot on the front row of the student section riser. In recent years, that front row at Twin Lakes High School had not been met with more support than a row or two in total for the Twin Lakes Roadies, the club name for the boys basketball student section, but as anticipation for a senior-laden Indians team combined with an 8-2 start, the crowd size across from the scorer’s table at TLHS began to climb higher and higher in the sometimes over-large home gym.

The larger crowds come at a pivotal time for the Indians and for the Roadies, as Twin Lakes opens its first sectional tournament since 1995-96. It will be the largest stage for Ruben Flores and the rest of the Roadies, and the Twin Lakes senior and unofficial yell leader has already put out a guarantee for tonight’s crowd.

“All I have to say is that we will not disappoint,” said Flores, who has set the bar for audacious outfits with his elderly woman look earlier in the season, including a cane.

“We’re going to be loud, we’re going to be good, and we’re not going to stop yelling.”

The Roadies are somewhat of an anarchist club at Twin Lakes, with no set leaders or organization beyond simple seniority along class lines and the level of creativity a student can bring. Organization does become apparent, however, when the coordinated costumes are seen and game-specific cheer sheets begin to be passed around. Twin Lakes senior Holly Adams credited several members with doing a higher level of research, while the recent swelling of the student section’s ranks could be attributed to a certain level of wrangling on the older students’ part.

“Cole Guingrich has always come up with a lot of ideas, and him and Jordan Crabb have looked up chants that we can do,” Adams said. “We also invited the middle-schoolers to stand behind us, so that lets us look bigger. Other schools have roadie sections too, so now it’s like a competition to see who can be best. We’re there to watch the game, but we also want to outdo their roadie section too.

“It’s kind of a competition.”

That kind of competition was likely at its most fierce in an overtime thriller in Monticello against Delphi. The Oracles student section, with more than a few other White County students in attendance to take on the county bully, was a sea of black in the otherwise red-tinted crowd, and each played to the other’s newest barbs. Other senior members of the Roadies, including Wyat Ezra, Levi Lotz and Harry Dickson, put a greater emphasis on being clever in their chants as opposed to driving for a skewering line. The crowd isn’t above playing to the stereotypes surrounding an opposing community, though.

“It’s a lot more about the school’s location, and if you know people there it’s a lot easier to takes stabs at them without being too mean,” Dickson said.

While the crowd size has grown to a level not seen in several years, Twin Lakes has not been without its own controversy this season. In a heated matchup against Hoosier Conference rival West Lafayette, a plastic cup full of ice was hurled onto the court in the closing seconds. The following technical helped ensure the Red Devils’ win, and the question remained on how the Roadies would respond, even if the thrower was not technically a member of the club.

The response has been a lesser emphasis on singling out certain players, and the student section along with the members of the basketball team (many of whom are in the club on top of on the team) showed a high level of maturity in the aftermath.

“We talked about it, that obviously we don’t want to be like that, we want to have good sportsmanship as well as making our cheers more clever and not making fun of people,” Adams said. “We want to have good sportsmanship and keep people thinking about what we’re saying.”

For the remaining seniors, the status of the Roadies heading into sectional play has already been lifted, but they hope that the tradition endures even after they step down from the stands for the final time.

“I think we’re setting it to where next year it’s going to be just as intense, just as good,” Lotz said.

Ezra added that the future is safe with several underclassmen ready in the wings.

“There are always a couple people in each grade that like to step up and show an example for the next grade,” Ezra said.

- Article on the growth that a local student body has seen in its student section as the new host of a local sectional playoff tournament.

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.

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.

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.

The life of a small school football team

By Chad Husted

Sports Editor

The differences between Indiana high school sports classes are no more evident than in football. Large schools can field larger teams, as well as compete at levels below varsity. Smaller school must often operate with as many players as they can get, and they usually must make due with only a few backups.

With three Class A schools and one Class 3A in White County, football is played on a different scale. Frontier, Tri-County and North White aren’t fielding eight-man football teams like they do in Montana and the Dakotas, but small-school football requires a different type of player and a different approach that White County athletes have grown used too, as well as fond of.

Area coaches have each answered the same way when asked what the advantages are when fielding smaller teams, and it has only a little to do with football.

“I’ve really enjoyed coaching at a small school because it’s more personal,” Frontier coach Greg Martz said. “You get to deal with the kids more. If you’re in a system that has 85-90 kids, kids can get lost in the cracks. If we’ve got a kid that has an issue, at least one of our kids and possibly more than that are going to know what his issues are and that’s where we can help him.”

Martz went on to say that with the smaller coaching staff comes the knowledge that the coaches only have to worry about a few players on the sideline.

“We kind of joke about that as a coaching staff,” Martz said. “We wouldn’t know what we would do if we had that many kids.”

Twin Lakes doesn’t have to deal with all of the issues involving small school football, as the Indians have 48 players on their roster while none of the Class A schools break 30. Twin Lakes still isn’t large enough to platoon completely, and several players still play on offense, defense and special teams.

“You’d like to (platoon) at 3A, but most of the teams that we play don’t do that either,” Twin Lakes coach Brad Urban, who grew up at Class A powerhouse Sheridan, said. “It’s a luxury if you can do it, but a lot of times you have some good athletes and you want to play them on both sides of the ball.”

The players see mostly the benefits in small-school ball, including a tighter bond with their teammates and, in the case of players who go both ways, the ability to stay in the game for longer. Conditioning becomes a key component for each player’s ability to stay on the field, another point of emphasis for coaches and players.

“You definitely have to be in shape for (playing both ways),” Frontier wide receiver and defensive back Grant Ream said. “It makes you a lot tougher mentally and physically.”

North White quarterback/linebacker/offensive and defensive lineman Tyler Hileman knows no other way to playing football than just playing whatever position his coach places him in. Players at larger schools can specialize in one position and excel there, Hileman said, but he prefers his ability to stay on the field.

Hileman began the season at quarterback before being moved to guard to help the Viking offense get a better push on the line.

“I feel as my choice I’d much rather have it here at a small school,” Hileman said. “I never do come off of the field. I just love to play football and anytime I do come off the field I don’t like it. I just like being in that action.”

Twin Lakes’ Dylan McKay, who plays defensive back, running back and serves as the Indians’ longsnapper, reiterates that point.

“I think it’s fun to know you’re not going to come off of the field, because every competitor wants to be on the field 100 percent of the time,” McKay said.

One disadvantage to fielding a smaller team can be the lack of playing time and experience for players who do not see the field on varsity. Larger schools can field enough players to play a freshman schedule as well as a JV schedule, allowing players of all ages to play against comparable competition and build experience for the day they can play varsity.

North White coach Jim Davis believes it is hard for those who don’t get playing time on Friday nights to keep with the program, but those that do are the ones who really want to play.

“It’s really difficult when you go all year and you only get a couple of plays in. It’s kind of like a wasted year for some of those kids, all they get is practice time, and that’s well and good, but everybody wants to play the game,” Davis said. “To be honest with you, that’s the most disappointing thing about this year is that some of our freshman and a few of our sophomore kids haven’t gotten a chance to play.

“They have to want to play, they really have to. I really admire some of our kids that come every day to practice knowing that their chance of playing on Friday is limited to a few plays if they’re lucky. You have to give those kids a lot of credit for their determination.”

Published by the Herald Journal on October 23, 2009