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  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza He's been there, they will be: Terre Haute South football players Dylan and Danny Banks will face Terre Haute North today, like their mentor Ernie Thompson did when he played against South for a second time as a Patriot.

    MET 101812 BANKS THOMPSON.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Instructions: Terre Haute South football coach Mark Raetz talks with his players Wednesday during team practice. His Braves will face their cross-town rivals a second time this year in the sectional matchup tonight.

    SPT101712raetz3.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Like father, like son: Terre Haute North football coach Chris Barrett (right) watches as his son, Chris Barrett II, throws a pass during team practice Wednesday at North. The Barretts will face Terre Haute South for a second time this season tonight at North.

    MET 101712 BARRETTS PASS.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Facing the Braves for a second time: Terre Haute North assistant coach Billy Blundell works with a receiver during team practice Wednesday at North.

    SPT 101712 2ND BLUNDELL.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Instructions: Terre Haute South football coach Mark Raetz talks with his players during team practice Wednesday. His Braves will face their cross-town rivals a second time this year in the sectional matchup tonight at Terre Haute North.

    SPT101712raetz1.jpg

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October 19, 2012

North-South Part II

Rivals kick off Class 5A football sectional tonight at North’s field

Andy Amey The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — In his first two seasons as head football coach at Terre Haute North High School, Chris Barrett’s Patriots drew Terre Haute South in the first round of the sectional both years and the first day of pregame preparation was fairly routine, he indicated this week.

“You compare what you did in the first game, you try to fix any problems you had and you study the film to look for any new things [the Braves] are doing,” he said this week.

“Then you spend the next five days telling [the players] that just because we won the first time doesn’t mean we’ll win the second time.”

Barrett has been doing the same thing this week, because today the two Terre Haute schools will meet in postseason play for the seventh time.

“I knew we were due [to draw North],” said South’s Mark Raetz, who will be coaching a Class 5A sectional game against the Patriots for the first time.

The 7 p.m. game at North might be the first time South has ever played there. Barrett’s two sectional games against the Braves both were on South’s field and some of the postseason meetings were at Memorial Stadium.

It’s also a tiebreaker of sorts. In the previous six seasons with two North-South games, each team has won six times — two sweeps for each and two splits.

Although Raetz will be coaching a sectional rematch for the first time, it’s not the first he’s experienced. In 1996, when he was a senior at South, the Braves and Patriots met twice — and Raetz is hoping 2012 has a better outcome.

“It didn’t go well either time back then,” Raetz recalled. “North [which won 30-7 in the regular season and 40-9 in the sectional game] had a really strong team back then, guys like Steve Englehart, Jamar Cottee and Garry Handlin.”

Both games were more competitive than those scores indicate — South fumbled away a scoring opportunity each time when the score was still close — and Raetz remembers appreciating the second chance for a couple of reasons.

“The second time around, there’s a lot less extracurricular hype,” he explained. “As a player, I felt [the sectional] game was more important than the first one, and it was nice to be able to focus exclusively on the game.”

Billy Blundell, currently the quarterback coach for the Patriots, played that position for both the rematches that Barrett coached. Each time, like this year, North entered the sectional with a Victory Bell win and a better record, but South won in 2002 and almost did in 2003.

“It doesn’t matter what the records are,” Blundell said. “My senior year, [the Braves] hadn’t won a game all year, but we go to South and they’re putting up a fight.

“When you’re a player, you kind of just assume [a victory] is going to happen again … you’ve got to stay focused and take care of business.”

The second chance was important to North back in the fall of 1986, the first sectional pairing of the two schools and, as it turned out, the biggest turnaround. South won 20-3 for the Victory Bell, but the Patriots won 27-0 in the sectional game as Ernie Thompson rushed for 137 yards and a touchdown.

“I remember going into that week thinking it might be my last chance [to beat South],” Thompson reflected this week. “We never won a Bell game [my three years on the varsity].”

That 1986 sectional game was the beginning of a trivia question too. Two of North’s other touchdowns were scored that night by Otha Scott and Randy Davies, both of whom played for the Braves the next season. Davies — who is Thompson’s half-brother — also scored in a South win during the 1987 season, making him the only player so far to score for both teams. “That was really bittersweet,” Thompson noted.

Thompson is now an attendance officer with the Vigo County School Corp. — not to mention being a stay-in-school mentor who also supervises workouts for athletes throughout the community — and he’ll probably be at the game tonight, but not rooting for either team.

“I usually sit by myself, try to guess what the coaches are doing,” he said.

From his playing days, he added, “I just remember, No. 1, that I always had great respect for Terre Haute South and the competition.”

He mentioned North’s A.J. Grady and South’s Dylan and Danny Banks among the athletes he’s worked with during previous summers and appreciates both sides of town — something he learned at a young age.

“All my coaches when I was growing up — Landis Fairrow, Virgil Morris, Mr. [Danny] Tanoos at the Boys Club — they always taught me respect, no matter who was wearing the other jersey, and that never leaves you,” Thompson said.

“I enjoy the competition for both sides with respect to the [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference]. I’ve seen both teams and I know how hard they work.”

And while he tries to match guesses with Barrett and Raetz, there are no second guesses.

“I have great respect for both men,” Thompson said. “I think we have something special in them.”

 

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Sports
softballsecs.jpg

Softball sectionals

  • Softball sectionals up for grabs

    All three Vigo County high schools and Northview appear to have a realistic chance of winning sectional championships in softball this week.

    May 20, 2013 1 Photo

  • SPT0511613manaea3.jpg ISU baseball hoping Manaea can get its MVC Tournament moving in right direction

    Indiana State’s baseball team has been waiting all season for its stars to align.
    But this is the 2013 Sycamores, after all, and after a season in which seemingly little has gone right, it appears its stars will remain crossed at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

    May 20, 2013 1 Photo

  • West Vigo softball holds off nemesis Edgewood in softball sectional

    Ice cream was enough of a reward Monday night after the West Vigo Vikings beat eight-time defending champion Edgewood 6-2 in extra innings in the opening game of the Class 3A softball sectional at Edgewood High School. But that’s not what Vikings want.

    May 20, 2013

  • Rose to send 5 to national finals

    Five Rose-Hulman athletes have qualified for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships later this week at Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

    May 20, 2013

  • Terre Haute South, Northview vie for tennis regional title

    Terre Haute South and Northview take respective records of 10-5 and 11-5 into the Greencastle Regional today.
    Coach Bill Blankenbaker’s Braves will play Seeger at 4:30 p.m., while coach Emily Goff’s Knights will take on Crawfordsville about 6 p.m.

    May 20, 2013

  • IndyCar Indy 500 Auto_Morg.jpg 500 field fills up quickly on Bump Day

    In just over an hour, the field for the 2013 Indianapolis 500 was complete on Bump Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.

    May 20, 2013 2 Photos

  • Terre Haute North offense unable to get going in loss to Mooresville

    Jack Kirchner chose to give credit Monday night to Mooresville pitcher Taylor Chitwood, not to the Greg Maddux-size strike zone she seemed to enjoy.
    But if there were no excuses forthcoming from Kirchner and his Terre Haute North High School softball team, it wouldn’t have been hard to find a spectator or two to come up with extenuating circumstances about the Patriots’ 4-1 loss at the Class 4A Martinsville Sectional.

    May 20, 2013

  • SPT042213relaywelkergoatee.jpg Terre Haute North looking strong going into girls track regional

    Terre Haute North might need an off night for anyone to catch them in the girls track regional at Evansville Central.
    The Patriots are as well-rounded as they’ve ever been, and two relay teams are state contenders with times ranking No. 2 in Indiana among times recorded all spring.
    Terre Haute South, Northview and Sullivan have athletes among the contenders in multiple events as well.

    May 20, 2013 1 Photo

  • PREP ROUNDUP: Shakamak's Green hits two homers in win over West Vigo

    Shakamak improved to 22-3 on the season behind a complete-game effort from Brett Yeryar, and Patrick Green hit two solo home runs in a high school baseball game Monday.

    May 20, 2013

  • SPT 043013 ACE HUNT TROPHY.jpg ISU's athletic treasure trove

    Think of every championship that Indiana State has won in each of its sports, past and present. Think of every tournament — postseason or regular season — which the Sycamores have claimed as their own.

    May 19, 2013 9 Photos 2 Links

Local Interest
softballsecs.jpg

Softball sectionals

High School
College
  • ISU track sending record 22 to postseason

    On the heels of their thrilling double victory at the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships both the Indiana State men and women moved up in the national rankings which were released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

    May 20, 2013

  • SPT0511613manaea3.jpg ISU baseball hoping Manaea can get its MVC Tournament moving in right direction

    Indiana State’s baseball team has been waiting all season for its stars to align.
    But this is the 2013 Sycamores, after all, and after a season in which seemingly little has gone right, it appears its stars will remain crossed at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

    May 20, 2013 1 Photo

  • SPT 043013 ACE HUNT TROPHY.jpg ISU's athletic treasure trove

    Think of every championship that Indiana State has won in each of its sports, past and present. Think of every tournament — postseason or regular season — which the Sycamores have claimed as their own.

    May 19, 2013 9 Photos 2 Links

  • Ort sets ISU RBI record in 16-7 win

    Robby Ort celebrated his Indiana State baseball Senior Day on Saturday by becoming the Sycamores’ all-time leader in RBIs as ISU ended its regular season with a 16-7 win over Bradley at Bob Warn Field.

    May 19, 2013

  • Bradley ends 16-game MVC losing streak against ISU

    Momentum was the only thing riding on Indiana State’s baseball game against Bradley on Friday. With a five-game winning streak going, ISU wanted to keep the good vibes going into next week’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
    ISU couldn’t do it.

    May 18, 2013

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SPT 071512 DORSETT FILE.jpg

Consultation: Rex manager Brian Dorsett talks with his pitcher and players during a time-out Sunday, July 15, at Sycamore Field. (Tribune-Star file/Bob Poynter)

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