Thinking back on basketball, the obsession probably started when we moved to Washington, IN when I was about 5 years old. It's a basketball crazed town in Southwestern Indiana of about 10,000 people. The high school in Washington has one of the greatest gyms in Indiana as well as the entire United States. Indiana has 11 of the top 12 gyms in America and Washington ranks twelfth.
It is in this gym that I used to sit in the Southeast corner with my Grandma and Grandpa Nimnicht (not my biological grandparents, but grandparents nonetheless) and watch the Hatchets play. It didn't matter whether it was the boys team or the girls team, they were at just about every game and I loved sitting with them. When I was in elementary school I started to play basketball like most of my friends. I could shoot alright but beyond that, I was a pretty mediocre player. Nevertheless, I loved it. I remember when I started playing basketball and Grandpa invited me over on a Sunday afternoon to watch the NCAA Women's Final Four. A team named the Tennessee Lady Volunteers coached by Pat Summitt were playing. He told me what a great team the Lady Vols were and how their coach was really something special. Little did he know how true that was.
During this time I had also developed a love for the Indiana Hoosiers and Damon Bailey. I remember many driveway games at our old house on Tieman Street with my brother Paul. He was always Calbert Cheaney and I was always Damon Bailey. Back then I won a lot just because I was taller than him but that wouldn't last long.
Fast forward a couple of years and I had made the Jr. High basketball team. It was a big thrill to be able to play on a team that I had to be selected for. However, in all honesty, I was in it because some of my best friends were on the team. I was the kid on the end of the bench constantly praying that we wouldn't win by too much so Coach Spillman wouldn't feel obligated to put me in the game.
Our girls program at the high school was up and coming and was destined to be one of the best teams in the state for a run of 5 years or so. I knew I wasn't going to play past Junior High so in high school I became a team manager. Grandma and Grandpa Nimnicht were at every game. We managed to put together a string of sectional and regional championships and even a semi-state championship to put our team in the Final Four. That was the first time I could ever remember crying because we won something and not because we lost. From then on, me crying after a big win became common place. A trait I believe I inherited from my mom who would often be found crying in a corner somewhere after a big game. Funny considering I was just the team manager but she came to love those teams as I did. My nervousness has never subsided when I watch a big game. Even now I tend to freak out a little during big games.
The boys program at the high school was pretty average during the years I was there. They never won a sectional but came very close several times. During one of the sectional tournaments I was sitting in my normal spot with Grandma and Grandpa Nimnicht watching Barr-Reeve win the championship. I remember Grandpa saying how happy he was for their coach, Dave Omer. He told me that night what a great coach he was and also what a great man he was. Ironically, Dave Omer would take over the Hatchet program in my last years of high school. My family became close to he and his wonderful wife Wilda through Grandma and Grandpa Nimnicht and we shared many Sunday lunches together after church.
I went off to college and became an athletic trainer. I loved working with the women's basketball team and their coach, Gene White. Coach White was co-captain with Bobby Plump on the 1954 Milan team that the movie Hoosier's is based upon. I so admired how he coached and I loved sitting with him in the front of the van (yep, DIII we drove 15 passenger vans) and listening to his stories.
During my college years my parents started working at all the Hatchet basketball games and would report to me about how the team was getting better and better and how there was this kid named Zeller that Dave would speak very highly of. Year after year the Hatchets would come so close to winning their first sectional title since the early 80's and year after year they'd come up short.
I went on to grad school and worked with the Women's basketball team at Valparaiso University. They had a really great women's team for a mid-major conference. My first year with them we lost our conference tourney but got invited to the NIT and made it to the final 8 teams. My second year we won our conference tourney unexpectedly (Cue the crying again) and I got to experience March Madness from the sidelines. We lost to a really great Purdue team in the first round but it was a memory I will cherish. My nervousness became legendary with the coaching staff and the players. We were in the final seconds of our conference championship game that year. The game had been back and forth and we were leading while the other team (The Oakland, MI Grizzlies) had an opportunity to win. Coach Freeman called a timeout and actually stopped in the middle of the timeout to make sure I was okay because he knew how nervous I would get.
During my summer vacations from Grad school I would return to Washington and work for Dave in the athletic Dept. I enjoyed helping with his summer basketball camps and enjoyed even more getting to watch Dave interact with the boys. I became more familiar with the Zeller family and was so impressed with what a great family they were. No wonder Dave always spoke so highly of them!!!
So, here we were in 2005. I was newly engaged to Stuart (who loved coming to Hatchet games and enjoyed the atmosphere of 8,000 people crammed into the gym). Dave Omer is in his final year coaching. His beautiful wife Wilda is terminally ill and Luke Zeller is in his senior year. The Hatchets not only won their first sectional championship since the 80's, they also advanced to their first ever State Championship game. It seemed that the mighty Hatchets were going to get their storybook ending, pushing out to a 19 point lead over Plymouth. However, Plymouth made a run and we found ourselves in an overtime battle. With 1.8 seconds left in the overtime period, Plymouth hits a go ahead layup and all of Hatchet nation stands in stunned silence. I wanted to vomit on my shoes. It was the most awful feeling. Where was the storybook ending for Dave that we all longed for. Surely this wasn't happening. We had 1.8 seconds to pull off a miracle. And it happened!! (click on the link below).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N-qQfgn9MA
I remember watching the team head up to the podium to get their championship hardware. I wasn't watching the jubilation on the player's faces. I was watching Dave share that moment with his wife and understanding how much bigger this was than just a basketball game. I was remembering the first time I saw Dave winning that sectional championship with Barr-Reeve and my Grandpa Nimnicht telling me how special he was.
Luke went on to play for Notre Dame after winning Mr. Basketball that year.
In 2008, the Hatchets won another state title led by Tyler Zeller, Luke's younger brother. He also won Mr. Basketball. Tyler now plays for UNC. We love watching him play on TV.
Last year, the youngest Zeller led his team to the State Championship. Cody was only a junior. This year he has led them back to the semi-state and we're hoping for another State Title. Next year he will play for Indiana University which still happens to be my favorite team!!!
So, that my friends, is why March is so awesome and why I love basketball so much. A lot of it goes back to my Grandma and Grandpa Nimnicht and the seeds they planted long ago. I continue to cheer for the Lady Vols and Pat Summitt. I love the Indiana Hoosiers still and am so excited that their program is on their way up. Stuart and I continue to listen to most of the Hatchet games on the radio. We have been unable to make it to any of their tourney games this year but that doesn't stop my nerves. I was shopping with a friend this weekend and Stuart was texting me scores from the radio broadcast. I thought I was going to have a meltdown in the middle of the store. But, that's why I love it.
Dave Omer is retired now and is in the Indiana Basketball Hall of fame. The Zeller family has proven to be one of the best families in basketball. Not only are the boys amazing basketball players, but amazing people. They are a wonderful Christian family and Washington is so blessed to have them.
http://hoopshall.com/hall/o/dave-omer/
Grandma and Grandpa Nimnicht are both in heaven now but I can't help but think how much they would have enjoyed watching these Hatchet teams. It's amazing how one little seed planted long ago has developed into this crazy love that I have for basketball. That is why starting on Thursday until "One Shining Moment" concludes the tournament in a few weeks there will be little else happening here on Sedona Ct.
