Not Your Typical Fish Story
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
MENTONE - Brandi and Brooke Fisher hopped on their bikes and pedaled down county back roads, devoted to their cause, determined to reach their destination.
For two weeks one summer, the sisters biked from their home in Palestine to Tippecanoe Valley High School - seven miles one way - so they could attend girls basketball camp. Their itinerary: Rise early in the morning. Pedal down roads for 40 minutes to an hour. Play basketball at camp. Get back on the bikes, pedal down roads for 40 minutes to an hour. Pull in at home.
These weren't strapping 17-year-old lads doing this. These were young girls. Brandi was a sixth-grader and Brooke a fifth-grader the summer they rode their bikes to camp. Their stepdad and mom, Rick and Evelyn Rickel, worked day shifts and could not take them and pick them up.
The sisters didn't let that stop them.
Now Brandi is a senior and Brooke a junior at Tippecanoe Valley. Evidence of the inner fire that sent them riding to and from basketball camp 14 miles every day has surfaced again.
They play three sports - volleyball, basketball and softball. They are going after academic honors diplomas, which means they take several advanced classes. After the volleyball season ended this fall, three Valley players were named to the Three Rivers Conference all-academic team.
The girls called "Fish" by their friends earned two of those three awards.
Rick and Evelyn attended the awards banquet. Evelyn's jaw dropped. She knew her daughters did well in school. She did not know they would take two of the three awards.
"It's about them learning and surviving in the real world," Rick says. "Sports aren't anything compared to their grades and them getting by in life."
The sisters steadfastly claim they are best friends - Brandi calls Brooke her "little big sister," while Brooke calls Brandi "my idol." When public address man Terry Randall read the Valley lineup at a recent basketball game and called them "the Fisher sisters," Brandi says she felt a "real rush."
"We feel we're inseparable," Brandi says. "If Brooke's not in our room at night - even if she's on the downstairs couch -ÊI toss and turn."
They have to be close. Though they aren't twins, they frequently end sentences together by saying the same word, in stereo. They take steps to make sure their basketball lockers are side by side.
But that doesn't mean they necessarily act and think the same.
School comes hard for Brandi. At 19, Brandi is the oldest student at Valley - she was held back in first grade.
School comes easy for Brooke. Only one grade separates the sisters, but they are three years apart in age. Brooke is 16.
Brandi, Evelyn says, is a "homebody." Sitting at home working on crossword puzzles and reading books suits Brandi fine. Brandi acknowledges the term "people person" would best be saved for someone else. Take one look at Brandi's face, Rick says, and you know her mood.
She's in the Sunshine Club at school. Rick explains there is a reason behind getting her to join the organization: "We had to work on that smile. Brandi's too serious. Her mom got her to join the club to get her to smile more."
Brooke is the "people person," a girl who has been known to clown around. So ornery was Brooke as a youngster - she liked to experiment with electricity, among other things - that she once went through a two-week period where she received so many spankings, she came into a room carrying the switch. She asked her mom and dad if she could get her whipping out of the way before the day started.
Volleyball coach Jon Parker saw it this way: Brandi was the mother on Valley's volleyball team, while Brooke was the one who went out of her way to make sure her teammates were happy.
Their longest break (outside of classes) during the school year is three to four weeks. Volleyball is in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. Sports are year round. The three- to four-week break comes between basketball and softball.
They like all the sports. The only thing is, they find themselves looking ahead to the next sport when the sport they are in is winding down.
Brandi describes what a day is like now during basketball season:
"One of us gets up at 5:45 in the morning - we switch days. Mom comes home from work, we say bye to her at 7:30 and go off to school. We go to school until 3:05 p.m. Then we go to practice, either right after school or at 5:45 p.m. Practices last two hours and are six days a week, unless we have a home game.
"We work homework in right after we get home and get done eating. If we have a game at night, we either come home and do homework or stay after school and do homework."
The next day, they do it all over again. And the day after that. And the day after that.
The schedule doesn't include club activities. Both are in the Varsity club, Spanish club, euchre club and pep club. Brooke's in the National Honor Society.
The sisters maintain A and B grades.
"When you take a look at them as sisters, what stands out is both are three-sport athletes," Valley athletic director Duane Burkhart says. "You have to admire them for the way they balance their time and their commitment. Playing sports year round is wear and tear. They're good students, good representations of what we want at Tippecanoe Valley."
Brandi plans to attend Fort Wayne International Business College to study accounting. Brooke says she's "totally undecided" about her future.
"The one thing I sometimes wish for is more hours in the day," Brooke says. "During weekdays, we rarely get to spend time with our family."
And this is why - because good grades and being active in three sports leaves few extra hours - Rick and Evelyn have never asked the sisters to find a part-time job.
"They're busy enough the way it is," Rick says. "We try to let them have time to enjoy being young."
And they have. The sisters relax on their gray L-shaped couch in the living room, reliving how junior high basketball coach/favorite teacher Mike Hoyt would bark, "My grandmother in a wheelchair could beat you down the floor," the time Brandi hit 49 of 50 free throws in middle school (honestly) despite Rick's attempts to distract her, the time Brooke jumped over a third baseman (who had the softball) to make it safely to third and any other moments that crop up from their memory banks. Rick and Evelyn sit nearby and chime in.
Weeknights like this - with free time to sit around and shoot the breeze and chew the fat - are few and fleeting. Rick works first shift at Kimble Glass, and Evelyn works third shift at DePuy. When they can't see the girls at home, they see them at sporting events. Rick and Evelyn attend most of their games. Evelyn runs the clock at the varsity girls basketball games, as she has done the last three years. She keeps the statistics at the road games she makes it to.
If she could do it all over, Brandi wouldn't change a thing.
"To this day," she says, "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't play sports." [[In-content Ad]]
MENTONE - Brandi and Brooke Fisher hopped on their bikes and pedaled down county back roads, devoted to their cause, determined to reach their destination.
For two weeks one summer, the sisters biked from their home in Palestine to Tippecanoe Valley High School - seven miles one way - so they could attend girls basketball camp. Their itinerary: Rise early in the morning. Pedal down roads for 40 minutes to an hour. Play basketball at camp. Get back on the bikes, pedal down roads for 40 minutes to an hour. Pull in at home.
These weren't strapping 17-year-old lads doing this. These were young girls. Brandi was a sixth-grader and Brooke a fifth-grader the summer they rode their bikes to camp. Their stepdad and mom, Rick and Evelyn Rickel, worked day shifts and could not take them and pick them up.
The sisters didn't let that stop them.
Now Brandi is a senior and Brooke a junior at Tippecanoe Valley. Evidence of the inner fire that sent them riding to and from basketball camp 14 miles every day has surfaced again.
They play three sports - volleyball, basketball and softball. They are going after academic honors diplomas, which means they take several advanced classes. After the volleyball season ended this fall, three Valley players were named to the Three Rivers Conference all-academic team.
The girls called "Fish" by their friends earned two of those three awards.
Rick and Evelyn attended the awards banquet. Evelyn's jaw dropped. She knew her daughters did well in school. She did not know they would take two of the three awards.
"It's about them learning and surviving in the real world," Rick says. "Sports aren't anything compared to their grades and them getting by in life."
The sisters steadfastly claim they are best friends - Brandi calls Brooke her "little big sister," while Brooke calls Brandi "my idol." When public address man Terry Randall read the Valley lineup at a recent basketball game and called them "the Fisher sisters," Brandi says she felt a "real rush."
"We feel we're inseparable," Brandi says. "If Brooke's not in our room at night - even if she's on the downstairs couch -ÊI toss and turn."
They have to be close. Though they aren't twins, they frequently end sentences together by saying the same word, in stereo. They take steps to make sure their basketball lockers are side by side.
But that doesn't mean they necessarily act and think the same.
School comes hard for Brandi. At 19, Brandi is the oldest student at Valley - she was held back in first grade.
School comes easy for Brooke. Only one grade separates the sisters, but they are three years apart in age. Brooke is 16.
Brandi, Evelyn says, is a "homebody." Sitting at home working on crossword puzzles and reading books suits Brandi fine. Brandi acknowledges the term "people person" would best be saved for someone else. Take one look at Brandi's face, Rick says, and you know her mood.
She's in the Sunshine Club at school. Rick explains there is a reason behind getting her to join the organization: "We had to work on that smile. Brandi's too serious. Her mom got her to join the club to get her to smile more."
Brooke is the "people person," a girl who has been known to clown around. So ornery was Brooke as a youngster - she liked to experiment with electricity, among other things - that she once went through a two-week period where she received so many spankings, she came into a room carrying the switch. She asked her mom and dad if she could get her whipping out of the way before the day started.
Volleyball coach Jon Parker saw it this way: Brandi was the mother on Valley's volleyball team, while Brooke was the one who went out of her way to make sure her teammates were happy.
Their longest break (outside of classes) during the school year is three to four weeks. Volleyball is in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. Sports are year round. The three- to four-week break comes between basketball and softball.
They like all the sports. The only thing is, they find themselves looking ahead to the next sport when the sport they are in is winding down.
Brandi describes what a day is like now during basketball season:
"One of us gets up at 5:45 in the morning - we switch days. Mom comes home from work, we say bye to her at 7:30 and go off to school. We go to school until 3:05 p.m. Then we go to practice, either right after school or at 5:45 p.m. Practices last two hours and are six days a week, unless we have a home game.
"We work homework in right after we get home and get done eating. If we have a game at night, we either come home and do homework or stay after school and do homework."
The next day, they do it all over again. And the day after that. And the day after that.
The schedule doesn't include club activities. Both are in the Varsity club, Spanish club, euchre club and pep club. Brooke's in the National Honor Society.
The sisters maintain A and B grades.
"When you take a look at them as sisters, what stands out is both are three-sport athletes," Valley athletic director Duane Burkhart says. "You have to admire them for the way they balance their time and their commitment. Playing sports year round is wear and tear. They're good students, good representations of what we want at Tippecanoe Valley."
Brandi plans to attend Fort Wayne International Business College to study accounting. Brooke says she's "totally undecided" about her future.
"The one thing I sometimes wish for is more hours in the day," Brooke says. "During weekdays, we rarely get to spend time with our family."
And this is why - because good grades and being active in three sports leaves few extra hours - Rick and Evelyn have never asked the sisters to find a part-time job.
"They're busy enough the way it is," Rick says. "We try to let them have time to enjoy being young."
And they have. The sisters relax on their gray L-shaped couch in the living room, reliving how junior high basketball coach/favorite teacher Mike Hoyt would bark, "My grandmother in a wheelchair could beat you down the floor," the time Brandi hit 49 of 50 free throws in middle school (honestly) despite Rick's attempts to distract her, the time Brooke jumped over a third baseman (who had the softball) to make it safely to third and any other moments that crop up from their memory banks. Rick and Evelyn sit nearby and chime in.
Weeknights like this - with free time to sit around and shoot the breeze and chew the fat - are few and fleeting. Rick works first shift at Kimble Glass, and Evelyn works third shift at DePuy. When they can't see the girls at home, they see them at sporting events. Rick and Evelyn attend most of their games. Evelyn runs the clock at the varsity girls basketball games, as she has done the last three years. She keeps the statistics at the road games she makes it to.
If she could do it all over, Brandi wouldn't change a thing.
"To this day," she says, "I don't know what I'd do if I didn't play sports." [[In-content Ad]]