TERRE HAUTE —
The most encouraging boys high school basketball event I’ve attended so far in 2011 has been the Lafayette Semistate a couple of weeks ago.
The fact that Rockville looks like it could return there once or twice in the next couple of years is one reason, but not the only one. The Class 4A game that followed, in which Kokomo knocked off top-ranked Munster with a late 3-pointer, was the main reason.
Rockville and Triton brought substantial crowds — who were probably encouraged to leave the gym as soon as possible afterward. The Munster and Kokomo fans provided a standing-room-only crowd for the second game, easily the loudest I’ve seen in many years. In the two games combined, I’m guessing nearly 8,000 fans were in the 6,200-seat Lafayette Jeff gym at one time or another. Which is a good way to introduce the Amey Teams for the 2010-2011 boys season.
Captains of the Clutch Team are a pair of big guys who are getting used to drawing an awful lot of defensive attention — and who are able to do several things to counteract that attention. They are, of course, Justin Gant of Terre Haute North and Rhett Smith of Sullivan.
Their teammates are Logan Cannady of Marshall; Cory Cunningham and Dalton Temples of Paris; Ben Denker and Jake Tiefel of Clay City; Brock Dowell of Shakamak; Jared Gilstrap and Jansen Hight of Owen Valley; Mason Gregory of Sullivan; Austin Karazsia and Caleb Stuppy of Linton; Garrett Lientz of Riverton Parke; Anthony McGill of Terre Haute South; Caleb Mershon of Northview; Jake Newton of North; Ryan O’Neall of Bloomfield; Aaron Siler of Robinson; Tyler Talpas of Union; Jake Weaver of Turkey Run; Scott West of West Vigo; and Brandon Wolfe of Casey.
There were plenty of potential captains for the Competitors Team, and it was tough to trim it to these three players: Jacob Duncan of Marshall, Jeremy Helton of Riverton Parke and Trent Lancaster of Northview.
Other favorites of mine are David Bedwell and James Lisman of Sullivan; Ethan Blankenship, Jeremy Nichols, Hunter Scales and Clinton Scott of Casey; Jared Boyll, Cole Rice and Taylor Sanders of Marshall; Cole Bradbury and Blake Eaton of Linton; Ryder Brannon and Zach Danks of Robinson; Tyler Bridgewater of Clay City; Gage Camden and Ethan Fettig of Union; Brad Chambers, Phillip Harpenau and Dylan Reyher of South Vermillion; Lane Clark and Scott Leigh of North Vermillion; Kyle Doane and Drake Vandeventer of Bloomfield; Joe Hackney, Zach Mulkins, Brandon Roberts and Dakotah Scott of Martinsville; Jordan Houser, Cade Lindsey and Kyle Stewart of West Vigo; Cody Jeffries and Clint White of Rockville; Ethan Mason of Paris; Calib McCombs and Riley Sunderman of Turkey Run; Logan Shipley of North; Derek Shouse, Jermaine Smith and Lucas Steward of South; Connor Strain and Tyler Strain of North Central; and Tyler Yando of Riverton Parke.
Captains of my Unsung Team are a couple of guys who might not catch your eye if you watch them once. The more you see of Ryan Crowther of West Vigo and Hunter Robertson of Northview, however, the more you see them getting done.
Others like them are Jeb Batchelor and Kyle Schubla of Shakamak; Walker Berner, Cray Bloodworth, Jordan Grooms and Andre Strohm of Marshall; Tyler Bradburn, Jordon McFall and Gary Ulrich of Rockville; Ben Brown and Clayton French of Linton; Colin Carver and Preston Rieck of Casey; Josh Cary and Josh Griffin of Paris; Blake Cesinger, Nick Jaeger and Tyler Seibert of South; Josh Decker and Colten Harbour of Clay City; Lance Ellett and Kaleb Pirtle of Sullivan; Derek Engle, Aaron Hill, Gary Secuskie and Cody Vauters of Riverton Parke; Seth Gambill and Jacob Todd of Union; Tyler Goddard, Jacob Hayn and Jeff Woods of Turkey Run; Dylan Haltom and Dion Scott of South Vermillion; Shane Herrell, Warren Whithaus and Eli Wright of Robinson; Ethan Hoadley, David Ray, Evan Rice, Zach Savage and Andrew Ward of Owen Valley; Zach Hull and Chance Talbot of Northview; Chase Jones, Matt O’Leary and Ross Sponsler of North; Payton Karl, Bryce Lindsay and Jake Phegley of Bloomfield; Tod Lebeda and Seth Vanschoyck of North Central; Dalton McCool and Kody Zumwalt of North Vermillion; and Kyle Perisho and Blaine Washburn of Martinsville.
Captains of the Unselfish Team gave up spots in the starting lineup for the good of the team — Caleb Turner of Sullivan and Joel Wittenmyer of Rockville.
Other team-first guys are Kalen Alexander of North; Ben Allen of Owen Valley; Jordan Ball, Clay Bess, Brandon Garcia and Zach Hough of Paris; Brady Brown of Robinson; Cody Cox of North Central; Kyle Daugherty and Kyle Yeargin of Riverton Parke; Brandon Flater of Linton; Austin Hines of South Vermillion; Landry Huisinga and Matt McCown of Casey; Damon Hyatt, Dalton Rohr and Jordan VanHorn of Northview; Sterling Langley and Drew Schreve of Union; Eric Lear and Kyle Wheeler of Rockville; and Aaron Toner of Martinsville.
Three sophomores lead the Most Improved Team and are already arriving at stardom — Dess Fougerousse of Linton, Lane Mahurin of Rockville and Jeffrey Turner of South.
Others who got better are Tyler Allen, Brylan Jones and Justin Rodgers of Clay City; Jeff Babbs and Drew Bolin of Casey; Aaron Bellgraph of North Central; Bryce Bement and Gavan Marx of Sullivan; Zach Birdsong of Union; Cory Blount of Robinson; Tommie Bolden of North; Adrien Corenflos of West Vigo; Justin Crody, Brodie Crowe and Patrick Green of Shakamak; Andrew Davidson, Nathan Kash and Thomas Sisson of Marshall; Bryce Doran of Martinsville; Cory Edge and Wade Stites of Riverton Parke; Austin England and Monte Stevenson of South; Jacob Harrison of North Vermillion; Curtis Hasler of Bloomfield; Robert Hodgson of Paris; Schuyler Jeffers and Dallas Thomas of Turkey Run; Luke Jerrells and Koye Kaiser of Linton; Scotty Johansen and Josh Vaughan of South Vermillion; Zac Kempf of Rockville; Jacob Ninesling, Bryant Pestoff and Dillon Reynolds of Northview; and Kaleb Oldham and Dalton Vest of Owen Valley.
Among all players on the Most Promising Team, the brightest future could belong to Calvin Blank of North.
Others to look forward to are Jake Amstutz of Turkey Run; Braden Cox, Brandon Morin and Brett Yeryar of Shakamak; Max Gregory, Michael Hutchcraft, Jacob Kinnaman and Brooks Weszely of Sullivan; Ben Hays of Bloomfield; Kaden Lawson of South Vermillion; Zach Lyon of West Vigo; Taylor Maurer of Marshall; Zach Murphy and Trivette Scales of Casey; Derrick Nicholas of Robinson; Grant Stamm and Ryan Woodward of Linton; Aaron Stone and Chase Vanschoyck of North Central; and Brayden Woodard of North Vermillion.
Guys I love to watch in a number of sports lead my Left-handed Team this year — Clay Bess of Paris and Tyler Yando of Riverton Parke.
Their teammates are Walker Berner of Marshall; Ben Brown of Linton; Zach Danks of Robinson; Bryce Doran of Martinsville; Brock Dowell of Shakamak; Joe Fidler of Cloverdale; Kevaris Gregory of South; Dylan Haltom of South Vermillion; Ethan Hoadley and Zach Savage of Owen Valley; Payton Karl of Bloomfield; Taylor Kilgore, Rylan Smith and Jordan West of North Vermillion; Jeremy Nichols of Casey; Kole Smith of Clay City; and Caleb Turner of Sullivan.
• Local connection — Matthew Daniel, son of West Vigo graduate Don Daniel and former Indiana State point guard Mindy Boggs, earned NAIA honorable-mention honors after his junior season at the University of the Cumberlands.
Matthew, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound guard, averaged 14 points per game and shot 40 percent from 3-point range.
He probably got his height from Don, who was also his high school coach. But Don says Mindy’s genes put him over the top.
• No surprises — Gatorade’s Indiana Players of the Year for basketball are Bria goss of Ben Davis and Cody Zeller of Washington, hardly ground-breaking news.
My Mr. Basketball vote, however, went to Dee Davis of Bloomington South.
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. at (812) 231-4277 or at 1-800-783-8742; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
Amey Takes Aim
AMEY TAKES AIM: The Annual All-Amey basketball teams close out the prep season
- Amey Takes Aim
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Amey Takes Aim: NHL playoffs to put TVs to good use
If Jenny had known, she probably wouldn’t have bought that TV.
But four or five years ago, my Fathers Day present — for those unfamiliar with Amey family traditions, the Fathers Day one is “let’s get something we all really want and pretend it’s a gift for Dad” — was a 42-inch Vizio. It’s been used even more than the cell phone I never would have bought for myself, or the TomTom that disappeared since Jenny’s smartphone arrived.
And it came with high-def.
I’m not going to insult you by telling you how great high-def is, because to do so would be to imply that you are even farther behind the technological curve than I am. I’m guessing, however, that not all of you have yet discovered what it does for hockey. -
Amey Takes Aim: Can’t bottle the joy of Amey vacations
The first bad sign was the Gatorade bottle.
In the Bataan-Death-March drive to Orlando that got the Amey family spring break vacation off to a bad start, seeing it between lanes of I-24 — as we zipped along at a 100-miles-in-five-hours clip — filled with an ominous yellow liquid was a little bit scary. And although we didn't stop to check for sure, I'm fairly certain I knew about its contents.
And the person stuck in the same traffic jam with us, the one with the existential license plate YMIHR4, couldn’t have asked a more pertinent question.
But, after seeing a lot more of Oak Grove, Ky., than we’d planned, and after enduring more traffic slowdowns in Nashville, we were on our way. Even some rain in the dark in the Smokies didn’t slow us down much, so you would think our first-day troubles were over.
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ANDY AMEY: Farewell to basketball
I believe you’ve heard me say before — just about a year ago, perhaps — that a boys high school basketball season that ends with the Tribune-Star in Bankers Life Fieldhouse can’t be considered a bad one, which is why we have a little celebrating to do thanks to the Linton Miners.
Lover of irony that I am, I’ve also got to point out that this season was another branch sprouting from the Wabash Valley’s most legendary coaching tree, that of Joe Hart.
Joe never got much credit for his work at Dugger, but he took Brody Boyd, Clark Golish and the Bulldogs to a state championship game in 2000, and since then three of his former players — Joe Pigg, Clint Swan and now Joey Hart, his son — also have coached teams in the final game of the season.
Joe probably wishes he could take credit for Doc Nash, another down-home type who gave a banjo lesson earlier Saturday in leading Borden past a bigger, more athletic Triton team (banjo lesson is a Howard Sharpism, for you younger readers), but his lineage is still the best I can think of around here. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: Maroons, Rox final a true Classic
I don’t make predictions nearly as often as I used to, but I had one several months ago that was proven correct last week.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Nitpicking aside, West Vigo Hall of Fame selections spot on
I can’t imagine a better first class of inductees into the West Vigo High School Athletics Hall of Fame than the one that was feted Saturday night in the Jim Mann Green Dome.
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Tough bunch of people
I’m getting my warm clothes ready for a trip to Linton this week, and if a few thrills from the Miners, Casey or North Vermillion happen the next couple of weeks, I hope I get to see them.
But high school football is over in Vigo County for the season — as coach Chris Barrett of Terre Haute North said, prematurely — and I’m sadder to see it go than usual.
Walking the sidelines and doing midweek or postgame interviews enables me to meet quite a few of the guys whose names you are about to read, and haven’t been more impressed than I was this fall. What outstanding groups of young men. What a tough, tough bunch of people.
Many know that one of my favorite athletic adjectives appeared consecutively in the previous sentence. -
AMEY TAKES AIM: A weekend to remember with ISU’s ’72 football team
They’re all still pretty hale and hearty, the boys of the fall of 1972 who returned to campus over the weekend to honor their former football coach.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: ISU reunion raises more questions than answers
One of the wrestlers I used to hang out with occasionally claimed to be a pretty good second-story man — although he may have just been talking, since I never saw any of the goods — and it was with him in mind that I was able to get access to the Indiana State Wrestling Alumni Reunion late Saturday night.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Deciding not to ‘vacate’ during ‘vacation’ – & other ventures
Flaunting the law, setting a bad example for the kids in other ways, grooming and acquiring dogs … not a typical Amey family vacation, but an appreciated one just the same.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Huntsville’s Stars, Havoc take back seat to GGS
The second-best thing about the Amey family’s spring-break trip to Huntsville, Ala., is that we left a lot of things on the table to do the next time we’re down there.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Rox well represented on Amey teams
If having the state finals in town makes it a successful girls high school basketball season, then certainly having a team to follow at the state finals makes it a very successful boys high school basketball season . . .
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A feeling of pride, not disappointment, comes from watching Rox play
It’s not going to come as a startling admission that I — once the rest of the local opposition has been eliminated from consideration — am an unabashed fan of whatever team the Wabash Valley sends onward in postseason high school sports competition.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: This private school plays basketball the right way
Any girls high school basketball season that ends with state championship games in Hulman Center is a pretty good one — even though I wished I’d seen Riverton Parke and Seeger knock off a couple of private schools the week before to even the public school-private school battle a little bit.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Even 2 of state’s best once had doubts
Look at them now.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Getting ready for the dance
Terre Haute North got the good news Sunday night — or did it?
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Harrowing path for state hopefuls
The bad news is that the winner of Class 4A Sectional 13 in boys basketball heads northeast instead of southeast for regional play in March — to Hinkle Fieldhouse instead of Seymour as a result of Indiana High School Athletic Association’s changes.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A superior all-star arrangement
I don’t work on Wednesdays, so I wasn’t able to attend the first Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association draft last week to set up the annual all-star game that will be June 23 this year.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The biggest & baddest of a holiday classic
There are more things to love about the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic than could fit in this newspaper, but one of this year’s best things was that for an hour or so on Wednesday, it was Justin Paddock’s world and we were just living in it.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Taking note of ISU’s latest football win
The biggest difference I’ve noticed, as I transition from the high school football beat to quasi-official status as the Indiana State football beat writer for a few weeks, is the length of the games.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: IHSAA playoff draw not as bad as it could have been
First reaction to the Indiana sectional football pairings drawn late Sunday by the Indiana High School Athletic Association? It could have been a lot worse.
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ANDY AMEY: Between the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & a hard place
Just in case any of you noticed — with some anticipation — the recent lack of my bylines, I can tell you that your wish (and mine) did come true. It was vacation week for the Amey family.
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Amey Takes Aim: UFC fighter’s bloodines traced back to ISU brothers
As a mild-mannered reporter from a great metropolitan newspaper — or thereabouts — I admit I haven’t paid much attention to the burgeoning mixed martial arts scene.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Predators’ win is music to new fan’s ears
For many, many years, the number of live games televised on WGN has been cited as perhaps the main reason for the popularity of the Chicago Cubs (it’s got to be something besides masochism, right?).
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AMEY TAKES AIM: You’ll be having a good ol’ time on vacation with the Ameys
When one of the first people you meet is Tammy Wynette’s stepdaughter, when you’ve stepped on the feet of people you haven’t met while trying to navigate Ernest Tubbs’ old Silver Eagle tour bus, and when the activities director of your resort is, well, Elvis, you might be vacationing in Nashville.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The Annual All-Amey basketball teams close out the prep season
The most encouraging boys high school basketball event I’ve attended so far in 2011 has been the Lafayette Semistate a couple of weeks ago.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Family remembers Cheryl Weatherman as caring grandmother
As far as Riley and Keely Davis are concerned, Cheryl Weatherman was simply their grandmother, and a pretty darn good one at that.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Honor to see Turkey Run girls close out memorable career
I don’t know if anyone in this part of the state could actually say they enjoy going to Fort Wayne and back, but I was glad to see the Turkey Run Warriors play one last time during the girls basketball state finals Saturday.
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So many matches, so many favorites
Go ahead, ask me anything about the 224 wrestlers who competed last week at the Indiana state finals — or at least about the 112 wrestlers who survived Saturday’s first round.
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ANDY TAKES AIM: A sportwriters’s lament: Oh, the games we missed
I was already tired of winter by the time that first bitterly cold snap passed through in mid-December, so it’s safe to say the season hasn’t grown on me.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Time of the season for teams to tough it out
In the last month or so I figure I’ve seen at least four boys high school basketball teams with legitimate state-championship dreams as the season heads into its dog days.
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