The Mail-Journal, Volume 22, Number 13, Milford, Kosciusko County, 27 March 1985 — Page 8

THE MAIL-JOURNAL—Wed., March 27,1985

8

Sports

Kobie, Swihart, Hapner make NLC honor squad

By CHRIS CAULEY Sports Editor , Wawasee senior guard Brooks Kobie probably knew he was a cinch to make the All-Northern Lakes Conference basketball team, what with his scoring average of 25.5 points per game ca school record 560 points) this winter. Kobie did make the All-NLC basketball team, which was announced after the eight conference coaches huddled and voted last Wednesday night. What was not so certain was whether any of Koble’s teammates would also be named to the NLC honor squad. Two were: playmaking guard Seth Swihart joined Kobie on the first team, and senior forward-center John Hapner was named to the second team.

Boys' track team has 'Good-speed'

By CHRIS CAULEY Sports Editor If the name of the team’s top hurdler can be taken as an omerf, the prospects for the Wawasee Warriors’ 1985 boys’ track team are bright indeed. That hurdler’s name is. Mike Goodspeed, and he’s got just that for the low and high hurdle events. He is particularly strong in the high hurdles. "The way he's running right now, and if things go right, he’ll probably make it all the way. to state,” said Wawasee coach Jerry Minton. “He’s really on top of it." Goodspeed was definitely on • top of it Monday night at the South Bend Classic/a 14-team extravaganza on the Notre Dame campus. Goodspeed’s time of 7.7 seconds in the 60-yard highs beat the next fastest finisher by a "full half-second. Teammate Steve Galegor finished fourth in the race with a time of 8.3 seconds. The Warriors, after leading most of the way. finished a close second to Buchanan. Mich, in the meet. Buchanan won with 704 points. Wawasee had 68 points and Norwell was third with 66 points. Two other NLC teams participated. North Wood wound up sixth with 45 points, and Rochester finished 12th with 14 points The Classic was the Warriors’ second meet in four days. They ran in the Culver Military Invitational last Friday and finished - fourth out of six teams with 71 points. Goshen. Culver Military and Plymouth, went 1-2-3 that dav. with Bremen and

Milford Intermediates down Lakeland Lakers

The Milford Junior High gymnastics team travelled to Lakeland last week for a seasonending meet against the Lakers. Lakeland edged the Trojans by a tenth of a point in the Beginning Level competition, 89.8-89.7. But Milford’s Intermediate team won by a large margin, 92.9-71.0. Placing for Milford’s Beginning team: Vaulting — Chris Warmoth, second; Heather Allen, third; Krissy Eisenhour, fifth. Bars. — Heather Allen, third; Krissy Eisenhour, fourth; Kendra Douglas, fifth. Beam — Krissy Eisenhour, first with 9.0. Dawn Speicher.

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WRESTLING TOURNAMENT—The Physical Education Department of Syracuse Elementary school held its annual 3rd, 4th and sth grade Wrestling Tournament last Tuesday night. The winners and runners-up are pictured in the accompanying photo. In order to get into the final match, students had to defeat each participant in their weight class. The boys wrestled for four weeks while working on moves, both offensive and defensive moves. This is the only program in the elementary physical education curriculum that is exhibited in front of the parents and the community. At the end of the program, Mr. John Naab handed out ribbons to each winner and runner-up. Parent support was excellent as approximately 200 parents were involved. Pictured in the first row, from left to right, are Chris Huffer, Tom

It is, after all, all for one and one for all. •‘lt gives you individual recognition, but it’s a good thing ' for all three of us,” Kobie said. “It definitely is ‘team,’ ’•’ added Coach John Wysong. “Because if they were 0-arid-7, they wouldn’t be on it. If you’re a good team, you’re going to get recognized. Look at Warsaw.” The Tigers, led by Mr. Basketball prospect Jeff Grose, breezed through the NLC portion of their schedule this winter a perfect 7-0. In reward, all five Warsaw starters made all-conference, four as first team selections and one on the second team. Wawasee, at 5-2, finished in a three-way tie for second with Plymouth and Concord. It is interesting to note that all 10 players named to the All-NLC First Team are from either War-

Churubusco trailing Wawasee in the final point totals. “We ran a lot better (Monday night),” Coach Minton said of the two meets. The Warriors’ other first place effort Monday night came in the two-mile relay where Brian Popenfoose, Troy Minton, Steve Hapner and Carl Rouch posted a time of 8:47, about eight seconds faster than the second place time. Two other Wawasee relay teams placed second. The shuttle relay team of Steve Galegor, Popenfoose, Goodspeed and Jeremy Corson finished in 32.7, just behind Parchment. Mich.’s 32.41. Also finishing second was the Wawasee sprint medley relay team of Galegor, John Hapner, Rich Karst and Basil Bonner. Their time was 2:33.4, three seconds off the first place time. Besides Goodspeed and Galegor in the open high hurdles,the Warriors also earned individual points in the shot put where Steve Sturgill got a third place ribbon for a put of 46-5 feet and where Scott McDowell was fourth with a heave of 45-1 feet. Could Be Improved The Warriors graduated their top pole vaulter of last spring. Brad LaCount. as well as the school record-holder in the 200 meters, Scott Johnson, but Coach Minton anticipates having a better team this spring. “We had a young team last -year,” he said. “When it got down to the big meets where you needed the (outstanding) individuals, we didn’t do as well as we did sometimes during the season. It may be a little bit different.

third with 8.0. Floor Exercise — prissy Eisenhour, first; Chris Warmoth, second; Dawn Speicher, fifth. Placing for the Milford Intermediates: Vault — Saby Vale, first; EmiIv Meyers, second; Lisa Mikel, fifth. Bars — Brit Stoller and Emily Meyers, second; Tina Clouse, third; Shanna Bushong, fourth. Beam — Saby Vale, first; Brit Stoller, second; Tina Clouse, fourth; Emily Meyers, fifth. Floor — Saby Vale, second; Brit Stoller, third; Shanna Bushong, fifth.

saw, Wawasee, Plymouth or Concord. “Brooks says it’s a team success when he breaks the scoring record,” Wysong said, alluding to a comment by his player. “That’s something important. It’S a team success for these guys to be allconference. Had we not had the record we did in the conference, they might not be on allconference. “Travis Reiff and Jeff Taylor (Warrior backups this season) are a big part of this in that they came every day to practice and worked very hard,” Wysong added. The entire Warrior team worked hard en route to a 14-8 finish. “We had talent and peqple who work hard,” Kobie said of the season. He added that he was not surprised by the team’s success, though some were.

though, this year with some of our outstanding individual talent.” Goodspeed and Galegor are some of that talent in the hurdles. In addition to his success Monday night. Goodspeed won both the 45-yard highs and 45-yard lows at Culver Military last Friday. His time of 5.8 in the high hurdles tied the meet record. Galegor was third in the same event with a time Os 6.3. Add to that duo senior Brian Popenfoose, who “is probably our best-returning low hurdler,” said Minton. “So in the hurdles we’re going to have a pretty veteran outfit. We can go a couple directions with that,” Popenfoose will also run the 400 meters and 400 meters as part of the 1600 relay team. In Friday’s meet at Culver Military Academy, he finished second in the 400 with a time of 51.4. Senior John Hapner, out for track for the first time since 9th grade, is another 400 runner. He was sixth in the event Friday with a 52.4 time. "John was an excellent runner in junior high,” Minton said. “We expect a lot out of him, as far as the 400 meters is concerned.” Juniors Price Pounds, sophomore Lance Ough and senior Steve Hapner are other 400 meter candidates. Several runners who were members of the cross country team last fall will lend quality and depth to the team’s lineup for the middle and long distance events. Those runners —for the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter events — inelude juniors Carl Rouch and Troy Minton and seniors Ballinger and Steve Hapner. In the-80(MRouch finished third (2:12.3) at Culver last Friday, Hapner fifth (2:13.4). Brian Popenfoose might also run the 800. Point-wise, Ballinger is the Warriors’ top returning distance runner, but he finished only fourth in the mile run at Culver last Friday. “He had a bout with bronchitis, which took him out for a couple weeks,” Minton said. “He’s not back to form yet, but when he is he should be one of the better 1600, 3200 meter runners in the conference.” Sprinters Are Young While there is no dearth of distance runners, Minton is looking for a few good men to carry the torch for 100 or 200 yards. He needs sprinters. ‘Our sprinters are very young,” he said. “The freshmen and sophomores, those that we

Jones, Joe Salazar, Mike Lemberg, Jon Gramme, Jamie Van Lue, Travis Edgar, Brian Dutcher, Jarrod Peace and Randy Smith. The second row, left to right, has Matt Mast, Scott Hand, Quinn Wegener, Andy Kryder, Jeremy Davidson, Shane Senter, Robert Jones, Michal Walton, Jeremy Brickey, Chris Peterson and Chris Ringler. From left, the third row is Robbie Anderson, Ben Ringler, Jesse Deaton, Brian Taylor, Kevin Leedy, Brian Baker, Nate Qtt, Chris Ganshorn, Brian Grothaus, Matthew Norris, Tim Ruggles, Eric Lossee and Brandon Lozano. Standing in the back row, left to right, are Andy Willis, Tray Feaster, Donnie Combs, Josh Peace, Mike Yoder and Mark Cannon. (Mail-Journal photo)

“You talk about over-achieving or playing over your head, but if you do it, you’re not,” Wysong said. “I think these guys did it through consistency and a solid effort.” No Doubt This Year ' A second-team all-conference player in 1983-84, Brooks Kobie left no doubt he’d be moving up this season. In addition to his lofty scoring totals, he led the Warriors in steals, with 49 and in free throw percentage with .71 (132-185). He was second on the team in rebounds with 120 and tied for second in assists with 38. “During the summer he worked hard on his pull-up jumper and on developing a real good use of the backboard to draw fouls and be effective going into traffic.” John Wysong said. “Those were the tw o things he said he wanted

are using in the sprints, are doing ( an excellent job. It’s just that it’s a little tough for them to compete with some of the seniors.” Candidates for the 100 and 200 meter races are sophomore Tim Mangas, who is a returning letterman but currently is injured, and freshmen Basil Bonner and Mike Meek. Mixed Bag The field events offer a mixed bag of good news and bad news for Wawasee. They lost their top pole vaulter of the past several years, LaCount. but the Warriors figure to score some points in the event this year with junior Todd McCullough, who earned a sixth place ribbon last Friday with a vault of 11 feet. In the high jump event, Minton said, iffy. We don’t really have anybody returning who’s scored any points.” Junior Brent Corl, however, will give it a try. The Warriors don’t have much returning strength in long jump either, but several have shown promise in the event during preseason, including freshmen Gary Stuckman and Mike Meek and junior Troy Boyer. The situation appears brighter in the shot put and discus events where Steve Sturgill is a returning lettermen and where several others have shown they’ll be able to cut the mustard. “I expect a Jot of scoring from Steve in the shot and discus,” Minton said. “Jay Rhodes should come through with a lot of scoring in the discus and Scott AjcDowell, who’s a ‘sophomore, lias been throwing the shot real And Drew Parr scored some points last year in the discus.” As noted earlier, Sturgill and McDowell finished 3-4 in the shot put Monday night, and Sturgill was also third at Culver Military last Friday. His toss then was 46-11 feet. While Wawasee will be improved, so will some of the opposition, cautions Coach Minton. “At this point, we’re ahead of where we were last year,” he said. “We’re a better team. We’ve got more depth and we’ve got a lot of possibilities here among the kids who are going to improve, but who we haven’t tested yet. “As far as where we re going to finish, the conference is stronger than it was last year,” Minton said. “Goshen, Plymouth, Warsaw and probably even North Wood are all going to be very competitive. We won’t lose any meets outside our conference and very few of them will either.”

to work on and those were the two things he got done very well.” Kobie was a big — make that huge — part of the Wawasee offense in ’B4-85. He made 440, or nearly half, of the team’s total shots, and he was good on 214 of those attempts. No other Warrior made more than 56 field goals. “Most of the time we worked the ball around and if Kobie decided to drive, he could usually get his shots,” Seth Swihart said. “But we weren’t pushing it to him all the time. We looked for our shots, too.” Swihart, the Warriors’ 5-9 point guard, looked often enough to score 214 points, second-best on the team. He led the team in assists with 56 and was second in steals with* 32. He and Kobie were Wawasee’s only returning, players this season with any significant amount of varsity experience. Swihart was the Warriors’ sixth man in his junior year. “I brought the ball up a lot more this year than last year, and I had to help out more on offense and on defense this year,” he said. “I had to do more scoring this year. Last year there were three people who did most of the scoring, and it really didn’t matter if I scored a lot. This year I had to help out Kobie.” A Big Jump From JV John Hapner leap-frogged all the way from the reserve team his junior year to second-team all-conference as a senior. “It wasn’t that big a thing, but I wasn’t sure of a lot of things at the beginning of the season,” he said. “That Carroll game, first game of the season — I can hardly remember anything that happened in that game. I was in kind of a daze.” He recovered from his shell shock, however, to score 130 total points. More importantly, he played good defense in the post area and, at only six feet in height, led the Warriors in rebounds with 144. But with Hapner and some of the other all-conference players, the stats don’t tell the whole

Lady Warriors anticipate successful season"

By CHRIS CAULEY Sports Editor After slumping to a “dismal” 7-4-1 dual meet record in 1984, Wawasee girls' track coach Barb Brouwer foresees a return to better days this spring, a return to the kind of success the team had in 1981-82-83. In those three years the Wawasee girls posted records of 10-0, 12-0 and 12-0. “Last year’s team was probably the weakest since I’ve been here,” said Brouwer, who’s starting her fifth year as track coach. “We were lacking a little bit of depth, and we really just didn’t have the standouts that we’d had in the past. Last year was the first year we didn’t have somebody participate in the state meet.” The Lady Warriors did send five into regional competition last spring and three of those girls are back. “They’ll probably provide the basic scoring punch that we’ll have this year,” Brouwer said. “Jeannine Gunn is very good in both the high jump and the long jump. Sayne Payne is good in both the 100 and 300 hurdles. And Christy Speicher is good in both the shot and discus. ‘‘We’ve got some underclassmen — we had an intersquad meet Friday night — and some of them were looking very good,” the coach added. Gunn, a junior, won the high jump event at the'NLC meet last spring, going 5-2, and she was sectional champ in long jump. Wawasee could have depth in the high jump event, as Brouwer said that three girls cleared the sectional qualifying height of 4-10 last Friday: Jeannine Gunn, Jennifer Gunn and Steff Jamiel. The latter two girls are both freshmen.

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SETH SWIHART story, said John Wysong. “Defense is hard to measure,” the coach said. “Like Hapner for us. All the coaches felt Hapner played good defense. But what can we show you, statistically, to prove itA, Nothing, really. The coaches accept that. They know defense is a big key to winning, and winning is a big key to individual recognition.” An NBA star probably thinks about making the all-star team. High school players think about such things as well but, unlike the pros who have mass public appeal, high school athletes have little control over such honors. So making an all-conference team is not usually a primary concern. “I think, what they do is concentrate on what they can do and do it as fundamentally well as they can,” Wysong said. “Then, ‘Let's see if we can get the wins that we need to attain the individual recognition that we strive for.’

400 Relay Returns Jeannine Gunn, junior Belinda Whitridge and senior Sandy Payne are all back from the 400 relay team which set a school record of 51.8 seconds at the NLC meet last year. Payne, in the hurdles, was second in the conference to Tracey Long in the 100 meter hurdles (15.7) and holds the school record for the 300 hurdles, 49.6. Whitridge and sophomore Julie Schmahl should also score points, Brouwer said, in the 100 and 300 hurdles, respectively. Need Sprinters In addition to running the 100 hurdles and the 400 relay, Whitridge also gives Wawasee a point-getter in the 200 dash where she holds the school record of 27.1 seconds. After Whitridge, however, the Warriors’ sprinting corps is something of an unknown quantity. Candidates to run the 100 or 200 meters include sophomores Kelly Mitchell and Raeni Rinker and possibly Jeannine Gunn. Kristina Lange returns to run the 400 meters, like she did her freshman year in ’B4. “She was 9th or 10th in NLC last year and she’s running much stronger,” Brouwer said. Steff Jamiel is another possible 400 runner, the coach said. Distance Runners Set Wawasee, traditionally strong is girls’ cross country in the fall, should be strong in the track distance events because the same girls are out. Patty Routson, a junior, and Amy Clouse, a senior, are “both strong” in the 800 meters, Brouwer said, and they might be joined in that event by another cross country runner, senior Sherri Mock. Junior Becca Stiver gives the Warriors a top-notch runner in the 1600. Sophomore Ann

JOHN HAPNER “I think it’s more that it occurs as a result of excellence in practice and hard play than of them simply deciding to turn on the burners during a game,” the coach added. Following is a brief sketch of the non-Wawasee players on the All-NLC basketball teams. FIRST TEAM Tylor Coley. Concord. 6 4 senior guard — Averaged 14.8 in conference action, shooting 58 percent from the floor in seven games Had a high game of 25 points vs. Warsaw. Shawn Kemp, Concord, 6-8 freshman center — Averaged 12 points, 12 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots against NLC foes He had highs'of 21 points vs. Wawasee, 15 re bounds vs. North Wood and 7 blocked shots vs. Rochester. Jeff Grose, Warsaw. 6 2 senior guard — In seven NLC games. Grose averaged 30 points and 7 rebounds He shot 83 percent from the charity stripe and 65 percent from the floor. Steve Hollar, Warsaw, 6 1 senior guard — Averaged 10.6 points and 7 assists in NLC games v Rick Fox, Warsaw, 6 5 sophomore center — Scored an average of 14.6 points and averaged 8 4 rebounds. Shot 68 percent from the field. Jeff Tucker. Warsaw, 6 0 senior guard - Averaged 8.3 points and 5.4 rebounds vs NLC teams. Tony Plothow, Plymouth, 5-11 senior guard — Shot 53 percent from the floor and

Vitaniemi and freshman Marcie Coy are other 1600 candidates. Payne, Gunn and Whitridge will run three of the four legs of the 400 relay team, while Kristina Lange is set as one of the 1600 relay team runners. Other candidates include Steff Jamiel, Amy Clouse, Patty Routson and Julie Schmahl Speicher Tops In Shot Senior Christy Speicher and junior Michelle Harter are both returning letterwinners in the shot put event. Speicher, in fact, won the NLC last year with a heave of 35-9 feet. Speicher also competes in discus, and senior Greta Hilker and junior Shelley Brumbaugh lend depth in that event. Junior Irma Cruz and Belinda Whitridge back up Jeannine Gunn in long jump, and Cruz is one of the team’s several high jumpers. In all, the Warriors have 12 returning letterwinners, so no wonder Barb Brouwer is optimistic. “We’ve, got more people back, we’ve got a better attitude and we’ve got a better concept,” the coach said. “It’s been an enjoyable. year so far, the most enjoyable year I’ve ever had, so far, in coaching track.” Brouwer, of course, is also the head volleyball and assistant girls’ basketball coach at Wawasee, and she says coaching track is probably the toughest of

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w T BROOKSKOBLE > averaged 20 4 points, 3.4 assists and 2.8 steals. Jack McCray. Plymouth. 6 1 junior guard — Also shot 53 percent from the floor and averaged 11.7 points and 3.7 assists. SECOND TEAM Jeff Van Curen, Goshen — The 6 3 senior frontcourter shot 52 percent in NLC contests, scored 78 points and hauled down 51 rebounds. Dwayne O'Connor, Concord — The 6-4 junior averaged 7.7 points and 5 rebounds. Scott Crist. North Wood — Scored 67 points and had 45 rebounds in seven NLC games. Todd Crist. North Wood — Shot 86 percent at the stripe and 63 percent from the floor, scored 66 points Scott King, Rochester — The 6 3 junior center averaged 12.7 points and 8.7 rebounds in seven conference games Joe Sands, Warsaw — The 6 2 senior for ward averaged 4 points and 5.8 boards in NLC competition. Tim Feldman. Bremen — The 6 3 junior frontcourter averaged 10 points and nearly 5 boards per game vs. NLC woes, er, foes. Kip Edel. Bremen — The 5-7 junior guard averaged 9 points. 3 steals and 3 assists Brett Starr, Plymouth — Poured in 41 points in seven NLC games, an average of 5.8. An 81 percent FT shooter. 50 percent FG shooter

the three. “It’s a difficult sport to coach,” she said, “after coming off two team sports. In those, you have control over almost every situation because you’re on a court, but track is pretty much an individualized sport where the kids have to work as hard as they want to be good. It’s a direct relationship. “And when you have them doing discus on one side of the track and running the cross country course out in the boondocks, and they’re 28 different places on the track doing individual events —a lot of it’s got to be selfmotivation,” Brouwer said. “Last year, I think we were lacking in that.” ; The coach pointed to senior Sandy Payne as an example. Payne’s best time in the 100 hurdles last year was 16.4 seconds — she has already run a 16.1 in pre-season this year. “She’s working a lot harder this year,” Brouwer said. “I think that comes from the leadership that she along with the other four seniors are providing. They’re setting the tone for the whole team to work hard, and as a result I think we’re going to get a lot better performances out of individual than we had last year.” The Wawasee girls host Westview this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in their season opener.