Knights gearing up for a big weekend

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

CONVOY — A big basketball weekend is on tap for the Crestview Knights, including a key NWC game and a road trip to play in an iconic venue.

Friday night, the Knights (8-4, 1-1 NWC) will face Bluffton, a team outscoring opponents by a 68-43 margin. The Pirates enter Friday night 8-1 (2-0 NWC), with the only loss coming to Ottawa-Glandorf, 45-40. Since then, Bluffton has won six straight.

“My biggest concern with Bluffton is their ability to score the basketball,” Crestview head coach Doug Etzler said. “They are a team that has several players that can really shoot it and they put a lot of pressure on your defense. Their guards can take you off the dribble which puts you in help situations, but if you over-help they do a great job of finding the open man. It is going to be a big challenge to slow them down offensively.”

“We will have to play great on ball defense and keep the ball in front of us,” he added. “If we can keep the ball in front of us and not have to over-help, we have a better chance to defend their three point shooting.”

Also of note Friday night – varsity baseball coach Jim Wharton will be honored between the junior varsity and varsity games to celebrate his 600 career wins. A reception will be held in the auditeria after the varsity game.

While the main focus of the week has been on Bluffton, a real treat is in store for Saturday night (weather permitting). The Knights will make the 2+ hour trek to Knightstown, Indiana, to play in the Hoosier Gym. It’s best known as a filming location for the 1986 basketball movie Hoosiers, starring Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper. In the movie, the gym served as the home court of the Hickory Huskers, a fictional team inspired by the Milan High School Indians, who won the 1954 state championship.

The Knights will face Cincinnati Purcell Marian, a Division III school at 6 p.m. (varsity only) at the famed gym. The Cavaliers are a one year fill-in of sorts on this year’s non-conference portion of the schedule.

“We typically play Arlington every year but this year Arlington was invited to participate in the Ft. Loramie MLK classic, so they asked us if we could take this year off from playing and then pick up again next year,” Etzler explained. “With having an extra game to schedule, (Athletic Administrator) Austin Fleming asked me if I would be interested in playing at the Hoosier Gym if we were able to secure an opponent. Austin looked into the specifics of what all goes into arranging to play at the Hoosier Gym and checked to see if they had any dates available and fortunately they did.”

“After securing that information, Austin started reaching out to schools and AD’s that he knows to see if we could find an opponent and a date that worked for both of us,” the coach continued. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to play in the Hoosier Gym.”

When Hoosiers opened in theaters in November of 1986, Etzler was a junior high student at Crestview. He admitted he may be the most excited about playing in the gym and said he’s made plans to get his players up to speed about the now-classic movie.

“I am probably more excited about playing at the Hoosier Gym than our players are because I was young when the movie was made and being a basketball junkie just love the history of basketball,” Etzler explaiend. “A lot of our players have not watched the movie. With the help of Shaun Putman, we are going to watch the movie as a program on Thursday at the Van Wert movie theater. I think this will give our players a better appreciation of the history of Indiana high school basketball and create a little more excitement before we go play on Saturday.”

The Hoosier Gym is a bit different in that it seats just 600 people, with the front row about three feet from the sidelines. The court itself is about 12 feet short of a normal high school court.

“As far as making adjustments to playing in the small venue like the Hoosier gym, we really haven’t talked a lot about that yet,” Etzler said. “We have put all of our focus so far this week into our big NWC matchup with Bluffton on Friday. We will start talking about those adjustments with our players after our game on Friday.”

Tickets for the Crestview-Purcell Marian game are still available in the Crestview athletic office today and tomorrow. The cost is $10 per ticket and there is a limit of two per person.