BricksCenter

The spring sports season is approaching its conclusion, which means the IHSAA post-season is upon us. There are a lot of ways to look at success when a season ends. Ultimately, it comes down to something Hall of Fame coach John Wooden said:

"Success is a peace of mind that comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."

There is no doubt that the Brickies have WORK WORK WORKed HARD this spring to become their best. That in itself means they have found success! They've persevered through adversity ... including an absolutely crazy amount of rain ... and have SHINED! The next two weeks should be very exciting ... GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF OUR BRICKIES as they embark on the next phase of the journey!!

What time is it? ... BricksCenter!

On Wednesday night over at Griffith, the Brickies competed in the inaugural "Lake County Unified Meet" along with East Chicago, Munster, Gary West Side and the host Panthers. In the 5 team field, our Bricks WON with a team score of 119.5!!! Some highlights include seniors Trent Brown & Jacob Ramirez going 1-2 overall in the 400m dash and classmate Cara Lawrence & sophomore Colton Galliher going 4-5 in their respective heat ... senior Marcus Fernandez placing 2nd overall in the shot put ... seniors Mason Jackson-Solomon & Andrew Navarro going 1-2 overall in the 100m dash and freshman Layla Henley placing 2nd in her heat ... Brown also winning the long jump while junior Summer Luttrell placed 6th in her flight ... and BOTH the girls (Lawrence, Henley and seniors Margo Page & Brianna Candiano) & boys (Navarro, Jackson-Solomon and juniors Jackson Butler & Malcolm Manuel) 4x100m relay teams crossing the finish line first! CONGRATULATIONS to our Unified team for being crowned LAKE COUNTY CHAMPIONS!!!

Saturday morning over at Valparaiso High School, Hobart was looking to defend our 2023 title at the IHSAA Sectional and advance to the Regional for the 2nd straight year!

Starting with the field events, Hobart got it going!! Senior Aiden Olague WON Flight 1 of the shot put with a throw of 43'11"! Freshman Clark Otero took 2nd Flight 5 with a throw of 17'06" and senior Andrew Renn finished 4th in the same Flight after tossing the shot put 13'05"! UNBELIEVABLE!! In the long jump, senior Trent Brown placed 2nd in Flight 1 after landing in the sand at 19'02.75" ... junior Jackson Butler took 2nd in Flight 2 with a jump of 14'07.25" and senior James Landrum finished 4th in Flight 1 at 16'01.25"!!

When the running events began, the Brickies were FLYING!! Senior Mason Jackson-Solomon was 2nd in Section 1 of the 100m dash ... classmate Jorge Navarro placed 4th in the same race ... sophomore Colton Galliher finished 6th in Section 3 and freshman Layla Henley WON Section #6!! HOLY COW!

For the 400, Brown raced to 2nd place overall and sophomore Olivia McIntire finished 6th in their respective sections ... senior Cara Lawrence was 5th in Section 4 and Galliher placed 6th!!! Both the girls and boys 4x100m relay teams crossed the finish line in 2nd place in their races!

With all of these INCREDIBLE performances, the Brickies tallied 106 team points, which earned our kids 2nd place behind the host Vikings who scored 114 to win the title. The Griffith Panthers were 3rd with 102 in one of the closest sectionals in recent memory ... both Lake Central & Portage finished with a team score of 100 - just 2 pts from 3rd and a qualifying spot in the Regional next Saturday - WOW!

Next week, Valparaiso, Hobart & Griffith will head to Kokomo High School for the IHSAA Regional! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOO BRRRRRRRICKIEEEEEESSS!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to Coach Jackie Keefe, Coach Kriste Bell & Coach Kelly Butler ... and ALL of our Unified Athletes & Partners on qualifying for a 2ND STRAIGHT REGIONAL!!

HERE COME THE BRICKS!!

#CHAMPIONSTOGETHER

Post-season excitement was in the air ... along with some rain ... as this was SECTIONAL WEEK for both the boys and girls tracksters. In order to advance to the REGIONAL in track & field, individuals or relays must finish in the top 3 places at the sectional OR be one of the next 4 fastest times/marks of all sectionals entering the regional. Competing in the toughest sectional in the "219", the Brickies were FANTASTIC and are sending a strong contingent to next week's REGIONAL!

Girls

On Tuesday, the Brickies served as host for the IHSAA Girls Track & Field Sectional ... a FIRST in Hobart High School history! It was cold ... it rained the whole time ... and our girls STILL SHINED!! Overall, the Brickies finished 5th in the 9-team field and will be sending 6 INDIVIDUALS (in 7 events) and 2 RELAYS to the Portage Regional next Tuesday! Junior thrower Taylor Pope defended her 2023 Sectional crown in the shot put by WINNING AGAIN with a throw of over 35-feet!! As an encore, she then WON THE DISCUS crown as well with a LIFETIME BEST LAUNCH of 121'10"! UNBELIEVABLE under those weather conditions!! WOW! Not to be outdone, sophomore Cassie Cohen also defended her Sectional crown in the 1600m run with a WINNING time of 5:15.43, which was a SEAON BEST by 5 seconds!! Senior Cailey Weber qualified for the Portage Regional for the 4th consecutive year after placing 2nd in the 300m hurdles ... narrowly missing out on her own Sectional crown by just .03 seconds - WHAT A RACE! Joining Pope, Cohen & Weber at the Regional will be sophomores Aalliah Otero (400m dash), Breanna Zon (Discus) & Joanna Cantu (pole vault) and both the 4x800m (Cohen, Weber, Otero & sophomore Audrey Turley) and 4x400m (Cohen, Weber, Otero & sophomore Zaria Gildon) relay teams! Cohen, Weber and Otero each qualified in 3 EVENTS! UNBELIEVABLE!! WHAT A PERFORMANCE from our girls!!

Also ... HUGE SHOUT OUT to all of our workers that made hosting the IHSAA Sectional possible! Hobart has been competing in track & field for over 100 years (boys) and 50 years for the girls ... and this was the FIRST EVER Track & Field Sectional hosted by the Brickies!!

IHSAA Officials - Curt & Dorothy Parrish

Clerks - Betty Funkhouser & Tom Westberg

Timing System/Camera - Ken Cawthon & Craig Osika

PA Announcer - Shaun Zoladz

Shot Put & Discus - Brian Wesley, Josh Mehay & Gerald Valenzuela

Long Jump - Scott Swanson, Emily Sutton & Guy Sutton

High Jump - Leo Guzman & Isaiah Gransberry

Turn/Exchange Zones - Sam Romeo, Kelsey Black, Steve McDonald, Madi Price

Tickets - Jill MacDonald & Holly Shelton

Special thanks to our coaching staff - Ty Artherhults, Harley Teer, Cece Castillo, Steve Camarillo, Stan Bell & Jim Johnston and to athletic admin assistant Pam Freimuth for everything they did leading up to and during the event!

Boys

On Thursday at Crown Point High School, the Brickies placed 4th overall and are sending 5 INDIVIDUALS and 2 RELAYS to the Valparaiso Regional on Thursday! Junior Willy "The Jet" Shearer was RIDICULOUS on Thursday over at CP as he WON both the 100m (11.02) & 400m (49.06) dashes! Senior Anthony Hnilo advanced for the 3rd consecutive year after placing 2nd in the high jump with a leap of 6'01"! Senior Owen Stankich advanced in the 800m run (2:02.27) after placing 3rd in one of the most exciting races of the night as he held off runners from Crown Point, Merrillville and Lake Central over the final stretch! Joining Willy & Owen individually at Valpo next Thursday will be junior Kael Schlosser (long jump) and freshman Nathan Sobczynski (long jump & pole vault) ... as well the 4x800m (Stankich, senior Quentin Stengel, junior Felix Lopez & sophomore Durgon Click) and 4x400m (Shearer, Stankich, Hnilo & senior Jack Cruz) Relay teams! That's right ... Shearer and Stankich will both be competing in 3 events at the Regional - WOW! WHAT A FANTASTIC NIGHT FOR OUR GUYS!!!

In order to advance to the IHSAA State Finals held at Indiana University in Bloomington on May 31st (Girls) & June 1st (Boys), competitors must place in the top 3 at the Regional.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF THE BRICKIES BATTLING AT THE IHSAA REGIONALS THIS WEEK!

#RUNNINDOWNADREAM

This past week was SECTIONAL WEEK for the Brickies as Hobart hosted the 2024 IHSAA Girls Tennis Sectional. The girls from H-town have won 9 titles in school history ... and were focused in on chasing #10. Needless to say ... the excitement was real :)

On Wednesday, the Brickies faced neighborhood rival River Forest in a quarterfinal matchup. With a forfeit victory at #2 dubs due to RF not filling the full lineup, Hobart needed just 2 wins from the other 4 varsity spots ... and WE GOT EM! Junior Natalie Crowley and senior Melanie Paterson each WON in straight sets at #1 & #2 singles and the combo of juniors Addison Williams & Isis Fleming at #1 dubs also WON in straight sets to give Hobart the 4-1 VICTORY!!

Semifinal action was scheduled for Thursday, but like almost everything else this spring ... storms & wet court conditions caused a postponement to Friday.

On Friday afternoon, the sun was SHINING and it was HOT out there! Sectional nemesis Merrillville drew a bye to the semifinals and the Pirates were standing in the way of Hobart and a chance to play for a 'ship. Back on April 17th, Merrillville defeated our girls in a nailbiter 3-2 ... so everyone in attendance knew this one could come down to the wire. In the semifinals, Crowley was UNBELIEVABLE ... avenging an earlier loss to the Pirates #1 singles player and DOMINATING her in sectional play to WIN 6-3, 6-0 ... WOW! Hobart also got a HUGE win at #2 dubs with senior Madalyn Riggle & sophomore Emily Cicillian earning a come-from-behind WIN in the first set by a score of 7-5 and then continuing to control the match in set 2 for a 6-3 WIN!! The Pirates played extremely well at #2 & #3 singles to earn Ws and even things up at 2-2. The final match of the day was at #1 dubs where Williams & Fleming WON the first set and Merrillville won the second set to force a 3RD SET TIEBREAKER! WHAT A MATCH!! With the overall contest tied 2-2 ... and #1 dubs tied at 1-1 ... the winner would advance to the championship round! PLAY WAS INTENSE!! Williams & Fleming BATTLED HARD and literally gave EVERYTHING they had - pushing the Pirates to the brink!! Unfortunately, the #1 dubs team from Merrillville was clicking on all cylinders and won the final set 6-3 to send the Pirates to the title match. It was a tough loss for the Bricks, but one where our girls left it all on the court ... all 5 varsity spots were terrific and represented H-town with PRIDE.

After besting the Brickies in the semifinals, Merrillville BATTLED sectional-favorite Andrean in the championship on Friday night ... starting the match 30 minutes after defeating the Brickies. In another SLUGFEST with two tough teams battling it out, it was the 59ers who went on to defeat Merrillville 3-2 to claim their 3rd straight IHSAA Sectional crown and advance to Tuesday's regional @ LaPorte.

Normally, a sectional semifinal loss would close the book on the 2024 Tennis season, but the Brickies are not done yet! With all the terrible weather we've experienced, Hobart still has one NCC match to makeup and our girls will host Kankakee Valley on Monday in the final contest of the season. Also, with her VICTORIES in both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, Natalie Crowley has ADVANCED as an individual to the IHSAA REGIONAL @ LaPorte on Tuesday!! WAY TO GO NATALIE!!

The Brickies are 6-8 on the year and finished as sectional semifinalists. Like I stated earlier, our girls have 1 regular season match remaining ... a Monday night contest vs. KV ... before we all head to LaPorte to cheer on Natalie at the Regional! LET'S GO BRICKS!!

#SERVINGNOTICE

For the final week of the regular season, the Brickies had a FULL SLATE of games on the docket. 5 games in 5 days ... whoa ... what a crazy spring it's been, but if any group was up for the task, it was our girls!! The real question was how many of those 5 games would Mother Nature let us play??????

On Monday, Hobart was scheduled to play @ Westville, but rain throughout the afternoon caused a cancellation. Tuesday's contest @ Andrean had the same fate - cancelled due to weather, but this one was rescheduled for Saturday. That's Mother Nature 2 ... Hobart 0.

Wednesday night was B-E-A-UTIFUL and the Brickies hosted Hammond Central for SENIOR NIGHT!! After recognizing seniors Marissa Spicer, Ella Hornak, Keirys Click, Peyton Michael, Morgan Ellenberger & team manager Travis Balding, Hobart opened up a can of you-know-what on the Wolves and CRUISED to an impressive 13-0 VICTORY!! Our girls scored 7 runs in the first inning and never looked back! Ellenberger & Hornak were UNBELIEVABLE in the circle and combined to strike out 15 batters in the shutout win! That's right ... every single out for Hammond Central was a strikeout - WOW!! Ellenberger also had 3 hits & 4 RBIs on the night and freshman Nora Hornak had a 3-run double in the win!

On Thursday night, the Brickies were scheduled to travel to Porter County to square off with the Valparaiso Vikings ... the same team our girls will face in the first round of the IHSAA Sectional next Tuesday. Afternoon showers and a dismal predicted forecast caused another cancellation. I guess we'll have to wait until Tuesday to see this matchup.

Friday night was another B-E-A-UTIFUL evening ... it was downright HOT out there when the Bricks welcomed NCC front-runner Andrean to The Friendly Confines. The 59ers entered the contest ranked #2 in Class 2A ... #12 in Indiana ... and sporting a record of 19-4. Our girls came in to Friday's matchup with a record of 15-6 ... which meant that this would be a DOOZY! After a scoreless first inning of play, the '9ers plated 2 runs in the 2nd to move in front 2-0. As our girls have all year, they RALLIED and TIED IT AT 2 with 2 runs in the 3rd on BACK-TO-BACK HOMERUNES by junior Addisyn Johnson and Keirys Click!! HOLY SCHNIKES!! Andrean regained the lead in the 4th inning after manufacturing a run and the game stayed that way ... 3-2 ... until the final inning when the '9ers scored an insurance run and extended their advantage to 4-2. Unfortunately, the Brickies could not find one more rally in their final at bat and lost a tough one 4-2.

On Saturday morning, the 59ers & Brickies got to "run it back" and play again ... this time over at 5959 Broadway. This time around it was Hobart who got on the board first with 2 runs in their first at bat!! Andrean cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom half of the 4th, but the Bricks answered with another in the 5th! In fact, each time the hosts tried to close the gap, our girls responded with another run and went on the earn an AWESOME 5-3 VICTORY in the regular season finale!!! WOW!! Hobart tallied 8 hits on the game including 2 each by Click and juniors Taylor Lopez & Emili Knestrict! In the circle, it was Hornak & Ellenberger once again shutting down hitters with 5 combined strikeouts in the win!

Hobart is now 16-7 on the year and an even 6-6 in NCC action, which was good enough for 3rd place overall in conference play behind the '9ers and NCC champ Munster. The Brickies will begin IHSAA Sectional play over at Chesterton on Wednesday when they square off with Valparaiso. Our girls will be the second game that night starting around 6:30. GO GET EM GIRLS!!!

#GOBRICKSGO

In golf, taking a lot of swings is not always a good thing, but this past week, our boys had no choice with 4 matches in 5 days and a Saturday invitational on the schedule!

On Monday, the Brickies were slated to host NCC rival Kankakee Valley at River Pointe Country Club. Like everything else on Monday, this one was cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

Tuesday, another NCC opponent ... Hanover Central ... was on the schedule and our boys tried to play through! At some point, someone surely said, "I'd keep playing ... don't think the heavy stuff is going to come down for quite a while". Well ... they unfortunately only made it through 3 soaked holes and had to call it because the heavy stuff did in fact come down and washed the match out.

Thankfully, skies were B-E-A-UTIFUL on Wednesday for SENIOR NIGHT! Prior to the first tee off, seniors Nate Becerra, Ben Eberle, Parker Glass, Hunter Kilar, Tommy Snemis & manager Summer Shinkle were all recognized with their families for their commitment and dedication to Hobart golf. After that, it was like our boys were throwing darts out there! WOW!! The Brickies were in a GROOVE and fired a SEASON BEST SCORE of 182!! Glass led the attack with a 41 ... Eberle was next with a 43 and Becerra & Snemis rounded out the lineup for Hobart with a 47 & 51 respectably! River Forest & Tri Township could not keep pace with the Bricks as our boys WON BOTH MATCHES!!! WHAT A NIGHT!

On Friday, Hobart squared off with Kankakee Valley in the rescheduled match from Monday ... and once again our boys SHINED! A team score of 188 - only 6 shots off our season best from Wednesday - was FANTASTIC with the same 4 seniors ... Eberle (40), Glass (43), Becerra (47) & Snemis (58) filling the scorecards!! Unfortunately, the Kougars were even better ... fired a 168 and left town with the win.

Saturday morning, the destination was Palmira Golf Club for the Lake Central Invitational. No results were available at the time of publication.

The Brickies are now 5-6 on the year and 1-3 in NCC play. Tuesday is the Northwest Crossroads Conference CHAMPIONSHIP over at Scherwood Golf Course in Schererville. GOOD LUCK BOYS!!

#NANANANANANANANANA

Monday afternoon, the Bricks were scheduled to host Lowell in a key NCC matchup. Unfortunately, down came the rain and washed the game out ... it was rescheduled for Thursday.

On Wednesday, Mother Nature decided to cooperate and brought us a B-E-A-UTIFUL night for a baseball game ... and OUR BOYS SHINED BRIGHT!! Winners of 4 straight, the Brickies kept it rollin' on Wednesday with a run in the first inning and 3 more in the bottom half of the 3rd for a 4-0 lead! The 4-run advantage was all that junior pitcher Drew Burris needed as he COMPLETELY SHUT DOWN the Devils and earned the SHUT OUT VICTORY!! Burris was MAGNIFICENT in striking out 5, walking just 1 and only surrendering 4 hits over 7 innings of WORK WORK WORK! At the plate, junior Jayme Hairston recorded 2 RBIs and Hobart got doubles from junior Ben Sullivan and seniors Jevan Andrews & Carlos Santana!

Thursday was originally supposed to be a non-conference game against Whiting, but the Monday rain-out of Lowell caused Whiting to get bumped to next Monday. More rain on Thursday ... along with an afternoon lighting alert in H-town ... caused another postponement of this one. Now Hobart will play Lowell on Monday at Purdue Northwest as Whiting got bumped from the schedule again.

On Friday, our boys were On The Road Again (thank you Willie Nelson) at Westville. After the long bus ride, the Brickies warmed up quickly and GOT IT GOING early with 3 first-inning runs! The Blackhawk defense kept the Hobart offense at bay over the next two innings, but in the 4th, the Brickie bats came alive again for another 3 runs to take a 6-0 lead!! In fact, our boys scored 6 MORE runs over the last 3 innings of play to earn the CONVINCING 12-0 VICTORY! YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOOOOOOOOOOAAAARD YEEESSSSSS!!! Freshman Brandon Stafford collected 2 hits and he & classmates Connor Kenjic & Celedonio Pimentel each scored 2 runs in Hobart's 6th consecutive win!!

Saturday morning brought a date against the Illiana Christian Vikings ... 2-time defending Class 2A State Champions ... and this one was a DOOZY! The Vikings moved in front 2-0 with a run in each of the first two innings of play, but the Brickies responded when junior Connor Stafford started the bottom half of the 2nd with a double followed by an RBI single by senior Gabe Nunez and then a sacrifice fly by sophomore Zach Terek to TIE IT UP AT 2-2!! Illiana went back in front 4-2 after plating 2 more runs in the 4th ... and Hobart RALLIED AGAIN to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom half of the 5th!! The Vikings retook the lead 5-4 in the 6th and then extended it to 8-4 in the 7th ... seemingly in control with just 1 at bat left for the Bricks. Like they did all afternoon, our boys NEVER QUIT and FOUGHT BACK to cut the deficit to just 8-7 with 2 outs and runners on the base pads!! Unfortunately, the Vikings were able to get the final out and earn the win, but WHAT A GAME! The Brickies were RIGHT THERE against one of the top teams in NWI!

Hobart is now 14-10 overall with 1 game remaining in the regular season ... a Monday contest against NCC rival Lowell @ PNW. The Brickies have won 6 of 7 and appear to be ROLLING at just the right time with IHSAA Sectional play beginning Wednesday over at Munster. Hobart plays East Chicago at 7pm. DON'T STOP NOW BOYS!!

Baseball vs. Lowell * (@ PNW)

Girls Tennis vs. Kankakee Valley *

Tuesday

Girls Track & Field @ IHSAA REGIONAL (Hosted by Portage High School)

Boys Golf @ NCC CHAMPIONSHIP MEET

Softball vs. Valpo @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (Hosted by Chesterton High School)

Wednesday

Baseball vs. East Chicago @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (Hosted by Munster High School)

Thursday

Boys Track & Field @ IHSAA REGIONAL (Hosted by Valparaiso High School)

Softball @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (*IF win on Tuesday)

Friday

Softball @ IHSAA SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (*IF win on Thursday)

Saturday

Unified Track & Field @ IHSAA REGIONAL (Hosted by Kokomo High School)

Baseball @ IHSAA SECTIONAL (*IF win on Wednesday)

* = NCC Opponent