Plenty of hype, excitement surrounding Valley's game with Rochester
Posted
Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
AKRON – To say that Tippecanoe Valley and Rochester are rivals would be an accurate statement. It would also be an understatement. The two Three Rivers Conference schools are rivals in every sport, boys or girls, everything from tennis to football to golf. No athletic competition between them, though, has ever stirred as much excitement or been surrounded by as much hype as the girls basketball game they'll square off in Saturday. The ninth-ranked Lady Vikings and Lady Zebras will meet at approximately 6 p.m. in the Warsaw Semistate. At stake, along with a lot of bragging rights, is a berth in the Class 3A state finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Valley, 24-2 on the season and winner of its last 11 games, has never been this far in the state tournament. Rochester, 23-4 and on an eight-game win streak, has played in the semistate three previous times, but this weekend's game is the first time since 2004, and just the second time since 1977. To say the least, Saturday's game is drawing a lot of attention from both fan bases. “This is a big event for both communities,” said Valley Athletic Director Duane Burkhart. “It's a healthy rivalry, and the fact that it's being played in a place as close as Warsaw...it's hard to put into words what the atmosphere will be like. It's something that will have to be experienced.” Warsaw's Tiger Den, which will also host the Class 2A semistate game at 4 p.m. Saturday between Wabash – also a TRC school – and Fort Wayne Canterbury, has a seating capacity of 4,704. Burkhart said he got an allotment of 750 tickets to start with and sold them in 55 minutes Tuesday morning. He then got 400 more tickets, which were gone in 20 minutes. Burkhart said he sold 200 more tickets Wednesday morning in just 10 minutes. In all ... Valley sold 1,350 tickets in less than an hour and a half. “We knew there would be a high demand, but this exceeded my expectations,” said Burkhart. “I have to give credit to assistant athletic director Scott Smith and athletic secretary Emily Gearhart. We tried to be as efficient as possible and take care of as many people as we could. Honestly, we probably could have sold 400 more tickets.” According to an official in the athletic office at Rochester High School, as of Wednesday afternoon they sold approximately 1,000 tickets, some of which were believed to be purchased by Valley fans. Kris Fox, athletic secretary at Wabash High School, said fans from both Valley and Rochester came to Wabash to purchase tickets. “There's three teams from the TRC in the semistate, and it's close by at Warsaw ... the tickets are going fast,” said Fox. Warsaw Athletic Director Dave Anson said the games are not officially sold out, but it's possible they could be come Saturday. Anson said there could be tickets on sale at 3 p.m. Saturday. Anson also said after the Class 2A game is over, Warsaw staff members will stand at the exits and use counters to determine the number of people leaving. At that time, tickets can be resold for the Class 3A game. “We'll have staff at the three exits of the gym,” said Anson. “We'll use counters, and then radio each other how many of the seats we can sell again. In my tenure at Warsaw, as the athletic director or the assistant, we've hosted a leg of the tournament in nine of those years. Only once during that time was it a sellout. When we hosted the semistate in 2013 and we were playing, we only had an official paid attendance of 3,600. This year is absolutely, no question, the highest demand we've had.”
