Sands Clan Is All About Home, Hoops And Hogs
February 6, 2021 at 4:40 a.m.
Sands Clan Is All About Home, Hoops And Hogs
By Chip Davenport-
There is, however, another legacy spanning decades among Sands family members. They comprise a multitude of a multi-generational area basketball players. It starts with from the patriarch, Carl Sands, Sr. (now deceased) who played at Silver Lake and continued playing during his service in the U.S. Army. He eventually served as the principal at Burkett, and later as Whitko’s athletic director.
Family matriarch Edythe Sands, her son Steve, and his son Caleb Sands recently invited the Times-Union into their home to talk about where all this love of basketball started, and to discover how many branches the family basketball tree had.
Caleb, a senior on this year’s Warsaw basketball team, is the last Sands basketball player of his generation to grace the Tigers’ hardwood. While there are seven- and nine-year old great grandchildren waiting in the wings, the first three Sands’ generations, past and present, have a remarkable legacy.
Caleb has made his mark by setting an example with his positive attitude in his senior season with Warsaw.
The 6’2” wing was voted by his teammates as the Champions of Character Award winner December 19th in a ten-team invitational basketball showcase at Grace College’s Manahan Orthopedic Capital Center. This is testimony to his approach to the game.
Carl Sands, Caleb’s grandfather, started the tree with a high school career at Silver Lake where the team earned a sectional title.
Carl began his college career playing at Ball State but he made the most of his career at Manchester College.
“After he graduated he had to go to the Army,” explained Edythe, also well known in the community as “Mama Sands. “After we got married, he had to go from Fort Leonard Wood to Fort Belvoir in Virginia. He played basketball there.”
Mama Sands spoke well of Carl Sr.’s assignment in Virginia.
“We loved it,” she said. “Eighteen months and it was really fun.”
By chance, Carl was spotted as a player an asked to try out for the base team.
“This gal comes in, she looks at Carl, and she says, ‘Did you ever play basketball?’” Edythe said. “She said come in and see the general tomorrow. She was his secretary. He played football and track, too. He did it all. They won the All-Army tournament.”
A few years after Carl Sr. left the Army, he returned to the Warsaw area, first serving as a principal at Burkett and later as an assistant principal and athletic director at Whitko high school when it was newly formed in 1971.
The elder Sands also brought Whitko and Tippecanoe Valley coaching legend Bill Patrick into the area coaching fold. Carl Sands eventually hired Bill Patrick when he was a principal at Burkett before the schools’ consolidation. When Sands became athletic director and assistant principal at Whitko, he had Patrick under his employ there as well.
Steve, one of the three young men in the Sands family who attended Whitko, has fond memories of Coach Patrick.
“I transferred and went to Whitko. I played under Bill Patrick. I was the water boy in Whitko’s ‘72 when they consolidated, and Carl played.”
Eventually he would be playing for Patrick in the late 70’s.
“I came in thinking this is how my game should be, but with Coach Patrick you had to be a chameleon and change with the situations.” Steve said. “He raised the bar just mentally. We were learning about life but we were young and we thought we were just learning about basketball.”
Steve’s older brothers, Mike (’73) and Carl (’72), also attended high school at Whitko and played basketball there.
Regarding the family’s love of basketball, it was a matter of numbers, he explained.
“There were eleven of us and sometimes you have to ‘shoo’ us on out of the house. There were eleven of us so we could naturally set up teams of five.”
The mix of athletes playing for different schools also resulted in two of them on opposing teams simultaneously. Mike (Whitko) and younger brother John (Warsaw Class of ’75) played against each other.
The other Sands children who played basketball at Warsaw were David (’76), the late Mary Ann (’77), Cheryl (’78 and a member of Warsaw’s state championship team), Tom (’81), Rob (’83), Joe (’85, the other Sands family member with state championship honors), and Dan (’87).
Other recent hoopsters in the Sands family tree are Ann Sechrist from Tippecaoe Valley, now playing at Indiana Wesleyan, former Tiger Nick Sands, and Monica Sands, whose brilliant career led her to a Division I hoops scholarship at Ball State.
In total, Edythe’s 11 have produced 39 children and 41 grandchildren. Young Caleb is faithful and hard-working in his approach to basketball. After his father Steve built a full-size court on the property his son took full advantage, often hitting the court as early as 6:00 a.m.
With that type of dedication, the tradition of family, hoops and hogs may well thrive on for generations.
There is, however, another legacy spanning decades among Sands family members. They comprise a multitude of a multi-generational area basketball players. It starts with from the patriarch, Carl Sands, Sr. (now deceased) who played at Silver Lake and continued playing during his service in the U.S. Army. He eventually served as the principal at Burkett, and later as Whitko’s athletic director.
Family matriarch Edythe Sands, her son Steve, and his son Caleb Sands recently invited the Times-Union into their home to talk about where all this love of basketball started, and to discover how many branches the family basketball tree had.
Caleb, a senior on this year’s Warsaw basketball team, is the last Sands basketball player of his generation to grace the Tigers’ hardwood. While there are seven- and nine-year old great grandchildren waiting in the wings, the first three Sands’ generations, past and present, have a remarkable legacy.
Caleb has made his mark by setting an example with his positive attitude in his senior season with Warsaw.
The 6’2” wing was voted by his teammates as the Champions of Character Award winner December 19th in a ten-team invitational basketball showcase at Grace College’s Manahan Orthopedic Capital Center. This is testimony to his approach to the game.
Carl Sands, Caleb’s grandfather, started the tree with a high school career at Silver Lake where the team earned a sectional title.
Carl began his college career playing at Ball State but he made the most of his career at Manchester College.
“After he graduated he had to go to the Army,” explained Edythe, also well known in the community as “Mama Sands. “After we got married, he had to go from Fort Leonard Wood to Fort Belvoir in Virginia. He played basketball there.”
Mama Sands spoke well of Carl Sr.’s assignment in Virginia.
“We loved it,” she said. “Eighteen months and it was really fun.”
By chance, Carl was spotted as a player an asked to try out for the base team.
“This gal comes in, she looks at Carl, and she says, ‘Did you ever play basketball?’” Edythe said. “She said come in and see the general tomorrow. She was his secretary. He played football and track, too. He did it all. They won the All-Army tournament.”
A few years after Carl Sr. left the Army, he returned to the Warsaw area, first serving as a principal at Burkett and later as an assistant principal and athletic director at Whitko high school when it was newly formed in 1971.
The elder Sands also brought Whitko and Tippecanoe Valley coaching legend Bill Patrick into the area coaching fold. Carl Sands eventually hired Bill Patrick when he was a principal at Burkett before the schools’ consolidation. When Sands became athletic director and assistant principal at Whitko, he had Patrick under his employ there as well.
Steve, one of the three young men in the Sands family who attended Whitko, has fond memories of Coach Patrick.
“I transferred and went to Whitko. I played under Bill Patrick. I was the water boy in Whitko’s ‘72 when they consolidated, and Carl played.”
Eventually he would be playing for Patrick in the late 70’s.
“I came in thinking this is how my game should be, but with Coach Patrick you had to be a chameleon and change with the situations.” Steve said. “He raised the bar just mentally. We were learning about life but we were young and we thought we were just learning about basketball.”
Steve’s older brothers, Mike (’73) and Carl (’72), also attended high school at Whitko and played basketball there.
Regarding the family’s love of basketball, it was a matter of numbers, he explained.
“There were eleven of us and sometimes you have to ‘shoo’ us on out of the house. There were eleven of us so we could naturally set up teams of five.”
The mix of athletes playing for different schools also resulted in two of them on opposing teams simultaneously. Mike (Whitko) and younger brother John (Warsaw Class of ’75) played against each other.
The other Sands children who played basketball at Warsaw were David (’76), the late Mary Ann (’77), Cheryl (’78 and a member of Warsaw’s state championship team), Tom (’81), Rob (’83), Joe (’85, the other Sands family member with state championship honors), and Dan (’87).
Other recent hoopsters in the Sands family tree are Ann Sechrist from Tippecaoe Valley, now playing at Indiana Wesleyan, former Tiger Nick Sands, and Monica Sands, whose brilliant career led her to a Division I hoops scholarship at Ball State.
In total, Edythe’s 11 have produced 39 children and 41 grandchildren. Young Caleb is faithful and hard-working in his approach to basketball. After his father Steve built a full-size court on the property his son took full advantage, often hitting the court as early as 6:00 a.m.
With that type of dedication, the tradition of family, hoops and hogs may well thrive on for generations.
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