I’m five full days ahead of my print deadline.
I certainly hope nothing in the world of sports takes the spotlight from the Sunday afternoon following the Warsaw Lady Tigers basketball team’s 67-61 win over Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) for the North Semi State title.
Print and social media are already flooded with great material, and I’m chock-full of my own thoughts.
I was at home streaming since I already committed to PA announcing a ballgame, and some other matters to tend to in town. I still enjoyed the game immensely from my recliner.
My wife’s laptop and my iPad were not in sync, so I listened to the game with an earbud so it didn’t throw off her experience. I also wanted to make sure if my timing was ahead of hers, I did not prematurely exclaim anything.
I had a challenging time figuring out how to do that until I realized I needed to watch the action, then wait to join in with her reaction.
The victory to earn a berth as the North’s representative in the state finals was the biggest thrill, but my most fun moment was drawn from something said in passing during the fourth quarter of the win over HSE.
The IHSAAtv’s broadcast tandem included retired legendary DePauw men’s head basketball coach Bill Fenlon, who supplied the best, and funniest, line following HSE’s Addison Van Hoesen’s over-the-back foul sending Lady Tiger Brooke Winchester to the free throw line.
Fenlon quipped, “(Van Hosen) asking the official what she did means she forgot she was climbing all over Winchester’s back.”
Van Hoesen’s lips were readable in the streamed coverage, and I’m certain Fenlon saw the identical optics on his broadcast monitor following her previous fouls leading to this point.
Fenlon’s remark was precious.
HSE’s athletes were a little more chippy than I expected them to be as the two sides’ fortunes played leapfrog. The takeaway from these moments, however, was how it amplified the Warsaw Lady Tigers’ impressive resistance to the trappings of frustration when their fortunes were temporarily reversed.
HSE’s 16-0 second half run would have created an implosion among lesser folk.
Free throws matter.
Coach Krebs leads a five-day shooting clinic each year, and the buy-in was evident Saturday night.
Saturday afternoon’s 7 for 16 charity stripe performance did not affect the final score in Warsaw’s convincing 66-48 win Saturday afternoon over McCutheon, but within hours, the Lady Tigers, a team who has been hitting free throws at a 77% clip up until Saturday afternoon once again avoided… trappings.
Trappings of the yips, a sports term for “sudden and unexplained loss of ability to execute certain skills” as Wikipedia states, were avoided Saturday night, and Warsaw exploited HSE’s physical and even chippy style of play to create opportunities at the charity stripe.
The orange and black capitalized on 24 of 25 free throw opportunities, 96% accuracy.
Even the Lady Tigers whose free throw accuracy percentages were lower than the team average demonstrated great focus in a venue with robust acoustics that were able to maintain sharp concentration.
Times-Union Sports Editor Connor McCann and I volleyed texts throughout last weekend including a sentence from a 5:41 p.m. text from “el jefe” on Saturday where he noted, “They are locked in. They came out with a different energy today from the warmups on.”
Energy? More like main character energy.
The Lady Tigers even wrote new chapters to their story (an opening 19-0 run in the early win over McCutcheon) no one imagined they would see in the big school enrollment class at a semi state basketball game.
The aforementioned 16-0 HSE run in the evening round did not result in any change of body language or confidence for the Lady Tigers. Instead, main character energy continued during an adverse reversal of fortune HSE was accustomed to benefitting from to take control for good… until they didn’t.
There are at least 4,500 other girls’ high school basketball players who are spending this morning shooting free throws indoors or outdoors… alone… in silence.
Not you, Lady Tigers.
We continue to appreciate your basketball IQ, Lady Tigers; how it looks like you use a vacuum hose to pull a made shot out of the bottom of the net to transition to a made basket on the other end in three or four seconds, your collective ability to play stifling defense for longer stretches of time than the average teenagers can, and – Heavens – you young ladies know how to shoot.
Many of us have not taken these wonderful things for granted while we watched many of you make your high school basketball bones beginning in the late fall of 2022.
I helped one of our conference opponent’s PA announcers in several pinches a few seasons ago, fondly recalling one of those games when you visited The Cave January 11, 2023. I made sure I said hello, wished you well, but contained my enthusiasm during the ensuing blowout I sensed I would witness.
I also recall why you were nominated for IHSAA-level sportsmanship props in that same game when each of you folded and stored the chairs you used like you were finishing a home game.
Every other year, when you travel to Northridge, I behave myself in their gym because my wife’s bread is buttered there. She’s a faculty member, and a track and field coach for the middle school. My compromise for my trek to Middlebury is wearing solid black and sneakily pumping my fist or pressing my palms harder on the bleacher seat when the Tigers perform well.
I remember on my ride home from Jayco Arena telling my wife, “I bet they made sure their beautiful visitor’s locker room was even cleaner than it already looked when the Lady Tigers arrived.”
You’ll shine again tonight, and you’ll be the classiest individuals on the hardwood again.
Good luck Lady Tigers.