Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
My vocation (almost 41 years and counting altogether) sometimes involves the following paraphrased dialogue.
“Chip, I see one of your sites’ operating costs are higher than usual,” they’ll ask. “So have you addressed concerns about this?”
I’ll reply, “I know, and I have, but I don’t see a burning platform THERE… I’m watching other stuff.”
So, what, right?
Read on.
I enjoyed watching the Lady Tigers basketball team convincingly defeat the top-ranked (at least on the afternoon of December 22) Norwell Knights 71-37.
The Warsaw Lady Tigers basketball team isn’t taking any opposing program lightly. There are, inarguably, some tomato cans among their next 12 regular season games.
Many of us in the stands will note the obvious: the toughest competition will be visits to the Tiger Den by Northridge (January 10) and Homestead (Jan 20), and a season finale against a tough Class 3A Bellmont squad (Jan 28).
The latter is probably pleased with Norwell’s bump-up to Class 4A, for what it’s worth.
This Lady Tiger cage squad is focused on continuous improvement regardless of who’s next on the schedule. Their quality of recent defensive play appears unsullied by the kurtosis in focus and attitude typical of a group of 15- to 19-year-old student athletes.
I’ve shared my thoughts enough that you’ll notice I won’t reel off the stats supporting this performance. I’m thinking about what I saw differently from most sports columnists and game reporters.
I watch other stuff.
The consistent results throughout December will now change the way I’ll watch the rest of the Lady Tigers’ regular and postseason action.
I’ll start with the most obvious.
Although I used a disparaging term already (tomato cans – a boxing term - look it up), I’m not so callous to forget I am still seeing – even among lesser-skilled opponents - their kids’ best efforts.
I’ll say to myself, remember these are student athletes doing their best against a very savvy collection of three-year and four-year starters.
I’ll watch opposing players’ and coaches’ body language and see how true they are to their game plan. Will they respond in knee-jerk fashion? Will they say, “Let’s just see what our takeaways are from battling this unicorn?”
I’ll watch and listen to how the Lady Tigers’ second and third lines make the best use of their minutes. Do they stick to the script, or do they go rogue?
If you listened to the live streams of the morning and evening Hall of Fame games on Monday, the most volume came from Warsaw’s players on the bench, and from coaches giving instruction to the final buzzer.
I’ll watch how the starters watch the game from the sidelines during convincing wins. It’s one of the things visiting collegiate coaches watch, too.
I’ll focus more on watching what the team works on defensively because the points off turnovers and faster-paced transition sets will be incidental, and, furthermore, the function of the defensive effort.
Of course, Warsaw has some great half-court sets, too, but the most recent defensive results come from the highest basketball IQ action I’ve seen locally… ever.
I am not watching the polls. My gut tells me Pike (Township) will make the bump to number one. Frankly, who cares if Pike lands there?
I encourage each of you to ignore the polls, too. Are Indiana’s post-season tournaments (aside from wrestling) seeded anyway? Trust your eyeballs. I sure know what I saw this past Monday. So do you.
We’ll learn who the top two Class 4A teams in the state are 56 days from today.
I’m going to savor each game, win or lose, because there was an elevated level of commitment and practice reps in kids’ driveways and in team practices over the previous three seasons to increase this team’s collective basketball IQ.
Somewhere in the next 42 to 63 days this experience will end, which sends my concluding thoughts toward a sharp turn.
Between the 43rd to 64th day from today will be a few or many days by choice or by mandate throughout each of these student athletes’ lives where they either do something as simple as adapt to a new set of teammates or make wholesale changes in their career paths.
The lessons learned among those “next steps” I mentioned - whether they are few or many over the coming decades – are something no taught in classrooms. Nonetheless, they’ll be even more valuable than learning to defend the short corners in a 1-3-1 defense.
Don’t be surprised if you ask me what the final scores among the remaining contests are and my response is, “I don’t recall.”
I’m watching other stuff.
