12
Sports
The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
November. 11, 1988
Rutter on Sports
By DAVE
RUTrER
Some years you get the bear;
some years the bear gets you
Despite what coaches express publicly, most
know when a pending season mostly resembles
hunting very large bears with a very small
slingshot.
Move quietly, take your best shot and run like
the wind.
Ken Schultheis, who has loaded up
Washington Catholic's basketball arsenal for three
years, doesn't have many illusions about his fourth
season.
"What would I be happy with this year?" he
repeats. "That's a question I've been asking
myself. I think I want this team to progress and be
strong for tournament time. I know all coaches say
that, but some years you know you're gonna win.
But frankly, I don't know how many we'll win this
year. I just want the kids to grow as a unit and
build some belief in themselves."
Whatever happens won't be for lack of hard
work. Schultheis will make sure of that.
"It's really going to be an experiment the first
half of the season to see what we have and what
we can do," he says. "The kids are working hard,
but you can work hard and still not get the wins."
Although Schultheis is not the sort to look
backward, that perspective clearly shows the most
immediate and pressing difficulty, For virtually a
decade, the Cardinals have succeeded with close-
knit, scrappy teams built around one player
capable of blowing large holes in enemy defenses.
Last year was the last season in the Ty
Madison era. Before that, guard Kevin Stallman
produced the big numbers. Whatever else occurred
in a game, Cardinal fans knew there were 18-25
points a game "in the bank."
But that bank account has been overdrawn.
How much firepower does Washington Catholic
have returning? "Very little, to be honest," con-
cedes Schultheis.
The Cards have gone 11-10, 19-3 and 16-6
over Schultheis' tenure and reality suggest the
lower end of that spectrum would be a reasonable
target for this season.
The schedule also complicates the issue. The
Cards open tonight at the Hatchet House against
traditional rival Barr-Reeve, and then play Har-
rison, Jasper and Memorial within a brief span.
"Our first 8-9 games are really going to be a learn-
ing experience," says Schultheis with clear
understatement.
"It's really hard to put a handle on the first
half of the year. We've got kids with a good team
orientation, good quickness and we've got some
good shooters. We just don't have much size or ex-
perience. You never want to build around just one
guy but we've had someone to give us 15 or 20
points a night and then we could work in other
areas. We don't have that this year. But, of course,
that's the challenge in a small school. You work
hard and hope something comes out of it."
The Cardinals are hoping that Bret Smith and
Chris Dayton, both part-time starters from last
season's campaign, keep the team above water ear-
ly. "After that we have jayvee players from last
year and some good sophomores," adds
Schultheis.
Senior Andy Weber {6-2}, senior Scott
McDonald (6-1} and sophomore Brian McAtee {6-1}
St. James team wins
volleyball tournament
The girls; volleyball team at record. Coaches were Tammy
St. James School, St. James, Rexing and Tammy Elpers.
beat Good Shepherd School, Good Shepherd finished its
Evansville, 15-9, 15-13 on Nov. regular season with a 6-4
5 to win the girls' volleyball record. Coaches were Bob
tournament. Titzer, Rick Hahn and Becky
Other teams participating in Titzer.
the tournament included St.
John School, Newburgh; St. John finished the season
Evansville i,utheran School, with a 1-9record. Judy Neff was
Trinity Lutheran School and the coach.
Evansville Day School. The volleyball league was for
St. James completed its girls in grades six, seven and
regular season with a 10-0 eight.
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should get the call tonight with the 5-8 Steimel
twins -- sophomores Shano, and Blane -- off the
bench early.
"They're {the twins} both quick and smart and
they just need to learn," says Schultheis. That
holds true for much of the team.
The Cardinals are the beneficiary of a 17-0
freshman crop and appear to have talent in the
feeder pipe line. "That freshman team didn't have
any big guns but had five or six different players
who could get 10-12 points a game," the coach
says. "I don't really see any 20-point scorers in
that group although we didn't see that in Ty
Madison either when we started him as a
sophomore. We didn't know how good he would
become. ' '
Thus, the problem does not lie next year or
beyond -- only now.
"We're gonna be young and scrappy, but then
we've always sort of been that way," says
Schultheis. "But I don't want to give the impres-
sion we're giving up on this year. We're not giving
up, and we're not building for next year. I don't
believe in that. I want to win now."
Although Schultheis is enthusiastic and op-
timistic by nature, he's also a realist. Wins and
losses don't always reflect how hard a young team
must work to be competitive, 6specially against the
strangling schedule faced by the Cardinals.
That's the problem in packing slingshots on a
bear hunt.
The bear wants to win, too.
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