Goshen’s basketball arena will get a mini makeover over Christmas break to remove eight references or images of ‘Redskins’. The Goshen girls played in the gym for the final time as ‘Redskins’ Saturday night against Fort Wayne Carroll. (Photos by Mike Deak)

GOSHEN – There was a touch of poetic justice to closing a chapter in Goshen’s history Saturday night.

In defeating Fort Wayne Carroll 47-46, the girls basketball program brought some joy to what has been a very bitter, controversial and much maligned few months for the Goshen School Corporation. The win isn’t going to fix any of the opposition to the nickname change that snuffs out ‘Redskins’ and ushers in ‘RedHawks’ effective Jan. 1. Lines have been firmly drawn and opinions will be taken to graves for some time.

Goshen guard Tahya Bruce steals the ball from Carroll’s Kelly Damman.

But it did bring some solitude, possibly a little bit of closure. And for one night, a chance to be ‘Redskins’ one more time.

“We talked before the game about making 90 years of tradition proud,” said Goshen girls basketball head coach Lenny Krebs. “Obviously, there is a lot of sensitivity to the issue. Our basketball team isn’t going to make sense of the issue for people. We have to play whether we are Redskins or RedHawks. I’m just proud that the girls were able to end an era of Redskins with a win the way they did. Says a lot about their character. I think, even just a little, we made the Redskin mascot proud.

“We have a unique opportunity to be the last Redskins team and the first RedHawks team. It’s a unique burden, but one this team is fully capable of handling.”

Krebs’ basketball team did its part, withstanding a very good Carroll club after trailing by as much as nine in the second quarter. The Redskins used an 18-4 run in the third quarter which Krebs assured was nothing more than just slowing down and playing smarter.

A tie game in the fourth quarter saw Ashton Ellis, Tahya Bruce and Kyrie Potter all hit key shots in the final two minutes. Potter’s two free throws with 4.6 seconds to go iced the game for Goshen, which moves to 10-3 overall.

Bruce led the team with 11 points, aided by a perfect 6-6 from the line. Potter had 10 points and six steals and Ellis added seven points and three assists.

Carroll’s JV opened the night with a 45-20 win over Goshen.

See Goshen’s entrance and exit for Saturday night’s game.

While much of the night was about business, which Goshen needed after taking a 20-point loss Friday night against Northern Lakes Conference rival Northridge, there was another sense of purpose. The Goshen team spent a good portion of the next half hour after the win to take pictures with the gigantic wooden Indian statue that overlooks the basketball court. Many of the cheerleaders and some players took turns posing with Matt Truex, who was adorned in the Redskins mascot attire, the head dress cloaked in red, white and black feathers that have represented the school for generations.

“It was quite upsetting when I learned they were going to change the mascot,” Truex said, a senior who is in a lineage where his dad, Mike Truex, was also the Redskin mascot. “You learn to respect and treat the tradition properly. It’s kind of frustrating that they put words in our mouths to say we think it’s offensive. It’s going to be surreal to come back to school and everything will be changed.”

Truex mentioned the head dress, the statues, and most of the memorabilia will be displayed in some fashion.

Fellow senior Camryn Branson, dressed in the squaw attire alongside Truex, added a unique perspective to the situation.

Goshen senior cheerleaders Matt Truex and Camryn Branson wear the Redskins mascot costumes for the final time.

“I was upset, and you can’t tell by looking at me, but I am part Sioux,” Branson said. “I was shocked they actually went through and did something about it. It’s ironic that my family and I don’t find it offensive, but the original lady who was upset about it had no Indian in her.”

Audrey Miller, also on the cheer squad, added, “We have to change and adapt to it. We’ll be the last ones as seniors to cheer for the Redskins, but we also will be the first to cheer for the RedHawks. It will be nice to finally see something new with the name with all that’s gone on.”

Miller, along with Branson, voted for and were among a large group that thought ‘Wolfpack’ would have been the new name. ‘RedHawks’ was approved Nov. 16 after a vote was cast throughout the GCS and public balloting.

Goshen joins Fort Wayne North Side in jettisoning away from Redskins in lieu of a more ‘non-offensive’ nickname. North Side settled just this week on ‘Legends’. The greater push has come on a national level to get the National Football League’s Washington Redskins to change its name, to which much badgering and feet-dragging has and will continue to take place. There have been 11 major colleges that have moved from Indian-based nicknames, including the parallel move Miami (Ohio) took in shifting from Redskins to RedHawks in 1997.

The final Goshen teams to play under the ‘Redskins’ moniker include the JV boys basketball team in Monday’s Goshen tournament, the Goshen boys and girls swim teams Tuesday against NorthWood, the Goshen varsity boys basketball team in the NIC-NLC Tourney Dec. 21-22, and the Goshen wrestling team Dec. 29-30 at the Al Smith Invite in Mishawaka. Goshen’s girls will be the first ‘RedHawks’ team to play when it hosts New Haven in the Goshen Holiday Tournament Jan. 2.

While students are learning to embrace the change, alumni haven’t been so forgiving.

“It is what it is and it doesn’t change the way the teachers teach our children,” said 2000 Goshen graduate Christi Heeter, who still resides in Goshen with children in the Goshen School Corporation.

Noted Jessica Metz, a 2012 Goshen grad, “It’s certainly okay to take others feelings into account, but to change a legacy that has been set in place for almost 90 years (and I am a third generation alumni), and all of a sudden it’s offensive? This era of “political correctness” is just plain wrong. It doesn’t teach our students diversity, it enforces conformity.

“It teaches children that having values different from another individual is not okay, and that doesn’t sit well with me,” continued Metz. “Calling ourselves Redskins is an honor, nothing that humiliates another individual. Walking the halls in Goshen schools from kindergarten through senior year, the Redskin name was always used with pride. Therefore, I am and will always be, a Redskin.”