Chip Shots: Nothing Like Us Ever Was

“Nothing like us ever was” comes from poet Carl Sandburg’s work, “Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind” – a four-part poem published in 1922. He illustrated a great city, its complacent people, its downfall, and the rats and lizards eventually ruling it.

Sandburg’s work was smack dab in the Roaring 20’s whose end transitioned the nation into its worst-ever among a handful of depressions. It’s like he could see it coming.

My high school alma mater had this printed on white buttons in Kelly green letters worn by our sports fans, athletes, and cheerleaders starting around 1976 when Michael Tilson Thomas put the aforementioned poem into music.

It was the fall of 1976, and I was a grade seven at Cloverleaf Junior High School, starting to attend more of the basketball games because one of my sisters cheered, her (then) steady was a starter on the squad, and the fella who would eventually be my future brother-in-law was one of the starting guards.

This team didn’t have a stellar win-loss record, but they lost many close games, and I believe in the customary 18-game Ohio prep basketball seasons, they might have finished 6-12.

But those buttons were everywhere, along with three more losing seasons. Same buttons, same results.

The 1980-81 basketball season changed the program’s fortunes as most of my classmates comprised the starting five. They were a group of kids who had been playing together since fifth grade who – as eight and ninth graders – were eviscerating the freshman and JV teams.

Those buttons – as we won our first conference championship in more than a decade – were everywhere. We finished 17-5 with a disappointing sectional, but the top seven players were returning for our senior campaign.

I finally – after all the prior years past – asked my American lit teacher about “Nothing Like Us Ever Was” because I remember my sister’s boyfriend mentioning its origins.

She told me to read the aforementioned Sandburg’s work, and also told me, “Chip, you’ll learn why I chuckle when I see all these kids wearing that button.”

I didn’t know it then, but along with our success in boys’ basketball in my junior and senior years of high school, we would have winning and some league championships among five of the next six seasons.

After that 1987-88 campaign the Cloverleaf Colts experienced more than two decades of futility, with winless or near winless campaigns in at least a handful of those seasons.

In my high school years, however, who knew? Who knew?

Numerous factors are essential to maintain program success: coaching, how much those athletes hone their skills in their driveways, garages, barns, and whether the interested participants have any basketball talent.

Last year’s Warsaw Community High School scholastic athletic year was unmatched in recent school or area history from August 2024 to early June 2025.

The graduating class of 2025 had some special athletes whose roads to success were not always the smoothest. The athletes in that graduating class emphasized the “student” part of student-athlete as well.

Nothing like us ever was.

In order to avoid handing off such a legacy to – eventually – lizards and rats, athletic programs have core values, cultures, and off-season/in-season conditioning and practice in place.

Will we abound in individual and team state finals appearances each year? There is no guarantee. This isn’t a knock. But the values and practices in place could very well produce a decade of winners at varying levels of the postseason ladder.

It was recently noted on different media platforms the Warsaw Tigers football team ran ten consecutive seasons with at least six wins: the first of the ten and this fall campaigns’ six-win seasons bookended regular seasons with seven- and eight-win regular seasons. It’s only two conference titles, two sectional championships (the only two in school history), and its first ever deep run all the way to the 2024 State Finals were part of this recent ten-season run.

This range of accomplishments should not be dwarfed because of earning as state runner-up. This year’s 6-4 Tigers were not lousy, and neither were 2016’s Tigers.

The same goes for our boys’ and girls’ basketball teams.

The two cage squads return in two different forms. I’ll focus on the team whose season has already started swimmingly.

The girls return four key players from last season’s state runner-up. However, the Lady Tigers are already eviscerating their opponents who are continually talent-challenged. From their coaching and on-court leadership to their rising younger classmates, the culture and cadence of prep/practice are in place to avoid overthrow by rats and lizards.

While those program strengths I mentioned are in place, high school sports teams’ success also relies heavily on DNA.

These teams in the current and prior seasons have hardworking athletes who also have some marvelous DNA.

Brooke and Russ Winchester have a mother who played NCAA Division I (D1) sports. Guess what level the Winchester progeny is playing at.

The Rastrellis… D1 babies… the Brickers… NAIA and D1 babies. Many NAIA athletes’ difference from D1 athletes are very nuanced, by the way. Ellie Hepler’s mother was a D1 volleyball player.

I have a hunch each of Brooke Zartman’s parents were excellent athletes. I do not know the background though. I never asked.

Jordan Randall will high jump in the SEC next year. This young man is adopted, but he possesses physical gifts resulting in jumps 1 ½ feet above his height.

This does not imply these kids had an easy path to their current or future college just because of their genetic composition. Each parental generation I mentioned fostered and modeled a work ethic these athletes embraced. Randall and his father fully committed to a training and development regimen resulting in Randall-the-younger optimizing his traits toward a state title, and numerous jumps exceeding seven feet.

As some Warsaw sports apparel reads “Nothing Given” these athletes demonstrate a work ethic and commitment toward excellence. No rats and lizards moving into their lives’ “cities.”

For those following the folks I mentioned, will you rest on the most recent “nothing like us ever was” list of accomplishments – whether or not your parents have D1, D2, D3, or NAIA DNA - or will you also strive for excellence to keep the rats and lizards out of your school’s sports programs?