New Pressbox At Tippecanoe Valley A Really Big Deal
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
Some more than others.
Today’s is about as personal as it gets.
School officials at Tippecanoe Valley broke ground on a new press box at the high school football field Monday morning. The ceremony was ceremonial because of the weather, but its significance was not diminished.
For those who don’t remember, I was the lead announcer for Tippecanoe Valley football for nine seasons, and I enjoyed it very much. Home games were a lot of fun, mainly because of the people who were in the press box with Rita Price, Tim Keffaber and myself.
Scott Smith helped us with stats. Chris Kindig was the anchor of the group. Terry Randall brought his giant radio to play songs to entertain the fans (including the theme from Rawhide), and those fabulous sausages soaked in a hot tub of goodness. Greg Sciarra, well, let’s just say you always checked your pant and coat pockets for pieces of celery or carrots from Terry’s veggie tray before you drove home.
Every game was a story, and the happenings in the press box on those Fridays were their own story.
But while being in that place with those people are memories I will take with me wherever I go and whatever I am doing, my memories of the press box itself are not nearly as positive.
There was a game that lightning had delayed, so Rita, Tim and I were sitting up in the box staring at the radar and eating the feast that Terry brought. I felt like the lights were getting dim above my head, so I looked up and the light bulb was filling with rain water. That’s not supposed to happen.
For a number of years the windows were tough to raise and lower, and with no windows on the south end it was hard to see the scoreboard without leaning out the window.
Let me again say, for the record, that TVHS Athletic Director Duane Burkhart gave us everything he could and I have absolutely nothing but the best things to say about him and the people at Tippecanoe Valley. This column is about that structure, not the people around it.
I take broadcasting games seriously. I put a lot of time into it outside of the actual broadcast, so the condition of the places I broadcast from matters to me. Sure, some schools have nicer facilities than others. We all get that, right? I don’t look down on schools who don’t have a double-decker press box at their football field. I DO have a problem with 2A schools that grow to become 6A schools but they make visiting radio stations broadcast outside during October playoff games because they still have a 2A-sized press box.
The press box at Valley has needed replaced for a long time. And this is not speaking out of school. I have been talking about it since I was broadcasting there in 2002. I offered to mysteriously have it be destroyed by a fire (that’s not illegal, right?). I went so far as to give them a hand-drawn portrayal of what a school the size of Tippecanoe Valley needed.
But nothing ever came of it … until this winter.
Though the weather forced Monday’s ceremony to take place inside, it marked two significant changes in Valley Sports; 1) the aging press box will be replaced with a very nice facility for game staff, coaches and working media, and 2) they will move that press box, and the home stands, to the west side of the field.
No more staring into the sun for those 7pm starts in August and early September. No more west winds blowing your game notes around.
So why now?
Because of Scott and Steph Bibler, that’s why?
Scott Bibler was a friend to so many people, and he touched so many lives. But when you examine his life closely it’s not hard to see that people in and around Valley’s football program comprise a significant section of his inner circle. Sciarra, Randall, Smith, Kindig, and certainly Rita – his good friends and friends of Valley Football.
So when “Bibs” and Tony Elliott, Scott Smith and his dad Charlie were killed in a plane that crashed in South Carolina on their way to watch Notre Dame play Clemson last October, it left four giant holes in our collective community. It crushed all of us, whether we are connected to Valley or not.
In her darkest hour, Steph Bibler stepped forward to donate money to build the new press box at the Valley football field.
She has been a rock of stability for our community since the accident that claimed her beloved husband’s life, and now she has laid the cornerstone of a structure that will both serve as a great place to work and that will bear the name of that same great man.
It will be the press box, but it will never just be “the press box.” It will always be “his” press box. And everyone who goes into it, whether they are from Valley or from another community, will know about Scott Bibler and his contribution to Tippecanoe Valley.
I don’t work the Valley games anymore, but once that new structure is completed I will go there, I will find a seat in it, I will gaze out over the manicured lawn inside the track, and I will think of him. I will miss him all over again. I will laugh at the way he used to greet me, and I’ll cry because I’ll never hear “Big Rog … how ya doin’ baby” again. And then I will be incredibly thankful for the Bibler family’s gift.
Steph and her daughters have taken the greatest tragedy of their lives and used it to spread the seeds of their faith into the lives of people who need it most. That is grace. That is courage. That is strength. That’s what Scott Bibler exuded every day.
I wouldn’t have ever forgotten Scott Bibler. Ever.
After Monday’s ceremony, no one who goes into the press box at Tippecanoe Valley will ever forget him either.[[In-content Ad]]
Some more than others.
Today’s is about as personal as it gets.
School officials at Tippecanoe Valley broke ground on a new press box at the high school football field Monday morning. The ceremony was ceremonial because of the weather, but its significance was not diminished.
For those who don’t remember, I was the lead announcer for Tippecanoe Valley football for nine seasons, and I enjoyed it very much. Home games were a lot of fun, mainly because of the people who were in the press box with Rita Price, Tim Keffaber and myself.
Scott Smith helped us with stats. Chris Kindig was the anchor of the group. Terry Randall brought his giant radio to play songs to entertain the fans (including the theme from Rawhide), and those fabulous sausages soaked in a hot tub of goodness. Greg Sciarra, well, let’s just say you always checked your pant and coat pockets for pieces of celery or carrots from Terry’s veggie tray before you drove home.
Every game was a story, and the happenings in the press box on those Fridays were their own story.
But while being in that place with those people are memories I will take with me wherever I go and whatever I am doing, my memories of the press box itself are not nearly as positive.
There was a game that lightning had delayed, so Rita, Tim and I were sitting up in the box staring at the radar and eating the feast that Terry brought. I felt like the lights were getting dim above my head, so I looked up and the light bulb was filling with rain water. That’s not supposed to happen.
For a number of years the windows were tough to raise and lower, and with no windows on the south end it was hard to see the scoreboard without leaning out the window.
Let me again say, for the record, that TVHS Athletic Director Duane Burkhart gave us everything he could and I have absolutely nothing but the best things to say about him and the people at Tippecanoe Valley. This column is about that structure, not the people around it.
I take broadcasting games seriously. I put a lot of time into it outside of the actual broadcast, so the condition of the places I broadcast from matters to me. Sure, some schools have nicer facilities than others. We all get that, right? I don’t look down on schools who don’t have a double-decker press box at their football field. I DO have a problem with 2A schools that grow to become 6A schools but they make visiting radio stations broadcast outside during October playoff games because they still have a 2A-sized press box.
The press box at Valley has needed replaced for a long time. And this is not speaking out of school. I have been talking about it since I was broadcasting there in 2002. I offered to mysteriously have it be destroyed by a fire (that’s not illegal, right?). I went so far as to give them a hand-drawn portrayal of what a school the size of Tippecanoe Valley needed.
But nothing ever came of it … until this winter.
Though the weather forced Monday’s ceremony to take place inside, it marked two significant changes in Valley Sports; 1) the aging press box will be replaced with a very nice facility for game staff, coaches and working media, and 2) they will move that press box, and the home stands, to the west side of the field.
No more staring into the sun for those 7pm starts in August and early September. No more west winds blowing your game notes around.
So why now?
Because of Scott and Steph Bibler, that’s why?
Scott Bibler was a friend to so many people, and he touched so many lives. But when you examine his life closely it’s not hard to see that people in and around Valley’s football program comprise a significant section of his inner circle. Sciarra, Randall, Smith, Kindig, and certainly Rita – his good friends and friends of Valley Football.
So when “Bibs” and Tony Elliott, Scott Smith and his dad Charlie were killed in a plane that crashed in South Carolina on their way to watch Notre Dame play Clemson last October, it left four giant holes in our collective community. It crushed all of us, whether we are connected to Valley or not.
In her darkest hour, Steph Bibler stepped forward to donate money to build the new press box at the Valley football field.
She has been a rock of stability for our community since the accident that claimed her beloved husband’s life, and now she has laid the cornerstone of a structure that will both serve as a great place to work and that will bear the name of that same great man.
It will be the press box, but it will never just be “the press box.” It will always be “his” press box. And everyone who goes into it, whether they are from Valley or from another community, will know about Scott Bibler and his contribution to Tippecanoe Valley.
I don’t work the Valley games anymore, but once that new structure is completed I will go there, I will find a seat in it, I will gaze out over the manicured lawn inside the track, and I will think of him. I will miss him all over again. I will laugh at the way he used to greet me, and I’ll cry because I’ll never hear “Big Rog … how ya doin’ baby” again. And then I will be incredibly thankful for the Bibler family’s gift.
Steph and her daughters have taken the greatest tragedy of their lives and used it to spread the seeds of their faith into the lives of people who need it most. That is grace. That is courage. That is strength. That’s what Scott Bibler exuded every day.
I wouldn’t have ever forgotten Scott Bibler. Ever.
After Monday’s ceremony, no one who goes into the press box at Tippecanoe Valley will ever forget him either.[[In-content Ad]]
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