Golfers and athletes pose for a group pic at Saturday’s Warsaw Golf Fundraiser at Rozella Ford Golf Club. From left, they are Bren Lauck, Greg Hughes, volleyball player Kennedy Lauck, basketball player Aubrey Hepler, Kevin Silcox and Rick Bettinger. (Photos by James Costello)

WARSAW — It’s been a hectic summer for new Warsaw girls basketball coach Lenny Krebs.

Besides putting together a graduation open house for his oldest daughter, there’s been the physical move with his family to Warsaw, not to mention the transition from head coach at Goshen to the helm of Lady Tigers basketball. If all that wasn’t enough, Krebs also had to help organize and run Saturday’s girls basketball/ volleyball fundraiser alongside WHS assistant volleyball coach Chandra Hepler.

Not that he’s complaining, though. Besides, apart from some morning rain and afternoon humidity, Saturday’s golf outing at Rozella Ford turned out to be a pretty smooth affair with a pretty nice turnout to boot.

“This was part of my initiation. In addition to having a daughter graduate from Goshen, trying to get an open house, move and get the girls basketball program up and running, they said ‘Here’s your fundraiser,’” said a smiling Krebs from the clubhouse at Rozella Saturday.

“I’m coming from a school where we had to go out and sell things whenever we had to do a fundraiser. Maybe I’m just different, but I’d rather pay to go play golf than to buy something from you. I think this is just a great way to raise funds while getting the community involved. This money all goes back to the girls to help pay for their shoes, their travel sweats, their backpacks. It’s all going back to the girls so we just asked the girls to go out and do the work in getting hole sponsors and teams, and for the most part they did a nice job of that.”

The primary purpose of Saturday’s fundraiser was, as you’d expect, to raise funds for the Warsaw girls basketball and volleyball programs, and roughly 22 foursomes turned out for the best ball scramble event at Rozella. Another 65 to 70 individuals and businesses also donated in the form of hole sponsorships to help offset program costs for the two teams in the eighth iteration of the annual outing.

Coaches smile for a photo Saturday. From left they are freshman girls basketball coach Mark Bonifield, JV head volleyball and varsity assistant volleyball coach Chandra Hepler, assistant varsity girls basketball coach Nicole Ryman, JV girls basketball coach Jack Beer and head girls basketball coach Lenny Krebs.

“I think any time you get an opportunity to involve the community and allow them to give back, especially with programs as strong as the Lady Tiger basketball and volleyball programs, this community has been wonderful to jump on the opportunity. It’s really nice to see a good turnout, to have those people support our programs,” said Hepler. “And because these young players, they do all the work — they get the hole sponsors, they get the door prizes, they get the teams — we send them out there with the encouragement that they’ll get more, and they’ll multiply. They did a great job and put a lot of effort in it, so it’s nice to see the fruit of your efforts come together.”

While fundraising was the reason for Saturday’s outing, it was also very much an opportunity to make connections. One volleyball and one girls basketball player were partnered on each hole and waited to meet and greet the golfers as they played through. It was a chance not only to build connections between players in each of the programs, but between the players and the larger community.

“We want to get the girls out in the community. Both programs are strong believers that we need to be servant leaders,” explained Krebs. “These are businesses and people who are giving generously, so we felt like the girls need to be out there interacting with the people on the course and just introduce ourselves, get to know them, thank people for their support. This is just a great community opportunity.”

“Somebody that’s involved in participating in the golf outing, maybe when they read something in the paper about the volleyball team, it’s ‘Let’s go watch volleyball. We met a couple really nice kids there. They look like they work hard; it looks like they’re progressing. Let’s go to a volleyball game; let’s go to a girls basketball game,’” echoed head volleyball coach Rick Ashmore. “That’s putting a face with our program.”

It was also an opportunity for coaches in each of the programs to get better acquainted with one another. This year’s outing was particularly helpful in that regard as second-year head coach Ashmore and his staff spent some time alongside first-year coach Krebs and his assistants.

Pictured on the 18th hole, which required golfers to wear skirts, is the winning team from Saturday’s outing. From left they are Doug Ogle, Jack Sumpter, Matt Dick and David Wayne. (Photo provided)

“It’s been very helpful for us, especially with an all-new basketball staff this year, in just getting to know them and just to help them,” Hepler said. “I went out in the community with Coach Krebs and just introduced him. Doctor (Steve) Hollar was our first stop; I thought that was a great opportunity to introduce him to a basketball legend and for them to meet and be able to make connections as he’s welcomed into the community and makes a home.”

Team winners Saturday were Matt Dick, Doug Ogle, David Wayne and Jack Sumpter. The team of Randy Kilburn, Tim Merchant, Brian Peterson and Tim Mangas placed second, while Todd Smith, Rod Mayer, Shane Hartle and Jon Parker placed third.

Longest Drive winner was Greg Hughes. Longest Putt winner was Brad Gutwein, and Ben Laborde won the Closest to the Pin competition.