With every Warsaw Tigers game that has passed this season, it’s been fun to watch the number of people following the team grow. I really started to notice it just after Christmas, when the Tigers swept a weekend’s worth of games over Goshen and Fort Wayne Snider, then backed that up with a Tuesday night win in overtime over 3A No. 6 Mishawaka Marian. It was after those three games put the Tigers at 13-0 that people really began to realize that this was not the normal good start to the Tigers’ season. There was something very different going on. The emails started pouring in: “What’s the longest win streak to start a season?” “Why isn’t this team ranked?” “How good are Mangas and Marandet?” “Can they go undefeated?” I answered all of those emails as best I could. So after Saturday’s regional championship win over Crown Point, this email popped up on my phone: “You must be exhausted … be careful driving home.” I smiled, and thanked them for the sentiment. Today, I am going to walk you through the day that was Saturday March 12, 2016, through my eyes, in my shoes. It started with my alarm going off at 6:10 a.m. (which is sleeping in by over three hours compared to the normal 2:40 a.m. weekday wakeup call), and it ended early the next day. The Tigers had been battling illness and injury all week. Kyle Mangas was a mess: fever, congestion, couldn’t breathe. Braxton Minix was sick too, and so was Aaron Sandoval. And Evan Schmidt turned an ankle Tuesday. Just getting on the bus was a task for 33 percent of the team – but they did. About 30 minutes before tip-off of the regional semifinal against Riley, the Tiger fans at the opposite end of our broadcast location at Michigan City began to cheer as one-by-one the Tiger players made their way on to the court. They greeted their school mates in the end section with hugs and high-fives, then strolled around the corner to stand in front of the assembled members of Tiger Nation. They clapped for them – these adults clad in orange and black – in appreciation to them for making the 90-minute trip to cheer them on. One-by-one they disappear back into the locker room for final instructions from coach Doug Ogle. Then they came roaring back onto the court to warm up, and the crown roared its approval. The game started and it was all Riley at the beginning. The Wildcats put the Tigers down 13-2, marking the first time all season they had trailed by double-digits. Two fouls each on stars Paul Marandet and Mangas put the Tigers and their followers in a foul mood. But the team stayed firm. Warsaw pushed Riley on several occasions over the next two quarters, but the Wildcats always seemed to have an answer. An 11-point deficit in the middle of the third quarter made even the most-dedicated and faithful Warsaw fan wonder if it would be a short day on the lakeshore. But the Tigers kept pounding the rock, plugging away, creeping closer and closer with every Marandet trip to the free throw line. They turned up the defensive heat, got out on shooters better, and the game began to change. The Tigers made their move. What happened next, and over what turned out to be the last 16 minutes of game action that literally took an hour to play, will be burned in the collective memory of everyone who was there or listening forever. Epic basketball. Big-time players making big-time plays. One after another, from both sides. A game that seemed lost, then won, then doomed to another overtime – wonderful theatre. In the end, that Warsaw team that was sick and hurt was the one that had something left in the gas tank in the final two minutes of the second overtime, and they won it 79-74. The team stayed to watch the first quarter of the second semifinal, then went to get lunch and to rest. I stayed to watch all of the semifinal game between Crown Point and East Chicago Central. By the time that game ended, it was clear that the time we had in between sessions would be short. I drove back to the team hotel and ate at the Bob Evans next door. I took my “homework” in with me and worked on it while I waited for my lunch to come out. I finished my work just before my waiter set my plate down. I scarfed down lunch and moved next door to find Coach Ogle to record his pregame interview for the night game broadcast. That hallway where the players were staying was quiet – really quiet. A lot of resting in progress. I went back down to the lobby and realized that in order to get back to the gym and be ready to go the air at 7:30 p.m. I would only be able to close my eyes in a lounge chair for 20 minutes. That’s a lot less than I planned on. If the boys can suck it up and play sick and hurt, I can suck it up and talk, right? It’s the regional final, after all. So back to the gym I went, and the team wasn’t far behind with one of Warsaw’s finest leading the way. Again, roughly half an hour before tip-time the team emerged to the roar of an even larger fan base than the one they played in front of in the semifinals. The players hugged their friends again, then turned to return the applause to the adults for making the effort to be there. The Crown Point students had been chanting “we want Warsaw!” at the end of their semifinal. Well, the Tigers showed up. And back to the locker room they went. Shortly into the regional final it was clear that the Tigers’ formula of low possessions/efficient execution/stifling defense was working … and the Crown Point students weren’t saying much anymore. As time was running out and the outcome was no longer in doubt, there was a sense of calm that came over the Tiger crowd. They knew. They all knew. This one was in the bank. The final buzzer sounded on a 13-point win that felt more like 30. The celebration began, on the court at Michigan City and in cars throughout northern Indiana. We heard from fans celebrating in Bloomington and West Lafayette, in Sioux City, Iowa and Myrtle Beach, S.C., in New Jersey and California. Oh, then the mind-blowing text came: “Great broadcast ... listening in London.” That’s London, England. With the Tigers’ bus long gone, just me and a few janitors in the gym, one of them brought me two articles of clothing left behind in the Warsaw student section. I threw them in with my stuff. It was so late, I missed my chance to call in to Bob Lovell’s late-night show. Maybe this Saturday, eh? So I piled my broadcast equipment in the car and started for home myself. I put the recording of the game broadcast into my car so I could use it to keep me awake – and to relive the day. At 12:45 a.m., my car rolled into the driveway. The ‘day’ still not done … I had to change the clocks in the house for Daylight Saving Time (curse you Mitch Daniels). A long day, and one we won’t soon forget in a season we won’t ever forget.
