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Assistant Coach
Posted Thursday, December 13, 2007, at 10:29 PM<< Previous | Read comments | Respond | Email link | Next >>
Congratulations to Joe Pigg and the Wolverines on their 11th victory this year. They've at least assured a tie for the SWIAC title. Joe was one of my assistant coaches while we were successful at Dugger and has done an outstanding job at WRV. I was very fortunate while at Dugger of having some outstanding assistant coaches. One of my favorites was Tom Phegley -- who later became the varsity coach.
One of the best traits of an assistant coach is loyalty. Tom was a very loyal assistant. In one of our lean years when we weren't doing well, we lost 19 in a row. I found myself very depressed. Tom came in one day and said we should just forget practice and go hunting -- so we took off for Pleasantville. We went to the parent of a former player who owned a farm. I knocked on his front door and asked if we could hunt on his land. He said yes and told me that he knew we were having a tough season but to hang in there because it would get better. He then asked a favor. He had a horse he said needed to be put down, but he didn't have the heart to do it, and could I go out and shoot him. So- my mind working as it does -- I went to the car and told Tom, "That guy said that we were the worst coaches in southern Indiana and that Dugger wouldn't be any good as long as we were there... So I'm going to go shoot his horse." Before I could get my gun out, I heard "bang bang" and Tom said "hurry up and get in the car, I just got two of his cows." This really didn't happen, but I always tell the story when talking about Tom because I have no doubt that he would've shot them. Tom was in charge of conditioning. We used to run the kids for about 30 minutes before practice. We knew we weren't as good as some teams, but thought we'd at least be in as good of shape. Tom is now retired and living in Florida, and doing well. Its rumored that Beth Wernz won't be out on the golf course anytime soon. She's allegedly been named in the Mitchell Report. She was at the end of the list -- because it was in alphabetical order. Its also rumored she's got Greg Anderson on speed dial. The Greene County Daily World wants me to find some of the best former players from the Greene County Tournament. If you have any suggestions for this list, please share them with us -- along with why you would put them on there. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
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30 minutes of sprints...that was when he was in a good mood! I tell the conditioning stories to my boys and their teams that I coach, very few believe them.
Sounds like Joe should have been coaching Track or Cross Country instead of basketball
Well actually Joe did coach cross country. If you can call it that. Not sure to many teams run stair laps and jump rope for an hour after running. Of course we didn't run all that much until Joe left. Then I think Tom took over and had the same thought about cross country that he had for basketball... We will run more than the other team so we will be in better shape. Running a lot doesn't make you faster at 3.1 miles though. Or at least it didn't for me. :)
Don't want to call you out B ball fan but each sport uses different muscles in your body. Just like you would think basketball is harder than football but they are two different things. Basketball you just run the whole time or at least we did. In football you run for 5-8 seconds then rest but when you are digging in and giving it all you got for those short amounts of time it is just as hard if not harder.
I went and watched the state cross country meet this past year and let me tell you the kid that got first place was just flat out moving. They had a gator in front of the runners leading them and I think that kid was covered in mud from the gator that was just in front of him the whole time. I don't care how good of shape I was in when I was young no way could I have touch what that kid was doing. Not a chance in the world that it's not a sport. Unreal is all I can say about it. I will give you though you have to be very disaplined. Very!
Joe you forgot to tell how Tom's voice would change when he got mad or when he made us run... LOL.. :)
"Is Dugger in Greene county or more to the point do they play in the Greene County tourney?"
I'm assuming thats sarcasm, but i really don't see your point.
Bloomfiel-- the "capital" of Greenecounty does not play in the tourney. but Union-Dugger from Sullivan county does.Vincence Rivet from Knox, and Easter Greene, and of Shakamak- is on both Clay and Greene,
and Clay city- from Clay county
and North Central from sullivan county
and once North Knox and North Davies. I think is now fair to say its the DAILY WORLD INVITATIONAL AT WRV.
First of all, back when it began as the Greene County Tourney, it was just that with the exception of Bloomfield, they would not, or at least did not participate. L&M, Switz City, Eastern, Shakamak, Worthington, and Linton were always there. As for Rusty Miller, he was a good player, had the pleasure of guarding him several times myself. But when you ARE the "offense" and shoot as many times as he did, you would score several points as well.
I would have to mention Gary Wier(SHAK), Tom Shelton(L&M), from the 70's Josh Hall(LSHS) from the 90's as some very good players from the tourney.
Must admit, you had me laughing and fell hook, line and sinker for the loyalty story!!
In response to jrhall & bballman:
First of all, "back when it first began as the Greene Co. Tourney" it was Eastern, Worthington, L&M, and Switz City. Shakamak joined soon after. Dugger joined in 1978 - they were in the Tourney before Linton.
The players you mentioned... Gary Wier, Tom Shelton, and Josh Hall were all good players but Gary and Josh never played on a team that won it - and Tom never played in it at all. He graduated the year before it began.
As for bball man, my coaching record was 291-167.
Rusty Miller had the ball in his hands in the '75 tourney with 8 seconds down and his team 1 pt. behind. Everyone knew who was going to shoot the ball. He simply dribbled through the Worthington team, pulled up at the elbow and calmly sink a shot to win the tourney. To me, he's the best player I've ever seen to come out of Greene County.
Great old story Joe, you incorporated that real well. That just wasn't a very nice comment about Beth.
That tourney has been going on a long time and there have been a lot of good ball players during that time. I think by mentioning a few, we would be slighting many. Better to talk about the best teams, because after all, it is supposed to be a team game.
One finger cannot lift a pebble. (An old Indian saying)
Pastime--inform the rest of us about this blunder/rumor in the WRV athletic program!
I'm not sure if all of the following played in the tourney but these are the names that really stick out to me. I saw all of them play over the years except for Rusty who played before my time. Rusty lived next door to my dad. My dad told me stories about shooting basketball well after midnight with him in the backyard. He is the best that he has ever seen in the area.
My dad also played with Joe at Switz City in the late 50's early 60's. Dad Comment " He was a good Free throw shooter"
Rusty Miller - Switz City
Matthew Graves - WRV
Andrew Graves - WRV
AJ Graves - WRV
Joey Hart - Union
Brody Boyd - Union
Jared Chambers - Union
Michael Allen - Shakamak
Shane Miller - Bloomfield
Jeff Oliphant - L&M
Tony Patterson _ L&M
Hey pastime 12335-get your story correct, the win goes to Shoals jv coach; the ineligible player (due to grades)was a freshman, who does not dress varsity. The varsity win stays with WRV. This is how rumors spread when you don't have all your facts.
I never saw Joe play ball, but I'll have to applaud his play, especially if he really was that good of a free throw shooter. I tried to shoot at those old peach baskets one time at a museum and it takes quite a shot to hit them.
This time Simmons you've gone too far. My last free throw in high school was a miss. With Switz City down 1 to Midland with 30 seconds to go in a sectional, I bricked the front end of a one and one - which probably cost SC the game. I slept like a baby that night - waking up crying every two hours.
The next day I went down to the gym, sank 20 in a row and kicked the ball into the bleachers.
I just wish I could've coached someone like Keith Sims - someone I could really depend on in a sectional.
Got me there Joe, but I wasn't all that good before the Sectionals either. I never lost any sleep over a basketball game, I was always so tired I drifted right off to dreamsville.
I believe the reason Bloomfield never participated was because they never wanted to play a team 3 times in one year. Regular season, tourney and the possibility of meeting in the sectional never appealed to them.
If scheduling has anything to do with sectional titles, it seems to have worked out.
B ball fan, Me Dad is Bill, He graduated from Central in 61. Rusty was his next door neighbor. I will always remember the stories that my dad and Joe's dad told me over the year about basketball in Greene county. They saw the best play over years. My nephew is now a freshman on the Union JV team and has sparked the fire that my dad has for basketball all over again. I will also always remember the long trips that we took in the early 90's to watch WRV play. What a team!
I like to remeber the "not so" greats that played in the tourney. I just can't remeber all of them anymore.
Several years ago (about 1990) we held a Greene County Nostalgia Tourney at Switz City. Real nice event and the rules stated that you had to be out of school for 20 years to participate. I had only been out of school for 19 years at the time so I became the Shakamak coach. (Not sure they would have wanted me to play if I had been "old enough" anyway.) Ah yes...the victorious Shakamak coach.
There were a lot of old greats back for that tourney, but my old boys (including the tourney MVP, Gene Talpas, a slick shooting left-hander named Ron McBride, Bob McClanahan, Mike May, Mike Wilson, Rick Hammond, Tim Warrick and several other Shakamak greats). My pep talk in the locker room consisted of saying that it was a tremendous pleasure to just be there amongst so many of my old childhood heroes. That got a pretty good laugh.
So there you go Joe, my basketball coaching record is still a perfect 1-0.
Great names of the list of players. What about Ray Beaver from Union? He was good at Basketball, Football and Track (shot put). I believe Joe also coached him in softball.
If you would like to go into additional sports, we could talk about the first Regional Championship in Shakamak history...the 1971 Shakamak Baseball Regional Champions. Just happens to be Jerry Bender's and my favorite team of all time and none of us took any type of performance enhancing drugs whatsoever.
Or, if you want to talk about players that were multidimensional...how about Elmer Oliphant. You cannot beat a story like that.