Published: October 28, 2009 11:38 pm         

Amey Takes Aim: You don’t have to look far for inspirational Valley teams

This is a weekend when it would be nice if I could be two places at once — three if you count trick or treating — so I’m going to have to ask a favor of you.

As many of you as possible need to get out to LaVern Gibson Championship Course on Saturday to support Terre Haute North’s teams in the high school cross country state championship meet.

Both teams of Patriots emerged from two weeks at Brown County in impressive — if muddy — fashion. It couldn’t have been easy for them, since several Patriots would seem to be in danger of being swallowed up by a puddle of any depth at all. Some of them, particularly on the girls team, are like hummingbirds — tiny, but with hearts that won’t quit.

North’s boys were ranked higher than its girls in the most recent poll I could find, but since that poll came out the Patriot girls have beaten at least one team ranked ahead of them — twice. I wouldn’t put any limits on what either team can do.

I can’t be there because I’ll be covering another inspirational bunch, the Northview volleyball team. The Knights were so resilient last week at Martinsville that by the time the championship match reached its third game — with Northview trailing 2-0, naturally — I turned to Brazil Times sportswriter Carey Fox and said, “[The Knights] have got [Terre Haute North] right where they want them.”

Volleyball has been a fun sport among the Knights, Patriots and Terre Haute South this fall. If my calculations are correct, in fact, Northview wound up with an even split in games for the season against both Terre Haute teams, with South winning its only match against North.

I’d ask a few of you to travel down to Seymour to support the Knights, but I don’t have to. Their crowd was the biggest every night at Martinsville, so if those fans survived their team’s comebacks without cardiac arrest I’m sure they’ll be there again on Saturday.

Now if you’d like to come up and take Darcy and JoJo trick-or-treating, maybe we could arrange that. JoJo’s costume alone might make it worthwhile.

Both of them are kind of stingy with candy — but they go to bed pretty early.

• Illinois playoff tidbits — The Illinois High School Association has sent along some information as football playoffs begin this weekend.

Class 2A, which includes both Casey and Marshall, has had the fewest past state champions. Current playoff representatives have won nine times with Casey, of course, being one of the seven schools who are former winners. Class 2A also has the fewest 9-0 teams — Casey being one of two — but the most 8-1 teams, Marshall being one of nine.

Casey is the only school to lead its class in both scoring (44.7 points per game) and scoring defense (3.7 points per game, just one point worse than Quincy Notre Dame (in Class 4A) which leads the entire state.

Marshall is the biggest school in Class 2A which, if I understand the Illinois pairings, means that if one more smaller school had enjoyed a great season, the Lions would be playing in Class 3A. Cumberland, another Little Illini Conference team in the tournament, is the biggest Class 1A school.

This is the 25th playoff appearance for Casey, best in Class 2A, and the 10th consecutive appearance for Marshall, third-best in the class behind Toulon (Stark County) with 14 straight seasons and Aledo (Mercer County) with 13.

In Class 3A, Robinson had the longest drought among playoff teams, making its first appearance since 2002. The Maroons play at Tolono Unity, whose 16 playoff appearances rank third in the class behind DuQuoin (26 in a row) and St. Joseph-Ogden (19).

• Once a Laker, always a Laker — Grand Valley State won its eighth straight Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference cross country championship on Saturday.

Sophomore Anthony Witt of Shakamak was fourth among the Lakers but fifth overall as GVSU won with a team score of 21.



Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. for comments or news items at (812) 231-4277 or at 1-800-783-8742; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.