sycamore tuff
The Wade Level
HCMG was at the Tournament last evening so he did get a chance to see him in action. I think this was the kid who got tournament mvp.
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The Decline of Terre Haute High School Athletics
- Thread starter sycamore tuff
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I'm nearly 40 years old and haven't "played" basketball in 3 years and I could win tournament MVP. That tournament is weak tbh. Real weak. People that feel like that is disrespectful, get in the gym everyday and change the narrative around here. North and South have weak ass teams and they are the two biggest schools in the tournament, quite frankly it's rigged and they should win it every single year. Wolfe runs a good program but no reason they should be losing to Northview like that - Wolfe has continuity and culture, outside of the Renn kids the talent is not good.
But... Northview gonna Northview and they are running good athletic programs from the youth on up. But this situation is no different than Lincoln Hale - literally, unless you are doing it at the 4A level or doing it in AAU I'm not interested... 234 posts on this Luke Brown thread https://sycamorepride.com/threads/21-in-pg-luke-brown-stetson.39193/page-12#post-358368
Ya all love a good local kid that goes off in the Pizza Hut Classic. Look, I've been guilty of it myself - but it's a new year I've changed and you still can too.
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Was Craig Porter any good? Damn, GL may have still been employed if he swapped Washington on that one.
Even through the heart break this past April…still wouldn’t trade nuttin!!
Lincoln Hale was never a MVC level player.
Even through the heart break this past April…still wouldn’t trade nuttin!!
Lincoln Hale was never a MVC level player.
Craig Porter needed to get out of Terre Haute - full stop. Him not coming here or being recruited here best thing that ever happened to him. If memory serves me correct he had very little D1 interest out of HS which is why he went the VU route.
Like I said, THS and THN should regularly churn out D1 talent - some of these smaller schools get a good player and all the sudden they need offers. Again, prove it at the AAU level or go win a state title and people will take notice. Winners win.
Don't want to hijack this kid's profile, but maybe you guys could start a new thread with why you think Haute ball is regressing? I'm interested in the topic because basketball was literally all we had when I was young in the Haute.
Yeah… Could you move them to a new thread since you are basically retired?
Title it… “The Decline of Terre Haute Highschool Athletics”
Thanks in advance.
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Got you fam.
It really fell off once SSOM quit coaching THBC teams
Back to the topic, are kids just not playing a lot anymore? I do know last time I was in the Haute, several parks that were absolute staples had removed their basketball courts.
For instance, Brittlebank Park used to be an absolute hot spot after school and on the weekends. Basically kids would get the court until like 6 and then older folks would show up. If you were good enough to play with them, you could stick. During the week, you'd often see a lot of guys that played for THN/THS/WV, some of the better middle school kids, etc. On Sundays, you'd have some pretty competitive competition out there. It wasn't uncommon for half the Shouse family to be out there, Harrolds, current/former ISU players, @jsetliff5, etc.
You could get a real basketball education by traveling around and playing pickup in the parks.
For instance, Brittlebank Park used to be an absolute hot spot after school and on the weekends. Basically kids would get the court until like 6 and then older folks would show up. If you were good enough to play with them, you could stick. During the week, you'd often see a lot of guys that played for THN/THS/WV, some of the better middle school kids, etc. On Sundays, you'd have some pretty competitive competition out there. It wasn't uncommon for half the Shouse family to be out there, Harrolds, current/former ISU players, @jsetliff5, etc.
You could get a real basketball education by traveling around and playing pickup in the parks.
People still play at the brittlebankcourt, but don't remember seeing any highly skilled games. I'm at the park once or twice a week during the summer for pickleball.
Sometimes see people shooting at Deming park, but that's all I see.
The parks I frequented back in the day were Brittlebank, Thompson, Spencer Ball, Oakley. Then we had the leagues at Boys Club, Ryves Hall, Glenn and then you had indoor pickup at WVCC, several of the churches. Outdoor at ISU, too. YMCA back when it was behind the library on 6th and Walnut.
Point being, basketball was being played everywhere and we were a basketball crazy city. If that's not happening anymore, it's a damn shame.
Glad to hear Brittlebank has courts still. They must have just been remodeling or something when I was through there last.
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Yep, brittlebank had a big remodel recently, mainly for pickleball (added 6 courts, 12 in total), but several other upgrades. Lots of parking now, &
court still in a prominent location. Playground & space for soccer, which gets used. Pretty good park.
There's your answer... Pickleball... at the death of basketball, pickleball will rise from the ashes...
Two things killed pickup games. First killing local and friendly pickup games is None of these places you named have couches with big screens to play NBA2025 on Xbox, PlayStations, game cube, Atari,Dreamcast, or what ever the kids now a days use. Second is probably the biggest for killer for talent in pickup games and developing local talent IMO, Travel basketball! Practice multiple days a week and gone to who knows where on the weekends to play.
Honestly, AAU has killed amateur sports. No loyalty to hometown, only loyalty to “Me Me Me.” And back when we were kids, you didn’t play organized basketball 12 months of the year. Today, kids are slotted into “their” sport by third grade and that’s all they do. And if you’re any good, the parents are going to move to Indy so you can play for one of the athlete factories in the donut counties.
And yes, Twitchell is to blame.
And yes, Twitchell is to blame.
My theory is as follows: Most of the players I knew came from working class backgrounds. Look at the places where jobs have disappeared.......
Terre Haute, Kokomo, Anderson, Gary, East Chicago, etc. Once hotbeds for hoops, they are seldom heard from now.
Add that to travel ball and video games.....when was the last time you went by a park (baseball or basketball) and witnessed "good" pickup
games.
Growing up in NW Indiana, I remember the court in Griffith, In. was a hotbed for area wide basketball talent during the summer months.
Just my ideas.......as a worn out 78 year old.
Terre Haute, Kokomo, Anderson, Gary, East Chicago, etc. Once hotbeds for hoops, they are seldom heard from now.
Add that to travel ball and video games.....when was the last time you went by a park (baseball or basketball) and witnessed "good" pickup
games.
Growing up in NW Indiana, I remember the court in Griffith, In. was a hotbed for area wide basketball talent during the summer months.
Just my ideas.......as a worn out 78 year old.
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Society has changed. It's not a Terre Haute problem. It's not an Indiana problem. Travel ball, "specialization", video games, TV, etc. has all played a part. Hell, even letting your kid go down to the park unsupervised rules out a lot of kids with their parents.
People are social, you used to have to go out and be social. Go to the park, go to your friends house, go to the bowling alley, go to the diamond. Now you can "hang out" with your friends from your couch. And if you are going to take sports seriously you aren't hanging at the park hoping @Jason Svoboda & @SycamoreStateofMind show up with their Nike Air maxes and knee pads. You're going to go where the coaches, trainers, facilities are.
Look I don't like it. I wish it was that America from the 50s to 2000s with no phones and just representing your town, neighboring or city. But unfortunately that now the culture anymore.
People are social, you used to have to go out and be social. Go to the park, go to your friends house, go to the bowling alley, go to the diamond. Now you can "hang out" with your friends from your couch. And if you are going to take sports seriously you aren't hanging at the park hoping @Jason Svoboda & @SycamoreStateofMind show up with their Nike Air maxes and knee pads. You're going to go where the coaches, trainers, facilities are.
Look I don't like it. I wish it was that America from the 50s to 2000s with no phones and just representing your town, neighboring or city. But unfortunately that now the culture anymore.
While that's true, we actually have hoops being played year round here in Vegas. Soccer and baseball, too. I routinely walk at night and live right next door to a large park. The courts are lit up at 9pm and games are still being run. So while I do think all of the factors you mentioned do add into it, it is still happening in some places.
Some other things I've noticed here:
- Kids don't play multiple sports very often.
- Even though we're a small city geographically, people don't move around much so folks stay concentrated in their hoods.
- We only have like 2-3 legit AAU programs for the size of our city and one of them is accounted for by the rich folks.
- Socioeconomics here aren't great for about half of the city so kids may be more inclined to put in work to get out.
I'm curious if it may be a local culture thing -- or those active within the culture at a specific time if that makes sense.
How much of that is weather related? Always 75-100 degrees of dry heat with hardly any rain. I might be off but I would assume out of the 365 days a yeah you could probably play outside in nice enough weather 300 of those in Vegas. Especially at night when the temp drops and it's perfect. I can see how that would be more of a cultural thing out there if you can basically do it every day. Whereas in Indiana you might have 80-100 days you can hoop at a park. And you can't organize anything basically from November to April.
What’s always been interesting to me is that despite all of the kids who “specialize”, and the amount of hours kids spend practicing and playing compared to when I was a kid, I can’t say that kids today are any better or more skilled than back in the 80s/90s when I was young.
Kids are physically more developed, but you would think that with so many just playing one sport and traveling to so many tournaments and playing so many games etc it would result in better players. Not sure I can say it has.
I would not say it has resulted in worse players, but I don't think it has resulted in better ones either.
All things like AAU and select/travel teams have done is get kids to their peak faster. But it hasn’t made them better, just made them get to their peak at a younger age.
Can’t tell you how many kids I’ve watched as a freshman in high school barely improve through the next four years, other than maybe growing another few inches in height.
Kids are physically more developed, but you would think that with so many just playing one sport and traveling to so many tournaments and playing so many games etc it would result in better players. Not sure I can say it has.
I would not say it has resulted in worse players, but I don't think it has resulted in better ones either.
All things like AAU and select/travel teams have done is get kids to their peak faster. But it hasn’t made them better, just made them get to their peak at a younger age.
Can’t tell you how many kids I’ve watched as a freshman in high school barely improve through the next four years, other than maybe growing another few inches in height.