Elkhart Sectional Full Of Memorable Moments
March 8, 2017 at 4:32 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
That is not what I am writing about today.
I want to talk to you about what I, and many others, saw at the boys basketball sectional at North Side Gym in Elkhart.
It was Sectional 4 in Class 4A, but honestly, not everything that happened there was “Class 4A.”
I am not referring to who played poorly, or who missed shots. I am not referring to the exciting nature of the games – heck, the first round could not be more exciting! Three buzzer beaters in three games over two nights is impossible to top. I’m not talking about the officiating, either.
We who were in the Barn on Bristol St. last week saw some of the best of what high school sports should be, and some of the worst of what human beings can be.
On Tuesday, new Goshen coach Michael Wohlford got his first sectional win over Steve Austin of Concord, who knows a lot about winning and losing in the postseason. It was a layup at the buzzer that won it, and no one would have blamed a young, first-year coach for going crazy. After immediately jumping for joy, he walked up the sideline, shook Austin’s hand and every other Minuteman’s hand in the line, and then led his team to the lockeroom – no doubt with a huge smile on his face.
Class 4A move.
The next night, his Elkhart Central team having just erased a 20-point deficit with 10 minutes remaining to win on its home court in from of a raucous crowd, first-year Central coach Terry Smith (who is not a young guy or first-time head coach) went roaring across the gym floor to celebrate with his fan base. He pumped his fists and waved his arms, and had he not been wearing a buttoned-up shirt you would not be able to tell him apart from the students that had rushed the court.
Then, he hugged Penn coach Al Rhodes.
It was not a conciliatory hug. It was not a hug of respect for an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer. It was a hard, boisterous hug that was completely out of place for that moment.
And it was noticed.
A gasp went through the huge audience who had just witnessed a tournament comeback for the ages followed by a very unfortunate lack of control.
That lack of control by adult members of the Central fans was a theme, unfortunately.
On Wednesday, in the heat of a tight game in which Central was trying to fight its way back from down 20 points, a call went against them. A fan threw his water bottle out into the middle of the floor. Not some young kid, but an adult man, probably in his mid-40s. Someone that surely ought to know better. I saw him do it, as he was standing right in my field of vision.
That man put every player on both teams on the court and the three officials at risk. What if he would have hit one of them? What if someone would have stepped on it? What if that would have led to something more serious?
An announcement was made, and a police officer was stationed in that corner. Nothing else happened.
With that great game and its awkward ending behind us, we settled in for Warsaw-Northridge. It was a low-scoring affair that had all of the same intensity of the first game. Players were knocked down, but hands were extended by their opponents to help them up. A buzzer-beating shot ended one team’s season and their seniors’ careers. The Northridge players fought back the tears, but some of them failed. Warsaw coach Doug Ogle and the Tigers consoled them with hugs instead of hand slaps.
With two days to catch our breath we awaited the semifinals on Friday. Goshen beat Memorial, and in the end great respect from two sides who battled for 32 minutes for the right to be in the final.
Then in the night cap, Warsaw jumped out to an early 16-0 lead and never looked back in what turned out to be a 71-36 thumping of the favored Blue Blazers.
As the score began to widen from 16 to 20 to 25 to 30, that same man who had thrown his water bottle two nights before tossed the sunglasses off the top of his head from the fourth row at mid-court across from our broadcast position right through the middle of the 13 people on the court and almost to the center circle.
TWICE this guy put people in jeopardy.
His punishment? A man with an “Elkhart Event Staff” shirt handed the man his sunglasses back. He wasn’t ejected from the gym. Heck, he didn’t even seem remorseful!
But then the Central students came through for their school and community.
When the game was over, and the Blue Blazers’ season ended with a 35-point loss, their enormous student section left their seats at the north end of the gym and surrounded the players and team staff in what amounted to a giant 300-person group hug. I don’t know if the team members appreciated it much at that moment, but those who saw it did and those players will someday.
Saturday’s championship game provided one more moment to remember.
A game that was a white-knuckled 16-16 deadlock at halftime was controlled by the Tigers in the second half. Warsaw built a double-digit lead and the outcome over the final eight minutes was never really in doubt.
With time winding down in their season, Coach Wohlford went to his bench to put in seniors who don’t get to play a lot. The game kept moving and the clock wound down to under a minute to go, and with Warsaw in possession of the ball and meaning to simply run the clock out, Wohlford did a highly unusual thing: he yelled down to Ogle and asked him to take a time out so he could get his guys into the game … and Ogle did.
He didn’t have to do it. Heck, just the request from one coach to another while the game is going on is just not something that ever happens.
But that time out was asked for and granted.
It may seem like a little thing to you, but it wasn’t to those kids and their parents.
And if you think about it, sportsmanship should never be considered a “little thing.”
It sure wasn’t a “little thing” at the sectional last week.
That is not what I am writing about today.
I want to talk to you about what I, and many others, saw at the boys basketball sectional at North Side Gym in Elkhart.
It was Sectional 4 in Class 4A, but honestly, not everything that happened there was “Class 4A.”
I am not referring to who played poorly, or who missed shots. I am not referring to the exciting nature of the games – heck, the first round could not be more exciting! Three buzzer beaters in three games over two nights is impossible to top. I’m not talking about the officiating, either.
We who were in the Barn on Bristol St. last week saw some of the best of what high school sports should be, and some of the worst of what human beings can be.
On Tuesday, new Goshen coach Michael Wohlford got his first sectional win over Steve Austin of Concord, who knows a lot about winning and losing in the postseason. It was a layup at the buzzer that won it, and no one would have blamed a young, first-year coach for going crazy. After immediately jumping for joy, he walked up the sideline, shook Austin’s hand and every other Minuteman’s hand in the line, and then led his team to the lockeroom – no doubt with a huge smile on his face.
Class 4A move.
The next night, his Elkhart Central team having just erased a 20-point deficit with 10 minutes remaining to win on its home court in from of a raucous crowd, first-year Central coach Terry Smith (who is not a young guy or first-time head coach) went roaring across the gym floor to celebrate with his fan base. He pumped his fists and waved his arms, and had he not been wearing a buttoned-up shirt you would not be able to tell him apart from the students that had rushed the court.
Then, he hugged Penn coach Al Rhodes.
It was not a conciliatory hug. It was not a hug of respect for an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer. It was a hard, boisterous hug that was completely out of place for that moment.
And it was noticed.
A gasp went through the huge audience who had just witnessed a tournament comeback for the ages followed by a very unfortunate lack of control.
That lack of control by adult members of the Central fans was a theme, unfortunately.
On Wednesday, in the heat of a tight game in which Central was trying to fight its way back from down 20 points, a call went against them. A fan threw his water bottle out into the middle of the floor. Not some young kid, but an adult man, probably in his mid-40s. Someone that surely ought to know better. I saw him do it, as he was standing right in my field of vision.
That man put every player on both teams on the court and the three officials at risk. What if he would have hit one of them? What if someone would have stepped on it? What if that would have led to something more serious?
An announcement was made, and a police officer was stationed in that corner. Nothing else happened.
With that great game and its awkward ending behind us, we settled in for Warsaw-Northridge. It was a low-scoring affair that had all of the same intensity of the first game. Players were knocked down, but hands were extended by their opponents to help them up. A buzzer-beating shot ended one team’s season and their seniors’ careers. The Northridge players fought back the tears, but some of them failed. Warsaw coach Doug Ogle and the Tigers consoled them with hugs instead of hand slaps.
With two days to catch our breath we awaited the semifinals on Friday. Goshen beat Memorial, and in the end great respect from two sides who battled for 32 minutes for the right to be in the final.
Then in the night cap, Warsaw jumped out to an early 16-0 lead and never looked back in what turned out to be a 71-36 thumping of the favored Blue Blazers.
As the score began to widen from 16 to 20 to 25 to 30, that same man who had thrown his water bottle two nights before tossed the sunglasses off the top of his head from the fourth row at mid-court across from our broadcast position right through the middle of the 13 people on the court and almost to the center circle.
TWICE this guy put people in jeopardy.
His punishment? A man with an “Elkhart Event Staff” shirt handed the man his sunglasses back. He wasn’t ejected from the gym. Heck, he didn’t even seem remorseful!
But then the Central students came through for their school and community.
When the game was over, and the Blue Blazers’ season ended with a 35-point loss, their enormous student section left their seats at the north end of the gym and surrounded the players and team staff in what amounted to a giant 300-person group hug. I don’t know if the team members appreciated it much at that moment, but those who saw it did and those players will someday.
Saturday’s championship game provided one more moment to remember.
A game that was a white-knuckled 16-16 deadlock at halftime was controlled by the Tigers in the second half. Warsaw built a double-digit lead and the outcome over the final eight minutes was never really in doubt.
With time winding down in their season, Coach Wohlford went to his bench to put in seniors who don’t get to play a lot. The game kept moving and the clock wound down to under a minute to go, and with Warsaw in possession of the ball and meaning to simply run the clock out, Wohlford did a highly unusual thing: he yelled down to Ogle and asked him to take a time out so he could get his guys into the game … and Ogle did.
He didn’t have to do it. Heck, just the request from one coach to another while the game is going on is just not something that ever happens.
But that time out was asked for and granted.
It may seem like a little thing to you, but it wasn’t to those kids and their parents.
And if you think about it, sportsmanship should never be considered a “little thing.”
It sure wasn’t a “little thing” at the sectional last week.
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