TERRE HAUTE —
As Trent Miles leaves Terre Haute, this community now knows almost nothing here is impossible.
In the 2012 college season, the Indiana State Sycamores — coached by Miles — beat the nation’s No. 1-ranked Football Championship Subdivision team on the road. Miles’ program also secured its third consecutive winning season.
The idea of such accomplishments would have been laughable in the bleak era between October 2004 and August 2010. In that stretch, Indiana State won just two of 62 games, and racked up America’s longest Division I losing streak under four different head coaches. Some of those defeats were epic blowouts. Crowds dwindled to parents and friends. Aside from the annual Terre Haute North-vs.-Terre Haute South high school football game and assorted tailgate parties at the ISU homecomings, the community basically abandoned Memorial Stadium.
Miles changed those circumstances and validated the existence of Sycamore football. He turned a dreadful program into a steady winner. By national standards, the records posted by his teams in the past three seasons — 6-5, 6-5 and 7-4, with no Missouri Valley Football Conference championships or FCS playoff berths — probably seem modest. But at ISU, those records likely will earn Miles a spot in the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame someday. Along with the victories, he managed to build a long-lost connection between the program and local businesses and organizations, ex-players, alums, the ISU administration, and Midwest high school coaches and their recruits, while also keeping his Sycamores in class. Game attendance and community interest improved, too.
Not surprisingly, a higher-level program lured Miles to perform a similar reconstruction job. Georgia State University introduced Miles as its new head coach on Monday in Atlanta. The GSU Panthers are hardly a household name in college football; the school launched the program in 2008, and the team finished this past season 1-10. Yet, Georgia State plans bigger days ahead and will jump from its current FCS level to the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision next season by joining the Sun Belt Conference. It won’t be easy; the Sun Belt sent four of its schools to bowl games last season.
Still, at his introductory news conference Monday, an optimistic Miles assessed the task and gave Georgia State fans hope.
“You are going to the Sun Belt, which is an up-and-coming conference. It’s got four teams in bowl games,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You are in the greatest recruiting area in America. You are in a great city, and it’s a great university. You can take this and take off with it. We’ve got big plans.”
Thank goodness, he also had big plans for his alma mater, Indiana State, and his hometown, Terre Haute, and stuck it out through a 1-22 record through his first two Sycamore seasons. As a result, a premier FCS conference (the Missouri Valley) now respects ISU, talented recruits seriously consider ISU, and the city and campus communities believe in ISU. Armed with that rediscovered potential, Indiana State can now search nationally for its next coach from a long list of strong candidates.
The focus is now on possibilities. A few years ago, higher aspirations seemed impossible. Obviously, they’re not.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Miles reignited ISU’s football dream
Departing coach brought Sycamores back from dead
- Editorials
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EDITORIAL: A timely call-out of NSA critics
As if it couldn’t get worse, politicians in Washington have again tied themselves in knots.
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EDITORIAL: Insisting on ISTEP quality lawmakers’ primary duty
Now that everyone, on both sides of the aisle, seems backslappingly happy to agree that this spring’s ISTEP school testing debacle was unacceptable, that at least some of the results lack credibility and that the issue carries high-stakes significance, what next?
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RONN MOTT: Not hurried a bit by 21st century tech
Unlike so many of you, I do not get up in the morning and run to turn on my computer. In fact, if you need to reach me in a hurry, I would say that 19th century invention of Alexander Bell’s would be the best way. If you do email me or use some other electronic convenience, better give it a couple of days because I am not in that big of a hurry.
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EDITORIAL: And now we wait for justice
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EDITORIAL: Remembering Sister Jeanne
Terre Haute is mourning the loss this week of an accomplished and beloved community activist and leader whose life’s work is an inspiration to all who strive to serve.
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EDITORIAL: Embrace the value of traffic planning
Never underestimate the value of a good plan to deal with a crisis, large or small, even if the final analysis of the management of a specific crisis is, “It could have been worse.”
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EDITORIAL: It’s time to assess ISTEP
Later this month, the company behind this spring’s abysmal online administration of ISTEP testing for 27,000 Hoosier schoolchildren is being called to the principal’s office.
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EDITORIAL: Fix fraud, don’t punish needy
Waste and fraud in government programs should be rooted out vigilantly. Legislation should fix a problem with a fitting solution, not punish the needy.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: An anniversary to honor
The anniversary we observe today is one that will forever live in the soul of America.
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EDITORIAL: Highway 40 — where are you?
Area residents have been trying to come to grips with the Indiana Department of Transportation’s decision to change the official route of U.S. 40 through Terre Haute and Vigo County.
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EDITORIAL: Indiana’s workforce problems require broad-based solutions
The issue of Indiana’s “skills gap” arose during a community jobs fair Thursday at Hulman Center, hosted by 8th District Rep. Larry Bucshon.
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EDITORIAL: Happy trails for Hoosiers
Indiana has an abundance of natural treasures that should never be considered hidden treasures.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
While not much has been spoken or written recently about the Indiana 641 corridor through southern Vigo County, rest assured development continues and the approximately six-mile project linking U.S. 41 near Ivy Tech to Indiana 46 and Interstate 70 remains — mostly — on course.
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EDITORIAL: Terre Haute Tomorrow seeks to reignite community momentum
Long-range planning that brings together diverse local interests in an effort to collaborate on community improvements often launches with a flourish but then settles onto a shelf to gather dust. That was remarkably NOT the result when the group known as Terre Haute Tomorrow emerged on the scene about 10 years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Women in uniform must be treated with respect, dignity
As the nation pauses this Memorial Day weekend to remember those who have served their country, it is appropriate to reflect on the contributions of women in military uniform of the U.S. armed services. They are many, and their impact is great.
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The celebration season
Spring has been a bit elusive at times in 2013, which is its nature.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: MVC tourney an event worth having
It’s been a long time since the Missouri Valley Conference chose Indiana State University to host its post-season baseball tournament, but Terre Haute had never been more prepared for an event such as this.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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