| 3/15/2002 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Rebels invited to girls Hall of Fame Classic.
By: David Campbell, Courier Staff Writer
Like a couple of heavyweights coming off a championship boxing match, it didn’t take long for Southwestern and Shenandoah to schedule a rematch.
The two teams, which battled for the Class 2A girls state championship at Conseco Fieldhouse just two weeks ago, will face each other in the semifinals of the Hall of Fame Classic in late December.
After two months of negotiations, Southwestern was selected for the prestigious four-team tournament in New Castle Dec. 27-28. The Rebels downed Shenandoah 70-64 for the school’s first-ever state championship
“When you do things the right way, you give yourself recognition,” said Southwestern athletic director John Jones. “I know one of the main reasons is the mystique of Donna Cheatham.”
Cheatham, who is the winningest girls coach in state history with 457 wins, added this year’s title to the one she won at Scottsburg in 1989. Not yet a member of the Hall of Fame, Cheatham’s turn could come next season on the same weekend Southwestern plays in the Classic.
Southwestern and Shendanoah will meet at 10 a.m. in the first game with Class 4A state champion Terre Haute South facing Beech Grove in the second game.
The next day, in the boys tournament, DeKalb will open against Indianapolis Perry Meridian, followed by Lebanon against Hammond Noll.
DeKalb is the only one of the four still in this year’s state tournament and will play Gary West on Saturday for a spot in the Class 4A championship game next week.
The Hall of Fame Classic invitation is part of a massive schedule restructuring for Southwestern, who had one of the state’s easiest regular season schedules a year ago in terms of opponents’ records.
Taking advantage of a new rule in the Ohio River Valley Conference in which a league-tournament will be instituted in lieu of home-and-home series, Southwestern has bulked up its schedule considerably.
Already, Jeffersonville and New Albany were on the schedule and next season, Floyd Central will now be on the docket. Heritage Christian, a Class A school but a powerful one, has also been added while Bedford North Lawrence is in negotiations.
“I think it’s a testament to Donna that when I first got here, the first thing she talked about was beefing up the schedule,” Jones said. “Even after back-to-back winning seasons, she doesn’t want to rest on her laurels. She wants another season like this season.”
A tough tournament at Franklin was also in the works, but Southwestern has dropped that after being accepted to the Hall of Fame Classic. According to Jones, the Rebels did not want to play three tournaments in one season. The ORVC tournament is scheduled for Nov. 19, 23, 26.
The beefed-up schedule, coupled with the dropping of second games against Milan and Rising Sun, should make things more interesting in Hanover next season according to Jones.
“Playing Milan once in more than enough,” Jones said of the Indians, whom Southwestern hammered twice last year. “We don’t have to play teams like that twice in a season. Once is more than enough.”
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