BricksCenter
DaDaDa DaDaDa
February 3, 2019
21 Sports ... 1 Team ... WE ARE HOBART!
E-learning was the theme for last week ... and even though our students were no doubt also participating in some E-sports (it's in the game), Hobart winter athletes were also participating in some REAL sports - girls basketball and swimming were in IHSAA Sectional competition and our Hobart wrestlers hosted the IHSAA Regional!
Can anyone hear it? If not, listen carefully ... that's called theme music ... it's time for BricksCenter!
Swimming & Diving
"Strength in the Face of Adversity" ... I think this might need to be put on a t-shirt for our girls swimmers.
Adversity = During the most important week of their season, not only was Mother Nature trying to keep them from practicing, but our own pool broke down! THANK YOU to our maintenance staff for getting things back up and running just in time for our Lady Brickies to practice ONCE before heading over to Chesterton High School for the IHSAA Swim & Dive Sectional on Friday.
Strength = Mentally tough enough to believe in themselves, in their training, and as John Wooden used to say, "be at their best when their best was needed" ... no matter what has been thrown at our girls this year, they have OVERCOME and EXCELLED!
Out of 10 schools at the Sectional, our girls placed 5th ... narrowly missing out on 3rd - who knows what might've happened if we could've practiced! :)
State powerhouse Chesterton won 10 of the 12 events ... do you know who won the other 2?
H-H-H-O-B ...A-A-A-R-T .... H-O-B-A-R-T .... HOBART!!!
Sophomore Emma Wright CONTINUED to show her COMMAND of the pool as she left the competition in her wake and won both the 50 and 100 freestyle races! In winning the 100, she also broke a 9-year old sectional record by swimming a 50.00 ... it was also a new school record and Chesterton pool record!!!
By winning both events, Emma has qualified for the STATE FINALS in Indianapolis next weekend!!! This will be Emma's 2nd consecutive trip to STATE after finishing 21st in the 50 free and 22nd in the 100 free last February.
Obviously, Emma stole the show, but she was not the only Lady Brickie who showed her STRENGTH in the water! Here are our other podium finishers:
200 Medley Relay - senior Nina Rucinski and sophomores Alivia Ahner, Delaney O'Brien and Ana Tepavcevich - 6th place
Diving - sophomore Alivia Ahner - 5th place and freshman Sydney Arias - 7th place
100 Back - Sophomore Delaney O'Brien - 6th place
100 Breast - sophomore Ana Tepavcevich - 7th place
400 Free Relay - freshmen teammates Bridget Chavez, Chelsea Chavez, Brooke Blanchard and Paige Solivais - 7th place
Hobart Head Girls Coach Katie Rinas was also voted the Sectional Coach of the Year!!!
The way our swim coaching staff works together, this was a true TEAM EFFORT ... CONGRATULATIONS to Katie, Ken Cawthon, Alivia Pender and Sydney Curatolo!
All are Hobart Grads ... can you say Brickie Pride? I can ... BRICKIEPRIDE!!!
We are SO PROUD of our young ladies and coaching staff for such an AMAZING performance over at Chesterton! This group showed outstanding STRENGTH in the face of ADVERSITY ...
can't wait to see how Emma does at STATE!
GOOD LUCK EMMA! WE ARE WRIGHT BEHIND YOU!! :)
#JUSTKEEPSWIMMING
#STATEBOUND
Boys
No competitions this week ... other than trying to find somewhere to practice :)
The boys will face off with Wheeler this Wednesday in their final regular season swim meet - Sectionals begin in 2 weeks!
#WEGOTNEXT
Check out the video below to see sophomore Emma Wright's RECORD-BREAKING 100 Freestyle race!
See what the NWI Times had to say about stellar sophomore Emma Wright!
Wrestling
Our wrestlers not only had to worry about trying to practice this week with the IHSAA REGIONAL competition taking place on Saturday, but they had weight management to control as well! TALK ABOUT WILL POWER! :)
Last weekend at the Portage Sectional, Hobart advanced 13 out of 14 wrestlers to the REGIONAL. On Saturday, HOBART played host to 18 different schools and eight wrestlers from each weight class who advanced from last week. These student athletes were battling for 4 coveted spots ... and BATTLE they did! The top 4 from each weight class all advance to next weekend's East Chicago Semi-State.
In front of a near-capacity crowd and under the spotlight in the finals, OUR BOYS DID SHINE! Hobart finished 3rd overall (behind state ranked Merrillville and Portage), put 11 of our 13 competitors in the top 4 of EVERY WEIGHT CLASS, and advanced those 11 wrestlers to the SEMI-STATE!!!
Sophomore Bobby Babcock was Hobart's lone REGIONAL CHAMPION as he captured the 195-lb title! Bobby has now won the NCC, Sectional and Regional Titles this year!!
Overall, Hobart advanced 6 wrestlers to the FINALS - losing some EXTREMELY HARD FOUGHT matches under the spotlight. It really was a FANTASTIC day of competition with "Yohan Balash" looking on ... one that would make all of us PROUD TO BE BRICKIES with the way our boys battled!
Here are your Brickie SEMI-STATE QUALIFIERS:
106 - freshman Ruben Padilla - Regional RUNNER-UP
113 - freshman Trevor Schammert - 4th place
120 - sophomore Cristian Padilla - Regional RUNNER-UP
126 - junior Nathan Schammert - Regional RUNNER-UP
152 - sophomore Tyler Turley - Regional RUNNER-UP
160 - freshman Jacob Simpson - 3rd place
170 - senior Jacob Vode - 3rd place
182 - sophomore Cameron Smith - Regional RUNNER-UP
195 - sophomore Bobby Babcock - Regional CHAMPION
220 - junior Mark Mummey - 4th place
285 - junior Chad Mclean - 3rd place
Next stop on the #BrickRODE is the East Chicago SEMI-STATE!
To quote former White Sox announcer Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson, "DON'T STOP NOW BOYS!!!"
THANK YOU to EVERYONE who played a role in HHS hosting the IHSAA Wrestling Regional! It truly does 'take a village' and I am so thankful that I get to work with all the wonderful people in this one
#STATEmentMADE
Sophomore Bobby Babcock - 195 lb REGIONAL CHAMPION!
IHSAA WRESTLING REGIONAL "Hype Video" courtesy of Coach Cook!
Basketball
"Strength vs. Adversity" seems to be a more relevant theme than e-learning this week ... after seeing what our girls swimmers and wrestlers had to overcome - the Lady Brickies perhaps had to show the most strength ... or battled the greatest adversity ... in their sectional semi-final game against the #3 ranked and defending sectional champion Kankakee Valley Lady Kougars.
Back on December 7th, the Lady Brickies traveled to KV and lost by 54 points ... 76-22. When the Merrillville Sectional draw came out 2 weeks ago and our girls got the bye - KV was the favorite and likely the team we would see in the semi-finals.
How do you prepare to beat ... or just get kids to BELIEVE they CAN beat a team that already defeated them by 54 points? ... and then NOT get to practice most of the week before the game? ... and then lose your 2nd leading scorer (sophomore Lexi Williams) to strep throat the day before the game? Folks, that's what we call ADVERSITY. ... and that's exactly what makes what our girls did on Saturday night that much more IMPRESSIVE
Granted, we did not win ... KV shot lights out from 3 and won 74-39. However, against ENORMOUS odds, our girls played their hearts out! They were diving on the floor for loose balls, taking charges, attacking the basket against the much taller Lady Kougars ... trying to execute on both ends and BATTLE ... I mean BATTLE ... with everything they had against a superior opponent.
Losing by 35 points on the scoreboard isn't fun, but facing what our girls faced and improving the margin from December by nearly 20 points? #STRENGTH
The Lady Brickies may have lost, but they were NOT defeated and they played 32 minutes as HARD as they could regardless of what the scoreboard said.
Winning and losing is too often how we are all judged, but the Lady Brickies showed us that it really is HOW you play the game that counts. Congratulations to Coach Feddeler, his staff and all of our girls for showing such STRENGTH and for representing HOBART with PRIDE.
#LIFELESSONS
Boys
The boys ended up with the week off from competition as their home game against Kankakee Valley was postponed until Tuesday, February 19th. They will be back in action THIS FRIDAY with a Northwest Crossroads Conference match-up with rival Andrean. BE THERE!
#MAKETHEMBELIEVE
Gymnastics
#STICKIT
STAFF RECOGNITION
THANK YOU for modeling such SUCCESS for our students and student-athletes ... the better we handle adverse scenarios, the better chance our kids have of learning how they should.
#ALLMYLIFE
Sports Schedule This Week
9th Boys Basketball vs. Hammond Clark
Tuesday
Boys Basketball @ Hanover Central
Wednesday
Boys Swimming @ Wheeler
9th Boys Basketball @ Marquette Catholic
Thursday
Gymnastics @ Lowell *
Friday
Boys Basketball vs. Andrean *
Emma Wright @ Swimming STATE FINALS (Prelims)
Saturday
Gymnastics @ Merrillville (JV Invite)
Wrestling @ SEMI-STATE (East Chicago Central High School)
Emma Wright @ Swimming STATE FINALS (Finals)
* = NCC Opponent