Tigers Down But Not Out In Goshen

GOSHEN - Although Warsaw trailed Northern Lakes Conference rival Goshen for the majority of Friday's boys basketball game, the Tigers defeated the Redskins 43-39 in a defensive showdown. "The NLC is a defensive conference," said Al Rhodes."And tonight's game was a good example of that." Goshen took an early 6-0 lead, and its defensive effort kept Warsaw scoreless for more than two minutes. The first Tiger points came on two Zach Nelson free throws with 5:42 left in the first quarter to make the score 6-2 in Goshen's favor. Goshen allowed Warsaw to score only seven points in the next five minutes, and by the end of the first quarter Goshen held a 15-9 lead. The second quarter began the same way the first ended, with a solid defensive effort, and the score stood at 15-9 for the first minute of play. With 6:57 left in the second frame, Josh Keister scored a basket to put Goshen up 17-9.

Panthers Rip Hornets 49-6

NAPPANEE - NorthWood's offense tallied 532 yards and its defense held Angola to five first downs as the Panthers cruised to a 49-6 second-round 3A sectional win over the Hornets. NorthWood's football team, ranked No.5 in the final 3A Associated Press poll, improved to 9-2.Angola ended its season 6-5. The Panthers displayed a balanced offense as quarterback Mike Blosser completed 9 of 13 passes for 275 yards while the ground game delivered 257 rushing yards. NorthWood running back Ben Lehman rushed for 138 yards on 15 carries (9.2 average) and scored three touchdowns.Jesse Fink added 80 rushing yards on yards on 16 carries and one touchdown. Blosser completed four of his passes to Will Will for 172 yards. NorthWood plays 6-5 Lakeland on Friday.Lakeland advanced by beating Whitko (3-8) 47-16.

Rachel Stichter Wins Semistate; Wawasee Boys Finish 10th

NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊA few weeks ago at the Manchester Invitational, Wawasee sophomore Rachel Stichter won the race with an almost unbelievable time of 13:40.Many people thought that was a one-time deal, and that she could not run a time close to that again. Stichter proved those doubters wrong Saturday by winning the Manchester Semistate with a time of 13:49.That time put Stichter in first place at the semistate, four seconds ahead of the second place finisher, Alissa McKaig of Fort Wayne Concordia. "I felt good," said Stichter in a ceremony after the race."I just wanted to come out and do my best." Stichter's first qualifies her for the state competition Saturday in Bloomington.

Hungry Warriors One Game Away

SYRACUSE - Every Thursday during the football season, Wawasee's Gridiron Club, a group of parents and supporters, attempt the impossible - to feed the Warriors' entire 90-plus man roster including coaches and their families.The goal is to build greater team unity off the field. On the field, Wawasee has had little trouble with the concept of team unity.Whether it is the ground game of Jordan Swain, the air attack of Kory Lantz or the defense stepping up, this team has found a way to win. Tonight's contest against Logansport (11-2) will decide the northern representative in the 4A state final at the RCA Dome.The last time the Warriors were in Indianapolis was in week five for the NLC's Day at the Dome. Since that game, where Wawasee beat NorthWood 38-34, the Warriors have been on the warpath. Wawasee's margin of victory since that game has been an average of 21 points per contest.

No. 14 Wawasee Wrestlers Rip No. 12 Goshen

SYRACUSE - The Wawasee Warrior wrestlers jogged circles around Goshen's grapplers during Tuesday's 10-minute warmup as Michael Buffer's "LLLLLet's get ready to rummmmmble" boomed over the loudspeakers. Once the match started, the jogging stopped.The circles did not, as the No.14 Warriors ran them around No.12 Goshen, 43-15. The Warriors, wrestling their fourth Northern Lakes Conference match in two weeks - they have only two more left - improved to 8-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference.They wrestled 14 matches against Goshen and won 10 of them. Wawasee, No.14? Goshen, No.12? "First of all, I don't know how much stock you put in the polls," Wawasee coach Scott DeHart said. Stock or no stock, DeHart used the poll as the iron to prod his grapplers.

The Monkey Stays On Warsaw's Back

At Warsaw, swim teams hail monkeys and say team prayers. They also do something else. They win. Warsaw's boys swim team improved to 5-0 with a 109-77 Wednesday home win over Huntington North (2-1).Going back to the start of last year, the Tigers have won 19 regular-season meets in a row. Warsaw's girls swim team upped its record to 5-1 with its 110-75 win over Huntington North (3-4). The boys, who wear T-shirts that say "Hail the monkey" in black letters in orange trim, hail this monkey to start their meet.The girls say the team prayer to start theirs. Both ways are working.

Grace Men's Team Hopes To Capitalize On Youth

Youth can be both a positive and a negative in the sport of basketball. Teams without much senior leadership can make mental mistakes and often don't have the experience to understand the rigors of a long college season. On the other hand, youthful teams often have no fear and don't understand that bigger, stronger, faster and more experienced teams are supposed to win. This year's version of the Grace College men's basketball team will rely on youth to determine the outcome of the season.Head coach Jim Kessler knows that, even with just one senior and three juniors, his Lancers will be ready for the season when November rolls around.

Wawasee Frontcourt Keys Win Over Fairfield

SYRACUSE - Imagine having to face a team with the leading scorer in the state. Imagine having to face that team when that player's teammates start to pour in the points. Fairfield girls basketball coach Brent Miller doesn't have to imagine.He lived through the nightmare Saturday as Wawasee's girls basketball team drubbed Fairfield 79-42.Wawasee improves to 3-0, while Fairfield drops to 1-2. Miller had exactly what he wanted. Wawasee junior star Shanna Zolman, the state's leading scorer the last two years, had a modest 11 points at halftime of Saturday's game. Problem is, Wawasee no longer is a one-player team.While Zolman didn't go off in the first half, her teammates, especially those in the frontcourt, did.

Homestead Ends Warsaw's Season

FORT WAYNE - When it's all said and done, third-year Warsaw Community High School football coach Troy Akers said, people will be talking about Justin Clemens. Friday night, as the talented freshman made his first varsity start at quarterback for the Tigers, however, it was Homestead senior signal caller Jordan Wise who was in the spotlight. Wise completed 10 of 18 passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns and intercepted a Clemens pass in the second half while leading the Spartans to a 26-7 win over the visiting Tigers in Sectional 3 semifinal action. "When it's all said and done, people will be talking about Justin Clemens," said Akers, whose Tigers finished the season with a 2-9 record."He'll be a household name." The win improved Homestead to 10-1 on the season.The Spartans will play Fort Wayne Snider (9-2) in the sectional championship Friday.Snider, ranked 10th in the final Class 5A poll, beat seventh-ranked Marion (9-2) 60-0.

Turnovers, Tigers Dominate Girls Jamboree

In Warsaw's Girls Basketball Jamboree on Saturday, it was quite evident that it was early in the season.With 62 turnovers among the four teams and 52 fouls called, Whitko, Wawasee, Valley and Warsaw realize that there is still a lot of work to do. "It was the officials' first night out, too," Whitko head coach Ray Davis said."It was hard to get into the flow." The jamboree also gave the coaches a chance to better understand the kind of teams they have and move on from there.Warsaw coach Will Wienhorst and Wawasee coach Randy Aalbregtse can take wins in both quarters home with them, while Davis and Valley coach Mike Walters can take home an understanding of what their teams need to do to compete this year after losing both quarters.

Lady Trojans Enter 1996-97 Season With Experience

BOURBON - Here is what Mark Heeter, the Triton Trojan girls' basketball coach, has to look forward to this season: • His assist leaders return. nHis rebounding leaders return. • His scoring leader returns. All told, Heeter lost two seniors to graduation, Ann Hall and Amanda Hayes.And Hall played only the last few games of last season after her knee injury. Nine letterwinners return on the roster of 12.Of the seven seniors on the team, six played on varsity last year.At least four have played at the varsity level for three years. The other five players are juniors.Three of them have at least one year of varsity experience. Not a bad combination to have.

Tippecanoe Valley Hands Out Fall Awards At Banquet

MENTONE - Tippecanoe Valley held its annual awards banquet recently to hand out fall sports awards.Football, volleyball, tennis, golf and cross country athletes were presented with awards for their seasons.

Wawasee's Dynamic Duo...

By Dale Hubler, Times-Union Sports Editor SYRACUSE - Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Each a sports superstar in his own right, but more often than not remembered as part of a tandem, a dynamic duo. For Wawasee High School's football team, seniors Kory Lantz and Jordan Swain are that winning combination, a pair that have played a large part in taking head coach Joe Rietveld's Warrior program to the next level. With Lantz at quarterback and Swain at running back, the Warriors have taken a huge step forward in each of the three years they've started together at the varsity level. Two years ago during their sophomore season, Lantz and Swain led Wawasee to a win over state power NorthWood, a Northern Lakes Conference rival the Warriors hadn't beat since 1986. As juniors, the talented twosome played a major role in Wawasee's 7-4 record, a mark that included three more wins than the season before.

Barrett Needs His Rest To Be At His Best

NORTH MANCHESTER - David Barrett would be Aunt Bee's kind of guy. The doting aunt with the flutey voice on the "Andy Griffith Show" chirped all kinds of little ditties, but the one that applies here is, "Every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after midnight." David Barrett is an 18-year-old senior at Manchester High School.Around here, he's better known for leading the state in rushing with 2,021 yards, the only player to break 2,000. If the state's leading rusher is a stickler on one detail in his life, it's his Thursday night bedtime. "He likes to be in bed by 9:30 the night before," Manchester coach Al Bailey says."He makes sure he gets a good night's rest the night before Friday's game. "In bed by 9:30 ...that's when most high school guys are just warming up." Oh, Aunt Bee would like more about David Barrett than his early Thursday night bedtime.She would like his soft-spokenness, the way, at least in this interview, he seems unassuming.

Pieces Fit For Grace Women Basketball Team's Puzzle

Why does head coach Scott Schramm believe this could be the first time Grace women's basketball team could see a .500 record since the 1991-92 season? The answer to that question can be somewhat complex. First, there's the experience factor. You won't find many teams with fewer seniors that have as much experience as this club. Although Schramm has brought in numerous freshmen, his squad will have players that have been through the wars. Junior Amy Doron has played in all 60 games the Lancers have played over the past two seasons, averaging more than 31 minutes per game.Junior Eve Arthur has played in 54 games, averaging more than 34 minutes per game. "I've really grown to admire those girls (Doron and Arthur)," Schramm said."They were part of my first recruiting class.They were the ones that caught a vision with me, believed what we were doing here and came.

On The Court

Larry Lael Takes Over Whitko Wildcats

SOUTH WHITLEY - Now coached by a middle school science teacher, if history is on Whitko High School's side, its varsity boys basketball team is staring down a successful 2004-2005 season. Departed from the Wildcat program is Don Zawlocki, who still teaches math at Whitko but resigned his position as head coach after an 8-13 season in which Whitko went 3-4 in the Three Rivers Conference. The Wildcats lost the first four games of the season and then lost eight of their final nine contests, including a two-point loss to rival Tippecanoe Valley in the opening round of the sectional. Taking over for Zawlocki is Larry Lael, who hasn't coached varsity boys basketball in six years but had a good amount of success the 10 years that he did coach. In his first year at Bremen, the Lions won the Plymouth Sectional championship.In his first season at Fairfield, the Falcons won the Goshen Sectional championship.

Squires Struggle In All Areas

COLUMBIA CITY - Manchester's boys basketball team got off to a 4-0 start by playing solid basketball.After the Squires lost their first game of the season last week to Homestead, they hoped to get back on track against the 2-3 Columbia City Eagles. Instead of returning to their winning ways, the Squires played sloppily and got blown out 58-27 by Columbia City in Saturday's game. "We played tired," Manchester coach Gary Goshert said."The whole key to the game as at the defensive end for us.We wouldn't defend the perimeter at all. The first quarter was the most competitive of the game, as there weree three ties and five lead changes.Each team came out in an aggressive man-to-man defense.Columbia City was the better defensive team, limiting the Squires to 22.6 (12 of 53) shooting for the game.

Warsaw Girls Overcome Sloppy First Half

AKRON - It looked early on as if Warsaw was going to have its hands full with host Tippecanoe Valley in girls basketball action Friday night. Both teams struggled offensively and were tied 8-8 midway through the second quarter. The Tigers seemed to be in more trouble when Butler-bound Julie Seiss picked up her second foul and was forced to sit. Instead of folding without their leading scorer, the Tigers went on a 14-0 run to pull away from the Vikings.Warsaw never looked back as it cruised to a 57-33 win. Warsaw's second quarter run was led by 5-foot-9 senior Jennifer Scherer.Scherer scored six of her career-high 13 points during the Tigers' surge.

Second Half Gets Tigers Back On Track

After Warsaw's 34-32 Wednesday loss to Fort Wayne Northrop, head coach Will Wienhorst had his basketball team watch the game film the next day. But they did more than just watch.Wienhorst told each girl to write down things she could have done better in the game.One girl, whom Wienhorst didn't identify, wrote down 16 things. Eleven minutes into Saturday's conference game with Concord, Wienhorst was probably wondering if the girls took their lists to heart.His team trailed 18-9 with 4:37 left before halftime. However, by the time the game was over, Wienhorst knew for a fact his girls had watched, listened and learned.The second half was one of Warsaw's best halves of basketball this season.After the slow start, the Tigers pulled away for a 59-46 win.