Irwin Trying To Restore Roar At Whitko

SOUTH WHITLEY - Rob Irwin remembers the glory days of Whitko High School's boys basketball program. He remembers, as he said in a phone conversation, when "teams played Whitko they knew they were in a for dogfight for 32 minutes." Irwin was an assistant coach at Whitko for Bill Patrick and sat on the bench as the Wildcats made their magical run to the Final Four with Indiana All-Star Steve Nicodemus. Now the head coach at Whitko, Irwin, who was the head coach at Carroll the last 10 years, wants to revive the Wildcat program. "There was a time when Whitko came in you knew you were going to be in a dogfight for 32 minutes," said Irwin, who posted a 130-88 record at Carroll."I want to re-establish that.I want teams to know we were there." Irwin takes over the head coaching duties for Larry Lael, who was the interim coach at Whitko last year and led the Wildcats through a 4-17 season.

Out Of Leftfield (commentary)

By Daniel Riordan, Times-Union Sports Writer As a Warsaw High School grad, and more importantly as a sportswriter, I shouldn't have a rooting interest in Wawasee's 4A state final game against Indianapolis Roncalli Saturday at 3:30 p.m.in the RCA Dome. But I do. This team is just fun to watch.It's not three yards and a cloud of dust or mind-numbing doses of student body right. Wawasee's offense is more reminiscent of the Indianapolis Colts than your typical high school. The Warriors' lowest point total was 21 in the fourth game of the season against Concord, their only loss this year.Wawasee paid the Minutemen back in the opening round of sectional play to the tune of 48-9. You have the combination of running back Jordan Swain and quarterback Kory Lantz, a duo that will remain synonomous in Syracuse for years to come.When it is all said and done, Swain and Lantz may go down as the most prolific quarterback/running back duo in state history.

Plymouth Spoils Triton's Season

PLYMOUTH - Losing in the sectional was not part of the script. Not with a veteran team with six seniors. Not after a 24-6 regular season. It just happened to be Plymouth's script, and it is one that has been used the last 14 years. Plymouth, a team that did not have anywhere close to six seniors or 24 wins, upended Triton 11-15, 15-7, 15-12 in Saturday's volleyball championship.It is the 14th straight year Plymouth won its sectional. Plymouth had 10 sophomores and juniors on a roster of 12 and was a below-.500 team in the regular season at 15-16.Of Plymouth's six starters, four were sophomores. What the Pilgrims had going for them was a brutal regular season schedule that toughened them for tournament time.

Wawasee Comes Up Short At Plymouth

PLYMOUTH - For all the thousands of yards Joe Leach has gained this year, he could have used just one more foot Friday. The Warriors' electric quarterback came up just short on a two-point conversion in overtime Friday night against host Plymouth as Wawasee ended its season with a 21-20 loss to the Rockies in the Class 4A Sectional 10 semifinal. Wawasee had a chance to win the game in regulation when Aaron Polsean set up for a 20-yard field goal with 9.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Plymouth coach John Barron called two straight timeouts in the hopes of icing Polsean.While the timeouts may have had some effect, a bad snap, hold and low kick that was blocked into the line forced overtime. The Warriors won the coin toss to start overtime and deferred and gave the Rockies the ball first.

Andrean, NorthWood Face Off - Again

NAPPANEE - The NorthWood Panthers are one of 20 teams battling for the opportunity to play in the state championship next week. However, the path to Indianapolis and the RCA Dome will not be an easy one for the Panthers because they must face last year's Class 3A semistate champion, Andrean High School, in order to get there. NorthWood (10-3) and Andrean (11-2) will square off in Merrillville at 8 p.m.Friday, and the winner will travel to Indianapolis the following week to compete in the Class 3A ISHAA state football championship. "NorthWood is a lot like us," said Ted Karras, Andrean's head coach."They play a difficult schedule, and they are a traditional power.

Tiger Boys Too Much For Elkhart Memorial

Just as Friday night's win was, the upcoming holiday break may be just what Doug Ogle and his Warsaw boys basketball team needs. Playing their fifth game in nine days, the Tigers put together their best all-around team effort of the year, downing Elkhart Memorial 75-58 in the consolation round of the Northern Lakes Conference/Lake City Bank Holiday Tournament. Now 5-3 on the season, Warsaw is off until it opens regular season NLC play Jan.3 at rival Wawasee. "It was important that we played better and won the game for our team's pysche," Ogle said."This is a nice way for us to go into Christmas.We're not gonna practice until the 28th, we've got a nice break, and then we'll come back and really get ready for Wawasee." A matchup of teams that played for last year's holiday tournament championship, as well as a double-overtime thriller in the regular season, Friday's outcome was never really in doubt.

Squires Open New Gym With 64-62 OT Win

NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊFriday night's contest between Manchester and Southwood had a cinematic quality to it. If it weren't for the fact that every weekend in Indiana games like these are churned out then it would be hard to believe.Both teams fought each other and themselves for momentum and control of the game. Manchester jumped out early in ACT I.Like any good story, ACT II saw the Squires pushed to the brink by Southwood before fighting to a 58-all tie at the end of regulation.The third and final act saw the protagonists pull out the 64-62 victory. For the sake of storytelling if Manchester was the hero then the antagonist Southwood, led by ex-Squire Todd Dale, looked to play spoiler in each team's TRC opener. The frenetic pace of the game on Manchester's part was aided by the dedication ceremony of their gym.'The Jungle,' as it's referred to by Manchester brethren, brought out community members and ex-players.

IU Answers Questions In 2-0 Weekend

INDIANPOLIS -ÊQuestion: What's the weakest link in the armor of the 1998 Indiana Hoosiers? The answer prior to this weekend's two games was the lack of a dominant big man. The play of freshman Kirk Haston and Will Gladness in this past weekend's NABC Classic may have solved that problem. Indiana defeated South Carolina 76-55 Sunday afternoon after beating Seton Hall 83-69 Saturday. Sunday Haston jumped off the bench in the second half and provided 10 points and five boards.This followed his debut of 17 points and eight rebounds against Seton Hall. Surprised? The media were. IU players were not. "We knew (Haston) could do this," Gladness said, "this is just the beginning for Kirk.

Warsaw Boys Down Wawasee 52-44

SYRACUSE -ÊWawasee's boys basketball team changed its gameplan, but the Warriors still couldn't change the results. After hosting and losing to Warsaw 89-58 on Friday, Wawasee hosted and lost to Warsaw 52-44 in Wednesday's first round of the Northern Lakes Conference Tournament.Warsaw improves to 4-3, while Wawasee falls to 3-4. Switching from man-to-man defense in the first meeting to a 2-3 zone last night helped Wawasee stay with Warsaw.Half-court zone defenses are the current defense of choice against Warsaw, as Tippecanoe Valley, Valparaiso and Elkhart Central all used it to beat the Tigers. "The Wawasee coaching staff did a great job of adjusting," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said."Their most obvious change was from man-to-man to their 2-3 zone with guard pressure, which they copied from Elkhart Central.We just executed better than we did against Elkhart Central.

On The Court

Tiger Boys Cagers Sting Gary Wallace Hornets

A night several students in the cheer block wore superhero attire, it was Warsaw's varsity boys basketball team that looked worthy of wearing capes Friday. Behind a balanced scoring attack, passing that led to extremely high-percentage shots, and a dominating performance on the boards, the Tigers manhandled visiting Gary Wallace 74-48. Other than a stretch in the second half when he cleared his bench, it looked as if Doug Ogle's Tigers could do no wrong, shooting nearly 60 percent from the field and leading by as much as 31, 48-17, early in the third quarter.

Westview No Match For Wawasee Warriors

SYRACUSE - In a girls basketball contest between Westview and Wawasee Friday night, the similarities went no farther than a mascot. Clearly, the Westview Warriors were no match for the Class 4A fourth-ranked Wawasee Warriors, as the hosts won 90-26 in dominating fashion.The game was the season opener for both teams. Often times season openers are displays of teams shaking the rust off.While Wawasee had its spurts of missed layups, the highly-touted Warriors shot 34 of 70 from the field and had four players in double figures. "The only real lapse I was disappointed with was the start of the third quarter," fourth-year Wawasee coach Kem Zolman said."We were kind of flat and not a lot of stuff was happening.We've got some things to work on, but overall for a first game I was pleased." Senior superstar Shanna Zolman, who will sign with the University of Tennessee Wednesday, led all scorers with 35 points.She also had 11 rebounds, eight assists and six steals.

Local Harriers Competing In State Meet

Running against the best makes everyone better. The Wawasee boys cross country squad and Warsaw's Erica Ridderman are proof of that. Running in the Northern Lakes Conference against state-power Northridge, along with their own blood, sweat and tears, has earned eight area runners a spot in the state finals Saturday in Terre Haute at the Wabash Valley Sports Center. "It helps a lot," said Warsaw girls cross country coach Jerry Gackenheimer."You run against state-caliber runners all year and it makes you better." Twenty teams for both boys and girls, along with 60 individuals on non-advancing teams, will vie for a state title. And while the favorites are set, and its unrealistic for runners to make up huge amounts of time, there are solid goals and attainable times. Wawasee advanced to the state finals with a fourth-place finish in the New Haven Semi-state on the campus of IPFW.

Tigers Rout Warriors 86-59

SYRACUSE - After the broadcast of the Warsaw-Wawasee boys basketball game Friday night, one local radio station played Tina Turner's hit, "Simply the Best." The Tigers certainly proved they were the better team Friday night as they disposed of Northern Lakes Conference and Kosciusko County rival Wawasee 86-59, improving their record to 5-0 and 2-0 in conference play.The Warriors fell to 0-4 and 0-1 in the NLC. The Warriors hadn't beaten the Tigers since the sectionals in 1995, and the emotions were high in Wawasee's renovated gym. Warsaw struck first with a free throw #before Wawasee's Jeremy High scored the Warriors' first two points of the game, Andrew Warner added an early bucket, and Wawasee took a 4-1 lead. The two teams played with emotions that saw the score tied six times in the opening frame, and the quarter ended with a 20-20 deadlock.

Lakers Show Whitko Error Of Its Ways

SOUTH WHITLEY -ÊThe Whitko Wildcats knew they were going to have their work cut out for them Friday night when they played Lakeland in the second round of the football sectional. The Lakers proved it on the first play of the game as Drew Leer returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown to give Lakeland a 7-0 advantage with just 11 ticks off the first quarter clock. "They started out with that kickoff return," said Whitko coach Bryan Sprunger."People were where they were supposed to be, but they just didn't get the job done.Then we started kind of going everywhere after that.The guys were just flying around out there out of control." Then Maurice Satterfield caught two touchdown passes before the first quarter had expired, one at 5:43 and the other with 16 seconds left to put the Lakers up 21-0 heading into the second quarter of play.

Second-Half Fold Gives Valley First Loss

PLYMOUTH - Before the second half of Tuesday's boys basketball game between No.3 (3A) Plymouth and Tippecanoe Valley, the Vikings began warming up at the wrong end of the court. While the Vikings quickly corrected the mistake, they never found their way the rest of the night.Valley led 28-14 at halftime but went on to lose 49-47. Plymouth (2-0) outscored Valley (3-1) 35-19 in the second half, including 19-7 in the third quarter.Plymouth led 3-0 to start the game.Its second lead came at 43-42 with 2:34 left. "We felt like - I don't want to say we stole one - but as you walk off the floor, you don't want a recount," Plymouth coach Jack Edison said. Valley managed to lose a game that saw Cody New, who averages 27.3 points per game, score 14 first-half points to equal Plymouth's team output. Despite the way the Vikings lost, coach Bill Patrick spoke five minutes after the game ended and explained why he was ready to talk so quickly.

Third Quarter Leads To Valley Loss

AKRON - After Tippecanoe Valley's girls basketball team hosted Winamac Wednesday, Viking coach Gary Teel stood in a hallway talking to his assistant coaches, saying that his team really didn't do anything wrong. And for the most part Teel is right. The stat sheet indicates that the game was closer than Winamac's 52-39 win indicates. For example: Winamac shot 15 of 33 (45.5 percent) from the field.Valley was 15 of 36 (41.7 percent). Both teams pulled down 25 rebounds. Both teams made good on three three-pointers. The score was knotted at 10 after one quarter of play before Winamac clung to a 21-20 halftime advantage. What was the difference? The difference, according to Teel, was the third quarter.

Triton Wins Culver Tourney

CULVER - For the first time since 1988, the Triton Trojan basketball team won the Culver Tournament. Cory Monesmith knows how big this win is, because he knows Triton basketball.His brother, Ryan, previously played basketball for Triton.Cory, a senior, led the Trojans with 28 points in their 64-53 win over Argos in the Friday championship game. With the win, Triton improved to 6-2.It's one of Triton's best starts in recent memory. "I think it means a great deal for Triton basketball," Cory said."Triton in the past hasn't been known for its basketball, really.I think this group we have works really hard.I mean, we work our butts off in practice, and it shows out on the floor." What shows on the floor is Triton's uncanny knack for getting the opposing team in foul trouble.

Huntington North Wallops Whitko

SOUTH WHITLEY - The Whitko against Huntington North boys basketball game had a bit more drama than most Saturday night.After all, it was Whitko head coach Fred Fields' first battle against the school where he coached girls basketball for 10 years, including two state championships. However, the drama ended there Saturday as Huntington North jumped out to a 12-2 lead and won easily, 64-39.Josh Gonzalez led Whitko with 14 points on four three-pointers, but the Wildcats shot just 36 percent for the game. As a team, Huntington North came into the game shooting 52 percent from the field and took 13 more shots than Whitko, 52-39.Although the Vikings were down a bit, shooting just 48 percent on the night, it was plenty enough in the 25-point win.Also, Huntington North had just one turnover for the game at the midway point of the fourth quarter and ended with just three.

Patrick Wins First As A Valley Viking

MENTONE - In Bill Patrick's postgame interview, Tippecanoe Valley assistant athletic director Scott Bibler offered Patrick a well deserved soda.Patrick jokingly answered, "Do you have anything without caffeine?" This coming after Patrick coached Valley to a 41-39 come-from-behind victory, the first victory of the season for Patrick as new head coach at Valley and his 479th overall.The victory also gave the Vikings revenge from their 64-40 loss to the Eagles a year ago. In all reality Patrick was quite calm considering what had just taken place. The Vikings didn't start the game in typical Bill Patrick fashion as they turned the ball over eight times, and the Eagles didn't commit a turnover in the first eight minutes of the game.What they did do is outscore the Vikings 16-7 in the frame led by 6-foot-5 center Jason Elkins.