New players, dance moves highlight early basketball season
The transition from fall to winter high school sports has been fairly seemless, but I must admit I’m having some difficulty with the weather changes. Here are some thoughts I’d like to share about a variety of current sports topics while I search for my ice scraper and brush.
HS basketball
The high school girls basketball season is off and running and the boys games are not too far behind. Along with the new players and coaches that are making their debuts, it is also time for the new pregame introduction theatrics by the players. Most are a combination of high fives, low fives, chest bumps, kicks of some sort, and some dance moves. There was a new one I saw recently that might never be used again. I’ve seen a lot of games in a short amount of time so I’m not sure which school it was (Triton maybe??), but the player introduced stepped on the awaiting teammate who was in a push up-like position.
Youngsters
I have been impressed by the performances of the young local high school girls basketball players that are making their first varsity appearances this season. Some of the early standouts include Culver’s Kennedy Jackson, Oregon-davis’ Sarah Thompson, Plymouth’s Mady Sullivan, Bremen’s Eliana Grubbs, Emma Kincaid and Naomi Moyer, Argos’ Ava Stackhouse and Ellie Bollenbacher, Triton’s Sydney King, Laville’s Brooke Edison, Mikayla Kuskye and Jasmine Foster, Glenn’s Alivia Turnage, Emma Norton, Lucy Hayden and Addison Reese, and CGA’S Valencia Miller and Piper Brumm.
Chemistry 101
You always hear coaches from successful teams say how good their team chemistry is. I’ve seen six games in person so far, but based on that, the girls basketball teams with the best team chemistry right now are Triton and Laville.
2 or 3?
It has been well documented that there is a shortage of officials for high school sports. One
change that I would suggest is using just two referees for varsity basketball games instead of three. Besides saving money, the number of violations would decrease and the flow of the game would be much better.
Cyclists go overtime
I think I have shared before that I started bicycling regularly about five years ago since it was about the only activity I could do while coming off a serious leg injury. It has been great exercise and I have seen some incredibly beautiful places on my rides. I admit I am a fair weather rider (60 degrees or higher, wind < 15 mph) so it looks like I’ve taken my last ride until next spring. I was able to get three rides in November though.
Last year I kept a log of all my rides and did so again in 2022. It has been interesting comparing the two years and has given me added motivation. I record the date ridden, approximate distance of each ride, how long I rode (almost always an hour), then keep a running total of my accumulated distance and time. In 2021 my first ride was on April
4. This year it wasn’t until May 5 so I was playing catch up all spring/summer/fall. I finally caught up to last year’s total rides on Oct. 3 and passed the total miles mark on Oct.
6. I only had one ride in October last year, but was able to get out seven times that month this year, plus the three in November so I crushed my marks from last year!
I consider myself a recreational rider so I’m not going to divulge my numbers and hurt my ego, but if you do a similar type of log, please email to me what your numbers are (rharamia@thepilotnews. com). I’m curious to see how much avid riders do in a year.
One for the road
On one of my last bike rides of the year, I was taking one of my usual routes close to home. As I crossed an intersection, I noticed two hardcore riders headed toward the same crossing from a different direction. I figured they were probably going to turn onto the same road that I was on. If they did, I wanted to hold them off until my next turn. I was maybe 100 yards ahead of them so I increased my speed as subtly as possible while I waited to see if they did, in fact, turn. Well, they did and the race was on - at least to me it was. It was about a half mile until my next turn, which was a small out-of-the-way road that no one takes so that was my finish line. I went into the highest gear I use when I’m flying downhill although I was on a gradual incline. It was a challenge, but I was highly motivated. I had to hold them off. I took a couple of peaks back and they were closing in. I gave it all I had and made my turn without them catching me! I took a big swig of water as I tried to catch my breath, but I was feeling pretty good about myself. As I was basking in my victory - in the middle of the street no less - I heard a car whizzing up behind me so I quickly moved to the side of the road where I should have been anyways, but again, this is a road I’ve never seen a car on. As the car started to pass me I looked over and it wasn’t a car. It was the two cyclists that I “held off”. Their bikes were literally humming as they zoomed right past me.
HS football
The Final Four games for high school football are this Friday night. The only teams with local ties are North Judson (1A), New Prairie (4A) and Andrean (2A). North Judson played area schools Culver (twice), Triton (twice), Culver Academy and Laville this season. The Bluejays’ only loss was to LV (27-21 in overtime). The only thing that ties Andrean locally is that they were the team that knocked the Lancers out of the playoffs. New Prairie did not play any local team but has wins over familiar NIC schools Marian, St. Joseph, and SB Riley, plus wins over NLC schools Goshen and Northridge. It’s only loss was to Class 6A Penn.
HS football Semi-state Class 6A
Hamilton Southeastern (12-0) at Carroll (Fort Wayne) (12-0) Center Grove (10-2) at Indianapolis Cathedral (10-1)
Class 5A
Valparaiso (9-3) at Fort Wayne Snider (11-1)
Whiteland (11-1) at Castle (8-4) Class 4A
New Prairie (12-1) at Kokomo (12-1)
Roncalli (12-1) at East Central (112)
Class 3A
Indianapolis Bishop Chatard (9-4) at West Lafayette (13-0) Monrovia (6-7) at Lawrenceburg (12-1)
Class 2A
Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (8-5) at Andrean (9-3) Linton-stockton (13-0) at Evansville Mater Dei (10-3)
Class 1A
Adams Central (13-0) at North Judson-san Pierre (12-1) Indianapolis Lutheran (13-0) at North Decatur (13-0)
Night moves
This has nothing to do with sports except I saw it while coming home after covering a high school basketball game one night recently. As I was driving, I noticed a huge combine harvesting a large field in the dark. The driver had his lights on of course, but I can’t imagine what that field must have looked like the next morning. I know I end up with some weird lawn patterns using my lawnmower during the day. I would probably get kicked out of my neighborhood if I mowed at night.