The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, May 13, 2020 A-7 SPORTS Submit sports items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: sports@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Former PC coach Marc Anderson named to Indiana Sports Hall of Fame Former Pike Central High School head wrestling coach Marc Anderson (with microphone) introduces four of his former wrestlers – Andy Heuring (second from left), Johnny Mack Brown (third from left), Keith Breidenbraugh (second from right) and Stan Keepes (far right) – during a brief ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the Chargers' first home dual meet on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. File photo. Former Pike Central High School head wrestling coach Marc Anderson (left) shakes hands with Chargers sophomore Bryan Marret (right) following a home dual meet against Washing- ton on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016. File photo. Peyton Blackard sinks hole-in-one on number 3 Follows with second at Springboro By James Capozella Press-Dispatch Sports sports@pressdispatch.net Peyton Blackard's exclamation for his hole-in-one on the 170 -yard number three at Cambridge on May 4 was "Wow." Wow! has been the normal for Blackard for sev- eral years with the 14-year-old on golf links around the area and the country. Blackyard's mother Mel- anie ( Wirey) is a Pike County na- tive. His father, Jason Blackard, said of the event, "I think he was more interested in getting to the green and actually seeing the ball in the cup. The flag was tucked in be- hind the greenside bunker and we couldn't see the bottom of the flag. He hit it and it looked pretty good, and we just thought it was close until the foursome who just played the hole started to drive away and stopped, jumped out of their carts, clapping and jumping up and down! They yelled back at us that it went in. This was his first. "Probably more impressive was the fact that he chipped in for bird- ies on the next two holes on num- ber four and five. He played those three holes and didn't use a put- ter. He shot 32 on that nine holes and only putted eight times. That will be nine holes we won't forget. "This past weekend, he played in Springboro, Ohio, and finished second. The event was supposed to be 36 holes, but was shortened to 27 holes because weather was coming into the area on Sunday, so they only played nine holes Sun- day." Asked about past and future endeavors, Jason Blackard said, "He has a full schedule, playing in Golfweek Tour events at Univer- sity Golf Courses, A JGA events that he will qualify for Evansville Jr. Golf events at our area courses: Rolling Hills Invitational, McDon- ald, Fendrich and Mt. Carmel as well as Amateurs Future Masters in Dothan, Ala., and the Evansville Men's City Tourney." The 14-year-old Fort Branch res- ident is no stranger to the big time, having played at Augusta National at 8 years old. Back then, Peyton Blackard drained a 15 -foot putt on the 18th to place in a tie for first in the national Drive, Chip and Putt skills championship at August National Golf Club on Easter Sun- day. Peyton Blackard said, "I fist pumped after I made the 15 -foot putt." The other putt on number 18 was a 30 -footer he got to within 2'8". He said then, "I was hoping to be in the top three, so I'm pret- ty happy with myself. I had a putt to win the national championship." Both Jason and Melanie, Peyton's mom, have been an integral part of Peyton's play then and now that he's a teen. Melanie stated then, "We've had an unbelievable experi- ence. The golf course is just beau- tiful. We've always dreamed of see- ing it (Augusta National), but we never thought we would get to see Peyton perform on it, and seeing the way he performed today was just incredible." Those incredible experiences and dreams have continued for the Blackards. In 2014, Blackard was four for four, winning at French Lick Valley Links, Cascades GC, Hickory Hills and Country Club of Old Vincennes. At 12 years old, Peyton qualified for the 2018 Evansville Men's City Golf Tourna- ment, believed the youngest to ev- er compete in the tourney. Peyton Blackard used a seven iron to score a hole-in-one on May 4 at Cambridge Golf Course. Peyton's first hole-in- one on the 170-yard par three was followed by chips that went in for birdies on numbers four and five to finish nine holes, carding a 32. This past week, Blackard finished sec- ond in a weather-shorted tourney at Springboro, Ohio. IHSAA ANNOUNCES JULY 1 RESUMPTION While schools have been closed due to the coronavi- rus pandemic, the Indiana High School Athletic Asso- ciation is now opening school sponsored summer activi- ties beginning July 1, provided there are no adjustments to Governor Eric Holcomb's recently announced plans to re-open the state. Dr. Jennifer McCormick, State Su- perintendent of Public Instruction, clarified the school closure order, which ends on June 30, the end of the tra- ditionally-defined school year in Indiana. School buildings are to remain closed through June 30 and the IHSA A suspended any school-sponsored ac- tivities, regardless of location. No conditioning, skills development and other associated activities can take place through the end of June. IHSA A Rule 15 -3.4 that provided a moratorium for Ju- ly 1 through July 4 has been waived and allows contact with teammates and coaches beginning July 1 through Aug. 1. This will allow high school football and all oth- er fall sports to proceed, unless there are adjustments to Governor Holcomb's announced plans to re-open the state. By Andy Heuring Press-Dispatch Sports sports@pressdispatch.net Former Pike Central coach Marc Anderson has been named to the 2021 Class of the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame. Anderson's first coaching job was at Pike Central for two years. He was the head wrestling coach and assistant football coach at Pike Central in the 1976 -77 and 77-78 school years. "I called Dr. ( Jerry) Hathway every day for a month and a half about the job. It was a great op- portunity for a 22-year-old to get to start a wrestling program from scratch. I really looked forward to that. We didn't have mats when we started. We practiced longer be- fore our first meet then than they do now. We went like six weeks be- fore we had mats," said Anderson. He also didn't have uniforms on the morning of the first wres- tling match. "We were supposed to get them the day of our first match," said Anderson. A gradu- ate of Indiana University, where he wrestled, he called up his for- mer coach, Olympic Gold Med- alist Doug Blubaugh, and asked if he could borrow uniforms for the Chargers' first match. "I shot up there (to Bloomington) after school and ran in, grabbed the box and hurried back to Pike Central. When I opened the box, it turned out to be IU's varsity uniforms," said Anderson. Prior to the start of the season, Anderson took the whole team to see a match between Martinsville and Bloomington North, who were ranked number 1 and 2 in the state. He said when they walked into the gym and saw the mats set up, one of his wrestlers asked, "where are the ropes and turnbuckles? " Anderson was 10 -3-1 in his two seasons with the Chargers at Pike Central. The Chargers were 3-0 -1 in his first season. Their number of dual meets were limited by bliz- zards both seasons. He returned to Pike Central four years ago to celebrate the start of their 40th wrestling sea- son. Anderson left Pike Central to take the head wrestling position at Castle. He also coached freshman football and girls' tennis. While at Castle, his wrestling teams won five consecutive sectionals and had a streak of 29 consecutive du- al meets. As freshman football coach, his teams were 73-4 and had seven undefeated seasons and two 35 -game win streaks. They were SIAC Conference champions or co-champions 10 times. He was head coach at Bedford North Lawrence, where he took over a program that was 1-8 and they went 6 -4 in his first season. At Hamilton Southeastern, he was 14- 5 as head coach. In his first season, the team went from 2-7 the prior year to 8 -1 in one season. He was named Hoosier Heritage Confer- ence Coach of the Year, Hamilton County Coach of the Year and In- dianapolis News Metro Coach of the Year. Anderson also was Strength and Conditioning Coach at North Central High School and Martins- ville. During his career at North Central, he worked with and trained 20 IHSA A State Cham- pionship teams, 32 IHSA A State Champion individuals, relay and doubles teams. The list includes 12 State Athletes of the Year, four National Champions and three National Athlete of the Year win- ners. He also coached 26 USAPL Powerlifting State Championship teams and three USAPL Power- lifting National Championship teams. Indiana All Stars, including Miss Basketball Amber Harris and Mr. Basketball A.J. Ratliff, were among those he coached. Other awards along the way in- cluded: 2019 Greater Evansville Football Hall of Fame and 2011 Mike Vogel Humanitarian Award. Anderson said his biggest coaching thrill was Castle win- ning the state championship in football in 1982. "We were unde- feated, won the big school champi- onship and were ranked the num- ber eight team in the country by USA Today. We only had one kid on the team who weighed 200 pounds." However, he said the thing that sticks out to him the most from his coaching career was an incident while coaching freshmen football at Castle. He said they were beat- ing Evansville North by 30 points, with a few minutes left. He took a starter out of the game. The kid came to the sidelines, slammed his helmet down and cursed. "I told him to get his uniform off and start walking home." "His mother came up to me af- ter the game and said, 'Do you re- ally want him to walk home? '" "I said, 'no, pick him up.' But what stands out to me is she trust- ed me enough with her kid to let him walk eight miles home. That is how different things were then and now. Today, she would be in the school board office the next morning demanding me be fired." Anderson also boasted that over his 36 years of coaching in Indi- ana, "I had the best athletes to ev- er play in the state of Indiana in eight sports. Three of them, vir- tually no arguments." He named the first of those three as Lanae Renscehler in girls' tennis. Anderson coached the girls; tennis team Renschler's junior and senior years. She was 100 -0 in her high school career, a four-time state champ and never lost a set in four years. "You can't top that." Lee Ann Hardin in girls' golf was a three-time state champ and a starter for the team state champs for four years at Martinsville. She went on to be an All-American at Duke for two years and was NCA A Champion in 2002. The third athlete he said was in- disputable as the best cross coun- try runner ever in Indiana was Futsum Zienasellassie. He was a three-time individual state cross country champion, setting a new course record his junior and se- nior years. He also was a three- time 3200 -meter champion in track and was an NCA A Champion in cross country in 2016 at North- ern Arizona. Anderson also was Damon Bai- ley's strength coach, while at Mar- tinsville. Bailey was named the Gatorade USA High School play- er of the year and decade. Anderson now works for the In- dianapolis Colts in their Play 60/ Youth Football Program. He and his wife of 43 years, Paula ( Jones), who is a Pike County native, live in Plainfield. They have two daugh- ters, Aimee and Andrea. "It was shocking. I was in the shower. I heard Paula knock on the door. I said, 'I'm in the show- er.'" When he got out of the show- er, he asked, "What is it? " "She told me that I was in the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame. If you have looked at the people in there, I have no business being in there, names like Peyton Man- ning, Lou Holtz and Jim Irsay. I'm very thankful," said Anderson.