Shorthanded Wildcats Rally Past 'Busco

COLUMBIA CITY - Whitko forgot about the past and looked toward its future Thursday in the first game of the Columbia City Volleyball Sectional. With three starters (five players overall) sitting on the sidelines because of disciplinary reasons, a young, upstart Wildcat unit fought back against Churubusco and won a tough 10-15, 15-2, 15-8 decision to advance to the sectional semifinals. Because of the absences of the players, Whitko (13-18) had only seven players available and started four sophomores, two juniors and brought a freshman off the bench.

Triton Falls Short Against Southwood

BOURBON -Ê"I told my offensive coordinator, 'The last team with the ball is going to win this game,'" said Triton head coach Rodney Younis. Younis was right.Southwood had the ball last, and the reigning state champion Knights picked up a 32-29 win over the Trojans in the Class A, Sectional 34 semifinal game Friday night in Bourbon. After seeing Triton take a 21-20 lead into the break at halftime, Southwood coach Terry Siddall knew what his team needed to do. "We made some defensive adjustments," said Siddall."We tried to match up to their formations.They threw some schemes at us that we hadn't seen before.Our defense really stepped up in the second half." The play that turned the tide for Southwood turned out to be a key interception in the third quarter. Southwood was up 26-21 in the third quarter when quarterback Jarrod McKee threw a pass that was intercepted by Triton's Ben Bell.

LaVille's Strong Start Leaves Triton Stunned

LAKEVILLE - Sometimes, things just go downhill from the beginning.That was the case for the Triton Trojans on Friday night as they headed to Lakeville for a game with the LaVille Lancers. LaVille dominated almost every aspect of the game with a balanced offensive attack and a great run and pass defense. The Lancers totaled 253 yards on the ground and 147 yards in the air, while holding Triton to just 107 total yards. It started with the opening kickoff, when LaVille surprised Triton with an onside kick and recovered the ball.The Lancers then went on a six-minute drive, capped off by a lucky bounce. LaVille quarterback Brenton Fish ran five yards to the one-yard line and fumbled the ball into the end zone, where his teammate Bob Larkin was waiting to scoop up the ball for the first score of the game.

Warsaw Soccer Coaches Celebrate Draws

The "draws" were drawn up very nicely for Warsaw's two soccer programs. When the soccer sectional pairings were announced last week, both Tiger girls coach Brent Wildman and boys coach Corey Rose liked what they saw in their prospects of reaching the championship matches of the Columbia City Sectional. The Tiger girls will open up sectional play Oct.14 against Jay County at 7 p.m.A win against a relatively unknown Jay County program, and the Tigers get a rematch possibly with Columbia City.The Tigers have already beaten the Eagles once this season, but it was the Eagles who knocked Warsaw out of the sectional last year in the infamous shootout/darkness match.If the championship is in the cards for the Tigers, it will probably mean a date with state-ranked Homestead. "We played Columbia City this year, and we got our payback," Wildman said."It was a very good game, and the girls want to play them again.They are even talking to me about it.

Tiger Volleyball Team Spikes Valley

The Warsaw Tigers honored their volleyball seniors Monday night. Those seniors responded by guiding Warsaw to a 25-13, 25-18, 25-20 win over Kosciusko County rival Tippecanoe Valley in both teams' regular season finale. Senior Danielle DeGeeter led Warsaw with 14 assists and also had five kills, 10 digs and six serving points. Along with DeGeeter, Kacie Conley, Selina Long, Jill Kreinbrink and Kate Miller were recognized before the match started. Miller had five assists and led the Tigers with 10 blocks. Kreinbrink had a block and a serving point while Long had a team-high 13 digs. Conley had four digs in her final match in the Tiger Den. Warsaw got off to a fast start in the first game, jumping out to a 3-0 lead.The Vikings battled back on the strength of a great dig that earned a point from junior Chelsea Eaton.

Tigers Kick Off Sectional With Win

COLUMBIA CITY - The Warsaw girls soccer team brought home a victory and moved one step closer to a sectional title after defeating Columbia City 2-1 Monday. Columbia City scored the first point and took the initial lead with 26:46 left in the first half. Columbia City's Rachel Peppler gained possession deep in her own territory and earned an assist on a breakaway pass.Kristen Davisson nailed the goal for the Eagles to put Columbia City up 1-0. "We use the first half of the match to measure the other team and wear them down," said Warsaw coach Brent Wildman."Our goal was to wear them down and take away their speed." At the half, the score remained 1-0 in Columbia City's favor, but Warsaw was poised for a comeback. While the first half of the game was characterized by many of short, quick passes, the pace of the game changed in the second half of the game.Fewer passes that covered a greater distance set the tone for the second half of the game.

Smart Will Always Be Remembered For 'The Shot'

Where has the time gone? Keith Smart wonders that himself nowadays and admitted as much last Thursday, when he stopped in at Warsaw's Chamber of Commerce to promote Kosciusko County Day at an upcoming Fort Wayne Fury game. Ten years, it's been.Ten years ago Smart launched "The Shot," the baseline jumper that sank Syracuse and gave Indiana University's basketball team the 1987 NCAA title. This doesn't seem possible, even to the 33-year-old Smart, who is the Fury's new head coach. "I was talking with some of our young players ...I must be getting old to say that," he said."Anyway, one of our draft picks said to me, 'I don't want to offend you, but are you the same Keith Smart who hit that shot?'" Yes, one and the same. Smart and Larry Easterday, of Warsaw, unveiled Kosciusko County Day at the Dec.7 Fury home game, scheduled for a 2:05 p.m.start.

Tiger CC Team Moves On To Semistate

DUNLAP -ÊThe warmest people at Saturday's regional cross country meet at Ox Bow Park were the runners.With wind, rain and cold, the conditions were not ideal for fast times in a cross country meet.However, the Warsaw girls cross country team overcame the conditions to place fourth and advance to next week's semistate at Manchester High School. "Under the conditions with the weather and the cold, I told the girls they were probably the warmest ones here," said Warsaw coach Paul Sibray."They responded well and did what was expected of them." The Warsaw squad tied for third with DeKalb, but in cross country ties are not allowed.So the officials looked at the sixth place runners to determine the third place team.DeKalb's sixth place runner came in 41st while Warsaw's finished 52nd, so Warsaw had to settle for fourth place.

Game Raises Money For Relief Effort

WINONA LAKE - On a night when Steve Hollar wore a pair of vintage basketball shoes, old-school hoops took a back seat to high-flying dunks, comedy routines and crowd participation. And while the scoreboard showed one team 32 points better than the other, everyone one involved turned out to be the winner. The Harlem Ambassadors, a show-basketball team similar to the Harlem Globetrotters, were in action Wednesday evening at Grace College's Lancer Gymnasium. The Harlem Ambassadors, who are led by the Queen of Show Basketball, Lade Majic, waived all appearance fees and all proceeds from the show will be donated directly to hurricane relief efforts in the Gulf region. After the game, a contest in which the Harlem Ambassadors beat the Indiana "Legends of the Hardwood" 77-45, first-year Grace College Athletic Director Roger Newton said approximatley $2,500 were raised.

Second Half Key In Grace Opener

WINONA LAKE - He didn't really say much afterward about what he told his team at halftime, but whatever veteran Grace College men's basketball coach Jim Kessler said worked. "I basically told them to get after it," said Kessler, whose Lancers opened up the season Wednesday evening by beating the visiting Judson College Eagles 89-63. Grace trailed 39-38 at halftime but came out of the locker room a completely different team, a more inspired team. Grace started the second half with a 14-2 run and outscored Judson 51-24 in the final 20 minutes of play as Kessler picked up his 489th coaching win in the first game of his 28th season with the Lancers.

Warsaw Boys Win Tennis Sectional

Warsaw Community High School tennis coach Rick Orban said his team was focused Friday. More importantly, the second-year boys head coach said, his team is playing with confidence. Focused on the job at hand and playing like a team on a mission, the Tigers hosted and won the Warsaw Sectional with wins over Churubusco and Tippecanoe Valley. The Tigers needed little more than 30 minutes to beat Churubusco 5-0 in the semifinal match and then got lopsided wins in all three singles matches and at No.2 doubles to beat Valley 4-0 in the weather-suspended championship match.

On The Gridiron]

Wawasee Finishes Season With Loss To Unbeaten Goshen

SYRACUSE -ÊFriday night's football game at Wawasee between the Warriors and the visiting Goshen Redskins meant different things for different teams. For Wawasee, it was an opportunity to finish the season with a winning record and bounce back from a string of tough losses, which included two in overtime. For the Northern Lakes Conference champion Redskins it was very simple, a win meant finishing the season with a perfect 9-0 record. That is exactly what the Redskins did as they showed the Warriors why they are ranked No.9 in 5A with a convincing 29-13 win on homecoming night at Warrior Field. The Warriors came out strong and showed no intention of being intimidated by Goshen's record or ranking. Wawasee took the opening kickoff, and with a combination of passing and running, put together six first downs as they marched 70 yards downfield to take a 6-0 lead.

Whitko 'Fakes' Out Valley

MENTONE - With 4:12 left in the football game, Bryan Sprunger gambled. With 42 seconds left, the gamble paid off. The Whitko Wildcats marched into 'Death Valley' and won 26-15 over the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings Friday night. Sprunger, the Whitko coach who hardly ever calls a trick play, called one against Valley with just over four minutes left. Whitko, leading 18-15 at the time, had the ball at the Valley 46-yard line and faced a fourth down with 3 yards to go.A Whitko punt would place Valley deep in its own territory and would make the Vikings have to travel nearly the length of the field in four minutes to score.And that would be against a Whitko defense that held the Vikings to three downs and out their previous two possessions in the fourth quarter. Instead, Sprunger called the punt fake. And as he had done all night, Jimmy Linn delivered.

Vikings Move To Sectional Semifinal

MISHAWAKA - Powered by a trio of long touchdown runs by its offense and a fumble recovery the defense turned in for a score, Tippecanoe Valley's varsity football team downed host Mishawaka Marian 28-6 Friday in the Class 3A Sectional 19 opener. Luke Scripture put the Vikings on the board first when he recoverd a fumble and rumbled 34 yards to paydirt. Bryan Wong then added Valley touchdowns on runs of 43 and 53 yards before senior quarterback David Beyers ran in from 40 yards out, giving the Vikings a 28-0 lead with 3:16 left in the half. Wong finished the game with 166 yards on 16 carries. All the points in this contest were scored in the first half, as the host Knights came back and scored with 10 seconds remaining in the second stanza when Jason Smigielski threw a 29-yard pass to Scott Slavinskas. The one-sided win improved Valley to 8-2 on the season, while Marian's season ends at 2-8.

Obstacles Haven't Slowd Warsaw CC Team

All cross country teams face obstacles such as training, preparation and competition during a season.The Warsaw cross country team, however, has faced much tougher obstacles than that. The Tigers have watched their coach fight to recover from a tumor between his spinal cord and his spine. The team has watched Melonie Albert fight stomach problems for quite some time.Jennifer Finch has asthma.Hillary Barlow battled back from a hip injury last year possibly sustained in a car accident. While driving to the bus to go to the regional last week, Albert was involved in a car accident.Albert, who usually places fourth or fifth for Warsaw, finished 64th overall and sixth on the Tiger squad after experiencing more stomach cramps.

Improved Whitko Tussles With Tested Lakeland

SOUTH WHITLEY -ÊTo anyone looking at Whitko's 3-7 football record, it doesn't seem like anything to shout about.But to coach Bryan Sprunger, it's a good sign. "It would have been easy at times to back out and give up," said Sprunger, "but it says a lot about these kids that they stuck with it and worked hard to get better." After losing its first five games by an average of nearly 26 points each, Whitko has bounced back to win three of its last five games and outscore opponents 179-104. "Let's divide the season in halves," said Sprunger, "We were 0-5 in the first half, but we're 3-2 in the second half.The difference between the two is that we were not competing at times in the early part of the season.In the second half we are 3-2, and the two games we lost, we were able to compete.Against Rochester and Tippecanoe Valley, we played with them until the end.

SB St. Joe Ends Valley's Season

MENTONE - Playing at a field named "Death Valley" on Halloween night could be pretty scary for most teams.South Bend St.Joseph's, though, was not one of those scared teams. Instead, the Indians left Tippecanoe Valley High School with quite a few treats in the second round of the high school football sectional.SBSJ used its team speed against the Vikings and ended Valley's season with a 35-12 win. "Their team speed is something we haven't seen all year," said Vikings head coach Scott Bibler."We gave up too many big plays to have a chance to win." The Indians' team speed was evident from the opening drive of the game.After Tim Coleman ripped off a 31-yard run, quarterback Joe McDonnell found receiver Matt Weldy, who had gotten behind the Valley defense, for a 45-yard scoring strike. Eight minutes later McDonnell had SBSJ in the endzone again with a 22-yard scoring pass. Trailing 15-0, though, the Vikings did not abandon their game plan.

Field Goal Foils Valley's Upset Bid

LAGRANGE - The football sailed off the Lakeland field goal kicker's foot, veering wide right early in its ugly, wobbly flight. For a small moment in time - a second, perhaps - it looked like all of Tippecanoe Valley's effort and hard work had paid off when it counted most.The Vikings had pulled out all the stops, playing the No.5 and undefeated Lakers tough the entire game.The result: Valley led by one with less than a half a minute to play. Then the football improbably hooked left and sliced its way through the uprights with 29 seconds left to play, sending the hard-luck Vikings back to Mentone with a heartbreaking 10-8 loss. The ingredients to victory were there for Tippecanoe Valley: outstanding defensive efforts, a solid offensive scheme, a couple trick plays, and two huge turnovers by host Lakeland.The Vikings gave the Lakers their biggest test of the season - unfortunately for Valley, Lakeland passed.

Warsaw Wins NLC Title In Convincing Way

The 2000 Warsaw football team continued to etch its place in school history Friday night with a 41-13 win over Concord at Fisher Field. Not only did Kris Hueber shatter the single-season tackle record with 7:24 left in the second quarter, the Tigers also won the Northern Lakes Conference for the second year in a row.It is the first time in history that Warsaw has won back-to-back NLC titles. Last year the Tigers shared the NLC title with NorthWood, but a 29-28 overtime win over the Panthers last week put Warsaw's destiny in its own hands. And the Tigers fulfilled that destiny.The win over Concord left the Tigers the lone undefeated team in the NLC and gave them the outright title for the first time in 10 years. Although Concord was 2-6 overall heading into Friday night's game, the Minutemen came out like champions by starting the game with a bold on-side kickoff in an attempt to take the first possession away from Warsaw.