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BENNETT'S MINUTES: Many local high spots in 2016-17
The recently-completed 2016-17 school year had several major highlights athletically for Putnam County schools.
Greencastle won 14 of the 19 county championship team titles, and the Tiger Cubs placed first in the girls’ all-sports standings in the Western Indiana Conference.
County teams claimed four sectional titles, with three athletes advancing to state finals competition individually.
Following are a few awards for memorable performances I was able to witness:
• Best athlete – In a year when Cloverdale’s Cooper Neese accomplished as much as he did, it would take a monumental performance to keep him from winning this award.
Greencastle’s Emma Wilson did just that on June 3, winning the two distance events in the track and field state finals. Wilson mowed down the competition in practically every cross country race in the fall in placing in the state meet for the second year in a row, and was perhaps even more dominant this spring in track and field.
• Best team – Greencastle’s football team did not win a conference or sectional title, but its turnaround from 1-9 in 2015 to 9-2 last fall was one of the most impressive accomplishments I’ve ever seen.
• Best single-event performance – Neese’s 53-point game at Southmont in December was truly an amazing thing to see.
He needed to step up on a night when his teammates were not hitting well, and he definitely did that. It’s not often that a player scores so many points so quickly that a 37-year journalist can’t keep up, but this was one of those occasions.
• Best comeback – North Putnam trailed North Montgomery 61-55 in boys’ basketball with 50.2 seconds left, and looked to be in serious trouble.
The Cougars got a pair of free throws from Elliot Gross, a 3-pointer from Duke Duff and a layup at the buzzer from Preston Porter to pull off the unbelievable comeback and pick up the road victory in regulation.
• Worst coaching strategy – Also in that North Putnam-North Montgomery game, as the Chargers left a 30-percent free throw shooter in the game in the final minute. North Putnam quickly identified and fouled him, he missed the free throws and the Cougars were able to go on to the comeback win.
Runnerup goes to Monrovia, for allowing Neese to dribble upcourt for the last shot in overtime of a 71-71 game and bury a wide-open 3-pointer at the buzzer.
• Best team comeback, tourney edition – Cloverdale’s boys’ basketball team, which struggled painfully through its first two games in the First Financial Wabash Valley Classic but rebounded to get a pair of wins over teams from Illinois in the final two games to claim the consolation championship.
• Best clutch performance – Neese hitting a free throw with no time on the clock in a tie game in the semifinals of the Wabash Valley Classic, giving the Clovers a win over Marshall.
• Best image – South Putnam boys’ coach Greg Dean, talking to his team in the locker room at the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown. The image of Dean addressing his players was identical to that of coach Norman Dale addressing the Hickory Huskers in the movie “Hoosiers” and was one of my favorite photographs of the year.
• Best game – South Putnam’s win over Cascade in the semifinals of the girls’ basketball sectional hosted by the Cadets was my favorite single game of the year. The Cadets had been favored by the computer statistical experts to win both this tourney and the boys’ tourney, yet lost the first game in each event.
The Eagles had shown flashes of brilliance throughout the season, and turned up their game in this tourney to pull off a huge win over the Cadets and then nip Cloverdale in the championship.
• Least favorite game – Danville’s sectional football victory over Greencastle, in which the Warriors won on a 99-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. Ouch.
• Most fun game atmosphere – Cloverdale volleyball home games, or any event in which Karl Turk is the announcer/DJ.
• “It’s a Small World” – The father of North Putnam senior baseball/football standout Jackson Kendall is active in barbershop quartet singing, and while talking to Bob Kendall at Jackson’s signing to play baseball at Trine I discovered something interesting.
Some of my cousins are members of a prominent barbershop group called Forefront, and have been to Bob Kendall’s house to practice. The day after meeting Bob Kendall, he was going to see my cousins at a competition.
It is a small world.
• Most unselfish act – Coaches can insert or remove athletes from the lineup as they see fit, and don’t need the athlete’s permission to do so.
In the girls’ track and field sectional, South Putnam coach Brandon Welti made a decision involving freshman standout Lexi Vanihel that wouldn’t always be well-received. Vanihel was scheduled to run the 1,600 and the 3,200 in addition to a leg on the 4x400 relay, and after looking at the seeded times Welti decided that Vanihel’s best contribution would be to run on the relay team and scratch herself from the individual events.
“We knew that Lexi had a chance at qualifying at both distance events, but to do so would really hurt her for the relay,” he said last month. “I talked it over with her, and Lexi showed a lot of maturity by willingly sacrificing her individual chances for the relay. As a coach, I really struggled with this decision, but Lexi’s willingness to put everything into that relay made it a little easier on me.”
Welti admitted being nervous going into the 4x400 relay, the final event of the night.
“The girls were fired up and ready to compete,” Welti said. “Lois [Cheatham] took off and gave the team a great start, running a PR split while handing off to Lexi. Lexi then raced in a way that showed us we made the right call in keeping her fresh for the relay, as she went on to run a PR split by almost two full seconds.”
The Eagles placed third in the event to qualify for the regional, and those are the kinds of moments that make high school sports so special.
Odds and ends
• Cloverdale will be sending a name of a new football coach to its school board on July 10 for approval to replace Tony Meyer, who resigned last month after coaching the Clovers for two seasons.
The remainder of the Western Indiana Conference schools have now filled their open positions, after Edgewood promoted longtime assistant coach Brian Rosenburgh.
The final tally will be five new head coaches (North Putnam, Cloverdale, Edgewood, Sullivan and Indian Creek) among the 12 schools.
• In other area coaching news, South Vermillion named former Terre Haute South assistant Shawn Nevill as its boys’ head coach and former Covington head coach Jeff McCoy to run its girls’ program.
Indian Creek has named Brian Ferris as its girls’ basketball coach and Edinburgh’s Drew Glentzer as its boys’ coach.
South Vermillion and Indian Creek are two of the few schools in the state which will have new bosses in football and both basketball positions next year.
Northview promoted assistant boys’ basketball coach Michael Byrum, a former South Vermillion head coach, to replace Clint Weddle as head coach.
Katy Copsey, an assistant girls’ basketball coach at North Putnam for the past two seasons, has left the Cougars to take a similar position at powerful Western Boone – which was moved into North Putnam’s sectional earlier this year.
• Greencastle has not yet named a new athletic director, but the corporation has a school board meeting on Monday and action could be taken then.
Owen Valley recently named assistant football coach Brad Greene as its new athletic director, replacing former Cloverdale teacher/coach Bryan Archer.
Archer and a friend are opening an indoor sports facility in Terre Haute.
Greene played quarterback for the Patriots from 1999-2001, and has been the Patriots’ quarterbacks coach. He had been an assistant coach for Owen Valley’s football team since graduating from college in 2005.
• Cloverdale’s Neese related a funny story from the Indiana All-Stars vs. Junior All-Stars scrimmage at New Albany earlier this month.
When former Clover teammate Jalen Moore entered the game for the junior squad, Neese told his All-Star mates of Moore’s quickness and to be careful.
“He doesn’t look that fast,” two of them said.
After Moore had blown past them both to the basket, they changed their tune.
“He’s the fastest guy on the floor,” they said.
• Three Putnam County athletes were honored by the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association for their performance and/or academic accomplishments.
They were:
Emma Wilson, Greencastle – First team All-State in track and field.
Lauren Meek, Cloverdale – First team Academic All-State in softball
Kelsey Helterbrand, Cloverdale – Second team All-State in softball for Classes 1A-2A