NAPPANEE — The Class 4A state runner-up NorthWood High School football team gathered this week to present special award winners.
NAPPANEE — Taitlyn Trenshaw knows there are a lot of eyes on her as the NorthWood girls basketball team tries to win a Northern Lakes Conference championship.
NAPPANEE — NorthWood got good shots in its girls basketball game Friday against Elkhart Memorial, and the Panthers took advantage of those opportunities during a 51-31 Northern Lakes Conference win over the Crimson Chargers.
NAPPANEE — Vinny Miranda owned Thursday night's boys high school basketball game to about the same degree he owns a practice chart posted in the NorthWood locker room.
NAPPANEE — With an approach similar to its rotating set of color commentators in football, WHME (103.1 FM) plans to broadcast 20 NorthWood boys and girls basketball games this regular season.
INDIANAPOLIS — Concord's Cedric Mitchell and Penn's Paul Moala have been chosen among the state's Top 50 high school players for 2016 by the Indiana Football Coaches Association.
NAPPANEE — The NorthWood High School boys basketball program is organizing an alumni tournament for Monday, Dec. 19, at The Pit, with admission free to all fans.
NAPPANEE — Twenty wins is a tall order in any season, but if the NorthWood Panthers can swing it for a fourth straight season, they'll match Elkhart High School 63 years earlier as the only boys basketball programs in Elkhart County history to manage the achievement.
NAPPANEE — NorthWood High School is naming its boys high school basketball holiday tourney the Dan Gunn Classic in honor of the man who turned the program into a perennial winner.
VALPARAISO — NorthWood High graduate Bailey Gessinger has been named a Pioneer Football League second-team all-conference player following his standout freshman season at Valparaiso University.
ELKHART — Eight players from league champion and Class 4A state runner-up NorthWood are among 33 individuals who have been named All-Northern Lakes Conference in football, as chosen by NLC coaches.
INDIANAPOLIS — A common question among media covering NorthWood football for the first time during postseason was the one asking whether Brayton Yoder and Bronson Yoder are related.
INDIANAPOLIS — NorthWood senior Drew Minnich was proud to win the Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award at the conclusion of the Class 4A title game.
NAPPANEE — Nate Andrews wouldn't mind if his NorthWood football players already owned a bit more acclimation to Lucas Oil Stadium — like, say, maybe as much as his 7-year-old daughter, Viviana — but he's hopeful they won't be too in awe of the venue and the circumstances for Friday's Class 4…
INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Roncalli quarterback Derek O'Connor was never an afterthought in the NorthWood defensive game plan for the Class 4A state title game.
INDIANAPOLIS — It's obvious the Indianapolis Roncalli Rebels know how to win close football games.
NAPPANEE — Although he graduated last spring, Tucker White is having an impact on the 2016 NorthWood football team's trip to the Class 4A state championship game.
NAPPANEE — Tickets for the Class 4A state championship football game featuring NorthWood and Indianapolis Roncalli at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy will be on sale Tuesday and Wednesday in the NorthWood athletic office.
LOWELL — Even by ordinary standards, and monstrously more so by their own, Trey Bilinski and Bronson Yoder put up some eerie-bad, seemingly flame-out numbers Friday at The Inferno.
LOWELL — “It’s the greatest feeling in the world. I don’t know how to describe it other than that,’’ NorthWood quarterback Trey Bilinski proclaimed after he and the Panthers escaped the windy Inferno with a chilling 21-14 victory over Lowell in Friday’s rugged semistate football championship.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
NAPPANEE — NorthWood High School baseball standout Drew Minnich has signed a letter of intent to continue his academic and playing careers at Cedarville University in Ohio.
NAPPANEE — Early in the 2015 high school football season, NorthWood quarterback Trey Bilinski got a double dose of reality when he was sidelined by a shoulder injury and watched then-freshman Bronson Yoder take control of the Panther offense.
NAPPANEE — Nate Andrews knows what to expect when his unbeaten and No. 2-ranked NorthWood football team travels to Lowell on Friday with a berth in the Class 4A state championship on the line.
NAPPANEE — Coach Nate Andrews referred to junior running back Brayton Yoder as the NorthWood Panthers' "meal ticket."
NAPPANEE — Leading unbeaten New Haven 22-20 at halftime, NorthWood football coach Nate Andrews had one thing he wanted to stress to his team.
NAPPANEE — Blessed with both size and athleticism, New Haven, according to NorthWood coach Nate Andrews, is a high school football team that can strike awe in an opponent.
NAPPANEE — As high school football programs go, NorthWood puts out an impressively thorough season statistical report each week, one that is typed, tabulated and includes five pages that detail the Panthers' offensive exploits, team-wise and individually.
NAPPANEE — Coaches love a sure thing, or at least a seemingly sure thing. Maybe that's why most of them opt to try for one point rather than two points on a conversion most of the time after their teams score a touchdown.
NorthWood football victories keep coming, and with them, those postgame on-field huddles that include players, parents, students, cheerleaders and other fans keep growing in numbers and revelry.
KENDALLVILLE — NorthWood's offense put on another show, and yet its defense somehow stole the show on a night the Panthers cracked 50 points for the seventh time this season.
As NorthWood football coach Nate Andrews answered a question moments after last week's sectional semifinal win over Northridge — that question regarding DeAndre Smart catching a whopping eight first-half passes for 113 yards — it became clear that even Andrews can't always keep full track wh…
NAPPANEE — NorthWood has presented fall awards for all sports except football, which is still playing in postseason.
NAPPANEE — Brayton Yoder ripped off NorthWood's longest offensive play of the night in a 44-13 Class 4A sectional semifinal win over Northridge on Friday at Andrews Field.
Defending champion NorthWood had its volleyball season ended Saturday by a 31-5 West Noble club at the Class 3A Fairfield Sectional.
NORTHWOOD 52, COLUMBIA CITY 13
Onward to the unforgiving, no-reprieve portion of the high school football season, also known as the one-and-done segment if that one happens to be a loss.
LAPORTE — Penn's Mason Lee and Cole Pollyea downed NorthWood's Brant Mast and Cam Stillson 6-0, 7-5 in the LaPorte Regional individual doubles boys tennis championship Saturday.
NORTHWOOD 43, PLYMOUTH 12
LAPORTE — NorthWood's Brant Mast and Cam Stillson face Peru's Sean Smith and Ben VanBaalen in a LaPorte Regional individual doubles boys tennis match Saturday on the LeRoy Courts at Kesling Park.
As NorthWood assistant coach Dave Wilson bellowed to all the gathered, kneeling, steadfastly listening Panthers, and many of their fans, moments after last Friday’s 61-24 vaporizing of the Warsaw Tigers at Andrews Field, the magic is always in the players.
ELKHART — NorthWood's Cam Stillson and Brant Mast continued their postseason boys tennis surge Saturday, beating Angola's Eric Nofziger and Spencer Griffis 6-4, 6-2 to win the Concord Sectional individual doubles title.
NAPPANEE — To a man, NorthWood senior quarterback Trey Bilinski, senior two-way stud Drew Minnich and coach Nate Andrews said they couldn't have dreamed up what went down in the first half of their win over Warsaw.
Betsy Nunemaker had a goal and an assist, and Avery Bontrager and Savannah Feenstra each netted first-half goals as NorthWood beat Wawasee 4-0 in a Class 2A Warsaw Sectional girls soccer semifinal Thursday.
Don’t feel bad if you didn’t even know they’d lost it – they’re 7-0, after all – but coach Nate Andrews says his NorthWood Panthers “need to get some of our swagger back.”
NorthWood's Brant Mast and Cam Stillson knocked off Goshen's previously unbeaten Logan Troyer and Bobby Sessa 6-2, 7-5 in a Concord Sectional individual doubles semifinal Thursday evening, avenging a regular-season loss along the way.
NAPPANEE — Summer Stillson has achieved a triple believed to be unprecedented in Indiana high school girls golf history.
With a deep sigh of relief regarding one player, and with expectations by their coach for continued deep breaths of resolve going forward, the Elkhart Central Blue Blazers prepare to face one of the Midwest’s premier high school football programs this week.
NAPPANEE — It's not that the wet, slippery, muddy surface couldn't slow down the sleek NorthWood offensive machine. It's just that it couldn't do it well enough that you could tell by checking the Andrews Field scoreboard.
In hindsight, Andrew Miller made out pretty well last week, though he certainly wasn’t feeling lucky at the time.
NOBLESVILLE — Northridge freshman Braedyn O'Dell shot a 74 at Cobblestone Golf Course on Saturday to advance from the East Noble Regional to the IHSAA girls State Finals next weekend.
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