The 2016 Griffith Panthers basketball team might not have made it to the state championship, but its members were true winners all the way, according to the state’s top legislator.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, stopped by Griffith High School Wednesday afternoon to praise the team for its perseverance under adversity. Pence presented the team and its coach, Gary Hayes, an MVP basketball signed by Indiana basketball legend and Pacers coach, Larry Bird, after lauding them for their efforts after a frightening bus accident on its way to semistate competition March 19.
Pence said he’d been wanting to visit with the team ever since the accident occurred.
“When the Indiana State Police alerted me of the accident – the overturned bus, the crushed roof – my heart sank,” Pence said to the team during an all-student assembly with the high school and middle school. “It gets to finals in the state, and it’s supposed to be a magical time. But there were millions of people across the state with their hearts in their throat. By God’s grace, you’re here, and the courage of this team and outpouring of support (was remarkable).”
The love and support of the students and community, however, gave the team its extra strength.
“With the community cooking enough food to feed a small army and a new charter bus, battered and bruised, the team found it in themselves to play at the highest level,” he said. “Your play on the floor is impressive; your heart, character and resilience is even more impressive. You showed everyone what the fighting Panthers are all about.”
Pence then turned his attention to the underclassmen on the team, saying he had no doubt they would have their moment to get back to the dome. More than the game, though, was the lesson they gained from the experience.
“(In one of the ‘Rocky’ movies), there’s a saying: It’s not how hard you hit, but how hard you get hit and still keep fighting. The fighting Panthers showed how hard they can get hit, and you won for yourselves something more valuable that will serve you and give you comfort as press on,” he said. “You inspired the entire state.”
Hayes said in 47 years of coaching, he’d never seen such love from a student body and community than he did the night Griffith made finally made it downstate. Looking up in the stands, he saw a giant sea of black.
“Our crowd beat up the Marion crowd, and it was even more satisfying,” Hayes said. “When you get those three parts – team, students and community – that’s when you have state-caliber teams.”
Panther Kelston Haden, a senior, held the Bird-signed MVP ball with pride after the presentation. He and teammate Al Ervin, a junior, said they were excited the governor came to visit. The support of the community, however, is what blew them away.
“We were more focused as we went down the second time than the first,” Kelston said. “We were escorted by the police the whole way and the whole town came out to see us off. That was really nice.”
If anyone was scared getting back on a bus so soon after the accident, no one admitted it.
“We all prayed before we left. That put it in balance,” Ervin said.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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