The Penalty Box: Summer Smorgasbord
June 6, 2023 at 9:55 p.m.
The Penalty Box: Summer Smorgasbord
By Roger Grossman-
I would like to congratulate Tippecanoe Valley Athletic Director Sam Sturtevant on putting together a full football schedule for the fall.
Actually, that would be seriously understating it—Valley has a legitimate football schedule for 2023.
They avoided the worst-case scenario of traveling out of state to fill their dance card. In fact, they only have four road games and a road scrimmage this season and there is really only one long road trip—to West Lafayette— at the end of September.
They also still have “The Bell Game” intact. It’s now in Week 2 at Barnhart Field after a season-opening bus ride to Syracuse the week before.
I cannot write in strong enough language how important that game is to both Tippecanoe Valley and Rochester on so many levels. With no real natural rivals in the new “conference that has no name”, the Vikings and Zebras need this blood-boiler to make each other better.
And you get a preview of what the new league will look like with games against Jimtown, Glenn and Bremen.
Yes, there are some odd games on their slate for 2023. They host Twin Lakes in Week 3. Twin Lakes is open that week because they are in the five-team West Division of the Hoosier Conference. Tipton comes to Valley in Week 4, and they are in the East Division of that same conference, and that division only has four teams in it.
Both those schools had open dates and were happy to plug Valley into one of them.
Valley knows what Culver Academy is about, and if Valley is serious about improving their post-season chances, then this game smack dab in the middle of their season will be a good measuring stick for them.
I’m glad they got that done.
Ivan Schuler passed away last week.
Schuler was the athletic director at Grace College from 1977-1981. I spent some afternoons and evenings at Grace during his tenure with my brother playing soccer, basketball and baseball for Bethel. I am not sure the rivalry between the small Christian colleges was ever more intense than it was during that time period.
He moved here from California in the summer of 1977, and not only was he the AD at Grace, but he was the baseball coach, the volleyball coach, the golf coach and was an assistant to new head men’s basketball coach Jim Kessler.
Schuler coached 14 team seasons over four years and was the AD the whole time he was doing it—pretty impressive.
On top of that, he taught PE.
He also set in place the infrastructure to make scholarship money available for athletes on all of the teams at the college.
But one former Grace athlete told me that his most lasting contribution was a devotional he wrote that was geared toward coaches and players called “Huddle Time”.
As current AD Chad Briscoe put it, “Ivan’s legacy will live on at Grace, and we praise God for the countless lives that he impacted through his ministry at Grace.”
Something else I was thinking about this past week was high school athletes and injuries.
It came up because I ran across a young athlete who was having leg surgery last week. Her spring season was over, and she was having the surgery in hopes of being ready for her fall sports team’s workouts later this summer.
I was thinking about the cost of those procedures and the burden they impose on families.
I wish there was a way that families of high school athletes could have some of that cost defrayed.
What I have in my head is that every athlete in the state would put in a small amount of money into a fund, and schools would match that amount. When an athlete needed surgery, they could apply to the fund for financial aid.
It wouldn’t cover all of the cost, but if it could help a family who can’t afford a big insurance premium and already deal with buying shoes and clothing and gas and everything else that goes with being a high school sports athlete’s family, then that seems like a noble cause to pursue.
A couple of other random thoughts:
There are different companies that make root beer, but only A & W should ever be allowed to be included in a root beer float.
There is nothing that tastes better on this earth than eating fish you caught yourself.
In NASCAR and IndyCar, I think you shouldn’t be able to pass another car on a restart until you get to the start/finish line. The penalty should be going back to the last position of the cars on the lead lap. What happened at Indy can’t happen again.
We could really use a good, steady, all-night soaking rain.
Happy summertime everyone!
I would like to congratulate Tippecanoe Valley Athletic Director Sam Sturtevant on putting together a full football schedule for the fall.
Actually, that would be seriously understating it—Valley has a legitimate football schedule for 2023.
They avoided the worst-case scenario of traveling out of state to fill their dance card. In fact, they only have four road games and a road scrimmage this season and there is really only one long road trip—to West Lafayette— at the end of September.
They also still have “The Bell Game” intact. It’s now in Week 2 at Barnhart Field after a season-opening bus ride to Syracuse the week before.
I cannot write in strong enough language how important that game is to both Tippecanoe Valley and Rochester on so many levels. With no real natural rivals in the new “conference that has no name”, the Vikings and Zebras need this blood-boiler to make each other better.
And you get a preview of what the new league will look like with games against Jimtown, Glenn and Bremen.
Yes, there are some odd games on their slate for 2023. They host Twin Lakes in Week 3. Twin Lakes is open that week because they are in the five-team West Division of the Hoosier Conference. Tipton comes to Valley in Week 4, and they are in the East Division of that same conference, and that division only has four teams in it.
Both those schools had open dates and were happy to plug Valley into one of them.
Valley knows what Culver Academy is about, and if Valley is serious about improving their post-season chances, then this game smack dab in the middle of their season will be a good measuring stick for them.
I’m glad they got that done.
Ivan Schuler passed away last week.
Schuler was the athletic director at Grace College from 1977-1981. I spent some afternoons and evenings at Grace during his tenure with my brother playing soccer, basketball and baseball for Bethel. I am not sure the rivalry between the small Christian colleges was ever more intense than it was during that time period.
He moved here from California in the summer of 1977, and not only was he the AD at Grace, but he was the baseball coach, the volleyball coach, the golf coach and was an assistant to new head men’s basketball coach Jim Kessler.
Schuler coached 14 team seasons over four years and was the AD the whole time he was doing it—pretty impressive.
On top of that, he taught PE.
He also set in place the infrastructure to make scholarship money available for athletes on all of the teams at the college.
But one former Grace athlete told me that his most lasting contribution was a devotional he wrote that was geared toward coaches and players called “Huddle Time”.
As current AD Chad Briscoe put it, “Ivan’s legacy will live on at Grace, and we praise God for the countless lives that he impacted through his ministry at Grace.”
Something else I was thinking about this past week was high school athletes and injuries.
It came up because I ran across a young athlete who was having leg surgery last week. Her spring season was over, and she was having the surgery in hopes of being ready for her fall sports team’s workouts later this summer.
I was thinking about the cost of those procedures and the burden they impose on families.
I wish there was a way that families of high school athletes could have some of that cost defrayed.
What I have in my head is that every athlete in the state would put in a small amount of money into a fund, and schools would match that amount. When an athlete needed surgery, they could apply to the fund for financial aid.
It wouldn’t cover all of the cost, but if it could help a family who can’t afford a big insurance premium and already deal with buying shoes and clothing and gas and everything else that goes with being a high school sports athlete’s family, then that seems like a noble cause to pursue.
A couple of other random thoughts:
There are different companies that make root beer, but only A & W should ever be allowed to be included in a root beer float.
There is nothing that tastes better on this earth than eating fish you caught yourself.
In NASCAR and IndyCar, I think you shouldn’t be able to pass another car on a restart until you get to the start/finish line. The penalty should be going back to the last position of the cars on the lead lap. What happened at Indy can’t happen again.
We could really use a good, steady, all-night soaking rain.
Happy summertime everyone!
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