N2 – Cat. 1
Teens charged in murders
Alan Stewart
The Corydon Democrat
Two 18-year-old males are behind bars in Floyd County after allegedly murdering a Harrison County couple
Saturday morning in what police say was a robbery that went wrong. Formal murder charges were filed in
Harrison Superior Court yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), and the suspects are expected to arrive in Harrison
County for their initial hearing sometime in the next 48 hours, Harrison County Prosecutor J. Otto Schalk said.
Schalk said yesterday during a press conference that he’s weighing the death penalty for the suspects.
“One of the single most important decisions that I’m tasked with as prosecutor is choosing whether or not to
seek the death penalty for an individual, even more so for an 18-year-old. Capital punishment must be reserved for
those individuals whose crimes exhibit truly the worst of human nature,” Schalk said. “At this point, I would say
seeking the death penalty is strongly being considered. However, I will not make such a decision arbitrarily ... “
According to Chief Wayne Kessinger of the Harrison County Sheriff’s Dept., who interviewed the suspects, in
the early morning hours Saturday, Kevin (Drew) Schuler, of the 11900 block of Nadorff Road in Greenville, and
Austin Bryan Nelson Chancelor Scott, who resides in New Albany, were riding a four-wheeler that was sputtering
and running low on fuel. They stopped at a house along Nadorff Road to try and get some gasoline but decided the
house was too close to the road and moved on to look for fuel at a home in the 9100 block of Walk Drive near
Greenville.
According to a family member of one of the victim’s, a neighbor reported seeing Schuler on the Walk Drive
property sometime Friday; when the neighbor asked what he was doing, Schuler allegedly drove off.
Police said Schuler and Scott did eventually enter the home of Asenath (Senie) Arnold, 57, and Gary L.
Henderson, 70. The front door lock appeared to have been broken in, and the rear door was unlocked, so it’s
unclear as to which door the pair used to gain access, Kessinger said.
Kessinger said one of the suspects lived nearby and may have known the victims. Yesterday, Schalk said
Schuler had helped cut wood for Henderson.
An employee of the victims’ carriage ride business, Welcome Home Horse Carriages, arrived at the couple’s
home Saturday morning and was preparing horses for pony rides later that day. The employee noticed that neither
victim had emerged from the home after calling multiple times and she went inside at about 11 a.m. to investigate.
That’s when the employee found Arnold’s body and called police. After arriving, police went inside the house to
do a sweep to make sure no one else was inside, and that’s when Henderson’s body was found upstairs.
Kessinger said both victims were in separate bedrooms in the home, with Arnold having been beaten to death
with a wooden part of a horse harness, called a single tree, and Henderson having received 23 stab wounds to his
body on the second floor. Stab wounds were also found on Arnold’s body.
During interviews with police, Scott allegedly said he used a fixed-blade knife he was carrying with him to kill
Henderson, and Schuler described how he punched Arnold in the face and struck her in the head with a wooden
stick. An autopsy at the Jefferson County (Ky.) Medical Examiner’s Office revealed that Henderson died as a
result of sharp force injuries to his chest and head while Arnold died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
“It was a senseless, heinous, gruesome beating of a defenseless elderly couple,” Kessinger said. “He was in his
70s, and she used a walker to get around. It was just totally senseless. Two people are dead over a gallon of gas, a
few guns and a little money.”
Kessinger, who has investigated hundreds of homicides in a law enforcement career that has spanned several
decades, said the murders Saturday ranked in the top three of any he’s investigated in terms of heinousness.
He also said that the case had all the earmarks of being a unsolved case – no witnesses, committed in a rural
area – until there was a lucky break later that day.
Kessinger said that Schuler and Scott went to Scott’s home in New Albany. For an unknown reason, Scott’s
twin brother, Justin, struck Schuler in the left eye. Austin Scott fired a gun in response, causing someone to call
the New Albany Police Dept. to report an altercation and shots fired. Schuler and Scott fled the scene in a red
pick-up truck, but not before the person who reported the ruckus described to police the type of vehicle they were
in.
Officers located the vehicle and questioned the occupants. Upon searching the vehicle, police located large
amounts of prescription medications and three guns that both teens allegedly admitted came from the murder
scene in Harrison County. According to the probable cause affidavit filed in Harrison County, during the traffic
stop Scott allegedly told NAPD officers that he and Schuler had been involved in the killing of an elderly man
somewhere off of Nadorff Road.
“That was a huge break in the case and allowed us to tie it all together. I can’t say enough about the outside help
from the New Albany Police Dept., the Floyd County Sheriff’s Dept. and the Indiana State Police crime scene
techs,” Kessinger said. “I’ve worked with the belief that 80 percent of solving a case is the effectiveness of the
investigation and knowledge and 20 percent is luck. In this case, luck played a little bigger role. Forensics at the
scene would have probably eventually led us to these two, but that would have taken quite some time.”
As of press time, Scott and Schuler were being held at the Floyd County Jail after having their first day in court
on Monday. Cash bond was set at $500,000 for Scott, and $50,000 for Schuler. (Scott’s is higher due to his
charges; see below.) Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said the large bond amounts were intentional to
keep the two behind bars until Harrison County had a chance to file charges yesterday.
In Harrison County, Schuler and Scott are both being charged with three counts of murder (one each for the
deaths and another because murder was committed while in the act of burglary, which is a separate offense), and
single felony counts of Class A felony robbery and burglary and Class D felony theft.
In Floyd County, Schuler is being held on two counts of Class D felony theft, Class D felony possession of a
controlled substance and Class A misdemeanor carrying a handgun without a license. Scott was charged with
Class C felony criminal recklessness for discharging the handgun, Class D felony receiving stolen property and
possession of controlled substance and Class A misdemeanor carrying a handgun without a license.
The murder weapons were located and collected as evidence and much of the stolen property was recovered.
Schuler’s criminal record in Floyd County includes a domestic battery charge in 2010 and five felony drug
charges in one case this year. Schuler’s drug case is still pending in Floyd Superior Court.
Scott’s only criminal record in Floyd County is a charge of illegal consumption of alcoholic beverage by a
minor. That case was decided last month.
Also assisting in the case was the Harrison County Prosecutor’s Office.
N2 – Cat. 2
Indiana’s No. 1 ... in number of meth labs
STEPHANIE TAYLOR FERRIELL
Salem Leader and Salem Democrat
Young children being carried away, crying and screaming for their parents, as those parents are handcuffed and
placed into the backs of police cars.
Adults who haven’t worked in years, too strung out, too addicted to even consider seeking meaningful
employment, much less having the ability to pass a drug test.
Homes burglarized, the perpetrators snatching whatever they can unload easily and quickly, desperate to find
the cash for their next fix.
A once youthful and attractive 25-year-old who now looks twice her age; skin sagging, teeth rotting, body railthin.
This is what meth does. It devastates lives, destroys families and jeopardizes a community’s future. And the
problem isn’t getting any better. In fact, in Indiana, it seems to be only growing worse.
The Indiana State Police Meth Suppression Section last week released 2013 meth lab statistics. State-wide, there
were 1,808 meth lab seizures last year. That’s 82 more than in 2012.
The MSS said, based on information received from other states, Indiana will be first in the country in
clandestine meth lab incidents for 2013.
While the increase in labs being seized is positive, Washington County Prosecutor Dustin Houchin said the
increase isn’t exactly good news.
“Being number one in the nation is a dubious distinction of our state,” he said, noting that Madison County,
Indiana, led the nation in number of meth labs seized in 2012. “I think there were 91,” said Houchin. “That’s just
stunning.”
The state has tried to head off the problem, but has taken a tentative approach. The legislature restricted the
amount of products containing pseudoephedrine, commonly found in cold and allergy medications, a person could
purchase in 2005, but law enforcement officials say cooks circumvent that law by “smurfing;” recruiting others to
buy it for them.
“What that law has created is more people buying a little bit at a time,” Houchin said. “Basically, someone can
buy it for eight months before they need a prescription.”
Judging by the number of labs seized, the restriction has had an impact. The number of labs in Indiana has
increased every year except one (2006, when 776 labs were seized) since the law was passed.
“Clearly, that leads to arrests, but it’s still an indication of a serious problem,” said Houchin. “Are we catching
more because of it or are there more out there? Either way, it’s not getting better.”
Houchin said once again a bill was introduced this session to make drugs containing pseudoephedrine available
by prescription only. “I think that is a useful tool and has worked in other states, and I would hope our legislature
would take that step.”
In a report issued last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office noted the decrease of meth labs in
states, which had made PSE prescription-only. The state of Oregon saw its meth cases drop from 501 to 11 in
2006, one year after it made pseudoephedrine-containing medication available only by prescription.
Houchin said prosecutors across the state strongly endorse making PSE prescription only. The Indiana
Prosecuting Attorneys Council, of which Houchin is vice-chair, will have to continue their efforts next legislative
session; the bill introduced this year never made it out of committee.
The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee heard testimony on the bill Monday, but Chairman Judd
McMillin did not take a vote, effectively killing the bill, as reported by NPR station WFIU.
McMillin says while he wanted to have a public dialogue, he’s not ready to take the next step to make
pseudoephedrine prescription-only.
After taking a significant jump in 2007 (when 820 labs were seized statewide), the number of meth lab seizures
in the Hoosier State has increased steadily over the past several years.
Washington County’s numbers have been huge the past two years, compared to all previous years over the past
decade.
In 2013, there were 29 labs seized here, down slightly from the 36 in 2012. But from 2008-11, the number of
meth lab busts was in the single digits; just three labs were seized here in both 2011 and 2010.
Houchin said an increased focus on meth activity, coupled with state restrictions, have boosted the number of
meth arrests locally. Comparing drugs to a river, he said, “If you have more fishermen on the banks, you’re going
to catch more fish. We’ve heavily focused on it, and those are the results. You have to make it a priority.”
The state adopted another measure advocates believed would help stem the rising tide of meth labs, the NPLEx
system, a multi-state computerized system that allows law enforcement to track purchases of pseudoephedrine
from pharmacies across the country. That bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Mitch Daniels May 13, 2011.
Indiana became the 11th state to join the network of states tracking pseudoephedrine purchases electronically.
There are now 19.
According to state police data, that effort, too, has had success. NPLEx was fully implemented Jan. 1, 2012.
Meth lab seizures are up 29.6 percent since that time, according to ISP data.
Yet, finding those meth cooks, while they’re in the act, is like finding a needle in a haystack. And the
introduction of the “one-pot” method has complicated matters almost exponentially. Previously, the “two-cook”
system basically tied a cook to a location during the processing phase. Now, however, a lab can be a single soda
bottle and a batch of meth can be cooked in about an hour, said Houchin. In a huge county, filled with almost
30,000 people, police officers are searching “for a Gatorade bottle,” said Houchin. “It’s a pretty tall order. Law
enforcement officers have to find out not only who’s doing it, but where and when. In a county the size of
Washington, that’s not an easy thing to do, when you look at the logistics of it.”
Then there’s the harsh reality of just how deep the meth problem runs. The lab seizures grab headlines and
residents’ attention, but the truth is, “For every one [seized] there’s four or five more out there,” said Houchin.
“...I think we’re fighting forces that are bigger than us.”
N2 – Cat. 3
Courthouse petition deadline nears
KEVIN LILLY
Brown County Democrat
If you want to sign a petition for or against remodeling and expanding the Brown County Courthouse, you have
less than a week to beat the deadline of 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9.
Clerk Beth Mulry said there has been a steady flow of people coming in to get petitions since the signaturegathering window opened Aug. 9. She declined to release the number of petitions picked up so far because she did
not want to influence the remonstrance by indicating one side had gotten more petitions than the other.
The Brown County Commissioners are seeking a 15-year loan not to exceed $8.25 million to cover the cost of
renovating the existing courthouse and adding a two-story addition, possibly with a town funded public restroom
facing Van Buren Street.
About 200 Brown County taxpayers delayed the loan-seeking process by gathering enough signatures against
the loan to force a petition race, or remonstrance.
As is generally practiced in Indiana government, the commissioners advertised a not-to-exceed amount of $8.25
million, which has created a stir among some Brown County residents.
The estimated cost of project is $6.5 million, but that does not include roughly $1 million in architectural and
financing fees, furnishings and other costs, such as demolition of the current Brown County prosecutor’s office.
Commissioner Joe Wray is carrying a petition in support of the project. He said he believes the design by
architect Burt Perdue is the county’s best option to address security, space constraints and compliance with the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
When he approaches people, Wray said, he has been surprised by the amount of misinformation he hears in
response. He then presents them facts about the project.
“It’s amazing. When I cover those bases, they say, ‘Oh, well, I didn’t know that,’” he said.
Wray said he has received mostly positive feedback about proceeding with the project.
Brown County resident Pam Raider said she has had heard people complain about the estimated cost of the
project while gathering signatures in opposition.
Like Wray, though, Raider was surprised by the number of uninformed people who will be impacted by
increasing property taxes to pay back the loan.
County officials estimate that the owner of a $100,000 property would pay an additional $22 a year, while taxes
on a $200,000 property would see $64 jump, and the bill on a $300,000 property would increase by $106 a year.
Raider understands that something needs to be done to improve the courthouse. She just wants to ensure that all
options have been fully explored. Her biggest concern is how quickly she thinks commissioners moved on the
project.
“Let’s consider this. Let’s slow it down. Let’s have a little conversation about it,” Raider said.
Wray said the topic has been discussed for more than a year. He wanted to know what else commissioners can
study. He doubted that the county had money to relocate the courthouse to a new building.
Even if the funds were available, he said Nashville lacks suitable land to build upon, and there would be the cost
of maintaining the existing historic courthouse. He also dismissed the notion of buying the Brown County Inn and
removing about $28,000 from the tax rolls annually.
Raider also questioned the selection of Perdue without a bidding process to get the best price on such a
significant project. The county paid Perdue more than $40,000 for his design work so far.
Commissioners use a rotation of four architects operating out of Brown County to handle county work. Perdue
was next in line when the courthouse project came up.
Wray said now is the time to build because construction costs will likely go up.
Raider said county officials would receive less resistance to such projects if they included the public in the
discussion before decisions to move ahead were made. That’s another reason to stall the project, she said.
Although she has 35 days to certify the signatures, Mulry doubted her office would need that long.
Commissioners can proceed if signatures in favor of the project outnumber signatures by the opposition. If not,
they must wait a year before issuing bonds or entering into a lease for a project that is not substantially different.
N2 – Cat. 04
Local man remembered as constant guardian
Sara Clifford
Brown County Democrat (Nashville)
To become editor of the Brown County Democrat, I had to pass a two-hour-long interview with two senior,
respected, daily newspapermen on ethics, news judgment, storytelling and design, plus two other veteran
journalists who peppered me with “What would you do?” scenarios.
Then, when I was just getting settled into my new office, in walked Hank Swain.
He sat across from me at the conference table in the middle of the room. He introduced himself. He didn’t have
to; I already knew. “I’d like to ask you a few questions,” he said. And I knew my job interview wasn’t over.
I can’t remember what exactly he asked. I wish I could. I recall it was generally about what my approach would
be to presenting issues important to the future of Brown County, where people don’t take to change easily. It takes
about eight years for people in Brown County to accept anything, he told me. I wasn’t sure whether to take that as
encouragement or warning.
He was supportive of my decision to eliminate the practice of allowing anonymous letters to the editor. I
remember being able to smile at that part. But the rest of it, I was kept wondering if I met his standards.
When the interview was done, he thanked me for my time, and he walked out the door.
It wasn’t until about three years later that I received an answer. In a crowded room, above the din of
conversation, he caught my arm and my eye. “I think you’re doing a good job for the community,” he said.
“Thank you,” was all I could say before he walked away.
I wanted him to say more. I wanted to ask why he thought I was doing a good job; what work specifically he
had enjoyed; how he thought I could do better. But I knew that I’d already received all I could hope for: A nod of
approval from Hank Swain.
When interviewing other Brown Contains for a story about his death, I was surprised to hear sentiments similar
to mine. But I shouldn’t have been. Hank was everywhere, wherever he felt he was needed.
When Hank would visit her at her office in the historical society, Director Julia Pearson said she felt like she
had a parent around.
Pearson is a grandmother. Age has nothing to do with the weight and value of that feeling.
“He had a way of letting you know he was behind you,” she said, recalling times when he’d stop in for no other
reason than to see her, ask about her work and life, and check on how she was doing.
Cindy Steele, who was Hank’s editor – if anyone could be called that – for Our Brown County magazine for 19
years, couldn’t find the words right away to talk about what Hank meant to her.
“He influenced me in a lot of ways,” she managed to get out. “He had confidence in me.”
Pam Raider crossed paths with Hank through the WRAPs writers group, which he founded, and the Green
party, which she founded.
A poet, tall-tale-teller and author of three books of musings, Hank was a mentor to many budding writers. it was
clear some writers’ work grew from family dysfunction, and Hank would
take them aside and give them words of encouragement, Raider said.
“He was kind of a parent to the rest of us, encouraging us in our works and giving comments – a rather stern
father,” but with a purpose, Raider said.
“You always kind of wondered, ‘Am I measuring up?’ He made us all be our best, do our best.”
About six years ago, my husband, Derek, was serving his first term on the board of Brown County Convention
and Visitors Bureau. He’d attend meetings regularly with our infant son, a “junior board member.”
One day, Hank had walked into his office, too.
Hank had founded the Brown County Chamber of Commerce. He wanted Derek to join that board.
“He said he had seen me active in a couple of other boards, and he thought I’d be a good fit,” Derek
remembered.
The busy new dad and manager of a growing business said yes.
“That’s why I stuck with it so long, was because I didn’t want to disappoint him,” Derek said. “You didn’t want
to disappoint him, and you didn’t know why.”
Brown County’s ranks of elders are slowly shrinking. Just about every year I’m writing about another one, and I
dread the day another passes on.
“Not every community has that,” Raider pointed out, of the number of people who have been and continue to be
so constantly influential in the shaping of Brown County – not by forcing, but by gently nudging, appealing to the
conscience and better nature of its leaders despite our resistance to change.
May the next generation of elders act in Hank’s example.
N2 – Cat. 05
Taxation vs. public safety
Bryce Mayer
North Vernon Plain Dealer
“No taxation without representation” was the battle cry when the 13 original American colonies broke away
from England in 1776. Fast forward 238 years and the cry has more or less become, “No taxation or we’ll go to
the ballot box and replace you with new representation.”
A sterling example of that came last Thursday at the Jennings County Government Center where the board of
county commissioners unanimously voted down a proposal to form six fire districts. Never mind that the county’s
volunteer fire departments are in such dire financial condition, through no fault of their own, that two of them may
run out of funding within a year or two and have to close their doors. The others are struggling, too, to the point
that they are strongly considering eliminating first responder runs to save money.
Yet those arguments were not nearly enough to sway the commissioners. Their chief concern was what they
called the disproportionate unfairness of the property tax mechanism that would provide most of the funding for
the fire districts.
For farmland, the annual taxes would range from 38 to 63 cents per acre, depending on which fire district in
which it is located. A few property owners – farmers who own vast amounts of acreage – would see property tax
increases amounting to as much as $5,000 a year if the fire districts were put in place. Meanwhile, owners of a
moderately-valued house, which are far more numerous, would pay only an extra $12 to $20 annually. By any
measure, that is quite a discrepancy.
Yet as one observer at Thursday’s meeting dared to opine, those with more property should pay more taxes than
those with less property. What a novel concept, it would seem, one that seems to be lost in today’s anti-tax
mentality.
Sure, taxes are burdensome, sometimes to the point of being oppressive. The fact that a high number property
owners in Jennings County default on their property taxes – some because they are simply destitute, others who
are trying to cheat the system – rubs salt in the wound of those in the majority who meet their obligation. But any
time a property tax hike is suggested, no matter how small, the rhetoric explodes. Yet taxes are essential for roads,
bridges and governmental services, including emergency medical service and fire protection.
Jennings County’s volunteer fire departments have always operated on shoestring budgets, which are nearly
totally funded by property tax revenue from townships. Firefighting expenses have grown while funding has not.
Property tax revenues from townships have not followed suit, and caps put in place by a state constitutional
amendment a few years ago provide very little if any room for increases there.
Meanwhile, the fire departments frequently conduct fundraisers, such as fish dinners and chili suppers, that
typically generate community support and some dollars, but not nearly enough to bolster their budgets to where
they should be. Letters sent out soliciting donations do the same.
Federal grants occasionally help with purchases of fire engines, but even those require substantial financial
matches from the fire departments.
The establishment of fire districts is not a perfect solution but it basically is the only current option to increase
funding for the county’s fire departments. It would increase property taxes, a very small amount for most and
substantially for a few, but it would also ensure the continuation of fire protection and first responder services
throughout the county. Fire districts have been established in many rural areas throughout Indiana, including in
neighboring Jackson County where that has been widely hailed as a good move.
The county is not turning its back on the volunteer fire departments, declared Matt Sporleder, president of the
commissioners, when voting down the proposal. Yet, last week’s no vote puts those groups behind the 8-ball,
especially Scipio-Geneva Township, Montgomery Township and Spencer Township departments. If they can
survive, the commissioners can perhaps revisit the fire district proposal and enact it for 2016. Or perhaps the
Indiana legislature can enact a law for a funding mechanism that will put a fire protection tax on homes, not
acreage, though such legislation would take time to even get on the books, let alone pass.
Still, it was sad to see how this latest debate was resolved. The issue is not just taxation, the issue is public
safety.
N2 – Cat 06
New construction on the rise, but not new homes
BEN SKIRVIN
Brown County Democrat
Chad Austin is sitting in the office of Austin Construction, his contracting business. He intended to spend this
morning with one of his crews setting posts for a new pole barn going up near Bean Blossom, but, for the
moment, that project is rained out.
He has many projects on his list, so a delay like this isn’t the end of the world.
“If we get four of 10 jobs, I’m pretty happy,” he said. “I’ve been getting nine of 10.”
Behind Austin’s head, there is a plastic tray mounted to the wall. In it, there is a yellow folder stuffed with work
orders, building plans and all the paperwork involved in a new construction project.
He pulls it down and flips through the pages.
“Last year, we were getting a lot of odd jobs. Interior remodels, and things that don’t require permits,” Austin
said. “Seems like this year, I’m getting calls asking for repairs, but when I get to the site, they want a second floor
or a new garage.”
Those projects require a permit.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the past two years, new residential construction in Brown County was
hovering near its lowest point in nearly a decade. There were only 35 residential construction permits issued in
2011, and only 34 issued in 2012. That’s compared with 128 in 2010 and 166 in 2009. In 2008, that number had
reached a 10-year high of 195.
Through October this year, the Brown County Building Department had issued 81 permits for new residential
construction projects.
Building commissioner Dan Harden said it’s not the best year he’s seen but a definite improvement.
“It’ll never be like it was,” he said. “But we had a lot more people this year doing garages, barns and staying
where they are.”
He said the flurry of new additions might be a sign that people are planning to dig in and put long-term equity
into their homes.
Tom Vornholt wasn’t so sure. He’s the principal broker at Hills O’Brown Realty.
“People might be fixing up their homes to sell,” he said. “Sometimes they look at it like, ‘Gee, let’s get it
ready.’”
He said whether it’s new homes or additions to existing homes, construction helps stabilize the real estate
market.
That said, Vornholt said lack of new homes remains a lingering problem in the Brown County market.
“When you go to our surrounding counties, probably you’re going to see a large increase in the number of new
home permits,” he said.
Vornholt said when people move to Brown County, they want a house surrounded by woods.
Why now?
“I haven’t seen a bank book in a while,” Austin said. “I’m getting checks. I’m getting cash” for construction
work.
He attributed this influx of upfront money, rather than loans, to people either moving into town or reinvesting in
second homes or vacation rentals.
Vornholt agreed, saying, “We’re seeing it on the high end and the low end especially.”
He said that, at the low end, he’s seeing investors purchasing inexpensive property, especially from foreclosures
and tax sales. Most of these sales require cash up front. He said many of these are being “flipped,” or restored for
quick resale.
Higher-end properties are being renovated for use as vacation rentals, with the owners blocking out a few weeks
for their own use and renting out the property during the remaining part of the year.
Then, there are the people who might have put construction projects on hold during the recession.
“When the economy took a dive, people said, ‘I’m not selling because I’m under water,’” Vornholt said,
meaning that the owner owed more on the property than it was worth at the time.
With the real estate market now picking up again, “‘Well, now I can spend that money fixing that up,’”
Vornholt said about property owners’ mindset.
Whatever the reason for construction spending, new building projects never will hurt the local housing market,
he said. Whether it’s repairs, new homes or additions, all add to the properties’ tax assessment and market value.
N2 – Cat. 08
Area churches see membership decline throughout past decade
Sara Clifford & Ben Skirvin
Brown County Democrat (Nashville)
In Gnaw Bone, just past the closed-down flea markets and RV parks, there’s a squat, white building with a cross
and steeple.
It’s the Country Gospel Music Church, an American Baptist congregation where on Thursdays a few people
gather for prayer and a little testimony. But mostly, these people are here to sing and listen to the gospel in country
music.
They sing about the Blood of the Lamb and how they’ll fly away. They sing Johnny Cash songs and wellcovered hymns from two centuries past.
On stage, Roxie Waggoner strums at a bass, while a few churchgoers back her up on mandolin and guitar.
She started the church with her husband, Charlie, in the early 1990s as a tourist mission. It was founded in a
rented building at the now-defunct Ski World, and they played revivals at the fairgrounds.
But these days, there are fewer members and fewer people attending services.
The Association of Religion Data Archives has been collecting data on church membership for more than two
decades, sending out surveys asking about membership and attendance. According to its statistics, almost all faiths
have seen a gradual decease in the number of people regularly attending.
Between 2000 and 2010, Brown County churches lost about 1,000 members and regular attendees.
The biggest losses were reported by the Catholic Church and the Christian churches. The Catholic Church
remains the largest single congregation in Brown County.
The only groups reporting an increase were the three local congregations of the Southern Baptist Conference.
The report does not include data about all congregations in Brown County. Some on which it reports no data
include the Episcopal/Anglican Church, Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
During the period covered by the survey, the total population of Brown County increased by about 250 people.
Church choice
Brown County is home to a wide variety of denominations: from charismatic evangelical groups, like the
Pentecostal churches, to traditional congregations like the Catholic Church and the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox
Church. There is even a small group of followers of the Baha’i faith.
In order to buoy the Country Gospel Music Church, its leadership came up with a plan: share the building with a
Pentecostal congregation that’s been without a home for the past few years.
On paper, those two congregations should have some pretty big disagreements.
American Baptists trace their roots back to the early 16th century, when followers went to the New World to
escape persecution from the Church of England. Baptism is usually reserved for true believers and is to be
conducted by full immersion in water.
Pentecostalism emerged out of turn-of-the-last-century revival movements. Historically, such groups believe
that it is sufficient to be baptized in the Holy Spirit rather than in water, and the practice involves gifts such as
speaking in tongues, prophecy and the ability to heal through faith.
Yet Jim Ackerman, pastor of the Country Gospel Music Church, said over the years he’s seen many
churchgoers lose an awareness of the history and tradition backing each denomination.
“People go to a lot of churches,” Ackerman said. “And they go to more churches and more churches. And they
leave because they don’t like this or that. They don’t get a position, or there are disagreements. At each church
they pick up baggage. Pretty soon, they can’t carry it anymore.”
Pastor L.D. Campbell heads one of the most physically prominent churches in Nashville. The Nashville
Christian Church is one of the first buildings visitors see as they enter town.
It has stood there for 135 years, though the building was rebuilt after a fire in 1931.
Campbell is part-time pastor. His previous job was leading a 3,000¬plus-member mega church across the river
from Cincinnati in Kentucky.
In some ways, he agrees with Ackerman.
“A lot of people pick their church like they shop at Walmart,” Campbell said.
He calls it consumerism: choosing based on inclinations like the “feel” of the church or the community, rather
than the practiced doctrine.
He said that 50 years ago, switching denominations would have been a significant change because families were
raised in a tradition and stuck with it. These days, people move back and forth far more freely, unfettered by
attachments to “Methodist” or “Presbyterian” or “Baptist.”
He said that after a decade of decline his church has seen a slight increase in membership and attendance since
he took over. Benefiting from its prominent location, it’s also managed to attract out-of-town visitors.
Not all faiths in Brown County have lost members.
Local church records show that the Salvation Army has had a resurgence in recent years. The Baha’i
community has stayed absolutely consistent at seven members for the past decade.
Also, the county’s small community of Eastern Orthodox followers has remained stable, at about 30 members.
St. John the Barefoot Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church is led by Father Jerome Sanderson. It’s housed above
the tasting room of the Brown County Winery, in an alley in down-town Nashville.
“We have people from a long way away,” Sanderson said. “We have people who come from Jasper, Indiana.
We have people coming down from Indy now.”
Historically, Orthodox churches have been closely tied to their nation of origin. Much of the history of the
Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church focused on the struggles of the Bulgar people to preserve a unique liturgical
tradition and language in the face of 500 years of occupation by the Ottoman Turkish Empire and, later, under
Soviet communism.
But Father Sanderson is not Bulgarian. None of the parishioners is, either.
Before adopting Orthodoxy, Sanderson experimented with many denominations and faiths, ranging from “New
Age” traditions, like yoga, to Southern Baptist.
“We started searching, and it (the Orthodox church) was pretty much undisputedly the oldest church,”
Sanderson said.
“We have tried to maintain the traditions given by the earliest Apostles, and we found in the Orthodox church a
very deep spirituality. And that’s what I was seeking.”
He said many members of his church are fully invested in the denomination. Almost all of his regular
parishioners are devoutly Orthodox. Other than an occasional visit from another pastor or a curious Catholic, he
rarely sees people from outside the faith.
Not that he would mind a few more visitors.
At St. Agnes Catholic Church, about 60 worshippers gather for the early service on a snowy Sunday. Afterward,
a few stick around to greet the newest newborn. Sr. Eileen Flavin talks with a woman whose husband is ill.
St. Agnes shares its priest, Fr. Eric Augenstein, with the archdiocese, as he’s also its director of vocations. So
was his predecessor, Fr. Eric Johnson, who was transferred to another southern Indiana parish a year ago. This
Sunday, Monsignor Fred Easton is saying Mass. He fills in for Augenstein when he’s on the road.
Flavin, the parish life coordinator, has served this congregation for 8 1/2 years, through three priest transfers.
The study shows Brown County Catholics have decreased by 306 since 2000. Flavin hasn’t noticed a definite drop
in church membership – but this is an older congregation, about three-quarters retirees, she guesses.
“When there’s a priest change, that causes – that can cause – people to go elsewhere,” Flavin said. Though St.
Agnes is the only Catholic church in Brown County, it’s not too far of a drive to another parish, in Bloomington or
Columbus.
She tries to emphasize that the church’s leaders aren’t the church. “I’ve said that. ‘It’s not our church; it’s your
church.’ We’re replaceable.”
Wherever you go, throughout the world, it will always welcome congregants home, at any time.
“No matter where you are and what you understand, your heart understands it,” Flavin said.
N2 – Cat. 9
Tackling cancer with Hearts for Trinity
Kate Wehlann
Salem Leader
In most ways, Trinity Goodson is a typical tween. She works hard to maintain her grades in school (her favorite
subject is math), likes arts and crafts, Channing Tatum (“He’s my boyfriend!” she said) and, get her together with
her sisters and cousin, Cerenity, 13, Autumn, 6, and Morgan Farris, 11, just about every other sound you hear is a
giggle.
“She’s definitely a joker,” said Trinity’s mother, Laura.
The girls gather in the living room of Trinity’s Pekin home, dragging posters they worked on well into the night,
covered in hearts and feathers and color, gasping and giggling from time to time when a Luke Bryan music video
pops up on the TV screen, quietly singing along. From time to time, something reminds them of a joke or some
dare a friend or family member tried to do and giggles break out again. To look at Trinity, she seems like a
perfectly ordinary, happy kid.
‘We broke our record’
However, there’s something about 12-year-old Trinity that sets her apart from other girls her age. On June 21,
2012, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma T-cell, a blood cancer affecting her white blood cells.
This, in turn affects the immune system, making Trinity more susceptible to other illnesses. Along with the nonHodgkin’s lymphoma, she was also found to have cells with the precursor to leukemia, another blood cancer
affecting white blood cells.
Fortunately for Trinity, after a year and four months, in October 2013, her doctors told her she was in remission.
She continued having chemotherapy treatments and routine checks to monitor her treatment. In August she started
having vision troubles and headaches. During an appointment for a routine checkup and chemo treatment, the
nurse practitioner asked her how she was feeling.
“Trinity said, ‘I can’t see out of my left eye,’” said Laura. “The doctor came in, cancelled chemo and sent her to
Kosair [Children’s Hospital] for a brain MRI.”
Her doctors told her she had relapsed on Nov. 21, 2013, and gave her family the news she would need to stay in
the hospital for the next month.
“Sadly, we broke our record,” said Trinity. Her record for longest hospital stay up until that point was 18 days.
“Both times she was in the hospital, the hardest thing for her has been losing her hair and being away from her
friends,” said Laura. “She left school on Nov. 19, assuming she’d be back on Nov. 21, so she didn’t say goodbye
to her friends or anything.” Trinity is a student at East Washington Middle School.
Additionally, with her compromised immune system, sometimes even being around her family could put Trinity
at risk.
“How do you tell your two ‘healthy’ kids ‘You’re sick, so you can’t be here with Trinity’?” said Laura.
“Autumn had to stay at her grandma’s for a week and a half when she had bronchitis. When they’re sick, all they
want is their mommy, but as Trinity’s primary caregiver, I can’t risk bringing it back to Trinity ... They call me the
over-protective cancer mom because she tries to be a normal kid, but I can’t let her. We live by face masks and
hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes and Lysol.”
‘We wanted her to know prayers were going up for her’
One thing that has helped Trinity go through her fight with cancer has been a Facebook page started by her aunt,
Lori Farris, and cousin, Morgan, called “Hearts for Trinity,” where those who have liked the page leave images
and photos of hearts to show their love, thoughts and encouragement.
“We wanted something for her to do in the hospital,” said Morgan. “We wanted her to know prayers were going
up for her.”
Trinity has seen most of the messages and hearts left by well-wishers across the country.
“It’s actually given me encouragement to know there are people who care,” said Trinity. “Thoughts and hopes
and prayers is what it means to me.”
And she needs all the encouragement people can give. As of the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 30, the page has
1,244 likes and more than 300 hearts. Trinity’s family hopes to have 2,000 likes by the time she must return to
Kosair Feb. 17 to prepare for a dangerous, but much-needed, bone marrow transplant. If all goes well, she should
have the transplant by Feb. 25.
‘Kids aren’t supposed to get cancer, but they do’
She was scheduled to go in and receive a transplant sooner, but her family found out the donor had experienced
second thoughts and backed out.
“From a patient’s point of view, when you find your donor is having second thoughts, it’s almost like being told
your child has cancer all over again,” said Laura.
Going through this experience has given the Goodson family a too-close look at what childhood cancer looks
like.
“Until you’re struck with the disease, you don’t know,” said Laura. “Not enough is known about childhood
cancers ... There has not been a single breakthrough in new meds for childhood cancer in 20-plus years ... Kids
aren’t supposed to get cancer, but they do.”
Which means children are often given the same medications prescribed to adults fighting cancer. Unfortunately,
this doesn’t always help.
“She’s lost several of her buddies,” said Laura. “The things these kids have to go through are so sad, but to go to
Kosair and meet these kids - they are so amazing.”
The memories of those moments when Trinity found out she had lost another friend fighting cancer remain
vivid in her mind.
“I remember we were sitting here [at her house], eating cheeseburgers, tater tots and French fries when we
found out Tyler died,” said Trinity.
‘I would love to see people be on the registry’
Something simple almost anyone between the ages of 18 and 44 can do to help those with blood cancer fight the
disease is to become a bone marrow donor. The Be The Match organization runs drives around the country and
mails donor kits to those interested in joining the registry and offering hope to kids and adults like Trinity and her
friends fighting blood cancers.
“I would love to see people be on the registry, but don’t take it lightly,” said Laura. “... It’s a little scary and
could be painful, but it could save a life. To me, that is huge.”
Joining the registry is as simple as a cheek swab and filling out some paperwork. According to Be The Match,
the bone marrow and cord blood donor registry, donors of the following backgrounds are especially needed:
African American, Native American/Alaskan, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Hispanics or Latinos and
those of multiple races.
Should a donor be matched to a patient, donation is a surgical, outpatient procedure, given under anesthesia, so
donors feel no pain during donations. Only 1 to 5 percent of bone marrow is needed to save someone’s life, so the
donor’s immune system will remain strong. It also costs the Be The Match donor nothing to donate their marrow.
If a donor is between the ages of 45 and 60, a fee of $100 is necessary to add a new member to the registry.
For more information on bone marrow donation, visit www.BeTheMatch.org. To join Trinity’s page on
Facebook and share your support, search “Hearts for Trinity.”
N2 – Cat. 10
Write that down: She’s got big dreams and a bigger heart
KATE WEHLANN
Salem Leader and Salem Democrat
Spend 10 minutes with 16-year-old Gabby Campbell and any thoughts of her having Down Syndrome affecting
her ability to be a typical teenage girl will disappear.
She loves fashion and jewelry (especially bracelets) and dreams of becoming a professional actress. She also
loves babysitting, saying it’s another of her dreams. Her hobbies include reading and she has bookshelves in her
room so full she’s stacking books in front of other books. She’s “friends” with all her favorite celebrities ¬- Taylor
Swift, Selena Gomez, Taylor Lautner, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, the band One Direction and others, their
photos, purchased as posters or ripped from the teen magazines she collects, taped all over her bedroom wall. Her
boyfriend? Justin Bieber.
“I love Justin Bieber,” she said, grinning broadly at one of the posters taped to her wall beside her closet.
She also loves her pets – two beagles and her cat, Starz – and takes pride in her creative side, painting the pencil
sketches her mother draws for her, including one painting of her dogs and cat that hangs on her wall.
“They’re very special to me,” she said. “I’m a friend to all animals.”
Gabby also has her own business, selling homemade dog treats for $2 a bag. Her mother, Karen Campbell, said
she earned about $300 last year.
Her dreams of becoming an actress led her to get involved with school theater - she performed in a Halloween
play at Eastern - and she’s been involved in cheerleading and was a member of the student council last year.
This is her first year of high school at Eastern and she loves it. She likes her classes, specifically her career
education class, and spending time with friends, but above all, she likes one group of people in particular.
“To be honest, because you have to be honest, I would say my favorite part of high school is the boys,” she said.
Gabby also enjoys karate with her father, Jeffrey, a military veteran and an employee at the National Guard
Armory in Salem.
“Dad and I love karate,” she said. “I do karate to help with my anger.”
Her aunt and uncle, Mary and Robert Bohanan, also have special needs and live with Gabby and her parents.
“Aunt Mary lived with us for seven years,” said Gabby. “She and Robert are very special to me.”
Gabby said her whole family is very special to her, including her parents, Karen and Jeffrey, her brother, Joseph
Campbell, and her sister, Korie Brewer and her husband Dustin, and Dustin’s youngest sister, Falcon Beecraft.
Fortunately for her, Gabby has endured very little bullying. A girl, who had once been a friend of Gabby’s,
bullied her in fourth grade, but eventually left the school. Aside from that, Gabby has been protected and loved by
pretty much everyone she meets.
“It amazes me,” said Karen. “It truly amazes me. When she was in elementary school, I think the county turned
around as far as Gabby was concerned. The kids really protected Gabby and still do. They’d be out at recess and a
new kid might ask to play kickball or something with them. The kids would say, ‘Yeah, you can play, but don’t
you dare get Gabby out!’ ... She’s also had wonderful people at school working with her as assistants.”
Karen said one fellow student in particular has helped make Gabby’s years at school good ones.
“Jacob Fleenor is a wonderful young man,” she said. “He will carry her books for her sometimes. It amazes me
how much they adore her.”
Karen tells the story of a Valentine’s Day dance at the school last year.
“Jacob had a girlfriend, but Gabby didn’t have anybody to take a picture with,” said Karen. “Jacob stepped right
up and said ‘I’ll take a picture with Gabby.’ That’s just how she’s treated at school. Everybody adores her ...
They’re protective, caring, compassionate -”
“Handsome,” adds Gabby, referencing Fleenor.
Karen attributes Gabby’s bubbly personality and determination to follow her dreams to how she was raised.
“Gabby is like everybody else,” she said. “She’s always been exposed to everything and everybody my other
kids have. My other kids were 10 and 12 when Gabrielle was born. I’ve never baby-talked any of my kids. They
never treated her any differently than anyone else. She’s always been in the thick of things and she’s always been
spoken to like an adult ... I really do believe Gabby will have, in her life, almost as many opportunities as her
brother and sister to do what she wishes in life. We never did all the meetings. I never put her aside and told her
‘You’re different. You’re special.’ She’s just like any other child and needs to be treated as such. That’s been my
attitude from the beginning.”
Her confidence and independent spirit were apparent early on. When she was first taken to Rainbow’s End
Preschool in Salem, a boy noticed how small she was and asked why a “baby” would be at his school.
“She put her hands right on her hips and told him, ‘I am not a baby!’” said Karen.
Before Gabby was born, Karen was told she would never be able to have children, which made Gabby all the
more precious.
“She is special in so many, many ways,” said Karen. “She is the first child I gave birth to. Our son, Joseph, is
adopted, our other daughter, Kori is my husband’s daughter from a previous marriage ... and then there’s Gabby. I
was told I would never have children ... It was just a fabulous, wonderful gift I was able to become pregnant. You
have all these expectations, but at four and a half months [into the pregnancy] – I was almost 35 when I found out
I was having Gabby, so we went and did the test – we found out she had Down Syndrome.”
The Campbells did their research, went to counseling and decided to educate themselves the best they could.
“When you become pregnant, you have all these expectations,” said Karen. “You think ‘I’m going to have this
beautiful, precious flower,’ and you think you’ll get this beautiful lily and you find out you’re going to have a
beautiful daisy or chrysanthemum or whatever. It’s just different.”
“I’m a rose,” said Gabby.
“That was cool with me because roses are fabulous, too,” said Karen. “She keeps us young, she keeps us alert. I
could never, ever have asked for anything different or better. She’s absolutely the best we could have ever wished
for.”
Karen turned to Gabby. “You’re the best Gab, you really are.”
“I’m beautiful,” said Gabby, smiling and turning back to me. “I’m a princess. Write that down.”
To learn more about Down Syndrome, visit the National Down Syndrome Society’s website, www.NDSS.org.
N2 – Cat. 11
Eagles, ‘BPN’ rise to top
Brian Smith
The Corydon Democrat
From the start of the fourth quarter on, a seat was easy to find on the Lanesville side of the Borden gymnasium
Saturday night.
That’s because everyone was standing, even into an overtime to settle the score between Lanesville and Rock
Creek Academy for the Class A Borden Sectional.
Back and forth was the theme of the overtime until the Eagles came through with a key turnover and rebound in
the final minute to score the program’s fourth sectional title with a 68-65 triumph over Rock Creek.
“It feels so amazing,” Lanesville senior Jack Ferree said. “Last year, we were here in the same spot, and we lost
to the state champs (Borden). Then to come back in the championship to win, it feels so amazing. As a senior, to
get a sectional champion is great, but we have to prepare for next week.”
In the overtime, it was a struggle for the lead. Ferree gave the Eagles a 60-59 lead with a pair of freebies.
Throughout the game, Rock Creek was a load on the glass for the Eagles. They scored twice on put-backs in the
overtime, one each from 6-foot-8 Gedeon Nzombi and 6-6 Ronald Karenzi. Buckets by Lanesville’s Matthew
Husband and Ryan Fulkerson helped offset points by the Lions.
To come up with the win, the Eagles knew they needed stops.
With 46 seconds left, Husband toed the charity stripe to put his team up 66-65. During a time out, Lanesville
coach Mikel Miller, attempting to communicate with his team in a hostile environment, echoed “rebound,
rebound, rebound.”
Out of the break, Fulkerson eased the coach’s desire, picking off a lob pass near the baseline.
“All night we couldn’t rebound because they are so lengthy,” Fulkerson said. “We ended up getting steals at the
end to make up for it.”
Down the stretch, Lanesville netted free throws. Energetic throughout the game, Lanesville’s Joe Ferree put
Lanesville ahead, 67-65, with a single free throw with 19.4 seconds on the clock.
A shot by Rock Creek’s Will Brown was off the mark on its next possession, with Husband clearing the
rebound. All smiles up until he reached the free-throw line, Husband knocked down the first for a three-point lead.
“We finished with our defense,” Lanesville coach Mikel Miller said. “We had to play defense in the end to get
stops.”
Although Husband’s second attempt missed the mark, Rock Creek’s final try to tie the game, a 3-point attempt
by Tanner Gerth, was well off the mark.
The miss sent the Eagles flying on the center of the floor in celebration as the purple-clad fans, chanting “BPN”
for Big Purple Nation shouted loudly for their team.
“My sophomore point guard – Joe Ferree – last year after we got beat, on the way home, the kids were down
and feeling bad and Joe texts me. He said, ‘We’re going to win next year coach.’ I know he ate that every day
since last year,” Miller said. “That kid has really came around.”
Joe Ferree had a big night against Rock Creek, scoring 21 points, knocking down four 3-pointers.
Free throws, particularly in the fourth quarter and during overtime, proved to be the difference. Rock Creek was
12 of 22 (7 of 15 in fourth and OT) at the line, while Lanesville was 17 of 25.
“I felt like we shot a million free throws this week in practice,” Joe Ferree said.
Husband scored 10 of his 20 points in the championship game at the foul line. He only missed two.
“I knew I had to step up,” Husband said. “My free-throw percentage during the season was really bad, so I knew
I had to make them. Coach told me I had to be more confident, and I did.”
The sectional is the first for the Eagles since 2010. Borden has been one of the key teams to dethrone, having
won four championships since 2008, including the state title a year ago.
“It’s one of the better sectionals in the state, year in and year out,” Miller said. “It’s competitive, and there are
always three or four teams with a chance to win it. Coming into it, I thought we were one of four teams.”
Following the game and celebration, many of the Lanesville players gathered around the state title trophy in the
foyer at Borden.
Up next for the Eagles is the Loogootee Regional, where they will take on Northeast Dubois. Borden was
eliminated by Rock Creek in the semi-final.
One night prior to beating Rock Creek, Lanesville needed a huge comeback against No. 6 Christian Academy of
Indiana to survive and advance.
There was a wide margin early against the Lions as well. This time, it didn’t take until the final minutes to gain
an advantage.
Three-pointers by Gerth and Brown helped Rock Creek lead 10-2 early and eventually 11-4.
Cue the big run from the Eagles. Spurting on a 13-2 breakaway, including 11 unanswered, Lanesville grabbed
hold of the lead. Joe Ferree had a 3-pointer, while field goals were spread among Jack Ferree, Jason Harmon and
Husband.
“It was about the same deficit,” Husband said. “We didn’t get our heads down and kept fighting to get back in
it. By the end of the first, we already had the lead.”
Rock Creek regrouped after trailing 17-13 after one to go blow for blow the rest of the half. Joe Ferree ignited
the crowed a few times with 3-pointers, as did Tate Stilger from the right corner.
“The shots were coming,” Joe Ferree said. “When the ball was worked around, I hit one, then I hear the fans
going. That pumps me up. The shots came natural; they weren’t rushed.”
His older brother, Jack, said, “He was on tonight” when talking about Joe.
Stilger, a senior, had a big play to end the half, picking off an inbound pass with two seconds left to feed
Fulkerson to give the Eagles a 33-30 edge.
“Other than the deficit, it was back and forth, back and forth the whole night,” Miller said. “One team would
answer, but the other would come back.”
Lanesville led 38-32 early in the third quarter after Joe Ferree hit another triple. The Lions, however, didn’t go
away. Brown, Karenzi and Nzombi accounted for all 14 Lions points in the third quarter to keep their team in the
hunt. Two leads of one point by Rock Creek late in the third were short-lived with Jack Ferree and Husband
giving the edge back to the Eagles.
Showing the way throughout the fourth quarter was Lanesville. The Eagles led 54-50 with 3:24 to play after a
pair of Husband free throws, but the Lions hung around.
Only one field goal was hit in the final 2:40 of regulation between the teams. It came from Nzombi to cut
Lanesville’s lead to 58-57 with 1:40 to go. Nzombi would eventually tie the score at 58 with a single free throw
with 51 seconds left.
Lanesville had a shot to win, but Jack Ferree’s attempt along the baseline only drew iron, sending the contest
into overtime. In the extra session, the Eagles prevailed.
“Rock Creek is a solid team,” Miller said. “They are going to really be a tough out come next year. We feel
pretty fortunate because I don’t want to see the rebounding stats tonight. Bottom line is we won.”
Harmon led the Eagles on the boards with seven, while Husband had six. Nzombi had 18 boards to go with his
team-best 17 points. Devin Burt, a senior, had 16 points, while Brown scored 13.
“We had to work on blocking them out, getting a butt into them,” Jack Ferree said. “They are so lengthy and
athletic. We had to work real hard inside. We worked on collapsing on the inside and having the two others watch
the shooters outside. It was about clogging the lane and forcing shots.”
“There was great leadership throughout the game,” Miller said. “The kids kept composure and did a good job
following our game plan. It didn’t always work, but we got a couple of stops at the end.”
The players were over-joyed post-game after cutting down the nets.
“I’m just so proud of my team,” Husband said. “It feels amazing. I’ve never been here before.”
“I knew we had it the whole time,” Jack Ferree said. “It feels really great.”
Fulkerson, who finished with 10 points on 5-of-11 shooting, said the moment didn’t seem real.
The sectional was a stressful run for the staff and players. First, it was the CAI rally then the overtime thriller
with Rock Creek.
“Stressful and fun,” Miller said. “Two nights of gutsy, gutsy performances ... “
Lanesville (15-8) advances to the Loogootee Regional where the Eagles will face Northeast Dubois (11-12)
Saturday at noon. In the first regional semi-final, No. 1 Barr-Reeve (23-1) will take on Trinity Lutheran (16-6) at
10:30 a.m. The championship game is set for 8 p.m.
Lanesville defeated Northeast Dubois earlier in the season in the Springs Valley Tournament, 69-51, on Dec.
27.
N2 – Cat. 12
‘One Small Town, One Crazy Coach’ story of 1963 Ireland Spuds
Ed Cahill
Press-Dispatch
Mike Roos had just turned 11 years old when the Ireland High School boys’ basketball team won the school’s
first and only sectional and regional titles in 1963.
In 2003, his father, Jim – who was principal of Ireland High School from 1961-63 – asked him if he was
interesting in attending a 40th-year anniversary celebration of the Spuds’ accomplishment.
“They were going to have a golf outing and dinner, and a ceremony over at the gym on Sunday, Jack Butcher
will speak, and people like that were going to show up,” Roos recalled. “So I said, yeah, I would really like that.”
Roos, a professor of English at University of Cincinnati Blue Ash since 1976, said that he still has vivid
memories of the Spuds’ postseason run, especially from their 20-19 win over Springs Valley in the finals of the
Huntingburg Sectional.
“Like the winning free throws hit by Joe Lents and what Red Keusch did at the end of the game,” Roos said.
“He just held the ball out of bounds for the last three seconds and then threw it up into the rafters. I can still
visualize that.”
Then, during a celebration held later the same night in the Ireland High School gymnasium, first-year head
coach Pete Gill – following through on a promise he made to his team if they won the sectional title – removed his
trousers and threw them into the crowd.
(Gill, after realizing that the rear seam of his pants had come apart when two students hoisted him on their
shoulders during the postgame celebration at Huntingburg, had borrowed a pair of basketball shorts and was
wearing them underneath his trousers.)
“The Jasper photographer was there and took a picture of it,” Roos said. “My dad was just horrified.”
The next day, Roos’ father called Jasper Herald sports editor Charlie MacPherron and begged him not to use the
picture of the pants-less Gill.
According to Roos, MacPherron “reluctantly” relented after Roos’ father promised him an exclusive interview
with Gill.
“Well, two mornings later, he opens up the Evansville Courier, and what does he see?” Roos said. “He sees that
picture. It was right there on the front page of the sports section, a big article about the Spuds – and Pete Gill with
his pants off.”
The photograph, according to Roos, “went viral,” appearing in big-city newspapers in Indianapolis, Detroit,
Chicago, St. Louis and a host of other newspapers across the Midwest, turning Gill and the Spuds– with only one
starter as tall as 5-foot-10–into media darlings overnight.
Roos left Ireland after the 1962-63 school year when his father took a job as principal at Rockport High School
before moving on to take the same position at his alma mater, Tell City High School.
However, when Roos–who graduated from Tell City in 1970–attended the 40thyear anniversary celebration in
2003, he realized that the story of the 1962-63 Spuds needed to be preserved.
“When I spent the weekend with those guys, that’s when I really realized how good of a story it is,” Roos said,
“not only the accomplishments of the team during the season, but the lives these guys had.”
Thus ensued a 10-year labor of love that culminated in Roos’ first book, “One Small Town, One Crazy Coach:
The Ireland Spuds and the 1963 Indiana High School Basketball Season,” which was released by Indiana
University Press in September 2013.
Roos said that he originally submitted his manuscript to Indiana University Press in 2008, and that it was
“almost” accepted in its original form.
“One thing that I hadn’t learned yet was to narrow my audience down, because I was truly trying to write for
two different audiences initially,” Roos said. “One was the team, the guys who I had really gotten close to when I
interviewed them over the next year or so. But I also wanted to write a book for the general reader, too. And the
two didn’t mesh very well.”
The initial draft, Roos said, included passages of creative non-fiction, where he recreated dialog, as well as
straight historical accounts featuring play by play and statistics from each game “that a general reader wouldn’t
find very interesting.”
It also included information about the history of Ireland High School boys’ basketball, including the school’s
only win over Jasper in 1940, as well as the 1961-62 team that lost to Jasper in the sectional finals.
“So it was like 500 pages long,” Roos said.
Another factor that motivated him to get the book published as soon as possible, Roos admitted, was the fact
that some of the individuals it featured–including Gill–were in poor health.
“I wanted to get it out before these people started dying off,” Roos said. “Pete Gill wasn’t in great health, and
there were others. (Ireland Township trustee) Levi Leinenbach, Father Carl Shetler, the parish priest, was in poor
health.”
However, despite receiving some favorable reviews, Indiana University Press– 15 months later–decided to pass.
“That was a great disappointment, but mostly for the sake of the people that I had been wanting to get the book
finished for,” Roos said.
Roos, in the meantime, had become involved in several projects at University of Cincinnati Blue Ash, which
required time commitments of two to three years, so he wasn’t able to return to his book about the Spuds until
2011.
“On the positive side, though, I knew, after rethinking it, that it needed to be shorter and it needed to be one
style,” Roos said. “So I rewrote it from scratch at that point.”
In March 2012, Roos resubmitted the rewritten manuscript to Indiana University Press.
“I wavered for a while on that because I thought, ‘Do I want to send it back to them? They rejected it before,’”
Roos said. “So I sent them an inquiry e-mail saying, ‘Well, I’ve rewritten it. I think it’s a lot better. Would you be
interested in it?’ The editor right away said, ‘Send it.’
“The second time through was smooth as silk in terms of their acceptance,” Roos continued. “The reviews were
favorable and they accepted it right away and offered me a contract a couple of months after I submitted it.”
Roos said that he cut the manuscript by 30,000 words from his original draft, and that Indiana University Press
requested that he eliminate another 10,000.
“They accepted it, but they said, ‘We’ll accept it, but we still want you to cut it another 10,000 words,’” Roos
said. “So it was really great discipline, and I think all of that cutting made it better, in the long term.”
Unfortunately, some of the individuals that Roos had interviewed for the book were no
longer alive.
“One was Pete Gill, who died in December of 2011,” Roos said. “Red Keusch, one of the starters, also died of
Parkinson’s disease ... earlier that spring. (Father Shetler) died. Levi Leinenbach, the township trustee, died. A
couple of the other town folk who I interviewed had died as well.”
When he submitted his rewritten manuscript in March 2012, Roos said he was hoping that the book would be
published in time for the 50th-year anniversary celebration of the 1962-63 Spuds in March 2013.
“They just couldn’t make it happen,” Roos said. “University presses operate on a shoestring budget pretty
much, and there’s a backlog of books and other things that they publish, so they just couldn’t make it happen
before the fall of 2013.”
However, Roos and his father did attend the 50th-year anniversary celebration.
“They put a plaque up on The Chicken Place restaurant there to honor the team and Pete, and my dad and Roy
Allen, who was the assistant coach,” Roos said. “So I was there for that unveiling and I did a reading of one of the
chapters. So we were able to announce that the book was going
to be published in September.”
In September, the book release was launched with a ceremony at the Ireland Elementary School gymnasium,
which featured an appearance by former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Del Harris.
“One of the nice things about this is some of the contacts that I’ve made, and Del Harris is one of the big ones,”
Roos said. “I owe it all, really, to Dave Small more than anybody. Dave is the kind of guy that maintains
connections all over the country with people, especially in basketball, so he had run into Del.”
Harris, Roos noted, had started his coaching career at Dale High School in 1962.
“Ireland didn’t play Dale that year, but he was not that far away when that whole thing played out, and he knew
the story,” Roos said. “So when Dave told him I was writing a book about it, he offered to read the manuscript and
write a blurb. And he read the manuscript and he fell in love with the story, so he wrote a great blurb for it, and
he’s been a big promoter of the book.”
Harris, according to Roos, has presented copies of the book to ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale,
University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari and Indiana University head coach Tom Crean, among others.
“A movie producer in Texas is looking at it right now and would love to make it into a movie, if he can get
funding for it,” Roos said. “So we’ll see how that plays out.”
“One Small Town One Crazy Coach” picks up the story of the 1962-63 Spuds with the resignation of its
previous coach, Jerome “Dimp” Stenftnagel, following six consecutive winning seasons, including 59 wins –
versus six losses–in the previous three years.
However, Stenftnagel’s teams had never gotten past the first round of the sectional tournament and–like all but
one Ireland coach before him–had never beaten Jasper.
With the Spuds’ talented front-line of Dave Baer, Ronnie Vonderheide and Bill Small having graduated,
Stenftnagel tendered his resignation on June 16, 1962, to accept the head coaching job at Lapel.
Gill was 33 years old in 1962, having launched his coaching career in Burnside, Ky., before moving to Indiana
as an assistant at Roanoke for one year, followed by two years as head coach at Switz City and one year at Turkey
Run before applying for the head coaching job at Ireland.
“The thing about Pete Gill was he never stayed anywhere more than two years, really, on average,” Roos said.
“I think three was the absolute max he ever stayed anywhere in his whole career.
“But he never got fired either,” Roos added. “He was always moving on. He had sort of a short attention span,
you could say.”
Following a rather bizarre job interview in his living room, Roos’ father hired Gill –who had compiled a record
of 66-48 with no postseason tournament wins–without checking his references.
“Which is really sticking your neck out on a guy who had no better record than Pete Gill did,” Roos said. “But,
again, there was something about him, and my dad went on a gut instinct.”
Roos spends the first half of his book setting up the story of the 1962-63 season, telling the back stories of the
main characters. In fact, three of the team’s five starters – Keusch, Lents and Dave Small – have their own
chapters.
“The basketball doesn’t really start until about halfway into the book, to really build the characters,” Roos said.
“Joe Lents, who came from a broken home, really, where his dad was an alcoholic and left the kids early, although
he would come back and sort of abuse them from time to time. Then his mother died of cancer and they lived in
this little one room shack with a dirt floor, a tiny little place up north of Jasper.”
Orphaned, Lents and his brother, Sonny, were taken in by Father Carl Shetler and assigned to the Ireland
rectory.
Keusch’s father, Roos said, was bi-polar and underwent electro-shock therapy when Keusch was 14 years old.
“You can imagine how difficult that would be to see your dad taken away to the Evansville State Hospital,”
Roos said.
Small, according to Roos, had several brushes with death during his childhood
on a farm, “Those stories are told in the book, too,” Roos said. “So there were just really, really good people
stories here and they were all just so great people that I got to know better that weekend.”
The book describes Gill’s unconventional preseason practices, which included a lot of conditioning, but no live
scrimmaging.
“Dimp’s practices were pretty loosey, goosey, a lot of just scrimmaging and not much conditioning,” Roos said.
“But he had talent where he could get away with that.”
The book also contains the story of Ireland’s season opener at Spurgeon, which was won by the Spuds, 65-29.
Gill, during a pep rally earlier in the week, had promised that he and Allen would hitchhike home from
Spurgeon if the Spuds won by more than 30 points.
“That gets its own chapter and that’s actually one of my favorite chapters in the book,” Roos said.
At halftime, Gill told team statistician Gary Rasche – who had driven his own vehicle to the game – to find a
spot to hide about a mile from Spurgeon in case he and Allen could not get a
ride.
However, after walking a short distance, Gill and Allen were given a ride by “some crazy guy ... in a beat-up old
pickup truck” before being getting out at the junction of Highway 61 and Highway 56.
Rasche, who had narrowly avoided depositing his vehicle and his five female passengers into a stripper pit,
while trying to conceal his vehicle, pulled up, and Gill and Allen got in to ride the rest of the way to Ireland.
“Then they got out again just on the outskirts of Ireland, so they could walk into town and act like they had
hitchhiked the entire way,” Roos said. “He swore Gary and the girls to secrecy, and Gary was too afraid of losing
his statistician job to let anyone know. He kept that thing secret until I interviewed him.”
The Spuds, who also defeated Otwell and Stendel, ended the regular season 15- 5, then defeated Winslow 6246 in the quarterfinals of the Huntingburg Sectional.
After beating host Huntinburg 71-55 in the semifinals, the Spuds squared off against Springs Valley, led by 6foot-6 Lonnie Ziegler, who had scored 33 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 72-59 semifinal win over Jasper.
“Even though Springs Valley had not had that great of a season, they were really on a roll in the tournament and
they were favored, probably, to beat Ireland in the title game,” Roos said. “Pete Gill decided they were going to
have to slow it down to keep the ball away from Lonnie Ziegler and, on defense, they put two guys on him. They
double- teamed him, one guy in front and one guy in back, and they left one of the Valley players just unguarded.
The strategy worked.”
Roos described the sectional title game as “a classic.”
“If you go to the Huntingburg gymnasium, they’ve listed like the top 10 games that have been played in that
gym, which is a great gym,”
Roos said. “That ‘63 game is on the plaque as one of the great games that have been played in that gym.” Roos
said that no film of the game has survived but that, while conducting interviews for the book, he learned that
someone had recorded the radio broadcast of the second half of the game.
“I didn’t know about it until I was interviewing ... and then one of the Ireland people said, ‘Hey, you know,
there’s a tape of that last half. Would you like to listen to it?’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
Included in the recording was a postgame interview by WITZ sports director Jack Brandt of Roos’ father in the
midst of a wild on-the-court celebration.
“He goes, ‘Jim Roos, Jim Roos, come over here, we’re going to talk to you. How do you feel about this game,
this great win for Ireland?’” Roos said. “My dad gets on the microphone and he says, ‘Nobody in Ireland is
responsible for anything they do tonight!’
“If you know my dad, my dad is one of the most responsible human beings that you’ll ever meet,” Roos said.
“So for him to say something like that gives you a sense of how much joy people were feeling at that moment.”
The Spuds went on to the regional tournament, which was also at the Huntingburg gymnasium, and defeated
Sullivan 75-63 and Washington 39-37–on a last-second shot by Pat Schitter – to advance to semi-state.
However, the clock struck midnight for the Cinderella team when Ireland, after trailing 17-16 at halftime, lost
61-36 to Evansville Bosse – the defending state champion– in the semi-state’s first round.
“So the dream came crashing down the second half of that game,” Roos said. “But it was reality. To expect that
Ireland team to beat that Bosse team would have been beyond belief. It would have been too much.”
Roos said that the book has been well-received by people who have read it thus far.
“The challenge is basically this–it’s a story that not very many people outside of Dubois County have heard of
or even remember now, 50 years later,” Roos said. “So, obviously, it’s sold very well in Dubois County. I sold
quite a few when I went over to a Tell City High School game early in December. Of course, that’s my old
stomping grounds. People that knew me bought the book.”
“The other signings that I go to, to Barnes & Noble and even at IU games, I have to pitch the book to everybody
that comes up,” Roos continued. “They’re curious about it. ‘What is this story? Where is Ireland?’ They don’t
even know where Ireland is. So I sort of have to tell them the story. It’s an underdog kind of a story, that once you
get involved in, then you’ll find that you’ll get engrossed. Everybody that’s read it tells me that that’s what
happens.”
Roos said that there were some interesting similarities between the story of the 1962-63 Spuds and that of the
movie “Hoosiers,” a highly fictionalized account based on the Milan team led by All-Staters Bobby Plump and
Ray Craft that won the state championship in 1954.
“The thing about the Milan team, which was not in the movie, was they were good the year before,” Roos said.
“They went to the state finals in ‘53, so it was not like it was a fluke or anything.
“When people ask me to compare, I say what the ‘63 Ireland team accomplished was off the charts in terms of
what they were expected to accomplish,” Roos added. “I mean, people really honestly didn’t think that team was
going to win more than about five games because they had lost their three best players and they had no height to
replace them.”
Last week, Roos learned in an e-mail from IU Press that Basketball Times, a nationally distributed magazine
which covers college basketball, will be running an excerpt from the book in an upcoming issue.
“I’m going to have to ask Del about this because Dick Vitale does write for Basketball Times, so it could be that
maybe he had something to do with that,” Roos said. “I don’t know. Given that it’s a college basketball magazine,
it’s really curious to me that they would run a story about this unknown little team from 1963.”
Roos said that he did not have any total sales figures for the book and that he will not get a royalty check for
several months.
“The contract doesn’t call for a high percentage of royalties, let me tell you,” Roos said. “It’s like five percent of
the net sales. That’s not much. It figures about 40 cents a book, so I’m not going to get rich any time soon on this
book.
“But that doesn’t matter to me,” Roos added. “I didn’t write it to get rich. I wrote it because I love the story.”
Roos recalled his interview with Gill, who left Ireland following the 1963-64 season to coach at various schools
in Indiana, including Indianapolis Chartrand and North Salem, before returning to Kentucky, where he ended his
coaching career at Walton-Verona.
“At the end of the interview, I said, ‘Well, do you have any regrets about your career? What would you do over
again or change?’” Roos said. “He said, ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t take off my g--d--- pants.’ He said, ‘The rest of my
career, I was known as that coach who took off his pants and threw them into the crowd.’ That haunted him
wherever he went.”
N2 – Cat. 13
Go Steelers, you’re my team
Sharon Hamilton
The North Vernon Sun
I have always liked the Steelers.
Although not my favorite NFL team, at least they aren’t the Patriots.
I kept telling myself that when my son Ben came in and announced that was the name of the team he would
be coaching in the flag football league for kindergarten, first and second graders.
He is looking forward to the season and his first time being on the coaching side of the ball.
Ben’s son, Gabe, is in first grade at Graham Creek and this is his first time playing football.
This summer they were in the yard tossing the football back and forth when we realized, the kid’s got an arm.
Not only that, but Gabe can also catch.
Trust me when I say, it did a Nana good to see it.
When they started looking for coaches I talked to Ben and told him to give some serious consideration to
taking on the role. I thought he’d be good at it and I also think he’d be a good role model.
Ben is more patient than anyone else in the family and let’s face it ... wouldn’t you want your child to be
coached by a firefighter? The decision to coach became even more clear for Ben when he found out there were
twice as many kids signed up to play flag football this year than last year.
He decided at that point he’d give it a try.
Ben also decided his younger brother Steve could help him.
After all, Ben reasoned, Steve needed some testosterone in his life.
You see Steve has two daughters, and he lives in a houseful of women.
Steve, who works for the Jennings County Sheriff’s Dept., decided he’d help, too.
The team had their first practice on Thursday and I don’t know about the players, but my sons had a blast.
Steve, it seems, is whistle happy.
He has found that the players stop horsing around when he blows it.
Now my only concern is what am I going to do in nine or 10 years when these players are in high school? I
have always said the basics of football are what help with a winning season.
I have complained that the Panther varsity teams have, in the past, struggled with the fundamentals. So what
do you think I started in on my boys about? You guessed it, coaching the fundamentals.
How to make a good tackle, how to throw a good block, how to catch a pass under pressure and how to
protect the ball when running, just a few of the basics in my book.
So, once again I’m a football mom.
I can’t help but wonder if there will be more or less work involved when on this side of the game.
Either way all I can say is . . . I’m officially a Steelers fan (sorry to the other teams).
On a sad note, I want to thank all of you who have expressed your condolences about the loss of my brother
Dwayne.
My parents are struggling with this, and it hasn’t been easy on me.
I do want to share the one light hearted thought on his loss.
Dwayne died on my birthday. As my mom, dad and I sat by his bedside Tuesday night I realized it was going
to happen on that day. He began smiling and my mom said he was getting to see heaven and I said he was
seeing our Uncle David.
David Motsinger was an Indiana State Police trooper who was just a couple of years older than me.
He and Dwayne always picked on me and we always had great times when we were together.
David died of cancer a few years ago, and it crushed our hearts.
I told my boys that David was in heaven waiting on Dwayne and he told him to come on because they could
pull the best joke on me ever. I told Ben and Steve, they are in heaven laughing at me because there’s no way I
can ever get them back for this one.