Cade Brenner and NorthWood relished the chance to play in front of a big crowd at the West Noble Sectional. Now the team is preparing to redo in the regional a year in the making. InkFreeNews file photo by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

NAPPANEE – Where were you on March 13, 2020?

NorthWood softball players were in the SAC preparing for a practice. Adam Yoder was at Martin’s in Nappanee stocking up for the weekend, fresh off announcing he was stepping down from the state champion Black Swish. Seniors Jack Wysong and Alex Jesse were doing preseason press for the upcoming seasons.

Aaron Wolfe remembers where he was. He remembers it very, very vividly.

“Before I loaded up with the players, I double checked with our athletic office just to make sure we were still going,” Wolfe said. “(Athletic director) Norm (Sellers) said he heard nothing, and we were planning on leaving. The kids were loading their bags on the bus. Norm then came to the upper deck of The Pit. And you knew when he came out like that, it wasn’t good. It was what we feared.”

That Friday afternoon was the unofficial official start to the pandemic locally and nationally. Schools were announcing they were closing amidst the growing panic. Athletes, including those at NorthWood, were told to prepare as normal, but all were aware the spring was going to be wonky. It was, in fact, going to get historically wonky.

The Panther boys basketball program found that out the hard way. After loading the school bus around 12:20 p.m. Friday afternoon, March 13, to head down early to New Castle for the regional tournament, the head coach Wolfe and his coaching staff hadn’t quite gotten out of The Pit. It was just after 12:30 p.m.

“We were going to leave around noon because we wanted to get a practice in down there,” said Cooper Wiens, then a sophomore. “Our AD, Mr. Sellers, told us it was postponed. We came back in and had a scrimmage, had a bunch of students here. But it was really surreal.”

Sellers would catch Wolfe just before he was able to get upstairs and on the bus, alerting him that the IHSAA had postponed its tournament. The sectional champion Panthers were primed and ready to take on Norwell in the 10 a.m. game, along with 75 of its closest friends in the stands at the monstrous New Castle Fieldhouse as the IHSAA had deemed to be the most number of fans it would allow as the pandemic was starting to unfold its parameters. It was going to be weird, playing in a gymnasium capable of hosting nearly 10,000 people, with just a hallway closet of fans, but it was at least going to happen.

And then it wasn’t.

As the bus was vacated and the bags were put back in The Pit, reality was settling in.

“They were all in the lockerroom, i was the only one who wasn’t in there, I was on my way down, and we were loading the bus,” said NorthWood’s only senior, Ben Vincent. “Wolfe then comes in and says we’re not going to New Castle. We were all in shock. For the next hour, we just sat there and tried to process it. A lot of disbelief. Then we all had to go back to class and it was crazy. We were all just really disappointed.”

NorthWood would host a mini scrimmage between it’s ‘Red’ and ‘Black’ lineups in front of maybe 50 students in The Pit later that afternoon, Wolfe and assistant coach AJ Risedorph doing their best to salvage something for the weekend. Regionals likely weren’t going to happen, and later didn’t happen as the basketball season and further the spring sports calendar was completely shut down.

Fast forward one full rotation around the sun. On March 13, 2021, NorthWood will take on New Castle in the 10 a.m. game at the New Castle Regional. It’s fitting in many ways that NorthWood will get a chance to pack the bus again and relive a moment taken from it and 25 other basketball teams around the Hoosier State that return to the regional round from 2020 to 2021. While the seniors on the 2020 team didn’t get their penultimate moment of hashing out their fate on the court, Vincent and those on the team a year ago will.

“I’ve honestly never played in a gym that size,” Vincent said of New Castle. “I don’t know what to expect but I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to play again and see what we can do.”

Added Wiens, “Playing with no fans, it’s really just like a scrimmage. It was crazy, I remember our first game, it felt like we were just having an open gym. But the other night at the sectional, that felt like Indiana basketball. To have the best student section in the state behind us to cheer us on, the gym was electric. Especially after last year.”

Wolfe, always one to take a moment before putting his unpatented spin on things, was pretty blunt about being given another opportunity to relive the experience.

“New Castle has always been a regional venue, and it’s rare for someone like NorthWood to get an opportunity to experience a storied gym,” Wolfe said. “We’ve found out first hand a year ago that nothing is guaranteed. I think our players know that. This regional is going to be a blessing.”