Anderson’s Troy Lewis, Michigan City Rogers’ Delray Brooks, Tipton’s Kreigh Smith and Whitko’s Jeff Peters all have a firm place in Western boys basketball coach Andy Weaver’s memory. They all wore the Red, White and Blue of the Indiana All-Stars in 1984.
“My senior year, which was 1984, I can pretty much say the whole team without looking it up,” said the Clinton Prairie graduate.
The 2010 team likely will hold a special place in Weaver’s memory too.
Weaver will serve as an assistant coach on the Indianapolis Star-sponsored squad, which will take on the Kentucky All-Stars in games on June 11 and June 12. Ron Hecklinski of Anderson is the head coach and Michael Adams of Evansville Reitz is the other assistant coach.
Kokomo’s Charlie Hall, who is the Indiana Games Director, is happy to have Weaver on board.
“I don’t think there’s a more consistent coach in the state than Andy in terms of putting out good teams, but more importantly, he’s the kind of person that you would want around the kids in this setting,” Hall said. “I think he will be a calming influence with kind of how things go and I think he’ll complement the other two coaches really well.”
Weaver said he is “humbled” by the selection.
“I never dreamed that I would get to be a part of the All-Stars. There are so many really good coaches in the state of Indiana including some really good coaches here in our area,” he said.
“To get this honor, I owe it all to the players who have played for us at Western over my 13 years, and I’ve had a lot of assistant coaches who have worked their tails off. I owe a lot to all of them. I am the one who gets [this opportunity], but I also know that without the players and the assistant coaches, I wouldn’t even be considered.”
Weaver owns a 169-121 record in 13 seasons at Western and a 188-165 career record.
Weaver spent three seasons at Pioneer before landing the Western job.
“I’ve been blessed. Western has been the perfect stop for me,” he said. “When I took the Western job 13 years ago, I was really hoping deep down that that would be a place where I’d plant my roots. Obviously, it’s turned out to be that way.”
Weaver inherited a program in need of a spark following seven straight losing seasons. Weaver’s first two Western squads went a combined 10-32, but he has fielded competitive squads ever since.
Weaver led the Panthers to a 93-27 record and four Class 3A sectional championships in a five-year span from 2003-2007. They won a regional championship in 2004, falling a game shy of the state finals.
“The kids in that five-year span would run through a brick wall for us. They were teams that were together and guys embraced their roles,” Weaver said. “I really credit the players and the coaches at that particular time — I really felt like we made strides defensively. We definitely improved on our preparation.”
Weaver noted the influence of other coaches on his career.
“In all honesty, there were some great role-model coaches in our area that I looked at when I got to Western. I saw how hard they worked and how, when you played them, they took away things you wanted to run. We kind of modeled off some of those successful coaches, stole some things both defensively and offensively and it’s panned out,” he said.
Weaver plans to learn what he can from the other All-Star coaches, and do what he can to help prepare the squad to beat Kentucky.
Most of all, he hopes to soak up the experience.
“You want to experience so many things that this great game brings us,” he said.
Sports
Weaver ‘humbled’ by All-Star selection
Western coach to help Anderson’s Hecklinski with Hoosier boys
- Sports
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Western girls put defensive clamps on West Lafayette
Western opened its postseason by putting on a defensive clinic against host West Lafayette Wednesday night in a Class 3A Sectional opening round game.
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Rival Berries visit Kokomo
Muncie Central has the North Central Conference boys basketball championship in sight. The Class 3A No. 2-ranked Bearcats are 5-0 in league play with games remaining against second-division squads Anderson and Marion.
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Black takes spot among Taylor’s elite
Growing up, Mone’y Black always saw herself as a softball player first.
She was Taylor’s go-to player for the large portions of her career on the basketball and volleyball courts, but her first love was the diamond.
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Kats lose heartbreaker
Kokomo’s girls basketball team executed its game plan to near perfection against host Logansport in the first game of the Class 4A Logansport Sectional Tuesday.
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Tipton races by Taylor
Over the last two seasons, Tipton’s girls basketball team has been held under 40 points in just three games.
Tuesday’s sectional opponent — Taylor — held the Blue Devils down in two of those games. Tuesday was a different story.
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It’s tourney time
In the girls basketball regular season, Tipton and Logansport compiled gaudy records and conference championships while Taylor and Kokomo finished with sub-.500 records.
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What a kick for Hoosier native Weatherford
Indianapolis — While Steve Weatherford celebrated with his teammates in the New York Giants’ locker room after the 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, thoughts inevitably turned to Terre Haute — his hometown.
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Ice baths can improve your health
Several years ago, I applied to be a participant in the weekly television show “Survivor.” Disappointingly, I was rejected.
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Wiechmann comes up big in regional
Western senior wrestler Jake Wiechmann had lost twice this season to Kokomo standout Fletcher Miller, and was trailing 3-1 to Miller in the third period of the championship of the 182-pound match at the Peru Regional Saturday when the opportunity for vengeance struck.
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Wildkat wrestlers move nine onto Ft. Wayne semistate
The Kokomo Wildkats’ bus will need just a little bit more gas than usual next weekend to haul its cargo up to Fort Wayne for Saturday’s individual wrestling semistate at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
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