Andy Amey: Patriots, Miners pack returning talent as boys hoops season heats up

Nov. 16—If you've been reading the Tribune-Star the last couple of weeks — and we certainly hope you have, and please renew your subscription — you may have noticed a couple of changes in the sports department.

Sports editor Todd Golden got his lifetime dream job as Indiana University beat reporter a couple of days before the Linton-Sullivan high school football sectional game, so you are seeing his bylines with a different dateline on them.

We are all happy for Todd (whether or not we think dealing with the Hoosiers and their fans is a step up), but the hiring process doesn't always move quickly in our business. So we will be short-handed for awhile.

Meanwhile, it's time to catch up on a few things.

It's Christmas! — Despite the lovely snow we discovered when we got up Saturday morning, that statement is technically incorrect. Even though my neighbor had his decorations up before Halloween (and will put yours up too for a fee, by the way), the holiday is still more than a month away.

But this is Indiana and high school basketball has started. That's Christmas for a lot of us.

The girls season is already in its third week, and boys teams have been practicing for more than a week with games to start next week.

Here's my first astonishing prediction for the season: Terre Haute North and Linton will be instrumental in deciding who wins the First Financial Wabash Valley Classic next month.

Yes, going out on a limb here but coaches Todd Woelfle and Joey Hart — who really need to make a buddy movie sometime — have lots of talent returning from two of the three Wabash Valley teams that I consider state runners-up in Class 4A and Class 2A in terms of coming closest to the eventual champions in postseason play.

The team that came closest to Class 3A champion Beech Grove was Sullivan.

And even though the Golden Arrows are without Randy Kelley (who does have a freshman sister, however) and a lot of their size, they'll be interesting to watch too.

And aren't the Arrows in Class 2A this year? Just sayin'.

Signings — The Tribune-Star discontinued doing letter-of-intent stories quite awhile ago, because there were/are way too many of them: not enough space to run them and plenty of FOLO (fear of leaving somebody out).

Not to mention that the original intent of the letter — securing a scholarship — has been watered down since there are signing ceremonies now for pretty much every college and junior college in the world.

But last Wednesday was the first day to sign the letters and there are several notable athletes who are staying close to home. Mitch Hannahs and Indiana State baseball will be getting Bryson Carpenter from North and Carter Murphy from West Vigo, for example, while Terre Haute South's Peyton Simmons will be playing softball for the Sycamores.

ISU's signing lists, I'm told, are still being put together because not all the signees have returned their paperwork. I'm encouraged by what I already know about basketball for both genders, however.

Coaching changes — I try not to overuse the word "heartbreaking" but I was sad last week to hear that Billy Blundell had stepped down as football coach at North.

There weren't many coaches anywhere who had more of a personal investment than Billy had with the Patriots this fall, and their disappointing season couldn't have been fun for him.

On Monday, word came out on Facebook that Jeremy Yeryar also was stepping down as baseball coach at Shakamak and he's another coach I enjoyed getting to know.

And at Marshall, a health issue forced Nathan Haines to step away from the boys basketball job — assistant Chad Boatman will move up one chair — while Heidi Miller replaces Hall of Famer Kathy Miller as the Lions' girls basketball coach.

The Millers are not related, by the way. Heidi Miller is the former Heidi Dahnke, star of the greatest girls basketball team Martinsville (Ill.) High School ever had.

Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. at 812-231-4276 or 812-231-4277; by email at andy.amey@tribstar.com; or by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN. Follow TribStarAndy on Twitter.