Menu
Rady has special feelings for Wabash Valley Classic
TERRE HAUTE — The First Financial Wabash Valley Classic is in its 20th year when action begins on Thursday in the 16-team event.
Teams from Indiana and Illinois will compete for four days, with the champion to be determined on Monday night.
Terre Haute North is the defending champion and is a perennial favorite, with coach Todd Woelfle owning a personal 39-5 record in the event since taking over the Patriots 12 years ago.
Sullivan’s Jeff Moore, in his 30th year in charge of the Golden Arrows, is the only coach to lead a team for every year of the tourney.
Coming close to that mark is Cloverdale’s Patrick Rady, who was an assistant at Terre Haute South for many of the early years. He departed for Southwestern (Hanover) for five years before returning to the Wabash Valley at Cloverdale — but has coached in 15 of the tourneys.
While this year’s event will not be played at Rady’s alma mater of Terre Haute South, where the court is named after his Hall of Fame father, the personal history of the tourney is not lost on the fifth-year Clover coach.
What’s the most memorable thing about it for coach Rady?
“Packed gyms,” he said earlier this month at the annual luncheon where the tourney draw takes place. “We always talked at Terre Haute South about how we liked to need to pull out the big bleachers upstairs on the end. Coach [Pat] Rady [Sr.] always talked about how this tourney helped to bring back SRO [standing room only] crowds.“
One of the goals of the tourney is to provide chances for small schools to upset the big boys like in the single-class days, and Rady also sees an appeal in that area.
“I remember in the early 1980s how Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South would have full gyms with those bleachers out just about every night,” Rady added. “It’s kind of like a throwback game every year with the excitement that it builds among neutral fans.”
Many years, fans are not permitted to enter the gymnasium until the previous game has ended. Fire marshals are on hand to not allow the occupancy to get above the legal limit.
Such problems do not occur much at regular-season games in 2019.
This year, Rady’s team will open up tourney play at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday against Casey-Westfield, one of three Illinois teams in the field.
The Warriors are coached by Tom Brannan, formerly of Marshall, who is generally considered as one of the top coaches in the event every year.
“Coach Brannan is someone I have grown up having a lot of respect for,” Rady said. “Just in terms of how he prepares his team, how they move the basketball and how tough they make it for you to defend. They are going to find ways to take away your strengths.”
Rady’s starting lineup this year includes juniors Chase Ashcraft, Nolan Kelley and Walker Sims and sophomores Brady Koosman and Kyle Thomas.
Juniors Nick Jones and Mark Gill are new to varsity basketball, as is Tray Dickison — the team’s only senior who is playing for the first time since eighth grade.
“We are still a young team, so the more games we get the better it is going to make us come March,” Rady said. “Having one senior, everything we do we can see as progress. We want to win now, but we know it’s a 2-3 year process. We like what we have going forward, but it’s going to take some time in some areas.”
Some of the pre-tourney favorites include Class 2A top-ranked Linton-Stockton, Sullivan and undefeated Parke Heritage.
And no one ever counts out the North Patriots.