The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, June 28, 2017 B-1 SPORTS Submit sports items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: sports@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Work begins in high school gym By Ed Cahill Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net When Michael Smith of Orange Moon Art Studio met with Pike Cen- tral athletic director Billy Hewig to discuss mural projects for both the middle and high school gymnasiums approximately two years ago, Hewig only had a vague idea of what he was wanting. "I wanted 'Chargers' up on the wall for sure, and I really didn't know what else I wanted," Hewig said. "So he drew something up on a computer and brought it in and said, 'How's this look? ' And I said, 'Absolutely! ' Then he said, 'We'll put it up there.'" Last Wednesday, Smith's vision be- came a reality after he applied the finishing touches on a large mural on the eastern end of the middle school gym that features a sword-wielding knight riding a white charger as it bursts through the wall – sending concrete blocks flying – with "Char- gers" spelled out in golden letters un- derneath. "I ask people to provide me with a word that they want to feel when they look at it, and Billy basically said 'in-your-face, intimidate-the-oth- er-team,'" said Smith, who posted photos of the mural on his business' Facebook page on Wednesday, June 21. "That's really what I pushed with – just making it look like it's explod- ing into the room, and causing a lit- tle mayhem." Hewig, for one, is already giving the middle school gym mural rave re- views. "A lot of people think knights when they see 'Chargers' and that's not re- ally what it's about," Hewig said. "It's about a war horse. It's about a brave horse going into battle. (Smith) and I talked about that ... so he put a lance on one of them, I think, and then a sword on another, and then just kind of built from there." "The picture itself is awesome, but that 'Chargers' underneath – the word – sets it off so neat, and then every- thing else just kind of builds into it," Hewig added. "Really, it's a really cool picture." Hewig said that the Pike Central Middle School mural cost approxi- mately $ 3,500, which will be paid out of athletic department funds. "It didn't come out of school funds at all," Hewig said. "It's something I've been saving up for for the last two or three years." Smith and his wife, Amanda, who are based in Chandler, have painted more than 100 murals over the past 10 years throughout Dubois, Vander- burgh and Warrick counties, as well as at Heritage Hills High School in Spencer County, which, along with Pike Central, is a member of the Pock- et Athletic Conference. "When I saw that, I thought, 'Man, that's amazing! '" Hewig said of the mural in the Heritage Hills gymnasi- um, which features the school's mas- cot – a patriot. "And then just multi- ple elementary schools around the ar- ea have them, so I thought I'd just get ahold of him." A fter obtaining Smith's telephone number from Heritage Hills athletic director Jay Burch, Hewig made the call. "(Smith) came over and met us," Hewig said. "He's a really nice guy, an interesting guy, and his visions are amazing." "Everything he does is pretty much freehand," Hewig added. "He doesn't have stencils or anything. He just goes in and starts painting – so it's pretty cool to watch." Smith credited his "on-the-fly, tri- al-and-error" painting method to the fact that, following a stint in the mil- itary, he owned and operated air- brush t-shirt shops in malls for about one year. "You have a hundred people a day walking up to you with 100 different walks of life and different types of art work they want, and you have to learn to bend to each of them," Smith explained. "It was just always point- blank – and the public is standing there, like an audience. So it forces a confidence." A fter deciding that air-brushing t-shirts was no longer challenging, Smith began painting murals at Plan- et Hollywood restaurants. "When I first started painting those, it was back about the time when celeb- rities still owned them, and it went pri- vate right after I painted the one in Houston," Smith said. "That was my first taste of big murals." "As I came back into these bigger projects, I found out if you tried to do any of the stenciling work, or if you tried to do any of the projector work, you're going to spend as much time fiddling with that stuff as you would if you had just made mistakes and moved forward by hand," Smith added. "So I started basically picking three points in a wall, and I would build my compo- sition off of those three points." Smith noted that he had grown in- timately familiar with the medieval knight motif with his work at all of the Castle schools – whose mascots are, after all, knights – as well as at Southridge, whose mascot is a raider. "So we've gotten a lot of practice at that style, but, ultimately, I like to be happy, too," Smith said. "That's what doing art for a living is all about – en- joying it. I try to push each design further than the design before. The school benefits from it but, personal- ly, I have to drive myself off of each project." "I had done one in the past that was a watered-down version of that one, and I never got to take it as far as I wanted to," Smith added. "There was a budget, time and size issue. So I took that design and re-worked it into what I wanted it to be to begin with, so that I could let it out of my mind. When I build these images in my mind, they're pretty much there until I paint them." Smith estimated that he spent ap- proximately 65 hours working on the mural in the Pike Central Middle School gym, working two four-hour shifts a day. "If you do the straight eight, your work at the end of the eighth hour isn't as good at the beginning," Smith said. Asked if he was pleased with his fi- nal product, Smith said that he was. "Actually, I don't stop until I am," Smith added. "Whenever I feel like I'm done is when I don't look up there and see things that bother me anymore." Smith did admit, however, that the angles may not appear perfect on the bricks that appear to be flying toward the bleachers on the southern side of the gymnasium. "When you're standing there on the lift and you're putting the line on, and you look at your second line, it's nev- er going to look right," Smith said. "So it's a guess at all times. You nev- er know if you've got them right until you look at it from the ground." Smith said that he actually used string to help him with the angles of the bricks. "I went down and tied an actual piece of string down from the bleach- ers and I pulled it tight, as I did the angles in the bricks, to where every angle is built as if you're seated in the Pike Central High School rising freshman Ethan Huck gets ready to return the ball during a summer workout for the boys' and girls' ten- nis teams on Monday, June 26. Ed Cahill photo Above, Pike Central High School rising ju- nior Meredith Benson goes after the ball during a summer workout for the boys' and girls' ten- nis teams on Monday, June 26. Ed Cahill photo Above: Pike Central High School rising se- nior Cass Conder charges toward the ball during a summer workout for the boys' and girls' tennis teams on Monday, June 26. Ed Ca- hill photo Below: Pike Central High School rising se- nior Carlos Stewart prepares to return the ball during a summer workout for the boys' and girls' tennis teams on Monday, June 26. Ed Ca- hill photo MURAL AT PIKE CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOL GYMNASIUM FINISHED See MUR AL on 3 RIPCO 12U Baseball The RIPCO 12U boys' base- ball team took first place in its division with a record of 11-1. Pictured above are, first row, left to right: No- ah Meece, Ban- non Mills, No- lan Sapp, Grant Boyd and Ste- ven Ennis. Sec- ond row: Cade Morgan, Zack Miller, Kaden Englert, Kend- ric Sorgius and Jacob Pauw. The team was coached by B.J. Sorgius and Randy Meece. Submitted Photo Boy's and Girl's Tennis Practice Eck sinks second hole-in-one at Prides Creek Golf Course Larry Eck, of Peters- burg, shot a hole-in-one at Prides Creek Golf Course on Saturday, June 24. Eck, using a five wood, scored the hole-in-one on the nine-hole course's No. 5/14 hole from 153 yards. Pam and Jim Nelson, of Petersburg, witnessed the shot. The hole-in-one is the second shot by Eck at Prides Creek Park, who scored a hole-in-one on the same hole on Sept. 12, 2015. Eck's hole-in-one was the 46th hole-in-one in the course's 25 -year-history, and the first since Phyllis Heuring, of Petersburg, shot a hole-in-one on Hole No. 5/14 on July 1, 2016.