For years, students in the Warsaw Community School Corporation have been blessed with many great educators, coaches and adult role models. Over the years, some of the greats have come and gone, only to be replaced by the same amount of passion and care for the youth of our community. Coach Phil Jensen uses the creed “Son, Student, Athlete” and it’s lived out through his players in his football program. With the two men that will roam the basketball sidelines Friday night in a 6 p.m. sectional semifinal game at historic North Side Gym in Elkhart, the motto “Role Model, Teacher, and Coach” is certainly appropriate. While basketball will take to the forefront on Friday, the impact that coaches Al Rhodes and Doug Ogle have had on this community goes far beyond Xs and Os on the hardwood. Growing up in Warsaw from the early 1980s until now, chances are you had the pleasure of sitting in a math classroom that was led by one of these two men. At the end of the day, basketball is only going to give coaches the ability to educate a small part of the school population. The real mentoring and lessons won’t be on the front page of the newspaper or on radio and television. The truly special moments take place in a classroom where both Rhodes and Ogle take an enormous amount of pride in the development of their students. That same attention to detail lends itself pretty well to the success they have found on the sidelines as well. Rhodes was the boys hoops coach at Warsaw for 22 seasons. He won 14 sectionals, seven regionals, four semistates and the 1984 state championship. Rhodes, now in his eighth season at Penn High School, is in his 35th season as a varsity coach and owns a record of 571-261. Ogle, who served as JV coach under Rhodes for 15 years while posting an incredible record of 270-30, is in his 14th season as the Tigers’ head coach. Ogle, whose teams have won four sectionals, along with the magical run that ended with a Class 4A state runner-up trophy in 2010, is 214-100. Warsaw’s current team is 21-1 and ranked fifth in the state. Other than my parents, I’d be hard pressed to find anyone that has had more of an impact on my life than Rhodes or Ogle. Let’s face it, Coach Ogle got to deal with me inside of a classroom and on the basketball floor when I was a 16-year-old know it all. To say he got the short end of the stick would be an understatement. Though I wasn’t an easy one to deal with the majority of the time in either capacity, Ogle stuck with me when a lot of other people would have just written me off. Ogle is a true leader and his compassion for the people that are brought into his life is second to none. It was one of many things that I took for granted as a kid, and the older I get the more I realize how much of a hand it had in the man I’ve become. When it comes to Coach Rhodes, I was privileged to be in the same class as his youngest son Curtis. My springs were spent playing AAU basketball, where more often than not Rhodes was on the sidelines of the teams I played on. While basketball was certainly high on the list of my priorities, it was never the first topic Rhodes brought up. He wanted to know how school was going, or if I had taken out the trash like he had advised us to do as a thanks to our parents for letting us play. He had a way of bringing the game of basketball into perspective in accordance to what the important things in life were. I catch myself quoting him to my now 5-year-old often Andrew. Parenting is much easier when you can quote the words of Al Rhodes, Doug Ogle, and Melvin Shaw. On Friday, these two pillars of the community will go head-to-head to try and earn a right to play for a sectional championship on Saturday. As time changes, some things just seem to stay the same. Fans will see Rhodes in his traditional black blazer pacing the sidelines in his intense manner that we loved for more than 20 years. We’ll also be treated to the competitive smile (yes that’s possible) and intuitive ways of Ogle. While their sideline demeanor may appear different, the passion to win inside of them burns bright. On paper, this game might seem as though it’s a bit of a mismatch. The Tigers are 21-1 and give up just 39 points per game. After beating Northridge on Tuesday, Penn is still a game below .500 at 11-12. As cliché as it sounds, throw the records out of the window or directly in a shredder. Forget that this particular sectional seems to spurn upsets year after year. Ignore that the gym the game is being played in is home to some of the bigger upsets over the years in tournament history. With Rhodes on the sidelines, and a group of Penn Kingsmen that have bought into the system, Friday night is going to be a dog fight for the Tigers. Warsaw fans are very familiar with what a group of young men with Rhodes’ leadership can do when the cards are stacked against them. During their run to an eventual state championship in 1984, the Tigers faced Delray Brooks and Michigan City Rogers in the championship game of the Fort Wayne Semistate. Rogers came into that game undefeated and the favorite to win the state title on the back of Brooks, who would go on to become Indiana’s Mr. Basketball that season. While that is one of the more notable “upset” wins for a Rhodes-coached Warsaw team, there’s plenty more to choose from. There’s nobody in the state that prepares and gets his group to follow the game plan quite like Rhodes. Having said that, Warsaw finds itself with a pretty special leader on their sidelines these days as well. While he’s put his own stamp on the program, it’s obvious Ogle still employs a number of the valuable lessons learned from Rhodes, including the attention to detail in preparation for opponents. As this season came more into focus, it was apparent that not only did the Warsaw coaching staff prepare their team properly, but this group has been able to take what they’ve been given and apply it on the floor. That reflects great leadership both by the coaching staff and the kids putting on the jersey. The amount of effort Ogle has put in, with not only his group but also the feeder system shows, the passion and care that he has for Tiger Basketball and the people involved in it. That’s not small potatoes when you look at the big picture. So here we are. Some people billing it as Student vs. Teacher or Rhodes vs. Ogle. I choose to label it as Warsaw vs. Penn, with two men that have made such an impact in our community that some hearts are pulled in two directions. That’s only possible when the people involved have brought so much to the table in all aspects of their careers, both coaching and teaching. Friday night there will be a focus on basketball, and we can’t fault people for that. Once the ball is tipped, emotions will turn to the game at hand. Regardless, I still refuse to forget all the important things that these men have taught the young men and women of this community along their journey. It will be a special night, that’s for sure. More importantly, it’s been a great 36 years that we’ve been blessed to have these two in our community. Sorry Coach Rhodes, but Go Tigers!
