DIVISION 3
Best News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure/Category 1
Whitney Riggs & Zach Spicer, The Tribune (Seymour)
Fire engulfs North Vernon
A massive fire that covered an entire city block in historic downtown North Vernon on Friday
left three families homeless and caused two buildings to collapse.
More than a dozen area fire departments battled the blaze, which was reported to the Jennings
County Sheriff’s Department at 4:48 a.m. It was brought under control around 11 a.m.
At midmorning, with the temperature at 19 degrees, firefighters were using about 2,500 gallons
of water a minute to fight the blaze.
“It looks like they came close a couple times to having (the fire) under control, and then it
flashed up through the roof again,” North Vernon Mayor Harold “Soup” Campbell said.
“They’ve really got their hands full.”
Five firefighters were taken to the hospital for minor injuries from the impact of the building
collapse, the only injuries reported.
“We think maybe, hopefully, we dodged a bullet,” Campbell said of there being no major
injuries.
He said it’s unclear whether anyone was inside the buildings at the time of the fire.
The main building affected by the fire was Hatton’s Carpet and Flooring Store, 24 Fifth St.
Owned by Larry Hatton, it has three levels and contains apartments in addition to the carpet
business.
This is the second fire reported at that location this month.
The buildings that collapsed Friday contained two other businesses – McConnell-Finnerty law
office and Pamper Parlor salon. Seymour Fire Chief Brad Lucas estimated five other buildings
were damaged.
Campbell said the buildings affected by the fire are more than 100 years old.
He said the area where the fire broke out was undergoing a major façade project by Bradshaw
Building Specialties of North Vernon. Work was about to begin on the streetscape, he added. A
lift owned by Bradshaw being used for the project was damaged in the fire.
Work is now halted on that project at least until spring, Campbell said.
Three years ago, the city was one of three in the state awarded a project through the Indiana
Stellar Communities Program. The renovation project was part of that initiative.
“We have to start next week to get somebody from the state giving us some direction, to do the
assessments and see what we’ve got here,” Campbell said of the damage.
Five aerial ladder trucks were in use at one point, causing a constant light rain to sprinkle over
emergency personnel and creating a plume of thick, white smoke. The smoke could be seen
seven miles east of Seymour city limits.
Sidewalks, stoplights, streetlights and firefighter helmets were glazed with ice.
However, the cold didn’t hamper the water flow through the hoses, Lucas said.
He said four firefighters from Seymour were on the scene. A mutual aid agreement binds
Seymour and North Vernon fire departments, but Lucas said he couldn’t recall a time in his
career that he has been called over to help out.
At 2 p.m., Lucas said an investigator with the state fire marshal’s office was on scene to
determine the cause of the fire.
A little more than two weeks ago, a fire struck Hatton’s building and left around 30 people
without a home. North Vernon Fire Chief Rick McGill said an investigation determined the Nov.
5 fire to be accidental. No injuries were reported in that fire, which started in an apartment above
the carpet store.
There also was a murder that occurred at those apartments in late October when a Dupont man,
Richard A. Smith, was beaten to death by two men.
Having two fires in the same location may require city officials to look into the buildings more to
make sure they are up to code, Campbell said.
“This may be a good warning,” he said. “There’s a lot of things we’ve got to address and re-look
at. It’s going to take some serious looking.”
Some of those displaced are housed at privately owned or church-operated shelters, Campbell
said. There used to be a city-county shelter, but it closed nearly a year ago due to lack of use.
Best News Coverage With No Deadline Pressure/Category 2
Staff, Princeton Daily Clarion
Presidential visit to Gibson County
President Barack Obama will talk about his vision for the American economy during his trip to
Millennium Steel in Princeton Friday, according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
“The president is really looking forward to visiting the Midwest later this week,” Earnest said
during a regional media briefing call Wednesday.
After speaking at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago Thursday, President Obama
will visit Millennium Steel, a minority-owned supplier for Toyota, in Princeton, on what happens
to be Manufacturing Day.
Millennium Steel founder Henry Jackson has no previous connection to President Obama,
Earnest said.
“He has a pretty compelling story and he’s a veteran of the Vietnam War. I know the president’s
looking forward to meeting him,” Earnest said.
He added that Obama really values the benefit of getting to meet with workers and talk about the
training they received to do their job.
“These are good middle class jobs, these are the kinds of jobs the president wants to see all over
the country,” Earnest said.
The president is expected to talk about what’s been completed in the last few years, Earnest said,
but not expected to announce any new policies.
He’s expected to stress “how important it is to ensure that workers have the skills for high tech
jobs and high tech manufacturing, which requires more than a high school diploma,” Earnest
said.
Obama is expected to make his case for the American economy, and may also speak on how the
U.S. is providing leadership around the globe, whether it’s mobilizing the international
community to confront Ebola, climate change, confronting Russia and that nation’s destabilizing
actions in Ukraine, or building an international coalition to destroy ISIL (the Islamic State),
Earnest said.
“A ‘force for good’ in the world is what presidents have been in the past,” Earnest said. “The
president also believes that that legacy can only be inherited as long as the legacy is strong at
home.”
The president will speak on strengthening the middle class, because he believes that if middleclass families are strong, the country will be stronger, Earnest said.
The last time Obama visited Indiana was 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession. Earnest said
the president will speak on what progress he believes has been made, and make the claim that
according to polls, the U.S. is now the most attractive country when it comes to the private
sector.
“For years there was a lot of hand wringing about how China was the winner in those kind of
polls,” Earnest said.
There is a genuine revival of American manufacturing due to the skills of American workers in
those manufacturing plants, Earnest said.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will greet Obama upon his arrival at Tri- State Aero in Evansville at 1
p.m. Friday, before the president travels to Millennium Steel.
Best Ongoing News Coverage/Category 3
Jessica Williams, The News-Banner (Bluffton)
Owen Collins: Toddler’s body found
Three people are in custody after what police believe to be the body of 3-year-old Owen Collins
was discovered Sunday evening in a wooded area outside of Bluffton.
Zachary S. Barnes, 30, Bluffton is charged with one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in
death, a Level 1 felony, and one count of abuse of a corpse, a Level 6 felony.
Breanna J. Arnold, 21, Bluffton, is charged with one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in
death, a Level 1 felony. Arnold is the boy’s mother, and she was reportedly in a relationship with
Barnes.
A 16-year-old male from Marion is currently being held at a juvenile detention facility, facing
one count of abuse of a corpse, a Level 6 felony. No bond was set for Barnes and Arnold.
The child was reported missing Sunday from the 500 block of Normandy Drive in Mobile Manor
on Bluffton’s east side.
It is unknown when or how the boy died, and the investigation is ongoing.
“An autopsy is scheduled and positive identification will be determined by the Wells County
Coroner’s Office,” according to a press release issued by the Bluffton Police Department.
After the people who were last with the boy at the Normandy Drive residence were questioned,
police went to a wooded area in Liberty Township, about a mile east of the Wells/ Huntington
county line.
Once the scene was processed Sunday night, the body was transported to St. Joseph Hospital,
where the autopsy will be conducted.
At the Normandy Drive residence Sunday, just feet from a small bike, stroller and scooter,
yellow police tape sealed off the patio Sunday as neighbors milled about.
Just north of the mobile home, a dive team surveyed the nearby pond, looking for any signs of
the 3-year-old.
Officers were told he was last seen at about 8 p.m. Saturday evening. They were called to the
residence to check on the occupants at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, according to a separate press release
issued early Sunday evening by the BPD.
Owen was not found inside, nor during a search of the area. Units of both the Bluffton Police and
Fire departments went door-to-door in the mobile home park searching for the child.
Bluffton police officers look on as a bloodhound checks for the scent of Owen Collins midafternoon Sunday.
Many hands assisted in the initial, several-hour search for the boy.
The area around the frozen Beeler Pond at the mobile home park was also searched.
Conservation officers of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and firefighters of the
Bluffton Fire Department went out on the frozen pond, but found nothing.
A bloodhound and cadaver dog from the Indiana Search and Response/Indiana DHS District 3
Search and Rescue Task Force also searched the scene Sunday but did not hit on the boy’s scent.
Concerned neighbors at the mobile home park also swept the area, each reporting to the police
that they hadn’t found any trace of the child, either.
Assisting at the scene were members of the Wells County Sheriff’s Office, Ossian Police
Department, Indiana State Police, Indiana Excise Police, and Wells County EMS.
Best General Commentary/Category 4
Matt Getts, The Star (Kendallville)
Lamenting Solomon
The 14-year-old boy was at one end of the table doing his homework at the library. The 11-yearold girl was at the other end doing hers.
Keep in mind that the library had maybe eight empty tables. Being rudimentary pack animals by
nature, they had chosen to sit together. There is strength in numbers apparently, even if the
number is only two.
Big mistake.
When I approached, they were arguing vehemently – the only way they know how to argue.
There are no quiet disagreements, no matter how banal the topic – neither side willing to give an
inch.
For one to outright concede to the other? Inconceivable.
When I was first a dad, I thought the golden era of parenting would occur when the kids could
begin to talk, thus being able to explain for themselves why they were crying.
In subsequent stages, I thought the golden era would occur:
• when the children were out of diapers.
• when they finally went to school.
• when they could finally dress themselves without me having to wrestle them into their clothes,
and the most current one…
• when they were old enough to logically reason with them.
Sigh. The golden age of parenting remains elusive.
The boy and the girl are capable of reason. Just not with each other.
My main role as their father, consequently, has become arbiter of disputes.
I am not the loving counselor. Nor am I the gentle teacher or guide through life.
I am King Solomon – without the God-given wisdom.
Some of these high-brow arguments have revolved around topics such as:
• who got to tell the grandparents someone went to the bathroom in the pool, thus closing it for
the afternoon.
• who touched my ear first.
• which is inherently better as a utensil – a spoon or fork.
My yelling does not immediately stop these arguments. When I was a lad, when my dad told me
to “stop,” that’s what I did. When I say “stop,” that’s when my dear, sweet children start the
name-calling and I start looking for something to repeatedly pound my head against.
Before either child is willing to stop the argument, a winner must be declared.
In the library incident, the solution was for one of the children to move to another table. I had to
choose which child had to pack up his or her books and walk maybe 10 feet to a nearby table.
By definition, this requires I take a side. This makes me Solomon in one child’s eyes and Judas
in the other’s.
On this day, for no better reason than whim – the basis of most of my decisions, parental in
nature or not – I told the girl she had to move.
The girl begrudgingly did as she was told, muttering at her brother (I hope it was her brother,
anyway) as she did so.
For the next hour, she refused to even look at me.
Had I made her brother move, he would have given me similar treatment.
Sometimes, being Solomon isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
Best Editorial Writer/Category 5
Ray Cooney, The Commercial Review (Portland)
Straight ticket bill deserves a vote
In an era often marred by senseless legislation (allowing guns on school property) and ethical
issues (former superintendent of public instruction Tony Bennett, Rep. Eric Turner), it’s nice to
see a lawmaker propose a measure firmly grounded in logic.
It’s especially heartening when a legislator brings forth a common-sense bill despite the fact that
it will likely have a negative impact on his own party.
House Bill 1008, authored by Rep. David Ober (R-Albion), would end straight ticket voting –
selecting all the candidates from a single party with the push of one button – in Indiana.
What stands out about Ober’s bill, which was co-authored by fellow Republicans Kathy
Richardson (Noblesville) and Milo Smith (Columbus), is that he proposed it despite the fact it is
likely to have a greater impact on his party than the opposition.
The Hoosier State, after all, tends to lean to the right. Republicans account for seven of our nine
U.S. Representatives, six of our seven state executive office holders, 37 of our 50 state senators
and 69 out of our 100 state representatives.
And if more voters select Republicans, it’s likely they also receive more straight ticket votes.
That was true in November in Jay County, which heavily favored the GOP in state and national
races, when 457 straight ticket votes went to the Republican party compared to 219 for
Democrats and just four for Libertarians.
To us, straight ticket voting has never made any sense. It allows a citizen to step into a voting
booth and mindlessly select a slate of candidates, some of which he or she may not have even
known were running for office.
That’s not the kind of voting we want to encourage.
Voting should be a thoughtful process in which citizens view campaign advertising, listen to
what is said during debates, and, yes, read about candidates in their local newspapers. They
should then make their choice based on information they’ve gathered rather than the R or D in
front of the candidate’s name.
(Note that party designation will continue to be on the ballot, so if a voter wants to select
everyone from the same party he or she easily can. It will just require pressing a few more
buttons.)
Party designation shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor in the voting booth, especially in local
elections. There are good and bad candidates from all parties, and the only goal of the voter
should be to select those they feel will do the best job for their city, county, state or country.
Indiana is one of just 12 states – Michigan and Kentucky are two of the others – that offer the
straight ticket option. It’s time to take our name off the list.
Best Business/Economic News Coverage/Category 6
Zach Spicer, The Tribune (Seymour)
Opening doors
Seven Japanese companies in Jackson County employ more than 3,000 people.
A French-owned company in Seymour has nearly 1,700 employees, and a Belgian-owned facility’s
employment tops 500. Add those numbers up, and that’s more than 5,200 people employed in Jackson
County by foreignowned companies. So how vital is that foreign investment to the local economy?
“Absolutely critical,” said Jim Plump, executive director of Jackson County Industrial Development
Corp. “I wouldn’t want to see what Jackson County would look like without that.”
Foreign direct investment is on the rise not only in the county but across the state. An Indiana University
Kelley School of Business report shows more than 145,000 Hoosiers work at a business with at least a 50
percent foreign stake.
From 2011 to 2013, there were 129 foreign direct investment announcements with an expected value of
more than $5 billion in Indiana, according to the IU report. That anticipated dollar-value places Indiana
first among Midwestern states.
More than 75 percent of the investment announcements were manufacturingrelated, compared with 41
percent nationally. The investments were projected to create nearly 13,700 jobs, including more than
7,000 in the automobile and components industries. Japanese companies account for more than 40 percent
of those jobs, which is nearly quadruple the national average.
Plump said that goes back to the early 1980s when Gov. Robert Orr and Lt. Gov. John Mutz put an
emphasis on attracting Japanese investments in Indiana. They established an office in Japan and promoted
the state as a good place to establish manufacturing operations.
That is maintained today.
“Once you establish that, and once you begin having some success with the attraction of some Japanese
companies specifically, then all of a sudden, more Japanese companies will come,” Plump said.
When one company establishes here, it needs to have a supply base, creating a snowball effect.
“Once you have that first or second or third success, then all of a sudden, you’re on the radar screen as
something good is going on here because we have these companies that have located here,” he said.
Plump said that, in a 10-county region of southcentral Indiana, more than 50 Japanese companies employ
more than 16,000 people. Among those companies is Aisin Drivetrain Inc. in Crothersville.
Founded in 1996, the company manufactures products for customers in the automotive and heavy
equipment industries, including Toyota, Lexus and Chrysler.
When Scott Turpin became president of Aisin Drivetrain, there were 40 employees. Today, there are more
than 300. “The community is very business friendly,” Turpin said.
“We’ve always had a very good relationship with this area, with Jackson County. Jim Plump and his
group, JCIDC, have been very instrumental in helping that relationship. They make it really easy for us to
want to invest in this area.”
Aisin Drivetrain’s addition of products over the years has helped enlarge its workforce.
“It takes corporate desire to grow into an area and expand in an area,” Turpin said. “We’ve seen good
growth with our customers. So we’ve always tried to be there to support those customers and be an
irreplaceable partner for them.”
Aisin also has a manufacturing facility and North American headquarters in Seymour, with more than
1,700 employees.
Turpin said Aisin has a dedicated workforce, and employees are offered opportunities for growth.
“That business growth has afforded a lot of opportunities for individuals to come up in some cases from
the shop floor all the way up to management positions,” he said.
Plump said it’s good to see that foreign companies have invested not only in the county but the state.
Years ago, he said, Japanese companies invested on the West Coast because it was easy and convenient,
and European companies invested on the East Coast for the same reasons.
“Once these companies started manufacturing and producing product, it’s all about getting the product to
the consumer,” he said. “You start drawing 500- mile radiuses ... and you pick up a lot of water, and
you’re not seeing a whole lot of product.”
So those companies started moving toward the Midwest and realized they could hit a lot of the U.S.
population, Plump said. That helped the Hoosier state land automobile assembly plants, including Toyota
in Princeton, Subaru in Lafayette and Honda in Greensburg.
Then those companies needed suppliers, so that started more manufacturing operations. Plump said
Jackson County and the region have been fortunate to attract companies that continue to grow. And
maintaining a strong workforce is key, he said.
“We’ve got to be in a position to supply these companies with a workforce that can continue to make
profit because businesses are in business to make money,” he said. “When they cease making money is
when they cease being in business.”
Since 1998, there has been a workforce partnership in the county. In recent years, the Jackson County
Education Coalition was put in place, and the Jackson County Education Center was established.
The education center has given local people a chance to further their education, and companies have used
the facility for training employees.
“We’re seeing so much emphasis here in Jackson County, and really all over the state, in making sure that
the next generation of workers is trained and can become productive workers within these industries,”
Plump said. “Whether it’s U.S. domestic or whether it’s international, it’s doesn’t matter. It’s all the
same.”
Best Short Feature Story/Category 8
Kelly Lynch, The Commercial Review (Portland)
Slow ride
They drove 695 miles at an average speed of 13 miles per hour, sitting on thinly padded seats.
And they did it smiling.
“I couldn’t tell you the number of cars that came by and they would (take photos) on their phone,
you know,” said Wayne Smith.
“I had none of them give me the bird,” added a laughing Lloyd Smith. “Nobody.”
The septuagenarian brothers’ mode of transportation for the trek from their hometown in
Virginia to their first visit to the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Show at Jay County
Fairgrounds was a 1955 Ford 960 and a 1953 Super M Farmall.
And that unique choice to ride tractors found them admiring more than the beautiful scenery
along the way.
The duo unexpectedly became instant celebrities in every town they traveled.
“I told my wife, ‘I want to be low-key. I want it to look like I’m just going over yonder to
work,’” said Wayne. “But if I’d known we were going to get all this, I would have done a little
differently you know.”
While some called their venture crazy – and they themselves laugh at the idea of being a
celebrity – many along the way asked for photographs, offered to feed them or gave them a spot
to rest their mobile home for the night.
They left Virginia the night of Aug. 10 to travel the next week on country roads in West
Virginia, Ohio and eventually Indiana, but before they could head on their way, people started
showing their support for the brothers through surprise donations.
“It really flattered me,” said Lloyd. “This guy came up and shook hands with me. When we
shook hands, I could feel something in my hands, and I just balled it up and stuck it in my
pocket. And after he left, I pulled it out – well, he had told me, ‘This will buy you all a drink or
something’ – I pulled it out, it was a $20 bill.”
While on the road, passersby “waving, hollering and taking pictures” bombarded the duo, and
the brothers would respond with a hearty thumbs up.
It was a much different response than what lone tractors on the road usually receive.
“If you’re riding a tractor, they’ll honk, but if you have a flag, they’ll wave,” said Lloyd, who
adorned the tractors with American flags, the flag of Virginia and signs with information about
the ride.
On the road daily by 8 a.m. and not stopping until late evening, the brothers now have a breadth
of new stories of hospitality and humor to recall from the trip.
A man in a pick-up truck offered to help them get home, only to learn they were more than 500
miles from where they reside. A lady offered to bring them back dinner from a church social,
returning with 10 heaping plates of food and enough dessert to last them the week.
Going down a mountain in Virginia with rain soaking their bib overalls, they were passed by a
man on a mountain bike, shouting “coming through”.
“We ain’t seen him since,” laughed Lloyd. “I don’t know where he went, whether he went off the
side of the mountain or what. We didn’t see him no more.”
While reactions to their trip pleasantly surprised the brothers, they weren’t so impressed with the
weather.
Planning the trip since last August, they could map their route but they couldn’t predict what
Mother Nature would do. And she brought nothing but trouble. The brothers had hoped to drive
100 miles a day, a distance they were accustomed to riding as part of other shows, but that was
only if the weather cooperated.
“We didn’t get far that (first) evening,” said Wayne. “Then the next morning it was raining.
And it rained and it rained. We lost half a day that day. Next day, rain. The third day, it was a
drizzle rain, but the wind was blowing. It was cold. But we rode that day, and luckily neither one
of us caught a cold or anything. We froze though.”
Their original schedule had them arriving in Portland Sunday, but with more than a day lost to
bad weather, they didn’t set foot at Jay County Fairgrounds until Monday evening. Mayor Randy
Geesaman paid the brothers a visit soon after, as the news of their ride had already swept through
the fairgrounds.
The brothers had signed up to participate in Tuesday’s tractor ride, but after a full week of
driving, they decided it was time for a rest.
But now back at full capacity, the duo is glad to have chosen their first long-distance ride to end
in Jay County – a part of the country they’d only seen through their careers as truck drivers – to
participate in the display of Ford tractors.
“The show is fantastic,” said Wayne. “The old stuff is what I like. I tell people I like old cars, old
trucks and old tractors. My wife got old, and I like her too.”
The brothers have their tractors on display at the fairgrounds, but they don’t have too long to stay
settled as they’ll be back on the road in a few days.
Thinking of future rides, only one comes to mind.
“We gonna do another (ride) Sunday,” said Wayne.
“We gotta get back home,” said Lloyd.
Best Profile Feature/Category 9
Whitney Riggs, The Tribune (Seymour)
Directing young lives
The 82-year-old knows his white hair and wrinkles make him look like a grandpa to juveniles
and young drug offenders.
But Chuck Olson happily admits that sometimes his appearance is exactly why it’s easy for him
to build a relationship with those he’s trying to help.
“Oh yes,” Olson said. “I really do believe that, and that’s because most of the people I meet
really do cherish their grandparents.”
That relationship is apparent when he walks through the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown.
“Chuck, Chuck!” some inmates will yell.
Men and women, dressed in jail jumpsuits, will press against the security glass just to say a few
words to him. He treats them just like a friend on the street, checking up on them.
Some he has met through the jail’s Alcoholics Anonymous program. Others he has met through
his work as an addictions counselor.
Either way, Olson understands what many of them are going through – he once lost his job, his
marriage and his self-worth to alcohol.
But today, after 26 years of sobriety and more than 7,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
attended, the recovering alcoholic is willing to help those who are ready to make a change in
their life, even if they’re behind bars.
“By the grace of God, I could be the one sitting in there,” Olson said.
‘It becomes a habit’
Olson was born in Detroit and had his first drink when he was 17 when he sipped some beer.
“I hated it,” said Olson, who said alcoholism does not run in his family.
He attended Cornell College in Iowa and once vowed never to drink again after a night full of
booze and fun.
But that wouldn’t be the case.
When he went to work for a financial company in Illinois, he gradually started to drink more.
Bottles of alcohol were a thing to bring to gatherings with friends, and he began daily drinking
when he was about 35, Olson said.
“It got to the point where we would go to a party and bring booze, and I may be in the kitchen
afterward drinking out of other people’s glasses,” he said.
At that time, he had a wife and children.
He recalls sitting outside his house and watching for the bedroom light to turn off when his wife
would go to sleep. He said he would then do some “serious drinking” by himself.
“It starts out as a lot of fun, and then it becomes a habit,” he said. “We don’t drink to feel good.
We drink to not feel bad.”
‘The turning point’
Flash forward about 20 years, and Olson held a good job working in the circulation department
at The Indianapolis Star.
After attending two treatment centers, he still was unable to end his addiction. He said that’s
because he always had a plan in the back of his mind to somehow continue the drinking, even if
it was just once a week.
“I reached a point where I was out of control and that’s all I wanted to do,” Olson said.
One day, his boss told him he had to quit drinking or lose his job.
“In my infinite wisdom, I said, ‘I quit,’” Olson said. “That was really the turning point.”
Olson soon found himself at an apartment drinking for about six weeks straight, even getting
arrested at one point for driving under the influence.
After he was kicked out of the apartment and then a motel, he had nowhere to go and recalls
sitting in front of a bush with his half-gallon of vodka at 56 years old.
One of the 12 steps used in Alcoholics Anonymous came to mind.
“You’re powerless over alcohol,” he said he thought and realized it was true.
Olson also had another thought that was simple yet proved worthwhile.
“You don’t have to drink to be happy,” he said.
At that moment, he believed it, surrendered and said he didn’t want to drink anymore.
Even though he had no money and had lost basically everything, he somehow reached into his
pocket and found a quarter. He used it to make a phone call to his daughter.
“I would have died there (at the apartment), but I got rescued,” he said, referring to his spiritual
awakening. “Sometimes God works through other people, even the motel worker who kicked me
out and the police.”
Olson’s keys now have a key chain with a quarter, a symbolic reference to the day he became
sober.
Recreating his life
Olson began to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings three times a day. He started to recreate
his life, as he put it, and focused fully on his recovery.
He has never had a relapse, something he credits to the Alcoholics Anonymous program.
“If you work the program, you won’t relapse,” he said. “Before, I thought I was in recovery, but
I wasn’t because I kept thinking about when I was going to drink. If you’re playing around and
you’re on the outside, it won’t work.”
Olson eventually began his work with young adults at a teenage center for substance abuse. After
all, working with kids is a passion he has always had – he has worked with kids at the YMCA,
with the young paper carriers at The Indianapolis Star and even with his own kids through
hockey and youth baseball.
He once worked at a work-release program and eventually became a certified substance abuse
counselor.
Eventually, he took a break from working in treatment and left Indianapolis to work at a small
newspaper in northern Indiana.
In 1999, he came to Seymour and worked at The Tribune before he decided to start working with
emotionally challenged kids in the area. He returned to counseling and treatment when he began
working at Polarity Counseling in Seymour, operated by Brenda and Eric Turner.
For about six years, he helped others regain their lives from substance abuse.
One of those was Mary Jo Gallion of Seymour.
Olson was one of her counselors at Polarity when she was in intensive outpatient therapy trying
to overcome drugs and alcohol. She has been sober for nine years.
“Chuck taught me about my disease and taught me a new way to live,” the 52-year-old said.
Gallion said Olson will do anything to help those in recovery, including the help she and her
husband, who also relied on Olson to become sober, received.
“I’ve just seen him give all of himself,” Gallion said. “If Chuck knew or felt God wanted him to
do a certain thing, he would go to the end of the Earth to do that.”
Today, Gallion and Olson remain close friends. She even assists him with helping others become
sober.
“I don’t think the recovering community in Seymour would be the same without him,” she said.
“I love Chuck as if he were my own grandfather.”
‘Someday, they’ll get it’
When Olson was at Polarity, he also started to work at the Judge Robert Brown Jackson County
Juvenile Home, a residential facility for troubled youths.
The Brownstown home accepts teen boys who have been removed from their homes because of
family issues or who have been judged to be delinquent.
Today, he switches roles throughout the week, sometimes as counselor and other times as child
care worker, spending the night shift with the boys, helping them to bed, waking them up for
school and work and dealing with the tough part of runaways.
David Banks, the home’s assistant program director, has seen how Olson immerses himself in
the program, often putting in the extra work for no pay.
Olson assists with drug, alcohol and trauma assessments with the kids and even takes the boys
along with him to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
“All of them have obsessive-compulsive behaviors, and many have reactive attachment disorder,
and they don’t really care about other people,” Olson said. “I try to be kind to them even when
they’re breaking the rules.”
The parenting
Olson said the home tries to implement order and family using rules that must be followed with
cleaning, homework and cooking. The program tries to create a new outlook on life.
“We give them the parenting they’ve never had,” he said. “We’re trying to teach them the things
that families do. We try to deal with the trauma they’ve experienced so they can be strong
enough to go out on their own.”
But while he tries to deal with their emotional issues, Olson also stands as a role model to the
boys, teaching them responsibility and even using his own car to teach them how to drive.
“Chuck does it because he says, at his age, what can they do to him,” Banks said.
Recently, when his car was stolen by one of the juveniles for a short period of time, Olson said
he wasn’t angry at the boy and made sure the boy knew that. He was more mad at the situation in
which the boy grew up.
“They have lives unlike the one I had,” Olson said. “Their background is entirely different.”
He’s referring to how many of the boys grew up in homes and around families that were
surrounded by poverty and crime, including substance abuse, theft and neglect.
Banks said drug and alcohol addiction is a significant issue in 90 percent of the cases at the
house.
“You cannot understand these cases without understanding addiction and its chronic effect on
every aspect of their lives,” Banks said.
Olson said the result is the kids don’t know anything about what parenting should be like.
“They’ve never had that model for them,” he said.
“They really don’t even know what a real family looks like.”
To be happy, one must have love, self-esteem and a sense of belonging. These kids don’t have
that, Olson said.
“How some of these kids manage, I don’t know,” he said.
Olson said many of the kids don’t want to go back home because there’s no support there. They
also have trouble in school and tend to gravitate toward others like them to receive the feelings
they are lacking, such as protection.
As challenging as it is to understand and care for the teens, Olson said, he truly enjoys working
with that age because even if they don’t realize it yet, they have the tools to succeed.
“Many would prefer to not work with adolescents because they tend to relapse, and I expect
them to,” he said. “They may not come around until they are 25 or 26, but someday, they will get
it.”
Just recently, Olson said, a man he used to work with stopped by to talk about the progress he
has made – he now has a job and a girlfriend.
But he admits there are many failures in the position he holds, which isn’t easy to accept.
“Sometimes, I run into someone I can’t help,” he said. “But I do the best I can.”
Grateful for life
During the week, Olson also offers drug and alcohol education sessions. Throughout the year, he
conducts outpatient treatment for first-time teen offenders and their parents. They are split into
groups and counseled, which he said is effective because the family support is there.
For those struggling with addiction, he said, it’s all about attitude because not everyone is ready
to take that step to get clean. Though he’s had no cravings since the day he gave up alcohol, he
understands it can be difficult for others
They have to want to seek help,” he said. “Once they believe they can, that will eventually turn
to faith.”
Reflecting on his life, Olson said, he wouldn’t change much except for the fact that he kept
alcohol in his home and drank around his family. He helped raise eight kids and knows they were
all impacted by his behavior, some of them more seriously than others.
Now as a grandfather and great-grandfather, he encourages other parents to keep it out of the
house, too, to prevent future problems.
“Kids want to do what Mom and Dad do,” he said.
Despite the hardships, Olson said, he’s grateful for the day he began his habit with booze
because the outcome has given him so much more.
“I’m so grateful I’m a recovering alcoholic because it’s opened up my life to all kinds of
wonderful things,” he said. “So many things that wouldn’t have happened.”
Best In-Depth Feature or Feature Package/Category 10
Scott Roberts, The Reporter-Times (Martinsville)
Final farewell for Central
Wednesday, May 27, wasn’t a typical last day of school. The interactions were more emotional,
the goodbyes more heartfelt, and the final sense of realization had hit students and staff.
This was it. The last day for Central Elementary School. Not for the year, but for the foreseeable
future.
Central Elementary students and staff went through the motions of the final day of the building
as a school. Next year, students and staff will be moving on, most to Smith Elementary School,
but some to different schools as well.
Central will become the administration building and will house the district’s special education,
Title I and food service offices as well as the Hammons Off-Campus alternative education
program.
Longtime teacher Sharon Tutterow, a fifth-grade teacher who has been at the school for 46 years,
since the current building began its first full year, probably said it best at the school’s awards
ceremony.
“What I usually say is have a great summer and I’ll see you next fall to the fourth-graders, but I
can’t say that this time,” she said. “So all I can say is good luck at your new school.”
9:15 a.m.
As the school gets ready for its first awards ceremony for first- through fifth-graders, principal
Tiffany Johnson said she’s “hanging in there,” as she sets up chairs and prepares to emcee.
In the gym, parent Summer Ferran gets ready to watch her daughter Maggie, a first-grader. She’s
had two children attend Central and said she is disappointed to see the school closing.
“Change is good sometimes, but it’s still sad,” Ferran said. “The school has been around so
long.”
Ferran said her daughter is going to Smith, and it’s not as bad for her as for some students.
“She’s not as attached,” Ferran said. “It’s worse for the third- and fourth-graders.”
9:45 a.m.
High ability third-grade teacher Lynn Zook nearly tears up while giving her awards. She directed
the program about Central’s history, which was available to view in the gym.
“I’m really going to miss them,” she said. “They’re a great group.”
10 a.m.
Kindergarten teacher Stephanie Wessler is snapping photos of some of the awards. She’s taught
at Central for four years, and has been in the district for 16. She said it’s sad a lot of these
students have to go to a bigger school, adding that she loves the small school atmosphere of
Central.
“I know them all by name, and I know all of the parents by name,” she said. “I thought I’d end
my career here, but it didn’t happen. I’m really going to miss this school. I loved it here.”
She did say there is a bright side, and that is she was going to teach with Betsy Heck at Smith
Elementary. Heck was her kindergarten teacher.
“That will be fun,” she said.
10:20 a.m.
In between the awards ceremony for first through third grades and fourth and fifth grades,
Lauren Lanham waits for the second program to start. She has a student in fifth grade who would
be going to middle school anyway, but she too is sad for Central’s closing.
“That’s the general consensus,” she said.
She said she was looking at a private school for her son, but decided to give Central a shot. Her
son had Audrey Collier the first year and he was hooked.
“He fell in love with it,” Lanham said. “He’s had a lot of the same kids for all of his classes and I
know he’s loved that.”
10:40 a.m.
Teacher Terri Bales gets emotional while thanking principal Tiffany Johnson, the Title I staff
and teacher Cathy Carmack.
“I couldn’t have done it without you guys,” she said.
10:50 a.m.
Tutterow gives her goodbye to all students.
11 a.m.
Peggy Watkins gets up from her chair and begins to leave. She can’t believe her daughter,
Maggie, chose the same dress to wear for the day that one of her close friends, Maggie Smith,
also wore.
“I swear we didn’t know it,” she said. “It’s really strange.”
But she also also thanked everyone for the great year at Central and how the staff made it
wonderful despite the uncertainty.
“Mrs. Johnson was outstanding,” Watkins said. “She pulled everyone up. Everyone has been
great. But I still wish this could be our neighborhood school.”
She said she’s been to the Smith open house and she liked the school. She said she hadn’t been
there since junior high, but likes principal Kyle Stout and is excited about Maggie attending
there, even if she has to ride a bus.
“We wish she could still walk, but it’s a little far now,” she said.
11:20 a.m.
Custodian Ronda Coffman sets up for the last lunch at Central. She’s been with the school for 19
years and she’s not leaving the building. She’ll be at the building next year, helping to maintain
the administration building, but said she didn’t want to see the building’s days as a school end.
“It’s sad,” she said while moving tables into position. “Everyone we know is going in different
directions.”
Coffman said even though she’s staying, the atmosphere will be completely different.
“The only kids I’ll have will be preschool,” she said. “And everything will be different. It will be
like starting a new job all over again, with a different routine.”
11:50 a.m.
Kindergarten teacher Tammy Herrington sits in her room while her students are at recess. This
was her first year at Central. Next year she’ll be returning to Smith, where she was before. While
she’s excited to return to Smith, she said she hates leaving Central.
“There’s such a homey feel here,” she said. “I’m going to miss that.”
Her students, though, are taking it well.
“They’re kindergartners,” she said. “They’ll adapt fine.”
Noon
Lunch is served for teachers in the front office. It’s a taco bar with many desserts as well and
teachers come in and discuss the day’s activities. Conversation topics are scattered, but soon the
topic shifts to the last day and the teachers’ feelings on it. Teachers talk about the feeling of
camaraderie, togetherness and home that doesn’t come with other schools.
That’s what makes Central so special,” third-grade teacher Janell Shanahan said. “It’s exactly
that.”
She said she feels “numb right now.” Her husband told her that’s part of the grieving process,
she said, adding that she thought a lot of the teachers were going through that right now. Many
agreed.
Teachers talked about what schools they are going to and how they think for the most part they
will be fine. Then it was back to work for the final two hours of the day.
1:30 p.m.
The “Accelerated Reading” fairy makes one final appearance to all of Central’s classrooms, as
Johnson wears a black tutu and delivers Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen to all Central teachers and
students. She gets hugs at most classrooms and with her hugs from lunch and the morning
awards ceremony she said, “I feel like I’ve been hugged so much I’m about to fall over.”
2 p.m.
First-grade teacher Pam Verhey stands outside a bounce house set up in Central’s gym for those
students who excelled in A.R. As they bounce inside, Verhey said it’s not today that’s so bad,
it’s going to be tomorrow.
“The kids are still here, so we have to be strong for them,” Verhey said. “It’s tomorrow that will
be hard, when they’re gone.”
Verhey said she’s been in the same room for 11 years and it’s like a second home to her.
2:30 p.m.
Tutterow is sitting on a bench at the playground, watching her fifth-grade students play kickball.
She said she’s mostly relieved that everything is over and that she now knows her certain future,
even if it’s at a different school.
“It’s a year of new chapters for me,” Tutterow said, as she also lost her husband, longtime
Martinsville High School baseball coach Bill Tutterow, earlier in the year. She said losing her
husband and having this change has been tough, but she’s ready to move on to a new chapter of
her life.
“I’m a big believer that things happen for a reason,” she said. “At least now I know the next
chapter and I know how it’s going to begin.”
Tutterow is moving on to Centerton Elementary, which means her commute is almost tripling,
from three minutes to 10. However, she said she’s looking forward to reuniting with an old
friend, Centerton Principal Debbie Lipps, as well as others she knows at the school.
“I’m ready to close this chapter,” Tutterow said. “I love this school, but I’m ready to move on.”
3:05 p.m.
Teachers are having students clear off their desks and make sure they have all their belongings.
Zook receives a group hug from just about every student in her classroom.
“You’re going to make me cry,” she said.
“We’re supposed to make you cry,” a student answered.
3:15 p.m.
Students are let out of school and hugs abound. Many staff members stand just outside the door,
waving goodbye, smiling and putting on a brave face. Superintendent Michele Moore and
Assistant Superintendent Jerry Sanders are there to wish students well.
3:25 p.m.
Johnson, after many more hugs and farewells, said she thinks the day was a success, at least as
much as it could be.
“We tried to make it as fun for them as possible,” she said.
Johnson said she’ll be leaving the school where she’s made so many professional and personal
relationships. She said she loves Central.
“I could see myself being here for a very long time,” she said.
But she’s also looking forward to her next challenge, taking over at Paragon Elementary for
retiring Principal Dru Voiles.
“I’m lucky to be going into a place that had such great leadership,” she said. “She always stuck
up for her students and I admired that about her.”
But, she said, she’ll still miss Central.
“This is sad,” Johnson said. “I will definitely miss this.”
Best Sports Event Coverage/Category 11
Harley Tomlinson, Rensselaer Republican
Bombers state bound
Rensselaer Central coach Chris Meeks kept his secret weapon under wraps for 13 games until
unleashing it Friday night against Lafayette Central Catholic.
Bomber fans know senior quarterback Dylan Wright has the ability to throw the ball. Friday,
Meeks asked his veteran signal caller to use his legs and run, run, run.
After 48 minutes of football, Wright had run the ball 24 times for a game-high 196 yards and two
touchdowns in leading the No. 2 ranked Bombers to their first state championship game with a
17-14 victory over the Knights.
The Bombers (14-0) will face either Evansville Mater Dei (13-0) or Monrovia (11-2) for the
Class 2A title next Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mater Dei travels to Monrovia today for a
semistate showdown.
Kickoff for the state championship game next week is 11 a.m., local time.
Meeks and his staff knew Central Catholic, which bows out at 10-4 with two losses coming
against the Bombers, would commit to stopping senior Rylan Arihood, one of the state’s leading
rushers.
“I purposely kept Dylan from running all year to save him for this game,” Meeks said. “Dylan
was tremendous tonight. He ran hard, made good decisions and made nice cuts. They were
keying on Arihood and he did a nice job of faking like he had the ball. When he did get the ball,
he ran hard. Our offensive line was phenomenal. We got to the linebackers. The first time, we
didn’t get to their linebackers. Tonight we blocked 54 and 52. A total team effort.”
The Knights were one of the few teams to slow Arihood during the regular season. So Meeks
decided to break out the spread offense and utilize Wright’s elusiveness against CC’s aggressive
defense.
“You go back to that first game, they throttled our offense,” Meeks said. “But towards the end of
the second half, we got things going. We came out in our shotgun spread tonight; spread them
out and create running lanes. They still did a nice job on the perimeter on the outside runs, but it
opened up lanes for the inside running game.”
The strategy worked in the Bombers’ offensive first series of the game, but after reaching
midfield, Wright fumbled the ball away, giving CC a shot at putting the first points on the board.
But the Bomber defense held and the offense took advantage. With the ball resting on
Rensselaer’s own 43-yard line, Wright dropped back as if to pass, tucked the ball and ran
through the middle of CC’s defense, not stopping until he reached the end zone on a 57-yard
touchdown run with 6:33 showing in the first quarter.
Wright had a pair of CC cornerbacks to beat to get into the end zone.
“I was at the 10 and I looked to my left and saw (Jackson) Anthrop and I was like, all right, and
then I looked to my right and put my hand down, covered the ball and just went,” Wright said.
On Rensselaer’s next series, Wright capped a seven-play, 53-yard drive with a 3-yard scoring run
for a 14-0 lead. It was the largest deficit Central Catholic faced this year.
“We saw their linebackers did a quick read then dropped back so we were able to do our draws
and stuff because of that,” Wright said. “We were able to block their linebackers and get it deep
into their defense.”
But the Knights, who have six state titles in their history, soon got back into the game when on
the first play from scrimmage in the second half, Anthrop broke free of a pair of potential tackles
and motored 57 yards for CC’s first touchdown.
The play took just 21 seconds off the clock.
“We’ve been coming out sluggish in the third quarter it seems every week,” Bombers defender
Austin Fleming said. “We did it again today. They came out and they ran one play and that’s all
it takes for them to get back in the game.”
The Knights maintained momentum when they recovered a fumble on the Bombers’ first
offensive series. But like it has down countless times this season, the Bomber defense stiffened,
forcing a three-and-out at RC’s 35-yard line.
“At times, the defense was put in bad positions,” Meeks said. “But they dug their feet in and got
us out of holes.”
The Bombers then put together one of their longest drives of the season to give senior Nathan
Ziese a chance at a field goal. Starting at its own 26-yard line, RCHS went 64 yards in 12 plays
to CC’s 5-yard line. The drive included a pair of 14-yard runs by Wright and a third down pass
play from Wright to senior Ab Kiger that covered 14 yards.
Ziese would cap the drive by putting a 22-yard field goal through the uprights for a 17-7 lead.
“We haven’t kicked a field goal all year and Ziese goes out there and kicks it like he’s kicked 30
of them all year,” Meeks said. “It was like clockwork.”
The Knights had three straight offensive series that produced little. On one series, Bombers
senior John Ohanis recovered a fumble to give his team good field position.
CC then went into desperation mode, with Denhart flinging passes downfield over the game’s
final three minutes He completed a 40-yard pass to Fusiek to keep a drive alive.
On a fourth-and-10, Denhart scampered 12 yards for a first down at the Bombers’ 14-yard line.
Two plays later, Denhart hit Fusiek with a 14-yard lob pass in the end zone to trim the lead to
17-14.
But CC’s onside kick with 48 seconds remaining was covered up by the Bombers, who began
celebrating the program’s first semistate title soon after.
Arihood finished with 83 tough yards on 23 carries to close within 80-plus yards of 2,000 for the
season.
Anthrop, meanwhile, had 119 yards on 12 carries with a score. He was one of 12 juniors who
were playing for the Knights, who will likely play for another state finals berth next season.
“Wherever 23 was, that’s where we needed to be,” Fleming said of Anthrop. “If he was in the
backfield, they were probably going to run it. If he’s out on the slot, they were either going to
shovel pass it to him or get him on a pass route.”
Defensively, Sam Ahler had six tackles for the Bombers and Dalton Souders and Hunter Wright
added five each. Trevor Hill and Jake Steinke had interceptions.
Now it’s on to the Oil Can at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis where fans could see No. 1
Evansville Mater Dei against the No. 2 Bombers.
“Our community has been so supportive,” Meeks said, pointing out the large crowd to see
Friday’s game, which was the first semistate game hosted by Rensselaer. “As bad as we want it,
our kids want it, our coaches want it, the school wants it, our community wants it just as bad and
it showed tonight. We feel very honored to bring our Rensselaer community down to Lucas Oil
Stadium and I think it’s going to be one heck of a celebration down there. We’re going to give
everything we have to bring back a championship for Rensselaer.”
Best Sports News or Feature Coverage/Category 12
Chris Schanz, The Commercial Review (Portland)
‘Felt that God spared her’
The details of April 23 are cloudy for Morgan Alberson.
For Morgan’s mother Kim, the memories are a little clearer.
“I remember watching the actual accident happen,” Kim said, recalling the evening her daughter
suffered a neck injury on the softball diamond. “For some reason I was thinking Morgan was in
left field.”
But Morgan was in right field and had just collided with her teammate, center fielder Alyssa
Bluhm. Morgan, now a sophomore at South Adams High School, took off to her right after a line
drive in the gap. Bluhm, then a senior and now a freshman at Taylor University, broke from her
position in center field also in an attempt to make the play.
Morgan caught the ball as Bluhm fell into her left knee. The collision dislodged the ball from
Morgan’s glove and sent her sunglasses flying off her face. The 15- year-old fell backward and
hit her head on the ground.
Then, Kim realized it was her child involved in the collision.
“I saw them both on the ground and I was thinking in my mind, ‘I’m not going to be that parent
that goes out on the field,’” she said. “By the time I got out there, Alyssa and Morgan were both
up and kind of starting to walk off.”
As she walked off the field, Morgan recalled the pain she was feeling.
“My neck didn’t even hurt,” she said. “I remember my knee hurting really bad.”
After South Adams trainer Becky Werst performed some preliminary tests on Morgan, she
advised Kim and Jeromy Alberson, Morgan’s father, to take her to get checked for a concussion.
“Becky tried asking me questions,” Morgan said. “I really don’t even think I answered them
correctly because I was out of it.”
But after the game, Morgan was adamant that she didn’t hit her head.
“She kept telling us she hit (Alyssa) and twirled like a ballerina,” Jeromy said.
However, grass and a green stain in her hair suggested otherwise, so Kim and Jeromy went to
Adams Memorial Hospital.
During the drive to Decatur, Morgan said she could feel every bump her father hit, and Kim said
her daughter kept saying she had a strange feeling in her neck.
“She even made a comment that was like, ‘I sure hope I don’t have to wear one of those neck
braces,’” Kim said.
Hospital stay
When the Albersons got to the hospital, Morgan had X-rays taken of her head and her knee.
One of the nurses even mentioned the recently added green stripe in her hair, thinking her
teenaged patient had put the color there on purpose.
As the Albersons waited on results, they had an opportunity to watch a replay of the collision –
the game was recorded and put on a webcast.
“All the sudden there was a knock on the door,” Morgan said. “I remember the doctor rushing in
and he was like ‘hold your head still.’”
Morgan continued to move her head, and that is when the doctor put his hands on her chin and
the top of her head and said, “hold it still, your neck is broken.”
The force of her head hitting the ground fractured the C7 vertebrae at the base of her neck.
Jeromy said the doctor had a sense of humor to him, so his initial reaction was that he was
joking.
Morgan had other thoughts. “I couldn’t believe it honestly,” she said, adding she thought she
would have to wear a halo. “I would rather die than wear one of those things.”
Then, serious thoughts continued to run through her head – would she be paralyzed, would it be
temporary and would she lose feeling in her legs?
“I remember crying,” Morgan said. “I honestly, uncontrollably could not stop crying the rest of
the night. The whole night was just a mess.”
Felt at peace
While Morgan was being prepped for her CT scan to check if there was any further damage, she
was overcome by a feeling of relief.
“I got this peace over me,” she recalled. “I was still crying, but I was like ‘everything is going to
be OK.’ I had never felt that way before, but I could feel that people were praying about me.”
After the scan, her feeling became a reality. She looked at her phone and found she had text
messages from friends and family asking if she was OK.
“It was amazing,” she said.
The scan revealed no further damage, but Morgan would have to wear a neck brace for a couple
weeks.
“He kind of eased our mind a little bit,” Kim said of the doctor. “It kind of eased my mind as a
mom that she was not going to be paralyzed.”
Recovery
The collision was on a Wednesday, and two days later Morgan returned to school. The questions
and concerns from her fellow classmates continued.
“What shocked me is a lot more people cared than I thought there would be,” Morgan said. She
later found out a prayer circle was created for her. “It shocked me personally because I didn’t
think a lot of people cared.”
Two weeks later Morgan was able to take her brace off. However, everything wasn’t back to
normal for the two-sport athlete because she was not allowed to participate in physical activities.
“From not being able to do anything – not being able to bend down to grab anything or take a
shower – I could not imagine being paralyzed for the rest of my life,” Morgan said. “I like to do
things myself.”
Bending down to take things out of her locker was a struggle. If she dropped her pencil in class,
someone else had to pick it up for her.
Even though she wasn’t required to wear the brace anymore, Kim said she continued to do so
while she slept.
But it was the break from sports that hit Morgan the hardest. She missed the rest of her freshman
season on the Starfire softball team and was forced to sit out several of her club volleyball team’s
tournaments.
“I took it really hard, honestly,” she said. “This whole summer from having off from everything,
it kind of destroyed me inside. I couldn’t do what I love to do and all my friends were doing it.”
Morgan also had to be a spectator as her family spent time in Florida at Disney in early June.
“I hated it,” she remembers. “I cried a lot there too because I couldn’t do anything.”
Return to action
Morgan was given clearance from doctors to begin playing volleyball again July 1. But with an
IHSAA-mandated moratorium week slated to begin that day, she spent time in open gyms in the
latter part of June to ease her way back into the sport.
“That first time she went to open gym she was just so happy,” Kim said.
As she stepped onto the court for the first time after her injury just two months prior, Morgan
didn’t feel the least bit nervous. It was almost as if she hadn’t missed any time. But, she felt she
had to show herself she could continue playing volleyball.
“My goal was just to prove to myself,” she said. “All of these people were watching me.”
A few days after open gyms, in which she was only allowed to pass, the coaches said they were
having a tough time limiting her in practice.
“She was doing more than she was supposed to,” Jeromy said. “The coaches were trying to keep
her out of it and it didn’t work.”
It felt good for Kim to see her daughter return to competition when South Adams traveled to Jay
County on Aug. 14 to scrimmage the Patriots. Seeing his daughter make it safely through the
match was a relief for Jeromy.
“I never thought of any of my kids getting hurt,” Jeromy said, adding he was becoming more
worried about Morgan returning to action, a feeling usually reserved for Kim. “That initial first
time back was like ‘uh oh.’ After that I never thought again about her getting hurt.”
Telling her story
People still ask the Albersons questions as to how Morgan hurt her neck.
“Honestly, it’s such a long story that I shorten it,” Morgan said, adding people become surprised
when they find out she did it playing softball since it is not a contact sport.
Jeromy and Kim, though, use pictures to accompany their telling of the tale.
“What I do is get my phone out and show the pictures because it’s easier than telling the story,”
he said. “Their whole attitude changes once I get my phone out and show them the pictures.”
Morgan’s injury was life-changing for everyone in the family. Not only did it make them
question whether or not Morgan could play sports again, it helped them grow spiritually.
“I just felt that God spared her,” Kim said. “I think (she) did a lot of soul searching and growing
through the whole experience.”
Best Sports Columnist/Category 13
Ray Cooney, The Commercial Review (Portland)
Tribe baseball has come a long way
Two wins.
Do you remember when that was a season for the Indians?
It wasn’t that long ago.
In 2011, the Fort Recovery High School baseball team managed just two wins – 2-17. It had won
only three games a year earlier, two of which came following sectional elimination.
Both of those teams lost their opening tournament game.
Now, just four years later, the Indians find themselves two wins away from a state championship.
“It’s incredible,” said FRHS senior Mitch Stammen.
He’s right. And it’s almost impossible to overstate how incredible it really is.
After a run of three straight sectional titles from 2006 to 2008, Fort Recovery’s baseball program
had fallen apart. It was on the verge of extinction.
There was no junior varsity team. There were barely enough players to fill a varsity roster.
The idea of not fielding a team in 2011 was a real possibility. But Jerry Kaup, who had been an
assistant coach with the baseball and softball teams for more than a decade, didn’t want to see
that happen.
So he accepted the job, becoming the team’s fourth coach in five seasons.
In taking the reins, he talked not about strikeout totals, batting averages or stolen bases. And he
certainly didn’t mention wins.
His philosophy was about building something stronger – trust.
“Baseball’s a team game,” said Kaup. “And so you have to depend on your teammates. You have
to trust your teammates. You have to trust the coach. You can’t be selfish.
“You can’t be selfish,” he added, repeating the phrase for emphasis. “You have to trust the fabric
of the team and hope that everybody can become successful.”
But success didn’t come easily.
Take a look back at the 2011 team photo. There are 11 players, about half of whom were
freshmen, and two coaches – assistant Harold Fiely and Kaup.
“That first year was just awful,” said Fiely, whose son, Cody endured the three-win season as a
senior a year earlier. “It was so hard, because we were begging kids to play.
“By the time we got to our third year, we … started getting better. And our fourth year, last year,
was tremendous. … It’s just hard to understand. It’s incredible how we went from the bottom to
this.”
As a freshman and sophomore, Shane Pottkotter endured both the 2010 and ’11 seasons, years in
which the team went a combined 5-35. That’s a lot of losing for a young player, or any player, to
endure.
The thought of state championships, or anything close, was unimaginable.
“When I was in school, I was dreaming about winning sectionals,” said Pottkotter, who is now a
volunteer assistant with the team. “This journey has just been kind of amazing really.”
The progress started in Kaup’s second season, when the Indians won nine games.
It wasn’t anything to get excited about outside of Fort Recovery, but it was nearly twice as many
victories as the team had earned in the previous two years combined. It was a big first step.
Fort Recovery got back above .500 a year later, finishing 14-13. And then last season the
program took off, winning 20 games.
Derek Backs and his fellow seniors – Nate Lochtefeld, Ben Will, Cole Wendel and Stammen –
saw the entire climb, having entered the program in 2012 after the struggles of the previous two
seasons.
“The whole mentality of this program has changed,” Backs said. “There wasn’t really any hype
about baseball. Yeah, I love the game, so I knew I was going to play it, but … nobody really
came to the games besides parents. And now we have ‘pack the park’ nights … People just love
the game now and they love supporting our team … And that’s fun.”
A season like the Indians have put together this year will do that.
They won their first 17 games. They were ranked No. 1 in Division IV for most of the season.
And their run through the tournament has pushed them to a school-record win total – 25.
Now, as the Tribe prepares to take the field Thursday at Huntington Park in Columbus against
Newark Catholic, it all comes back to that little number.
Two wins.
Not so long ago, they meant little. They were brief respites from the norm, aberrations that meant
little as losses piled up around them.
Now they could mean everything. They would complete a storybook season for a state
championship, earn a place in Fort Recovery lore and make memories to last a lifetime.
It’s been an incredible journey for the Indians, from the doldrums in 2011 to the brink of being
crowned the best small school baseball team in Ohio. It’s been built on hard work, teamwork,
and, yes, trust.
All of those things and so much more – pitching, hitting, defense – must come together this week
for Fort Recovery to complete its climb to the top. It now comes down to that simple goal, that
humble place this program came from just four short years ago.
Two wins.