The Karate Kid is a 1984 American martial arts film starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. The story follows Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), a teenager taught karate by Mr. Miyagi (Morita) to help defend himself. In a very quotable movie, one of my favorites comes from Mr. Miyagi ...

"Walk on road, hmmm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle ... sooner or later ... get squish just like grape!"

What he is saying here is that if you 're going to do something, commit to it ... do it to the fullest or don't do it at all. Put full effort into everything you do. Over the past 3 months, the Brickies have been doing just that ... putting their FULL EFFORT into being their best - committing to training HARD so that they perform at their best when it's needed. This past week was another exciting one in H-town with girls hoops wrapping up the regular season, gymnasts competing against defending state champions, and wrestlers shooting for a take down in the IHSAA SECTIONAL!

Put those hands together ... it's time for BricksCenter!

On Saturday, the Brickie grapplers were at Portage High School for the start of the 2021-2022 IHSAA Tournament Series ... or as Coach Cook might put it, the first stop on the #BrickRode to Indianapolis! Two weeks removed from winning their 8th consecutive Northwest Crossroads Championship, Hobart was looking to pin down the school's 31st sectional crown against a stacked field. Our boys have literally wrestled different kinds of adversity all year ... injuries, illness ... and they've made us SO PROUD because of their PERSEVERANCE, EFFORT and ATTITUDE!

In one word, the Brickies were FANTASTIC on Saturday! Our boys pushed the defending champion Indians to the limit! OUR BOYS SHINED and came away with 6 SECTIONAL CHAMPIONS (Trevor Schammert, Daniel Mata, Donovan Ruiz, Aidan Costello, Jacob Simpson & Justin Sawyer) and 12 REGIONAL QUALIFIERS!! Portage also had 6 champions and 14 regional qualifiers. To say the competition was close would be an understatement. Ultimately, Portage was able to outdistance the Brickies by a mere 11 team points (288-277) and earn the crown. While the trophy may have stayed at Portage ... for their 34th title in school history, our boys showed a tremendous amount of BRICKIE PRIDE, wrestled their butts off and should hold their heads high ... their greatest glory is ahead of them!! Coach Cook had this to say after a long & exciting day of competition, "We're proud of this team".

Here are 12 Brickies who advanced to next weekend's IHSAA REGIONAL:

106 lbs - freshman Seth Aubin - 2nd place

113 lbs - senior Trevor Schammert - SECTIONAL CHAMPION

120 lbs - freshman Daniel Mata - SECTIONAL CHAMPION

126 lbs - senior Donovan Ruiz - SECTIONAL CHAMPION

132 lbs - sophomore Kaden Miller - 3rd place

145 lbs - junior Jonny McGill - 2nd place

152 lbs - freshman Aidan Costello - SECTIONAL CHAMPION

160 lbs - junior Alan Turich - 4th place

182 lbs - senior Jacob Simpson - SECTIONAL CHAMPION

195 lbs - senior Justin Sawyer - SECTIONAL CHAMPION

220 lbs - senior Ashton Battistella - 3rd place

285 lbs - senior Alex Pickett - 3rd place

A few more highlights from Saturday:

Hobart has great balance between the upper & underclassmen with 6 seniors advancing to the REGIONAL next week - 4 were SECTIONAL CHAMPIONS ... and 6 underclassmen advancing as well - 3 freshman earned SECTIONAL TITLES as well!! Like I said earlier, the Brickies were FANTASTIC!

Next week, Hobart hosts the IHSAA REGIONAL and the Brickies will have a contender in 12 out of the 14 weight classes. Top 4 places advance to the Semi-State @ East Chicago. DON'T STOP NOW BOYS!!

#BRICKRODE

Girls

In the final week of the regular season, the Lady Brickies were in action twice with a chance to reach .500 in the Win-Loss column before IHSAA Sectional play begins over at Crown Point next week!

Tuesday, the Wheeler Lady Bearcats visited The Friendly City for a non-conference varsity match-up. Behind some STELLAR D-D-D-DEFENSE played by the Lady Brickies, our girls pitched a SHUTOUT in the 1st quarter and led 17-0 after 8 minutes!! INCREDIBLE! Wheeler was finally able to put the ball in the basket early in the 2nd, but by halftime, Hobart had built a hefty 31-10 advantage!! The game never got close over the final 16 minutes as the Lady Brickies CRUISED to an easy 50-25 VICTORY!! Junior sensation Asia Donald led all scorers with 26 points ... sophomore Jesse Neace added 9pts and classmate Cailey Weber chipped in 6 in the win.

On Friday night, Hobart welcomed Hammond Central to town for the regular season finale.

The Lady Wildcats came to play and were making our girls WORK WORK WORK for everything they got in a competitive 1st half of play. The Lady Brickies scored the 1st 4 points of the 3rd quarter and extended the lead to 32-13! Just when it appeared that Hobart held a comfortable lead, Hammond Central roared back with 6 consecutive points to cut the deficit to just 39-23. At that point, Brickie senior Amarea Donald scored a lay-up and classmate Piper Logan BURIED a 3 to push the advantage back over 20 at 44-23!! Juniors Niko Latinovic and Asia Donald scored on the next two Hobart possessions and our girls coasted the rest of the way for a DOMINANT 63-35 VICTORY!! The Donald sisters combined for 32 points and Neace added 10 to help Hobart win their 11th game of the year and reach the .500 mark!!

The Lady Brickies finished the regular season at 11-11 and will open up IHSAA Sectional play on Wednesday night over at Crown Point. Hobart plays Valparaiso at 7:30pm. GOOD LUCK LADIES!!

Boys

The Brickie cagers had just one contest on the calendar this past week ... a road trip to the Hessville neighborhood in Hammond to face Morton! With each squad entering the game on a 4-game skid, something had to give in the Governor's Mansion. For 4 quarters, the Bricks & Govs gave it their all - competing on every possession for an edge to gain momentum & seize control. Our boys BATTLED HARD, but unfortunately, victory was kept just our of reach by the hosts and Hobart returned home after a tough 47-44 defeat. A pair of seniors ... Jaydon Hence and Miki Djankovich ... led the Brickies in scoring with 10 pts each. Freshman Noah Ehrlich recorded team highs of 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

The Brickies are currently 5-9 overall and 1-1 in NCC action. This Thursday, they will travel to DeMotte to face the 11-4 KV Kougars. LET'S GO BOYS - WE CAN DO THIS!!

#RISETOTHEOCCASION

“You remember lesson about balance? Lesson not just karate only. Lesson for whole life. Whole life have a balance." Couldn't help myself ... this was a perfect spot for another Mr. Miyagi quote :)

On Thursday, Hobart traveled to area powerhouse and defending IHSAA State Champion Valparaiso to square off with the Lady Vikings and NCC rival Lowell. The Lady Brickies are still a gymnast shy of scoring a full squad for the time being, but that hasn't slowed them down! Senior Aisha Arias was simply AWESOME over at Valpo ... placing 3rd in the All-Around standings with a HUGE score of 36.450!! (Chris Farley voice) HOLY SCHNIKES THAT'S HIGH!! Right behind her was junior teammate Sarah Romeo in 6th with a 32.950!

Here is their individual event placing:

Bars = 4th - Arias, 9th - Romeo

Beam = 5th - Arias, 8th - Romeo

Floor = 7th - Arias

Vault = 3rd - Romeo, 4th - Arias

Freshman Elizabeth Crespo finished 2nd (vault) & 3rd (beam) respectively in the JV competition.

Saturday, the destination was Merrillville for the Pirate Pride Invitational! Once again with only 2 gymnasts competing in all 4 events and a 3rd that participated in 3 events, the Lady Brickies were battling an uphill climb right from the start. No matter ... our girls CAME TO PLAY ... or jump, vault, tumble ... you know :) ... and they ROCKED! Aisha Arias was 1st on the bars, 2nd on the floor and registered an all-around score of 35.6, which was the TOP SCORE OF THE DAY!! That's right, Aisha was the Pirate Pride Invite All-Around CHAMPION!! Sarah Romeo finished 5th on the vault with an outstanding score of 8.9 and nearly matched her all-around score from Thursday with a 32.4! Our of 12 teams, Hobart placed 5th overall - MAGNIFICENT!!

Watching these girls battle is exciting as they continue to gain more and more confidence with each competition! If you haven't seen them, this week presents the PERFECT opportunity as the Lady Brickies compete at home on Thursday against LaPorte. LET'S GOOOOOO!!!

#STICKIT

There were no competitions this past week in the water, but the Brickie fish just keep swimming (& diving)! The girls IHSAA SECTIONAL gets underway this week over at Valparaiso High School.

- Thursday = preliminary swimming races

- Saturday morning = diving (1st 8 dives)

- Saturday afternoon = swimming & diving finals

This is what the Lady Brickies have WORK WORK WORKed for all year! They've persevered this winter and given us all one of the best (I say THE BEST) seasons in team history - including matching their BEST EVER finish in the Northwest Crossroads Conference (2nd place)!! Clearly, our girls SHINE!! GOOD LUCK @ SECTIONALS LADIES!! WE BELIEVE IN YOU!!

#BRICKIEPRIDE

Monday

No Events Scheduled

Tuesday

No Events Scheduled

Wednesday

Girls Basketball @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (Hosted by Crown Point High School)

C-team Boys Basketball @ Merrillville

Thursday

Girls Swimming & Diving @ IHSAA SECTIONAL PRELIMS (Hosted by Valparaiso High School)

Gymnastics vs. LaPorte

Boys Basketball @ Kankakee Valley *

Friday

Girls Basketball @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (^If win on Wednesday)

Saturday

Wrestling @ IHSAA REGIONAL (Hosted by Hobart High School)

Girls Swimming & Diving @ IHSAA SECTIONAL FINALS

Girls Basketball @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (^If win on Friday)

* = NCC Opponent