DA REGION -- Boy, would I love to be a college professor, work a couple hours a week and bring home six figures. I think I’d look good in a cardigan, holding a cup of coffee and chatting about Descartes.
Or maybe be a college president, after ruining the Indiana educational system then making big bank in West Lafayette. Yes, you can call me Mitch. Or a son of a Mitch. With the leaves starting to fall and the air soon to start chill’n like a villian, and with educamation on my mind, I feel it is time to give out the midseason report cards for Region football. My red pen is full of ink and I am full of something else. Yepper, you can call me Professor Steve, if you’d like.
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MERRILLVILLE -- Bobby Babcock is an elite high school football player, quick to the ball, fierce with his tackles and a lock-down game-changer for the Hobart Brickies.
Yet, he had tears streaming down his face after a 33-10 dominating win at Father Eckert Field on Friday night at Andrean. The 6-foot, 200-pound linebacker had three tackles for loss, defended and batted away several passes thrown his way and a huge fumble recovery to set up another Brickie TD. But the tears dripped down nonetheless. Football isn’t just a game for Babcock. It is family. “This team, they lift me up every day,” Babcock said. “They are my brothers.” When Babcock was 8, his mother died, bringing chaos and uncertainty to his daily life. The searing sadness also was shared by his sister Danielle and brother Michael. Then,when he was living in Chesterton, his best friend was killed in a gang shooting in Chicago. Can you imagine having two such blows occurring at such a young age? Me either. Now you understand the tears. “Every Friday night we prepare for the game,” he said. “I have the best coaches and teammates anyone could ever ask for. It’s all about the heart. We have tremendous heart as a team.” I’ve been covering Hobart football for 25 years. It’s been a thrill. What a program and what a legacy. Meeting Don Howell for the first time almost took my breath away. Fear turned to friendship after we spent enough time together. The Hall of Fame coach took the Brickies to 11 state championship games and they won it all four times. But when I spoke to Howell’s wife, Roz, all those years ago, she never talked about field goals, holding penalties or what the scoreboard said and read. What she was focused on was lives being changed. She could talk for hours about this kid or another and she spoke about how the football family at Hobart and the culture there helped to lift young men up, kids who were facing difficulties at home or in the neighborhood. Babcock’s beating heart is an example of this great legacy moving forward. “I’ve let Bobby know he can call me any time of the week, 24/7,” Hobart coach Craig Osika said. “He can talk to me about anything. I have two daughters so all the kids on this team are my boys. We will be there for Bobby and help him whenever he needs it. “That’s what Hobart football is all about.” I’ve been writing about the Brickies’ junior class for about five years. They were making a name for themselves in middle school blowouts. I made comparisons to Lowell’s 2017 state finalist team, a large group of athletes and football players all on the same page. I will now compare Bobby Babcock with Lowell’s Jordan Jusevitch, now playing at Indiana. They are very similar on the grid iron. A star surrounded by talented teammates.This seems to be the Region way. Like Lowell, this Hobart team is growing and maturing at the right time. And it starts with Babcock. “He was not very coachable last year,” Osika said. “I talked to him about it in the offseason. This year Bobby’s been so unselfish. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and that has made him a better player.” Babcock has two little cousins -- Izabelle and Jack -- who he thinks of and plays for every Friday night. His head is up and he is focused on his future, trying to rise up from his past. “Not every day is sunshine and rainbows,” Babcock said. “I know that. But this football team, my brothers, they are there for me every day. We are going to stick together.” So the true legacy of Hobart football continues. And that is a very good thing. CALUMET TWP. -- If you did not have a tear in your eye, you don’t have a soul.
Friday night’s Whiting at Calumet football game was not about what the scoreboard said. One Warriors assistant coach shouted to the teenagers on the sidelines, “This isn’t about the score of the game. It’s about playing hard and sticking together like a family.” A few minutes later the scoreboard stopped working and the rest of the Greater South Shore Conference was timed by the officials. The 36-0 win by the Warriors, the first since 2009 over the Oilers, mattered. But not nearly as much as remembering the life and spirit of Calumet freshman Curtis Walton Jr., who died on Thursday. The images and snapshots of the eve were melancholy. But also extremely inspiring. Our flag flew at half-staff in the southwest corner of the stadium, a strange and rare moment under the lights of Friday night. Calumet freshman Andrew Marcum was crying uncontrollably just after the kickoff. That’s when senior Tyler Austin noticed and walked over and put his arm around the youngster and said, “You’re going to be all right.” Both had No. 19 decals on the back of their helmets, like every player in the game. The 1-9 was the jersey number that Walton Jr. wore. The one part of the scoreboard that did work all night was a computerized image of 1-9 with an image of the talented athlete who has passed to soon. Calumet’s volleyball team walked around and collected donations for the Walton family and the large crowd supporting this Warriors’ program, which is now 3-1 for the second year in a row under coach Rick Good They collected over $2,000 to help the family in this stressful and God-awful time. Curtis’ sister, Micaiah, wore a black No. 19 jersey and went out to midfield for the coin toss. Calumet’s middle school team was introduced at halftime and Curtis’ younger brother, Joshua, was the last Warrior announced. The entire team huddled around the kid, also wearing 19, and did a group hug that lasted several minutes. If this moment didn’t move you, you have a heart of stone. Calumet dominated the play on the field, proof that Good and his staff are doing a remarkable job in this rebuild. Junior quarterback Mark Flores ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more. His teammates are bigger and stronger than the decades before. The speed and tenacity these kids played with was impressive. This program has a chance to run the table in the regular season. “This week has been tough, real tough,” Good said. “Football is supposed to be our outlet for the tough things that happen in our lives. Our community suffered a great loss this week. I think playing this game allowed our kids to focus on something else. “On this night football was our escape.” The team went into the swimming pool after Wednesday’s practice to cool off. Walton Jr. was found unresponsive under the waves. He was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago on Thursday. “Curtis was a great athlete, a great kid,” Flores said. “We believe he would have wanted us to play this game for him. We did. He was up in heaven looking down on us. I hope we made him proud.” “He was a wonderful person,” sophomore Scott Flores said. “He was not just a friend, but a brother.” His friends and teammates spoke about Walton Jr.’s personality. He was competitive, talented, but also fun. On the basketball court he would tell people they couldn’t stop him. But if you hit a shot on him, he would smile. “He had the greatest smile I’ve ever seen,” freshman David Flores said. “He was always smiling.” It’s hard to put things like this in perspective. It is. A child with so much before him shouldn’t be taken. It’s not fair. Parents shouldn’t bury their children. All of this is true. But the second chapter of this sad story is how a community came together in a way few have seen. The love for this young man was expressed by the thousands at the game. I hope that this will give this family some wings to fly. I ask that everyone in the Region say a prayer for the Waltons and the Calumet community. Then, do it again. “He’s the only star in the sky, he’s our star,” David Flores said, while pointing to the sky. And he was right. There was only one star peeking through the cloudy night. Twinkling, while looking down. MERRILLVILLE -- Brad Seiss spoke to his football team on Thursday afternoon, a sun-baked home with a cool breeze out of the north.
Yep, it’s football season in Da Region. |
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March 2020
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