Mangas Is A Natural Hero
April 7, 2020 at 2:28 a.m.
Mangas Is A Natural Hero
By Roger Grossman-
They were trailing in the dying moments of the game, and they passed the ball to Kyle Mangas.
Mangas was a full step behind the 3-point arc straight out from the basket, and I remember my call of what happened next like it was last night. The ball went through the basket with three seconds left to send the game to overtime, and I, surrounded by jubilant Tiger fans, screamed at the top of my lungs “Kyle Mangas with a 22-footer at the top of the circle, and we play on in Fort Wayne!”
They went on to win that game, and the first 20 of that season. And Mangas would continue to hit shot after shot in those final moments of games.
Elkhart Central remembers.
Northridge remembers.
Even Carmel, who gave Warsaw their only regular season loss that year, remembers Mangas hitting a 3-pointer to tie that game in the final half minute.
Every time he did it, we were amazed and awed, but we should never have been surprised.
Mangas was a freshman when he got the call up to the varsity team. He played in most of the games of the second half of the season, and he handled everything head coach Doug Ogle asked him to do with a steady calmness that was impressive for a ninth grader.
Then as a sophomore, he was asked to do more, and he handled all of that.
As a junior, well, that is when the legend of “Cardiac Kyle Mangas” was born, and he had as good of a two-year run as any boys player who ever wore Tiger orange and black.
I could quote you back a lot of stats and wow you with numbers — and the numbers are spectacular — but to do that would be to miss out on the true essence of this kid.
As a junior at Warsaw, he and Paul Marandet led the Tigers to the semi-state. They led simultaneously but in different ways. But no one — and I mean no one — could dispute that those two young men were not only excellent basketball players but outstanding young men.
They were “class” personified, and you could hate losing to them but you could never resent them for it afterward.
I don’t know why or how he ended up at Indiana Wesleyan. I know I worked hard to get a Division I school to notice him and they just didn’t latch on.
Mangas didn’t seem to mind.
With openly-expressed surprise from many experts and scoffing from others, he quietly accepted his role there, and he rocked it, helping IWU win the NAIA Division II National Championship in his first year of college.
The people on campus discovered what Warsaw fans already knew: “This Mangas guy is special.”
Last spring, it was Marandet who led his Spring Arbor team to the champions’ podium.
This year, well, this year a virus won and everyone lost.
But in the process, Kyle Mangas became the all-time leading scorer in IWU historyv … and he still has a season to play.
He’s set the bar on the court so high that future ‘Cats will have to strain their necks and backs to see it.
But even more than that, the people at Indiana Wesleyan know for an indisputable fact that their brightest star is also one of the best representatives for which a university could ever hope. He’s is “great” in every way that earthly greatness can be measured.
He never beats his chest. He never pulls the top of his shirt out to show everyone who he plays for. He just goes about his business and does what he does.
And now, the whole country knows it.
And this “Mangas kid” is going to deal with that in the same way he’s dealt with everything else — with quiet purpose and determination to get better and be better, at everything.
He’s a credit to his parents, Tim and Ann, and his big brother Jake. They are proud of him, and so we.
But shame on us if we are surprised.
Kyle Mangas is just doing what he’s been doing since he was a freshman playing on the junior varsity for the Warsaw Tigers and every day since, which is just being “Cool Kyle.”
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They were trailing in the dying moments of the game, and they passed the ball to Kyle Mangas.
Mangas was a full step behind the 3-point arc straight out from the basket, and I remember my call of what happened next like it was last night. The ball went through the basket with three seconds left to send the game to overtime, and I, surrounded by jubilant Tiger fans, screamed at the top of my lungs “Kyle Mangas with a 22-footer at the top of the circle, and we play on in Fort Wayne!”
They went on to win that game, and the first 20 of that season. And Mangas would continue to hit shot after shot in those final moments of games.
Elkhart Central remembers.
Northridge remembers.
Even Carmel, who gave Warsaw their only regular season loss that year, remembers Mangas hitting a 3-pointer to tie that game in the final half minute.
Every time he did it, we were amazed and awed, but we should never have been surprised.
Mangas was a freshman when he got the call up to the varsity team. He played in most of the games of the second half of the season, and he handled everything head coach Doug Ogle asked him to do with a steady calmness that was impressive for a ninth grader.
Then as a sophomore, he was asked to do more, and he handled all of that.
As a junior, well, that is when the legend of “Cardiac Kyle Mangas” was born, and he had as good of a two-year run as any boys player who ever wore Tiger orange and black.
I could quote you back a lot of stats and wow you with numbers — and the numbers are spectacular — but to do that would be to miss out on the true essence of this kid.
As a junior at Warsaw, he and Paul Marandet led the Tigers to the semi-state. They led simultaneously but in different ways. But no one — and I mean no one — could dispute that those two young men were not only excellent basketball players but outstanding young men.
They were “class” personified, and you could hate losing to them but you could never resent them for it afterward.
I don’t know why or how he ended up at Indiana Wesleyan. I know I worked hard to get a Division I school to notice him and they just didn’t latch on.
Mangas didn’t seem to mind.
With openly-expressed surprise from many experts and scoffing from others, he quietly accepted his role there, and he rocked it, helping IWU win the NAIA Division II National Championship in his first year of college.
The people on campus discovered what Warsaw fans already knew: “This Mangas guy is special.”
Last spring, it was Marandet who led his Spring Arbor team to the champions’ podium.
This year, well, this year a virus won and everyone lost.
But in the process, Kyle Mangas became the all-time leading scorer in IWU historyv … and he still has a season to play.
He’s set the bar on the court so high that future ‘Cats will have to strain their necks and backs to see it.
But even more than that, the people at Indiana Wesleyan know for an indisputable fact that their brightest star is also one of the best representatives for which a university could ever hope. He’s is “great” in every way that earthly greatness can be measured.
He never beats his chest. He never pulls the top of his shirt out to show everyone who he plays for. He just goes about his business and does what he does.
And now, the whole country knows it.
And this “Mangas kid” is going to deal with that in the same way he’s dealt with everything else — with quiet purpose and determination to get better and be better, at everything.
He’s a credit to his parents, Tim and Ann, and his big brother Jake. They are proud of him, and so we.
But shame on us if we are surprised.
Kyle Mangas is just doing what he’s been doing since he was a freshman playing on the junior varsity for the Warsaw Tigers and every day since, which is just being “Cool Kyle.”
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