Thoughts From A Rookie Sports Writer's First Postseason
Posted
Mark Howe-mhowe@timesuniononline.com
How in the world can it be the end of the winter sports season already? Well, yeah, I have been looking forward to spring since the World Series ended. But I was looking forward to March Madness on a local level, and POOF! It’s gone, just like that. So, here’s some thoughts and notes from America’s oldest rookie sports writer, yours truly. In the girls Class 3A Sectional 21, it was cool to see Wawasee’s cheer block pulling for their fellow Northern Lakes Conference member NorthWood in the semis, and three weeks later the Panther student section return the favor in the boys’ tournament. My first thought was that kind of sportsmanship had gone out with the 1970s, but the more thought I gave it, the more I realized I’d never witnessed such a thing at the high school level. The only time I could come up with where I’d seen similar pulling for another school is in the Big 8/Big 12 tournaments I’d seen on TV. Kansas fans, almost as if it were required by law, cheer for any team taking on the University of Misery (You know, that state just west of the Mississippi River). More recently, the fans of the teams other than Kansas cheer against the Jayhawks, but 11 straight conference titles and counting will cause that. Anyway, I thought it was refreshing to hear those cheers between NorthWood and Wawasee, and I tip my cap to those cheer blocks. Of course, the one thing that stands out about the on-the-court activity, the three straight overtime games the Tippecanoe Valley girls team pulled out on its way to Indianapolis was amazing. After the double-overtime thriller to get past NorthWood for the first time in 13 tries over the past decade, the Lady Vikings’ fate was in the hands of Muncie Central’s Jayla Scaife in the regional. She had two free throws with less than two seconds left in regulation and Central down by one. She missed the first, tied the game with the second, and Valley dominated the extra period to move to the evening session. Then they had to handle a barrage of three-pointers from Norwell to advance in overtime, and play in front of a full house in the semistate game here in Warsaw. The atmosphere for the semistate was exactly what I pictured Hoosier Hysteria being all about when I moved here from Kansas more than 15 years ago. I wish every sports fan could experience the excitement of that day. I hadn’t seen anything like it for a girls game ever, or in a boys game since I was in high school. I went to five different sites for my first postseason experience as a writer, and while no two tournaments were run the same, all were operated with excellence. Hats off to all the athletic directors, and especially all the volunteers who worked hard to keep things moving, clean, and well organized. Your efforts are not taken for granted by those you serve. Lastly, I’m glad the move is being made by the IHSAA to insure the girls tournament ends before the boys postseason starts, beginning next season. It will allow a fan base to give all its focus to one team, and we writers won’t have to choose between two good options anymore. And now, on to spring! And weather wise, not a minute too soon.
