Merrillville Gary Post Tribune

 

NORTH JUDSON

You couldn't avoid them if you tried. Homemade signs scrawled with blue and gold block letters, hung in the front windows of florists, bakeries, tanning salons, hardware stores and barbershops alike.

BLUEJAY PRIDE IS HERE

LET'S CUT ANOTHER NET

GOOD LUCK BLUEJAYS AT SEMISTATE

And that's just a smattering of what you see along Lane Street, North Judson's quaint downtown strip. A couple blocks over, as you approach the high school on Talmer Avenue, signs adorn a row of telephone poles.

Each is shaped and designed like a basketball, fashioned from wood donated by a local hardware store. Each displays the name and jersey number of a local celebrity.

This town knows these boys well. They are their boys. They are their team. They are their heroes.

A capacity crowd of more than 3,500 crammed into North Judson's gym Saturday night to see the Bluejays capture the program's first regional title since 1995. Kids and adults of all ages came down onto the floor after the game, after North Judson had finished cutting down the nets on its home court for the second straight week.

Some wanted autographs. Some just wanted to shake hands with the team that has galvanized the Hoosier spirit of a small town, reminding everyone what basketball means to this close-knit community.

"It's amazing to see what this town can be like, how excited they can get when we start winning," senior guard Drake Barrett said. "They were just so proud of us."

Family ties

The stereotypes of rabid small-town sports fans seem to hold true here. Basketball has a special place in the heart of the community "because there's really not much for people to do around here," athletic director David Vessely said.

A 1965 North Judson grad, Vessely won a sectional his junior season. His three sons also played basketball at North Judson. Here, basketball is very much a family affair, something that is passed down through the generations.

Barrett's father was an assistant back when current head coach Ryan Bales played at North Judson. Senior guard Scotty Elsea's father is the current eighth-grade coach. Junior Chandler Hochstedler and freshman Kendall Hochstedler are following in the footsteps of their older brother and father, each of whom played for North Judson.

And then there's Bales, whose father, uncle and younger brother all donned the blue and gold. Little wonder, then, that Bales grew up going to the games, memorizing the names of the players he idolized.

"I remember I used to go home after games and get the record player out and put 'Eye of the Tiger' on because that's the song they ran out to," Bales said. "That's where it all started for me."

Bales went on to become one of those players he adored so much as a child, a local legend of sorts. A four-year varsity letterman, Bales scored over 1,000 points in his standout career and led the Bluejays to four sectional titles.

As a senior, he capped his career with a regional championship in 1995. And when the Bluejays advanced to the Lafayette Semistate, where they lost to Merrillville, they brought with them quite a crowd.

"When we went down to Mackey Arena, I feel like we had the biggest crowd," Bales said. "You had McCutcheon there, you had Brownsburg and you had Merrillville. And I think we sold the most tickets."

Blue-collar team, town

North Judson won 19 games and a sectional in 1996, the year after Bales graduated, then hit a dry patch in the postseason that lasted more than 10 years. That's part of the reason the school lured Bales back, and in his third year of coaching, he snapped the second-longest sectional drought in the program's proud history and won 20 games for the first time since he graduated.

Not only that, Bales has guided the Bluejays to the Warsaw Semistate -- where they'll meet powerhouse Fort Wayne Bishop Luers at noon Saturday -- further than any team in school history has advanced.

And he's done it with a cast of blue-collar players who, in his mind, are emblematic of the community as a whole.

"It's a very hard-working community and very close," said Bales, who had more than 50 congratulatory e-mails waiting in his inbox Monday morning. "And I feel like our team is representative of that."

No one on North Judson's current roster has any scholarship offers -- not even from non-Division I schools. No one is averaging more than 11.4 points per game. No one will wow you with their size or speed or raw ability.

But the Bluejays, who haven't allowed any playoff opponent more than 49 points, play dogged defense. They go nine deep, the type of depth that can wear teams down. They have a balanced attack, making it hard for opponents to scout them.

And most importantly: They embody the hard-working spirit of their coach -- and their town.

"He's got them playing really hard," Vessely said. "The team he's got out there this year reflects how he played. He never gave up."

Tallest task yet

The Bluejays will need a never-say-die, all-hands-on-deck mentality to hang with Luers, the defending state champ and the favorite to win it again this year. The No. 2 Knights are led by Ohio State recruit Deshaun Thomas, the state's second-leading scorer, and several lightning-quick guards.

"Their speed is something that we have not seen this year and we might not see the rest of our lifetime," Bales said. "We know they're talented. (But) we feel like the pressure is on them a little bit more. They expect to get back to that championship game, whereas we're excited to just be here. We're going to show up and we're going to fight."

And if last Saturday was any indication, the Bluejays will be backed by a spirited sea of blue-and-gold clad fans.

"It's the first time a Bluejay team has been in the Final Four," Bales said. "Our people travel awfully well, and I expect a huge crowd."