Indiana High School Athletic Association
Phone: 317-846-6601
Fax: 317-575-4244 Website:
www.ihsaa.org
_____________________________________________________________________________
March 4, 2006
HERITAGE CHRISTIAN WINS FIRST STATE TITLE IN GIRLS BASKETBALL
Heritage Christian used its defense to win the school’s
first girls basketball title by defeating Westview, 46-34,
at Conseco Fieldhouse in the
Class 2A Championship. The Eagles, led by first year coach Rick Risinger, held the Warriors to just 34 points and created 20
turnovers as they pulled away after a close first quarter.
Risinger took over at Heritage
Christian for Dr. Mark Richards, who passed away in the fall. Richards had
coached the Eagles for five years and led them to a 2A runner-up finish in 2004.
Heritage Christian (25-3) was led in scoring by
two freshmen as Emily Anderson scored 16 and Kelly Faris
added 11 to go with a team-leading 6 rebounds. Sophomore Tiffany Fisher and
junior Michelle Haney led Westview (24-4) with nine
points each. Junior Emily Lamkin and Haney led the
way for the Warriors with 7 rebounds. Westview was
coached by Randy Yoder who has been at the helm of the northern Indiana school
for 12 years.
Westview was held to just three
points in the second quarter and never got on track after that. The Eagles
defense was successful in shutting down Fisher, the state’s leading field goal
shooter, who ended the day with nine points (4 of 7) shooting from the field.
The Eagles defense, which was only allowing 38 points a game this year, added 15 steals to the defensive attack. Freshman Kelly Faris had a 2A state record 6 steals.
Heritage Christian led by one at the end of the
first period, 10-9, then outscored the Warriors 13-3
in the second quarter. The scoring was even in the third quarter but momentum
stayed in the Eagles’ favor as they scored on a layup
at the buzzer. The Eagle’s defense did not allow any run by Westview
in the fourth quarter.
Coach Risinger’s
daughter, Megan, was an assistant coach for Lafayette Central Catholic who won
the 1A championship earlier in the day.
HERITAGE CHRISTIAN’S NICOLE ROUSH WINS PATRICIA ROY MENTAL
ATTITUDE AWARD
Heritage
Christian senior guard Nicole Roush is the 2005-06 Girls Basketball recipient
of the Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award for Class 2A.
Roush
served as team captain for coach Rick Risinger’s 25-3 Eagles who won the school’s first IHSAA
championship in any sport. She is a four-year member of the basketball
team, playing three seasons on the varsity, including the school’s 2004 state
runner-up team.
Roush ranks 14th in her senior class with a 3.846
cumulative grade point average.
Roush
is active in her community, serving as a mentor and in elementary school
tutoring programs and taking missions trips to Honduras and Mexico.
“It
has been a pleasure watching Nicole grow in skill,
diligence and leadership among the students and on the basketball team,” said
Heritage Christian principal Alan B. Leinbach.
“Starting with her freshman year, Nicole made wise decisions to impact the
student body and her team in a very positive manner in the halls as well as on
the basketball court.”
Roush
will attend Indiana Wesleyan University next fall, majoring in nursing.
Indiana
Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA corporate partner, presented a $1,000.00
scholarship to Heritage Christian High School in the name of Nicole
Roush. Since 1989, more than $512,000 in college scholarships have been presented by Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance to
deserving high school students in the state.
Award
recipients, nominated by their principals and coaches, must excel in mental
attitude, scholarship, leadership, and athletic ability in basketball.
A
member of the IHSAA Executive Staff beginning in 1972, Ms. Roy was responsible
for girls basketball from the inception of the
tournament series in 1976 until her retirement in 1999. Regarded both
statewide and nationally as a pioneer in girls athletics, Roy served on the
IHSAA Executive Staff longer than anyone in the history of the Association.
VSN MEANS ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY
Visit our
friends at Visual Sports Network, the IHSAA’s official photographer for all state championship
events and one of the leading action photographers in the
CHAMPIONSHIP MERCHANDISE STILL AVAILABLE
For
t-shirts and other merchandise commemorating this year’s tournament or for any
of our events, visit our friends at Morris, Inc.
STATE FINALS PROGRAMS AVAILABLE
Couldn’t be
there for the state finals? You can still purchase a copy of the official
souvenir program while supplies last! Programs are $3.00 if you purchase in
person at the IHSAA Office (
POST-GAME QUOTES
Rick Risinger,
Heritage Christian Coach
(Opening comments)
“It’s
obviously a great day for Heritage Christian. We’ve been a member of the
IHSAA for four years now. This is the second time we’ve been to Conseco Fieldhouse, and this time
we pulled it off. As many of you know, (former head coach Mark) “Doc”
Richards was instrumental in getting this program started. We dedicated
this season to him and are very happy to finish it off by winning a state
championship.”
(On the Heritage Christian freshman class)
“Some
freshmen play like freshmen, and others have a strong basketball
background. The challenge is always to blend those young, talented
players in with tradition, work ethic and upperclassmen. My challenge as
a coach was to put that all together so we’d have 12 young women on the same
page.”
(On the Heritage Christian defense)
“We
run a match-up zone with several different sets. Throughout the year,
we’ve faced a lot of very good centers. We broke down the (Westview) tape very well, so we knew exactly what she (Westview center Tiffany Fisher) was going to do. We
are a bit undersized in the post, so we put together some things to really clog
the middle up.”
(On the slow start)
“I
think everyone was a bit nervous and we started out flat. We tried to put
things in place so we would have a good game plan. Our hope was to take
the nerves out of the game, but that didn’t happen. I get nervous as a
coach. My pre-game talk wasn’t the best ever, and then the girls were a
bit nervous, too. You have to play through those situations.”
(on Kelly Faris)
“She’s
a fantastic player. She’s been playing the last two weeks with pneumonia
and was out of school some this week. She was not playing up to her full
capability today.”
Heritage Christian senior Lindsay Dixon
(on winning the state championship for
former coach Mark “Doc” Richards)
“I’m
just thankful to make it here with the maturity of our freshmen. Our
young players stepped up all season long. I’m also thankful for the
support of the Richards family. They’ve been with us throughout the
entire season. This state championship just really means a lot to us.”
Heritage Christian junior Bre Jones
(on winning the state championship for
former coach Mark “Doc” Richards)
“It’s
amazing to finally win the state championship, because my freshman year we were
so close. The entire team worked so hard this year. We wanted to
accomplish all of the goals that we established at the beginning of the season.
Winning it for “Doc” was the highlight.”
(on getting an e-mail from former
Heritage Christian player Cassie Freeman)
“Cassie
wrote all of us an e-mail, wishing us good luck today. We really wanted
to win this state championship for all of the great players who came before us.”
Randy Yoder, Westview
Coach
“Three
things hurt us today—their transition game, we had too many turnovers, and we
didn’t shoot the ball like we normally do.”
“Except
for the second quarter when we only scored three points, I thought we did a
nice job in the ball game. But, we struggled offensively in that quarter,
and that was a big difference.”
“Whatever
reason it was, we shot rather poorly today. We couldn’t do on offense
what we wanted to do. Defensively, we did what we wanted to do.
Heritage Christian was a little tentative, but they are young and it probably
took them awhile to adjust to the atmosphere.”
“Heritage
is good defensively. They play smart and make good decisions on the floor
and are a ball club without any apparent weaknesses. Defensively, we did
what we had to do to limit them to the mid-40’s in
points. Where they hurt us was in transition because they are very
quick.”
“We
never quit in the second half. But, we had too many turnovers and when
you don’t take care of the basketball, you can’t make a run when you’re
behind.”
“We
overachieved getting here and we’re extremely proud of this team. We
bring everybody back except one senior—the potential for our club is unlimited.”