Recent hype has a crowd the size of what you would see at a Triple AAA minor league baseball game - 10,000 people - attending tonight's Penn/Warsaw sectional football game.

Not so, says Warsaw Athletic Director Dave Fulkerson.

"I expect a crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 people total," he said.

On Monday, Penn sold 14 tickets for the game. As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, Penn had sold 106 tickets for the game, while Warsaw had sold 175.

Fulkerson fears some Warsaw fans are buying into the attendance hype and are deciding to stay home to catch the game on TV. The game will be televised at 11 tonight and at 9 a.m. Saturday on Channel 46. But Fulkerson believes most, if not all, people should end up with a seat.

"We will have 10 sections of portable bleachers that will each seat 75 to 100 people, then we have the other seats that will seat 600 to 800," he said. "We will have 1,500 to 1,600 seats just on Penn's side. Our side will seat 1,300 to 1,500. We have enough seats for 3,000 people. We have played Penn here before and had enough seats. Now we have more seats than we've had in the past."

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Why All The Hubbub, Bub?

Phil Jensen does not know what the big deal is.

To Warsaw's football coach, tonight's game is just another game.

No more.

No less.

"You all (media) are making more of this than I am," he said. "Just because it's Penn and I graduated from there ... I think I work pretty hard at it all the time."

"This" is Warsaw against Penn.

Warsaw is 8-1. Penn is 8-1 and ranked No. 4 in Class 5A.

The pupil is facing off against the teacher.

Jensen started at tight end on Penn's football team in 1980, 1981 and 1982. The Kingsmen improved each year, going 5-5 in 1980, then 7-3, then 9-2.

"My senior year we were 9-1 in the regular season," Jensen said. "That was the last year of the cluster system. We made it to the playoffs and played Fort Wayne Snider. It was Rod Woodson's senior year. We got beat 20-7."

Chris Geesman coached Jensen. He still coaches Penn today. Geesman is in his 27th year. His Penn teams are a combined 268-43 (.862).

He remembers Jensen well.

"He was pretty heady and pretty talented, a good tight end," Geesman said.

This will not be the first time Geesman has faced off against a former player.

"There have been so many who left here who are coaches," he said. "I couldn't tell you how many I've gone up against."

Neither Geesman nor his experience at Penn persuaded Jensen to coach. He felt the urge to coach during his sophomore year of college.

Jensen has moved on. He has his football team to coach; Geesman has his. Asked how much he talks with Geesman, Jensen said, "We see each other at clinics. Sometimes I call him if I have a question, but it's not on a regular basis."

But Jensen knows Geesman well enough to know what the Penn coach is telling his team this week.

"It's playoff time," Jensen said. "You don't take anyone lightly."

While he may not think much about facing his former school now, Jensen acknowledged the offseason may be a different story.

"Yeah, it's special that it's against Penn, but that's for the memory books," he said. "That's for me later."

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Tiger Football Coach ... Mr. Mom?

Jensen has been in a unique position in that his job title for the past year has been football coach and just football coach.

That is, unless you add "Mr. Mom."

Jensen took a teaching leave of absence from Nov. 1, 1998, through Nov. 1, 1999, to stay home to raise his second child while his wife continued to work. This fall Jensen comes into school solely for football reasons.

Jensen will return as a marketing teacher in November.

Asked how many hours he put in this week preparing for Penn, Jensen said, "No more or no less than any other. If I tracked all the hours I put into football, I wouldn't coach football, because the hourly wage would not be a whole lot. We work as hard as we work for anybody else.

"It's a big game. But it's just like the Marion game last year and the Northrop game last year. It's playoff time. It's survive and advance.

"There will be no regrets one way or the other when it's over. These kids have done a lot for the football program."

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Carrying On Without Kesler

Warsaw senior wide receiver Ross Kesler set Warsaw records for career receptions (75) and career receiving yards (1,322).

Now he's unavailable to play against Penn after a CAT Scan followed by a bone scan revealed a small fracture in his back. Kesler injured his back during the Oct. 8 NorthWood game.

"You gotta go on," Jensen said. "Injuries are a part of football. You have to deal with the bad as well as the good."

Jensen says Warsaw's players were doing this even before last week's Concord game. The Tigers knew Kesler wouldn't play during the Concord game. He hasn't sniffed even a whiff of self-pity striking the team.

"That hasn't been an issue, and it won't be," Jensen said. "These kids are focused."

As for Kesler, Jensen said, "He was obviously very upset. He's a leader for us, and he will still be a leader for us."

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Is A Football Stadium In Warsaw's Future?

Whether or not it's coincidence, the same season Warsaw's football team has gone 8-1, there have been rumblings from football fans in the community about wanting a new stadium, one at the high school.

Warsaw currently plays its home games at Fisher Field, at Lakeview Middle School.

A football facility could be built at the high school, but when, nobody knows. Or if they do, they're not saying.

What is known is work soon will begin on a multipurpose track facility at the high school for the physical education program. The track will be south of the school, where the softball diamonds are. The softball diamonds will be moved north of the school. Preparatory work on the project -Êmoving dirt -Êcould start before the end of this year. The completion target date is sometime in 2001.

Asked how much the track facility will cost, Warsaw Community Schools' financial manager Rande Thorpe said, "Approximately a half million dollars. That's a little bit iffy, but it's a ballpark figure.

"The project will be paid for out of funds we already set aside through capital projects. We didn't want to raise additional taxes to fund this. We raised the money through revenue streams we already have."

Asked why the school decided to build a track facility, Fulkerson said: "We had to do something about the number of people practicing from 3 to 5 p.m. at Lakeview. You have boys varsity track, JV boys track, girls varsity track, JV girls track, Lakeview seventh-grade boys track, Lakeview seventh-grade girls track, Lakeview eighth-grade boys track, Lakeview eighth-grade girls track and Grace College track. Grace College is building a facility.

"On any given night you can see 200-225 kids participating."

A football stadium? Warsaw superintendent Lee Harman had this to say about a new football stadium: "The question of a football facility still remains. The board approved a community planning project at the last board meeting. It will kick off in November and continue through the school year. As part of the community planning project, we'll take a look at a football facility. But a football facility is just one issue of the project. Committees put together will also look at academic programming, financial considerations and other issues."

The track facility will be built with football in mind.

"The track facility will be built in such a way that it could house a football stadium," Thorpe said.

Fulkerson and football coach Phil Jensen weighed in with support for a new football facility.

"We have 60 to 70 athletic events scheduled during the year, plus pee-wee football, at Fisher Field," Fulkerson said. "That's a lot of wear and tear on Fisher Field."

Said Jensen: "We need a football stadium here at the high school. We need a larger weight room. We've outgrown our locker room." [[In-content Ad]]