For 34 years, former Warsaw Community High School girls basketball coach Janice Soyez has taught either physical education or health, but Thursday afternoon, for about 35 minutes, she was a history teacher.

And her lesson on this day was the evolution of the girls basketball state tournament, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis.

Sitting at her desk in a tan cushiony chair with wheels, she's quick to say she can't tell you who won the first state title under the current multi-class system - because she whispers she's not a fan of it and she honestly doesn't know - but ask her what happened Feb. 28, 1976, and a half hour seems to have gone by in five minutes.

This, of course, is the day she coached the Tigers to the first ever girls basketball state title, a 57-52 win over Bloomfield that gave Warsaw a 22-0 record.

"We were the first to be first," said Soyez, driving this seeming Cadillac down memory lane. "That's when you want to do it. Nobody remembers No. 2."

And that's something nobody else will ever be able to say. Only the 1976 Tigers will be able to say, "We won the first-ever girls basketball state title in Indiana."

As far as what Soyez couldn't tell you, Martinsville topped Lake Central 71-65 in 1998's Class 4A title tilt.

Before Soyez took the reigns of the Tiger basketball program she coached badminton, track and volleyball.

She coached her first girls basketball game in 1968.

"Nobody wanted (girls) baskeball," said Soyez of the opening. "So I was, like, 'I'll take it.'"

And take it, and run with it, she did.

After guiding Warsaw to the inaugural championship, she took the Tigers back in 1978 for a 75-60 championship game win over Jac-Cen-Del. After Warsaw's second state title in three years, Soyez retired from the coaching fraternity. She took with her a 55-3 record, a 16-1 record in the state tournament.

Why were the Tigers so far ahead of everybody else? Was it skill level? Why has Warsaw always been a hotbed for high school basketball?

"They wanted to win," said Soyez. "They dreamed of it since elementary school. The kids a couple years ahead of them were a little disapointed it (adoption of girls tournament by the IHSAA) didn't happen to them."

Along with Warsaw's two state titles, it also boasts two Miss Basketballs in Judi Warren (1976) and Chanda Kline (1978). Warren also was named the 1976 mental attitude award winner.

Warren, the state's first to win Miss Basketball and mental attitude awards, much less both in the same year, and 11 other players will be honored tommorrow at Hinkle Fieldhouse as members of the First Silver Era team.

Warren, the girl from Claypool known for her bowl cut hair style, coaches the girls basketball team at Carmel High School, a team she took to the 1995 state championship game, falling 43-39 to Huntington North.

Warren owns a 172-99 record in 12 years at Carmel. [[In-content Ad]]