Relevance Date

DeLay Must Be Losing It

U.S.Representative Tom DeLay, long known as one of the most prolific fundraisers and one of the most powerful men in politics, now has a new distinction. DeLay is the 58-year-old Texan who was majority leader in the House of Representatives. He was indicted Wednesday on a single felony count of conspiring with two political associates - Ellis and John Colyandro - to violate Texas election law by using corporate donations illegally. Texas law prohibits use of corporate contributions to advocate the election or defeat of candidates. The new distinction? DeLay is the highest-ranking member of Congress ever to be indicted, according to a Senate historian. Nice. You know, even before the indictment, I was beginning to wonder if DeLay had lost his mind. Shortly before the indictment, DeLay was saying some pretty bizarre things.
GARY GERARD, Times-Union Managing Editor- | July 28, 2016

Tigers Storm Back, Advance To Title Tilt

DUNLAP - As quickly as weather changes in northern Indiana, so did the momentum in Friday's Concord 4A Sectional girls basketball game between Warsaw and East Noble. While snow was falling outside, inside it was raining Hilary O'Connell three-pointers. The 5'8" sophomore guard connected on 3 of 3 shots from beyond the arc in the third quarter, fueling a 19-6 Warsaw run with 11 points. O'Connell finished with a game-high 21 points, as Warsaw finished East Noble's season with a 52-42 decision. Warsaw improves to 13-9 on the season and will play Goshen tonight in the sectional championship.Goshen advanced by beating Elkhart Central 51-49.The Tigers trounced Goshen 71-43 earlier in the season. The Knights end their season with a 14-9 record. The Tigers led 11-10 after one quarter of play, but trailed 26-18 at halftime despite going to the charity stripe nearly 20 times.
DALE HUBLER, Times-Union Sports Writer- | July 28, 2016

Whetstone Makes It Four Straight At State

When an athlete goes to the state finals in an individual sport four times, people sit up and take notice.When that athlete is also a model student, people shake their heads in amazement. Tippecanoe Valley's Scott Whetstone is that type of student-athlete.He will compete in the swimming state finals on the IUPUI campus in two events this year, the 100 and 200 freestyles. As if that weren't enough, Whetstone was named to the Three Rivers Conference All-Academic Team.His 10.6 grade-point average on a 12-point scale puts him fifth out of 136 students in the senior class at Valley. In this day and age, it is odd to see a high-school kid with so much potential trying to be a well-rounded person and a respected member of his community.
Jason Knavel, Times-Union Staff Writer- | July 28, 2016

Valley Girls Win First Sectional In School History

PLYMOUTH -ÊIt wasn't quite David v.Goliath, but it was close. The Tippecanoe Valley Lady Vikings traveled to Plymouth for the sectional final Saturday night against the host Pilgrims. This was a Class 3A match-up, and while class basketball ensures there isn't too wide a discrepancy in enrollment, this was about as far apart as two 3A teams could be.Valley is just above the cut-off for 2A and Plymouth is near the cut-off for 4A. Saturday night, though, was reserved for the little guy as the Valley girls won their first ever girls basketball sectional title in school history by defeating Plymouth 35-28. It was a low scoring affair highlighted by pressure defense throughout.Both teams seemed to come out with the championship game jitters. By the time the first quarter came to an end, Valley held Plymouth to just three points and led 11-3.
Mike Madison, Times-Union Sports Correspondent- | July 28, 2016

Sectional Pairings Announced

The 95th annual IHSAA Boys State Basketball Tournament tips off March 1 and the draw for the tournament took place Sunday in the first step as the six area teams prepare for the chase for a state title. In the 1A sectional 50 at Culver Community High School, the Triton Trojans open up against rival Argos in the sectional's lone Tuesday tilt.Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.Triton lost to the Dragons earlier in the year by a count of 66-32. The Trojans have drawn unwanted attention of late due to the suspension and subsequent resignation of head coach Mike McBride.Junior varsity head coach Jason Groves has stepped up to take the reins with Triton's girls head basketball coach Paul Walker sitting on the bench as well.Walker was an assistant under McBride until this past season before taking over the Trojan girls program.
DANIEL RIORDAN, Times-Union Sports Writer- | July 28, 2016

Warsaw Gymnasts Pick Up Win On Senior Night

Senior Night for the Warsaw gymnastics team was extra special for Tiger Andrea Calhoun. Not only did her team win the meet, she earned her first first-place finish of the year with an 8.35 on the floor exercise. Impressive by itself, the performance takes on more meaning after learning that Calhoun was unable to practice over the summer after ankle stabilization surgery. "I just came back in November, and this is the first first-place finish I have had all season," said Calhoun."I was excited to get an 8.3 on the floor." The Tigers overcame the emotions of senior night to pick up a 94.0-85.55 win over Lakeland.Prairie Heights, which had only two competitors, scored 43.05 points.
JEN GIBSON, Times-Union Sports Editor- | July 28, 2016

Wouldn't It Be Nice If They'd Just Be Honest?

It's always fun to watch politics, isn't it? Like the CIA leaks thing, for example.Yeah, it might be about national security.It might be about crimes.But it's definitely about politics. On the one hand you have Republicans who were screaming for an independent counsel to investigate President Clinton and Monica.Now they say the Justice Department can handle the CIA leak investigation just fine, thank you. On the other hand you have Democrats - most notably the honorable Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton - who absolutely decried and denigrated the use of an independent counsel during the Clinton years and eventually led the charge to allow the independent counsel law to expire.Now they say an independent counsel is needed to investigate the CIA leaks. How can they all be such hypocrites? I mean, really. It's hard to respect elected officials when they are so overtly disingenuous.They don't even try to hide it.
GARY GERARD, Times-Union Managing Editor- | July 28, 2016

NorthWood Girls Keep On Winning

INDIANAPOLIS -ÊThe officials were the story of the night as NorthWood (3A) defeated Fort Wayne Luers (2A) 62-61 in the first round of the tournament of champions Friday night. When asked about the game's officiating, NorthWood girls basketball coach Steve Neff quickly answered, "No comment."But Luers coach Gary Andrews had a bit more to say about the whole situation. "We really got screwed," said Andrews."The officiating in this game was a travesty.You would think they would have officials worthy of a tournament of champions.I was upset with the obvious fouls. "When somebody gets their arm ripped off, it is usually a foul, but apparently not tonight.
Jen Gibson, Times-Union Sports Writer- | July 28, 2016

Valley Vikings Edge Norwell For Sectional Title

AKRON - The 3A No.22 Tippecanoe Valley Sectional Championship Saturday night with the host Vikings and Norwell, turned out to be one that will be forever remembered in the fans' and players' minds. Neither team could run away from the other in an old-fashioned Indiana high school Championship game. With coolness at the line from Valley's sophomore Chad Hoffer, he hit two free throws with 19.4 seconds left in the game to give Valley a 32-31 lead and Bryce Kelley secured the win with 1.4 seconds left when he picked up a loose ball. "I knew this would be a close ball game tonight.I figured we would be lucky to get 20 possessions with the way Norwell plays their game," coach Bill Patrick said. Norwell took the opening tip-off and scored on a layup to go up 2-0.The lead would be Norwell's last for most of the game.
Cliff Tanner, Times-Union Sports Correspondent- | July 28, 2016

Vikes Look To Stall Red Devils

AKRON -ÊWhen the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings step on the court for Wednesday's regional in West Lafayette, they will not have and easy task ahead of them. The Vikings will face an experienced West Lafayette boys basketball team on the Red Devils' home court.The West Lafayette squad sports nine seniors, and they have 10 players that have split much of the game time this season. "We have 10 really good players," said West Lafayette coach Dave Wood."We have a lot of team depth.We'll probably have 10 guys in before the end of the first quarter.Of those 10 players who will come in in the first quarter, nine are seniors.
Jen Gibson, Times-Union Sports Writer- | July 28, 2016

A Few Things That Annoy Me

Some are more significant than others, but here are a few things that bug me. First of all, www. That precedes every uniform resource locator on the World Wide Web. I know it stands for World Wide Web, but it takes too long to say. The letter "w" has three syllables.To say www takes approximately .8 seconds. To say a single syllable letter three times takes roughly half that amount of time, .4 seconds. So if the world wide web was called the Total Transcontinental Tree, or ttt, we could save roughly half of the time we take everyday saying www. That may not seem like much, but I heard recently that there are 67,000 new Internet connections every day.There are hundreds of millions of people on the Internet already. Even people who don't use the Internet still have to say www.Multiply all those .4 seconds of extra oratory and you can see we are wasting thousands of hours every day saying www when we could be saying ttt.
GARY GERARD, Times-Union Managing Editor- | July 28, 2016

Warriors To Face Valley, Uncertain About Lantz

SYRACUSE - In a phone conversation earlier this week, fifth-year Wawasee boys basketball coach Phil Mishler said one of the big things that makes Tippecanoe Valley so good is its depth. Wawasee will battle the Class 3A No.5 Vikings at approximately noon in Saturday's NorthWood Regional, and it's Wawasee's depth that could take a big hit. Because of a knee injury suffered in Saturday's sectional final win over Lakeland, 6-foot-2 senior Kory Lantz is questionable and will likely just be a cheerleader for his teammates. In the words of Mishler, "barring a miracle, he won't play." Lantz, a four-year varsity starter, is second on the team in scoring at 15.7 points per game.He is second on the team in assists (62), second in steals (21) and fourth in rebounds (76).
Dale Hubler, Times-Union Sports Editor- | July 28, 2016

Whitko Pounds Culver Academy To Advance To Semifinal

PLYMOUTH -ÊWhitko may have been the visiting team on the scoreboard at the Plymouth Sectional, but the Wildcats made themselves right at home against Culver Academy Tuesday night. The Whitko squad took the floor in the second game at Plymouth and beat the Eagles 69-42 to advance to Friday's semifinal round against Knox, which defeated Plymouth 60-53 in the sectional opener. The game began as a battle of three-point plays.Wildcat Derrick Day opened the scoring by hitting three free throws after being fouled behind the arc. Then Culver Academy's Weston Workman netted a basket from downtown, tying the score at 3-all. At the 5:07 mark, Day was fouled from behind the arc again.As before, he hit all three charity shots and put Whitko up 6-3. Eagle Jerome Bennett hit a basket to pull Culver within one, but then Whitko's offense kicked in.
JEN GIBSON, Times-Union Sports Editor- | July 28, 2016

Triton Shocks No. 1 Blue River Valley

KOKOMO -ÊHeading into Saturday's Class A Kokomo Semistate, the unranked Trtion Trojans knew they had their work cut out for them against No.1 Blue River Valley. The 16-8 Trojans would have to play their best game of the year to upset the 21-2 Vikings.Looking to fit the Cinderella slipper like the Triton girls team, the Trojans pulled off the biggest upset of the day by defeating the Vikings 68-59. "Our kids really came ready to play," Triton coach Joe Bennett said."They were mentally ready to go and we executed up to the T." The Triton faithful had a lot to cheer about in the semifinal win.Not many people in Memorial Gym were thinking this small team from Bourbon would upset the top ranked team, but the Trojans' determination was obvious.They wanted it badly.
Craig Helfrich, Times-Union Sports Correspondent- | July 28, 2016

Next Step For Panthers

NAPPANEE - The weight of the world is off the shoulders of the NorthWood Panthers. NorthWood avenged its only loss of the season in the sectional championship by defeating Lakeland by 20 points.Now the Panthers don't have that on their minds anymore.That weight showed in the sectional as the Panthers shot just 38 percent from the floor in their two games.Despite that, the No.2 (3A) Panthers are hosting one of the Class 3A regionals on Saturday in another revenge game. This time Plymouth comes knocking. The Panthers dismantled the Pilgrims early in the season by a score of 58-18.Throw in that home-court advantage and you have the recipe for an overconfident basketball team.But according to NorthWood head coach Steve Neff, that won't be the case on Saturday.
Jason Knavel, Times-Union Staff Writer- | July 28, 2016

Kindy Inducted Today

BY JEFF HOLSINGER, Times-Union Sports Writer Walt Kindy coached three years at Beaver Dam, but what a three years those were. He guided Beaver Dam to winning records and sectional titles every season. He led Beaver Dam to two regional championships and two trips to the state finals, the 1932-33 and 1933-34 seasons. He introduced the 3-2 zone defense to the area. Kindy died of cancer in 1984, but he will be inducted in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame posthumously this evening.The ceremony will be held at the Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.Fourteen people will be inducted. "He'd like this pretty good," says Gene Marshall, a forward who played on both teams that went to the state finals."It's just too bad he couldn't make it." He won't, but widow Dorthea and their two boys will, along with former players Marshall and Charles "Chick" Kern.
Former Beaver Dam coach to go into Hall of Fame- | July 28, 2016

Don't Taint The Intent Of The Founders

Remember that judge in Alabama who got in trouble for putting up a monument to the Ten Commandments? His name is Roy Moore.Well, this week he filed an appeal to get his job back. The chief justice was stripped of his position for refusing to remove the monument from a courthouse. In his appeal before Alabama's Supreme Court, Moore said he was following the Alabama and U.S.constitutions when he defied a U.S.District Court order last summer to move the monument. The federal court told Moore, who installed the monument in 2001, that the 5,000-pound stone marker had to go because it violated a constitutional ban on government promoting religion. On Wednesday, Moore told Reuters the district court order was "unlawful and unconstitutional." "I think it is a political persecution, not a legal trial," Moore said.
GARY GERARD, Times-Union Managing Editor- | July 28, 2016

What's Up With All This Talk About Nukes?

When I was in grade school, I was taught how to improve my chances of survival in a nuclear attack. Remember that? Remember the round yellow and black fallout shelter signs? Remember people building fallout shelters in their back yards? It was nice not to have to think about that stuff, but lately, I've been thinking about it again. Not because I am worried about somebody lobbing nukes at the U.S., but because of all the rhetoric about nuclear weapons.Lately, the news just kind of conjured up some of those old nuke memories. I thought that we - when I say we I mean the entire industrialized world - had gotten over that whole nuclear thing. I guess not. And frankly, the U.S.seems to be a fairly willing player. I was a little surprised at the language in the White House document released earlier this week called "National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction."The document was delivered to Congress Wednesday.
GARY GERARD, Times-Union Managing Editor- | July 28, 2016

Wawasee Boys Surprise Columbia City

SYRACUSE - Pop quiz time. Judging by the effort and the outcome of a 48-45 game between Columbia City and Wawasee Tuesday night, which team entered as a 15-4 team and which team was at 4-14? Okay, so it may be a trick question. It was the now 5-14 Wawasee team that outworked and ultimately outscored the 15-5 Eagles' team en route to the biggest win of the season for the Warriors and maybe the biggest win in two seasons under coach Jerry Davis. "Wawasee's kids played hungry," Columbia City coach Chris Benedict said."Wawasee wanted the game.They were more determined through the course of it." Entering this game, it was Columbia City that has been enjoying a rejuvenation this season, and Wawasee that has continued to struggle after a 7-14 campaign last year. But you couldn't tell on this night.This one game, the Warriors put everything together, while the Eagles played basically one quarter.
Greg Jones, Times-Union Sports Editor- | July 28, 2016

Terror Has Changed All Of Us

As we roll up on the one-month anniversary of Sept.11, one thing has become apparent to me: Those people - me included - who said that the nation would be changed are all masters of understatement. I think the nation has changed more than anyone imagined. The more I think about it, the more I absorb my surroundings, the more I realize that we have just lived through a national paradigm shift. A paradigm shift occurs when you think you have a clear understanding of something and then suddenly find out you are dead wrong. It changes the way you view things. And, my, how our view has changed. The world was a far different place when we said "good night" on Sept.11 than it was when we said "sweet dreams" on Sept.10. Many people think of their lives in terms of milestones.Like when you're a kid and you realize the truth about Santa Claus. Like when you graduate from high school or from college. Like when you marry and have a child.
GARY GERARD, Times-Union Managing Editor- | July 28, 2016
Previous Next