TERRE HAUTE —
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.
As mentioned before, the North-South format that had been in place since the start of the all-star series was turning out one-sided, with the South winning just once in the first seven games.
This year the format was tweaked a little bit — and quite effectively, if my initial reaction means anything. Instead of picking a coach of the year from each direction, from now on two coaches of the year will be chosen and they will draft the other schools to play on the all-star teams they coach. The only restriction is that Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South have to be on opposite sides.
Coaches of the year this time are Steve Weber of Linton and Troy Burgess of South Putnam — ironically, the coaches of the last four South teams under the old format.
Steve had the South team in 2008, 2009 and 2011 — getting its only win in 2008 — and Troy was the South coach in 2010.
Now there are just Black and Gold teams, honoring corporate title sponsor First Financial Bank. (Other key sponsors, the WVFCA points out, are the Terre Haute Convention and Visitors Bureau and Pacesetter Sports.)
I don’t know who won the coin toss for the first draft pick, but once North joined Linton on the Gold team and South was added to South Putnam for the Black team, there were still 31 other schools whose athletes could be chosen (Charleston, North Daviess and Tri-County are the new WVFCA members this year).
Other schools who will contribute to Weber’s Gold team are Casey, Cumberland, Mattoon, North Knox, North Putnam, North Vermillion, Oblong, Olney, Palestine-Hutsonville, Paris, Robinson, Rockville, South Vermillion, Sullivan, Tri-County and Turkey Run.
Teams joining Burgess for the Black squad are Cascade, Charleston, Cloverdale, Edgewood, Greencastle, Lawrenceville, Marshall, North Central, North Daviess, Northview, Owen Valley, Red Hill, Riverton Parke, Union and West Vigo.
I’m not familiar with all the teams and all the players involved, but I’m already seeing a contrast of styles shaping up for the June 23 game.
Weber’s Gold team has a lot of guys with experience at quarterback, even though some of them were probably chosen at other positions.
Heath Huisinga of Casey, Kendal Butler of Cumberland, Kolten Everts of North Putnam, Dalton McCool of North Vermillion and Billy Knust of Robinson all have quarterback experience, and there may be more I don’t know about. There are also some pretty good receivers available in Colin Carver of Casey, Tyrus Moss of Mattoon, tight end Lane Clark of North Vermillion, Jake Smerage of North Putnam, Cody Jeffries of Rockville and Ryan Vernelson of Sullivan.
Two quarterbacks I see on the Black team are Jacob Duncan of Marshall and Zach Lyday of North Central, plus two more players — Damon Hyatt of Northview and Cody Thornton of West Vigo — who filled in at quarterback when needed last fall.
I also see, however, the two first-team all-Wabash Valley running backs on the Black team, Andre Strohm of Marshall and Rob Gibson of South Putnam, not to mention a couple of bruising fullback types in 250-pound Wade Custis of South Putnam and Enreque Brown of Terre Haute South. Put Hyatt at wingback and Black might never have to throw the ball (although that would waste James Ridge of Edgewood, Kody Basinger of North Central and tight ends Rodney Troutman of Marshall and Lucas Steward of South, to name a few available receivers) because Duncan and Lyday can carry it — and take the punishment — themselves.
Should be intriguing and a lot of fun — but for me, it always is. See at Memorial Stadium in June, I hope.
• Singing sensations — Not long after hearing 11-year-old Carsyn Wayland’s rendition of the National Anthem at the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic, I heard an even younger singer do an excellent job. That would be 9-year-old Noah Walton, a fourth-grader at Lyons Elementary School, who did the job recently at the Greene County Invitational.
Kudos also go to Terre Haute South’s Amanda Yacoub, who did the honors prior to her Senior Night swims at the North-South meet last week.
• Gatorade awards — Recently named Indiana’s Gatorade Athletes of the Year are Ashley Erba of Warsaw, who won the girls state cross country championship at LaVern Gibson Championship Course a couple of months ago, and Emily Wolfert of Yorktown, who played for the Class 3A state volleyball champions.
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. Follow @TribStarAndy on Twitter too.
Amey Takes Aim
AMEY TAKES AIM: A superior all-star arrangement
- 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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