BricksCenter
DaDaDa DaDaDa
June 6, 2021
21 Sports ... 1 Team ... WE ARE HOBART!
As the sun sets on the 2020-2021 sports season, some moderate reflection reveals that it was an ADVENTURE to say the least, but WHAT A BLAST! THANK YOU to all of our coaches, booster club members, parents, administration, custodial/grounds crew, workers, fans and most importantly the student-athletes for enduring a year like no other in the last century and coming out on top in what was an absolutely TERRIFIC YEAR! UNBELIEVABLE!!
Ok ... ok ... that's enough high-fives for now ... it's time for BricksCenter!
Track & Field
With 2 pole vaulters and a sprinter competing at the IHSAA Track & Field STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS, Brickie Pride was on FULL DISPLAY down in Indianapolis as seniors Anisha Lewis & Riley Johnston ... along with sophomore Cody Johnston ... represented this small blue-collar town EXTREMELY WELL!
Senior Anisha Lewis was competing at the state finals for the first time in her career! Due to COVID policies at Indiana University, the IHSAA moved the state finals ... normally held in Bloomington every spring ... to Ben Davis High School on the city's west side. Anisha qualified for state after posting BACK-TO-BACK PRs at the Regional ... 1st in the 200m dash prelims to qualify for the finals ... and then again in the finals!! In fact, her time in the finals broke a 31-year old SCHOOL RECORD!! UNBELIEVABLE!! Anisha placed 5th at the Portage Regional, but her time was SO FAST, she received a "call-back" to compete in Indy on the state's BIGGEST STAGE!! It was HOT down at Ben Davis, but still a B-E-A-UTIFUL day for some high school track!
The sprint trials began around 5pm Indy time and Anisha was out in lane 7 of the 1st qualifying heat in the 200m dash. To her left in lane 4 was the defending 2019 state champion from North Central, Ramiah Elliott. There were 3 qualfying heats to determine the finals. In order to advance to the finals of each sprint event, competitors must finish in the top 2 of their qualifying heat or run one of the 3 fastest overall times to finish outside the top 2. When the gun fired for heat 1, the girls BLEW out of the blocks and around the turn towards the home stretch! Anisha ran with EVERYTHING she had and placed 8th out of the 9 girls in her qualifying heat. HOLY COW THOSE GIRLS WERE FAST!! As AMAZING as Anisha ran at state, her time was not fast enough to help her advance to the finals, which meant her REMARKABLE career at Hobart had come to an end. No better place to finish than at the STATE MEET!! In the end, Anisha finished 26th overall in the state of Indiana and represented H-town INCREDIBLY WELL!! Elliott ended up winning her 2nd straight 200m dash state championship - pretty cool side stat that Anisha went toe-to-toe with her in the prelims :).
Believe it or not, Anisha's only post-season experience prior to this year was qualifying for the IHSAA Regional as a sophomore on Hobart's 4x100m relay team. So ... for her to lose an entire year due to COVID ... come back stronger than ever and advance all the way to the STATE FINALS and break a 31-year old school record in the process ... SIMPLY AMAZING!!
CONGRATULATIONS ANISHA FOR A TERRIFIC SEASON AND CAREER! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!
#CEILINGCANTHOLDHER
Boys
Senior Riley Johnston, a 2018 (13th place) & 2019 (3rd place) state qualifier in the pole vault was back for more at the 2021 IHSAA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS! The added bonus this year was that his brother, sophomore Cody Johnston, was right beside him as a 1st time state qualifier! With the boys competing on Friday this year, the Johnstons headed down Thursday to get a feel for the facility at Ben Davis before the big day. On Friday, conditions were tough ... it was REALLY HOT out there, but our boys were READY TO ROCK!!
Opening height was 12'6" for the boys competition ... Cody came in at 13'6" and Riley at 14'6". Riley missed on his 1st attempt, but didn't miss again until 16'6" ... that's right, a full 2 FEET HIGHER! WOW!! Cody was PERFECT through 15'0".
This is when things got CRAZY EXCITING!
At this point in the competition, there were only 9 competitors remaining, which meant both Riley and Cody were assured of earning medals and ALL-STATE recognition. The next height was 15'3". Cody's PR was 15'4" ... which meant this was a BIG one. He missed on his 1st two attempts ... leaving him with just 1 try remaining. With ice water running through his veins, Cody CLEARED on his 3rd and final attempt to stay alive and the CROWD WENT WILD as he pounded his chest!!
At 15'6", 4 competitors cleared on their 1st attempt ... including both Riley & Cody (this was a LIFETIME BEST for Cody) ... but NO OTHER vaulters were able to get over, which meant that the Brickies would have 2 in the top 4! UNBELIEVABLE!!
The top 2 vaulters ... Riley and William Staggs from South Knox ... cleared 15'9" on their 1st attempt - both successful vaults bringing ROARS from each school's cheering section! Cody and Cade Priddy from Zionsville each cleared on their 2nd attempt! Again bringing ROARS from the crowd!!
The same story unfolded at 16' ... Riley & William cleared on the 1st attempt ... Cody & Cade on their 2nd!! It was like watching basketball players hit last second, game-winning 3-pointers over and over again!! THE EXCITEMENT and ATMOSPHERE was EXHILERATING!!
On to 16'3" ... where both Cody and Cade would finally run out of gas. Based on having fewer misses going back to 15', Cody would earn 3rd place in the STATE after clearing a PR of 16' ... 8 inches higher than his previous lifetime best. Like I said ... CRAZY EXCITING!!
At 16'3", Riley cleared on his 1st attempt and William on his 2nd ... which meant that BOTH competitors would move on to 16'6". THAT IS SO HIGH!!!!
At 16'6", both vaulters missed on their 1st two attempts ... so it would come down to 1 final vault for the state championship. Tears in my eyes as I type this ... the atmosphere was as THRILLING as any I've ever been a part of at the state meet.
Riley was up 1st.
CLEAR!!!! HE WAS OVER AND THE CROWD WENT WILD!!!!!!!
William was up next with a chance to keep the competition going.
Miss ... and the CELEBRATION WAS OOONNNNNNNNNN!!!
RILEY JOHNSTON IS THE 2021 IHSAA STATE POLE VAULT CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Exhausted ... and already a state champion, Riley took 1 more attempt at a school record height of 16'9.25", but was unable to get over. As he stood on top of the pit, he waived his hands in THANKS to the crowd and they responded with one more ROAR for the CHAMPION!!
WHAT A COMPETITION!! WHAT A DAY TO BE A BRICKIE!!
Riley becomes Hobart's 1st state track & field champion since Jarvis McMillan in 2010 and the 1st pole vault champion since Keith Kline won back-to-back titles in 1995 & 1996! He also joins an exclusive club in his own family ... matching his Uncle Rob, cousin Kyle, and grandpa JJ as IHSAA State Pole Vault Champions!!
CONGRATULATIONS to Coach Jim Johnston, Riley and Cody for successfully navigating a COVID winter, overcoming adversity brought on by injury, and managing a lifetime of expectations & legacy to have their BEST DAY at exactly the right time to win a STATE TITLE!! MAGNIFICENT!!!
#ALLSTATE
THANK YOU TO COACH K FOR SHARING THESE AMAZING PHOTOS!!
ANISHA LEWIS @ IHSAA TRACK & FIELD STATE FINALS
RILEY & CODY JOHNSTON @ IHSAA TRACK & FIELD STATE FINALS
Check out what the NWI Times had to say about Riley's STATE TITLE!
Celebratory Parade for our State Champion!
Boys Golf
Ok, in order to advance from the sectional to the regional, Hobart needed to either be one of the top 3 teams that post a team score, or shoot one of the top 3 low scores for an individual, excluding those individuals who advance with a team. Everybody got it? Ok ... here we go!
If you recall at the Northwest Crossroads Conference Championship, the Brickies shot season-best scores for 18 holes across the board on a very difficult White Hawk course. Friday in Valpo, the goal was the same ... shoot a season best and see where the tees may fall :).
As a team, the Brickies played well overall ... combining our 4 best scores for a total of 437, which was good enough for an 8th place finish out of the 9 schools in attendance. Unfortunately, this put our boys out of contention to advance therefore ending the Brickies' season as a team. Individually, senior Chad Tomaga shot a LIFETIME BEST score of 100 ... freshman Parker Glass matched his LIFETIME BEST from a week ago with a 104 and junior Ethan Cover was just 4 strokes off his best over the 18 hole course, signing his scorecard with a 107!! FANTASTIC!!
Here are the scores from Tuesday:
Senior Chad Tomaga - 100
Freshman Parker Glass - 104
Junior Ethan Cover - 107
Freshman Ben Eberle - 126
Sophomore Nate Becerra - 126
As well as our boys played ... or you might say as BRIGHT as our boys SHINED at Forest Park on Friday with some LIFETIME BEST scores, they were not low enough to find a spot in the top 3 from non-advancing teams. Bottom line, our boys had a GREAT year ... persevering through a pandemic, WORK WORK WORKing hard to improve throughout the spring, and posting their best scores of the season at the biggest meets! Makes you want to tip your cap, doesn't it?
GREAT JOB this year boys ... and with nearly everyone returning, next season is already looking good!!
#NANANANANANANANANA
Next Level
CONGRATULATIONS & GOOD LUCK SAYLEM! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!!
#ALLMYLIFE
Year In Sports
If anyone remembers, back in the late 1980's, the NBA launched an ad campaign that had celebrities & players stating the following, "NBA action is FANTASTIC!". I'd like to bring that back, but with a twist ... "Brickie action is FANTASTIC!" We could get faculty, student-athletes, fans ... the commercial could be FANTASTIC! Mr. Crouch - we're gonna need some help here :)
It was a GREAT year in sports thanks to the effort, dedication, sacrifice and teamwork illustrated by our student-athletes, coaches, staff & parents. We overcame a pandemic and found ways to do what we've always done in so many new ways. We had moments where we experienced the SWEET TASTE of VICTORY with student-athletes advancing to the state finals in the fall, winter and spring ... a state champion (senior Riley Johnston in pole vault) ... two state runner-up finishes (Football Class 4A & senior Emma Wright in 100yd Free) ... a 3rd straight sectional championship for Girls Tennis ... a 7th straight conference team championship for Wrestling ... and so many other FANTASTIC things to celebrate! We also had moments where things didn't go our way and we experienced the AGONY of DEFEAT. That's the beauty of sports ... they keep us on the edge of our seats hoping for the TASTE and trying to avoid the AGONY, very much mirroring our daily lives. The key word here is "WE" - WE are all BRICKIES and WE experience these things TOGETHER. WE have 21 sports here at HHS but WE are 1 TEAM - BRICKIES! The more WE can embrace that, the better off WE will all be ... after all, everything is more fun when WE do it TOGETHER.
Believe it or not (Jack Palance voice) ... the 2021-2022 sports season will be underway before we know it. This summer, our sports will be WORK WORK WORKing hard to improve and prepare for the future. Next year is going to be EXCITING! BE THERE!!
#LETSGOBRICKS
2021 Spring Sports Highlight Video
Speaking of Next Fall....
Fall Sports Starting in August
Sports Schedule This Week
Tuesday, 6/8... Physicals at HHS Main Gym (3:00-5:00 pm)
Here's your WAY TOO SOON 1st contest for each of our fall sports:
Wednesday, 8/4 ... Girls Golf @ Crown Point Invite
Thursday, 8/12 ... Volleyball Scrimmage @ Morgan Twp
Friday, 8/13 ... Football Scrimmage @ Hammond Morton
Saturday, 8/14 ... Boys Soccer @ Hobart Jamboree & Girls Soccer @ Andrean Jamboree
Tuesday, 8/27 ... Boys Tennis vs. Portage, Boys & Girls CC @ KV
See you there! Can't wait!!
#BRICKIES