BricksCenter

With every ending, there is a new beginning ... and in the same week that we officially closed the book on our winter sports season, another was opened for spring! The Brickie cagers entered MARCH MADNESS Indiana style with a sectional quarterfinal match-up against Valparaiso and boys & girls track were OFF AND RUNNING (it's mostly what they do) in their 1st indoor meet of the spring season!!

Former Duke University men's basketball coach ... the legendary Mike Krzyzewski - better known as Coach K ... led his teams to the most wins in NCAA Division 1 history (1,202) over his 47 year career. In honor of Coach K and his truly remarkable career (13 Final Fours, 5 NCAA Championships, 3 gold medals), I'd like to open this edition of BricksCenter with one of my favorite Coach K quotes on adversity:

"There are always those times when you're going to be down. It's how you step through it that makes you the person you are."

Great advice from a great teacher & coach!

College Basketball's MARCH MADNESS begins in a little over a week with conference tournament play ... BricksCenter begins now!

On Wednesday night, the Brickies squared off with area powerhouse Valparaiso in quarterfinal action of the IHSAA Boys Basketball Sectional. This year marks the 114th state tournament for boys hoops and Chesterton High School served as host. Back on February 6th, Hobart BATTLED the Vikings HARD and lost a tough 65-50 contest on the road. With the post-season representing an opportunity to avenge the earlier game, our boys were ready to go!

In the first quarter, the Brickie D-D-D-DEFENSE was PHENOMENAL!! Everywhere the Valpo players went, there was someone from Hobart waiting on them with hands out & a lot of INTENSITY! In fact, the blanket of Brickie D held the Vikings scoreless for over 5 minutes and only allowed 4 points total during the period! Hobart senior Anthony Hnilo BURIED a long 3-pointer before the buzzer sounded to give our boys a 7-4 advantage!! WOW!! Throughout the 2nd stanza, the Brickies were just as focused & continued to make things difficult for the high-powered Viking offense. With just under a minute left before the half, Hobart held an 18-15 lead before Valparaiso scored 5 straight points to close out the quarter and move in front 20-18.

In the 3rd quarter, the Vikings finally started to chip away at the armor of Brickie DEFENSE that was protecting the basket. Over the 8-minute span, Valpo outscored our boys 22-9 to take a 42-27 edge into the final period. Hobart fought hard throughout ... never surrendered, but not enough of our shots found the bottom of the net and ultimately the Vikings pulled away for the win. Final Score: Hobart 35, Valparaiso 60. Hnilo led the Bricks with 12 points. Junior Felix Lopez scored 8 points ... sophomore Erik Kingery added 7 points and senior Juanta Lewis pulled down a team-high 5 rebounds in the loss.

It was a tough way to close out the season, but then again, it's always tough when you lace them up for the last time. The final score from Wednesday was not indicative of how competitive the game was and doesn't take anything away from how hard our boys WORK WORK WORKed this winter. They say it's the journey that counts, not the destination ... I would have to agree. This team STAYED THE COURSE, KEPT PLAYING ... never allowing adversity to take hold ... and gave it everything they had.
THANK YOU to our boys, Coach Butcher, and his entire staff for all the time, effort & energy put into the last 4 months!!

#RISETOTHEOCCASION

After a few weeks of practice, the Brickie tracksters were IN ACTION Saturday at Purdue University in West Lafayette for a Hoosier State Relays (HSR) qualifier in historic Lambert Fieldhouse ... LET'S GO!!

The Bricks were so hot they were BOILING down at Purdue! For the ladies, senior Cailey Weber (55m Hurdles) and junior Taylor Pope (Shot Put) each placed 2nd overall in their respective events!! If you recall, Taylor was a shot put state finalist in 2023 ... Cailey is a 3x regional qualifier in the hurdles and ran in the HSR Finals in 2023! Sophomore Aalliah Otero also earned a top 5 finish in the 400m Dash! INCREDIBLE!! On the boys side, junior Willy Shearer finished 3rd overall in both the 55m Dash AND 400m Dash! WOW!! Senior Carson Bell placed 6th overall in the 800m Run and both junior Patrick O'Connor (9th in Shot Put) and freshman newcomer Nathan Sobczynski (9th in Long Jump) cracked the top 10 for the day!!

Here are some other results from Saturday @ Purdue:

GIRLS

55m Hurdles

senior Cailey Weber (9.27)

freshman Love Jimenez (11.26)

55m Dash

sophomore Aalliah Otero (7.83)

sophomore Zaria Gildon (9.18)

200m Dash

sophomore Zaria Gildon (29.73)

freshman Brianna Davis (31.75)

400m Dash

sophomore Aalliah Otero (1:01.43)

freshman Marin Ray (1:09.85)

800m Run

sophomore Audrey Turley (2:46)

junior Annabelle Mauries (2:53)

sophomore Mariana Carmona (2:55)

senior Addy Black (3:19)

1600m Run

sophomore Cassie Cohen (5:36)

sophomore Emilia Massey (6:16)

sophomore Alissa Trail (6:38)

Shot Put

junior Taylor Pope (35'04")

sophomore Breanna Zon (28'08.5")

BOYS

55m Hurdles

freshman Bryce Tolliver (9.50)

senior Cirian Spencer (9.65)

55m Dash

junior Willy Shearer (6.71)

senior Jonny Sorensen (6.84)

senior Luke Granzow (7.55)

200m Dash

freshman Nathan Sobczynski (25.24)

freshman Luke Richardson (25.74)

400m Dash

junior Willy Shearer (51.32)

senior Thomas Martin (57.78)

junior Dominic Rivera (58.10)

sophomore Stephen Allande (1:00.64)

800m Run

senior Carson Bell (2:07.04)

senior Ryan Mattel (2:10.81)

senior Quentin Stengel (2:15.47)

sophomore Durgon Click (2:15.76)

senior Jack Cruz (2:17.16)

1600m Run

junior Kolin Gladney (4:52.32)

senior Vinny Gutierrez (5:02.58)

sophomore Lu Cohen (5:20.87)

junior Nick Meagher (5:41.96)

Long Jump

freshman Nathan Sobczynski (19'01.75)

Shot Put

junior Patrick O'Connor (41'02.5")

No team scores were kept as this was simply an opportunity for athletes to qualify individually for the Hoosier State Relays Finals in Indianapolis on March 23rd ... but what a start for our Brickies! They will be back down @ Purdue on Thursday to try and qualify some RELAYS!!

#SPECTRACKULAR

#PRIDEANDTRADITION

On Thursday night, Brickie senior Cailey Weber signed her NLI (National Letter of Intent) to continue her academic and athletic career at Purdue University Northwest! The Pride compete at the NCAA Division II level and are members of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). Cailey is a 3-sport standout for the Brickies ... earning All-NCC in volleyball, 3 varsity letters in basketball, and multiple awards as one of the best 300m hurdlers in northern Indiana - 3x Regional Qualifier, All-NCC, Hoosier State Relays Finalist - the list goes on and on! At PNW, Cailey will compete as a member of the track & field team!!

CONGRATULATIONS CAILEY! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!!

#ALLMYLIFE#COLLEGE

Girls Softball - First Official Practice

Boys Volleyball - First Official Practice

Unified Track & Field - First Official Practice

Girls Basketball Awards - 6pm

Tuesday

No Events Scheduled

Wednesday

No Events Scheduled

Thursday

Girls Track & Field @ HSR Relay Qualifier (Hosted by Purdue University)

Boys Track & Field @ HSR Relay Qualifier (Hosted by Purdue University)

Friday

No Events Scheduled

Saturday

No Events Scheduled