By BRYAN GASKINS
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.
