Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
I like to think my head spends little or no time buried in the sand… until it does.
The Will Cramer Show is a podcast where the titular host interviews at least one basketball or football coach covering one or more comparable topics, then occasionally, then he ends each coach’s segment with a unique question from a topic he wants their input before thanking them for their time.
What a great find!
The structure guarantees focus on areas Cramer wants to cover, and the chunks of time suit the caffeinated audience as well as respect the busy schedule coaches have. There are timeline tranches a listener can click in if they prefer to focus on segments within the segments.
Cramer has earned respect and admiration from his guests, and the topics are a blend of broad and deep dive welcoming a variety of listeners.
Some of this morning’s readers are saying, “duh” to themselves, for they are already familiar with Cramer. I deserve it.
Warsaw Tigers head coach Bart Curtis (Show 129) is on the most recent podcast. Tippecanoe Valley head coach Steven Moriarty (124), and Wawasee head coach Matt Thacker (123) also get some airtime.
Cramer’s podcast scope includes high school football preseason, in season and postseason coverage. Basketball coverage this most recent scholastic sports year included some postseason high school basketball (he juggles his own coaching duties during hoops season).
Check after each Tuesday for his weekly releases.
Throughout the area’s sports this fall, each program has a group of kids who – in last fall’s action - were juniors or sophomores playing behind a talented senior. The result is some intermittent minutes at varsity level, but more likely, most of their reps will be in junior varsity action.
These underclassmen – with another year of experience under their belt – are called program players.
Warsaw, specifically, will have many of their fall sports entering August with an open canvas due to greater-than-usual-sized senior classes as official practices and seasons starting this week.
I announced during the recent IHSAA officials’ clinic, and I’m glad that event took place for three reasons:
While seeing what jersey numbers were getting the most reps and making the most plays was helpful, I realize it’s still way too early to lock in on a fixed lineup.
When official practices begin this week, the rubber meets the road, and – while evaluating talent and work ethic and talent during the June and July phases of fall sports preseason formations, as soon as August hits, it’s a short time to evaluate who’s playing with their food or who’s ready to “sniff ‘n get” as our Air Force basic training instructors would say.
The area football programs – either through culture or their offensive/defensive set structures – are set up to give athletes a blueprint of what a Valley Viking running back, a Wawasee Warrior B-back, or a Warsaw Tiger offensive lineman is expected to do to attain personal, team, and continued program success.
If you look at the Tiger offensive and defensive lines in the 2019 season (9-3, sectional champions) they were small, but quick; outsized in all twelve of their games. It was more about the execution. The team – with a combination of returning starters and aforementioned program players – focused on execution.
There were only 19 seniors (some contributed to limited minutes), so the team’s success also relied on freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to step up without playing with their food to ensure continued success in the 2019 season.
It didn’t matter if you were 6’3” or if you were 5’9” you needed to understand and be able to execute in your role as a Warsaw Tiger (insert position here) without any physical or psychological crutch.
This is a challenge beginning this coming week among all area schools fielding fall sports teams.
Last year’s Times-Union area sophomores and juniors getting most of their minutes in sub-varsity action area wide… welcome to the grown-up table. Please don’t play with your food.
