Sports – Indianapolis Monthly https://www.indianapolismonthly.com The city’s authoritative general interest magazine Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:23:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.1 Naysayer: Coaching Inspiration Comes From All Angles https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/naysayer-1/naysayer-coaching-inspiration-comes-from-all-angles/ Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:58:49 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=333365 Indy Ignite, head coach Geroge Padjen prepare for inaugural season.

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For George Padjen and the Indy Ignite, it’s about to get real. Training camp for Indianapolis’ inaugural professional volleyball season begins December 2, and instead of standing behind the huddle during time outs, Padjen will be in the middle, with all eyes on him looking for direction.

His coaching philosophy, shaped by the sports he loves, volleyball and golf, centers around the amazing athleticism of the players and the puzzle of putting everyone in the right place.

“Volleyball is the absolute greatest team sport possible because you can’t just have a great setter or a great back row,” he says. “Every piece must work together. Watching that unfold is my favorite part. You can’t have one person dominate; you need all six.”

Assembling a team of professionals is a far cry from recruiting athletes for college. And for this, Padjen decided to use referrals instead of cold-calling because he believed word-of-mouth would garner the best results. For the newest member of the Professional Volleyball Federation (PVF), it worked like a charm.

“Instead of taking this master list of every player in the league last year,” explains Padjen, “I took those two or three referred players, added them to the next two or three, then the next. After all calls were made, I started to cross reference the recommendations.”

This ingenious method saved phone time while assembling a team with players who are already familiar with each other.

“They organically recommended each other without even knowing it. I didn’t tell them I was doing it,” he says.

The immediate benefit of this maneuver was instant team chemistry.

“I’d never done that in that capacity before. I’ve been recruiting for 25 years, but it’s a little different when it’s got to happen right now. That part was stressful but fun to do.”

When you are a coach of Padjen’s pedigree, the drive to always improve is constant, and inspiration comes from many directions. Guiding players to reach their full potential is more than X’s and O’s on a chalk board or computer screen. It’s finding new ways to reach players to get them fully engaged and at one with his system.

Part of his technique is drawn from one of the most confounding, difficult, and precise sports there is: golf. Yes, golf.

“In golf, I’ve got it one day, and the next day it’s out the door. It’s a maddening sport, but I love it. It keeps me thoughtful toward [other] people’s struggles.”

Padjen found that the process of learning golf gave him perspective on how to coach better because it helped him understand the frustrations his athletes have.

“I think volleyball is a very simple game. It came easily to me, but golf doesn’t, so it makes me pull back and pause at times instead of being frustrated with something you can’t get. I’m like, ‘Let’s try a different avenue,’” he says.

When the season begins in January 2025, Indy will play 14 home and 14 away matches. Padjen can hardly wait.

“I just think it’s going to be cool for fans to see how athletic the players are and how physical the game is,” he says. “It’s the most beautiful sport to watch in my eyes. There’s a fluidness to it.”

Volleyball is an edge-of-your-seat sport to watch on television, but it’s even more so in person. The physicality, strength, and skill are on full display.

“You can see how physical the game is. It’ll change your perspective on women’s sports,” he says.

On October 17, the PVF announced the Indy Ignite will have the No. 1 overall draft pick in this year’s draft, which will be held on November 25 at 12 p.m.

The Ignite will pick eighth in the second round, fourth in the third and fourth rounds, and first in the fifth round.

“This is a pivotal moment for our franchise. We can’t wait to welcome exceptional talent into the Indy Ignite family,” says Mary Kay Huse, president and general manager of Indy Ignite.

Fans can see the Ignite battle in person at the Fishers Event Center, a brand-new facility slated to open in November with a seating capacity of up to 7,500.

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Speed Read: Shape Shifter https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/speed-read-shape-shifter/ Thu, 10 Oct 2024 09:29:33 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=332543 Lucas Oil Stadium’s big draw is that it can be transformed to accommodate any kind of event. Here’s how.

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THE CITY’S NFL venue serves many more purposes than just giving the Indianapolis Colts a place to play, as illustrated by the roughly 75 other events it hosts in a year. And most of those are nothing like a football game, ranging from gaming conventions, to mega-star concerts, to major marching band competitions. Lucas Oil Stadium director Eric Neuburger says the hulking facility can transform to handle just about anything with enough notice.


Planning for most of the stadium’s big events starts far, far in advance.  NCAA men’s and women’s basketball Final Four hosting privileges are awarded years before the jump ball, and the Lucas Oil folks start strategizing right away. “When a show moves from a prospect to an actual booking, that’s when the planning really begins,” Neuburger says. “And the bigger the event, the further out they tend to be booked.”

Each must slide seamlessly into a tiny window.  One of the trickiest issues is figuring out when an event can start setting up at the stadium and how long they have to break things down and clear out before the Next Big Thing rolls into town. “We have more than 200 days a year of high-quality events that are booked sometimes 10, 12 years out,” Neuburger says. “Availability is our biggest challenge in deciding which events we can have and which we can’t.”

If an event isn’t overly complicated, the stadium can be flipped with surprising speed. For instance, when Lucas Oil hosted the 2024 Drum Corps International World Championship Finals, which concluded at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 10, it took until after 2 a.m. on Sunday, August 11, to break down its gear and clear it out. Yet the facility was reconfigured by 8 a.m. that morning for a Colts preseason game.

Setting up for a Colts game is dialed in. While each year brings some new elements, the stadium crew typically faces exactly the same setup procedures all season. That said, the recent five-hour turnover after the Drum Corps finals is as close as they care to cut it.

The U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials event was the most novel undertaking. Nothing about it was simple. Workers had to install a massive, Italian-built, Olympic-caliber competition pool, plus an auxiliary pool, then supply them with 2 million gallons of water, and inside a facility designed to accommodate pro football. Neuburger gives it an 8 or 9 on the difficulty scale. “It was a complex build that took place with the world watching,” he adds.

The most complex recurring event is the men’s Final Four. It lasts for weeks, features a long list of ancillary activities that changes with each rendition, and requires the placement of 22,000 additional seats and a special, raised court. “We also build additional media tables throughout the stands,” Neuburger says. “There’s a lot going on.”

The 2021 men’s Final Four was by far the weirdest. Neuburger, who calls it the Covid Final Four, keeps a unique souvenir in his office: a cardboard cutout of himself. It, along with hundreds of similar cutouts—all pictures of stadium staffers and regular civilians in sports attire—were stuck in the empty seats surrounding the relatively anemic crowd of human fans, who were kept apart for the sake of social distancing. “A paper version of myself got to watch part of March Madness,” he says.

Installation of event-specific props and equipment is accomplished by a mix of local and imported workers. Events typically send in a “brain trust” of organizers who oversee the necessary tweaks the stadium needs to accommodate its shows. But most of the work is done by a trusted cadre of local tradespeople with experience setting up special events. “Many of them are contractors who we use regularly, though sometimes specialty workers are brought in by the client,” Neuburger says. Even concerts are typically handled not by hordes of sweating roadies but by locals.

Lucas Oil has been the setting for all kinds of big events. Except for … baseball, mostly because of all the glass windows and fragile electronics that wouldn’t mix with high-speed baseball impacts. “There are ways to work around that, but they end up being so expensive that the client doesn’t want to undertake them,” Neuburger says. Also, he can’t recall a rodeo or a circus.

Somewhere in Indy is a hill of dirt. Two monster truck shows and a motorcycle extravaganza sit more-or-less permanently on Lucas Oil’s annual schedule. To stage them, the stadium’s athletic field is covered with heavy plastic sheeting and two layers of 0.75-inch-thick plywood. Then 400 dump trucks worth of dirt is layered on the stadium floor. “The client brings in their dirt artists, as I call them, to design the track and carve it up exactly the way it needs to be,” Neuburger says. Afterward, the dirt is trucked back and piled once more into a giant mound until next year. During dirt-intensive gatherings, the soil is kept moist to fight dust, but it still gets everywhere. “We have to wipe down every surface in the building afterward,” Neuburger says.

It’s typically easier to tear down a show than to install it. “We’re taking three or four days to set up for Taylor Swift in November, but it’ll be gone in one day,” Neuburger says.

The permanent football game surface is covered up during other events but almost never removed. The turf was pulled up for the swimming trials because the weight of the pools might have damaged its appearance. When 2 million gallons of water isn’t involved, the turf is adequately protected by a covering called Omni Deck, which can handle the weight of anything from large crowds to semis.

A last-minute issue hasn’t threatened to delay an event—except once. An automated confetti cannon randomly went off an hour before Lucas Oil Stadium opened for the 2021 Final Four. “We had to scramble to clean up the place,” Neuburger says. “You never know what’s going to happen, but we’ve been lucky to not have had anything that was an actual showstopper.”

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Naysayer: A Shake-Up In Big Ten College Football https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/naysayer-1/naysayer-a-shake-up-in-big-ten-college-football/ Mon, 23 Sep 2024 15:16:11 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=332294 AIDAN O’CONNELL’S conscience has finally been cleared, along with those of four former members of the Purdue football team who opted out of playing in the 2023 Citrus Bowl to prepare for that season’s NFL draft. Their absence left Purdue undermanned and exposed, which resulted in a 63–7 beatdown at the hands of the Louisiana […]

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WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – SEPTEMBER 14: Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive lineman Jason Onye (47) and linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa (27) celebrate after sacking Purdue Boilermakers quarterback Hudson Card (1) during a college football game on September 14, 2024 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire) (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)

AIDAN O’CONNELL’S conscience has finally been cleared, along with those of four former members of the Purdue football team who opted out of playing in the 2023 Citrus Bowl to prepare for that season’s NFL draft. Their absence left Purdue undermanned and exposed, which resulted in a 63–7 beatdown at the hands of the Louisiana State University Tigers. It was the worst defeat the Boilermakers ever suffered … that is, until Notre Dame rolled into West Lafayette on September 14 and administered a 66–7 thrashing on Purdue that started on the opening drive and ended with the final horn. The only thing the Boilers won against the Fighting Irish was the coin toss.

On the other side of the country, IU football took a struggling UCLA team to the woodshed in a 42–14 whooping in the Rose Bowl and looked very good in the process. The road win for the Hoosiers—UCLA’s worst home opening loss in history—advanced IU’s record to 3–0 under first-year head coach Curt Cignetti and 1–0 in the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers are poised to burst onto the national scene, evidenced by a shoutout from Monday Night Football’s Troy Aikman (a UCLA alum) and Joe Buck (an IU alum), with Buck singing the IU fight song in Aikman’s face during the broadcast.

With Cignetti’s arrival and the solid, talented team he assembled in a short amount of time, the balance of power in the state of Indiana between the two Big Ten schools has shifted south to Bloomington. It will be the Boilermakers who face the uphill task of trying to improve.

The cornerstone of this IU team is quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who performs at a very high level. The senior from Oakville, Ontario, Canada, was in complete control of the offense in the Rose Bowl game, throwing for 307 yards and four touchdowns. Indiana wasn’t perfect by any means, losing two players to disqualification due to separate targeting calls and penalties, but the offense was able to make up the difference and score basically at will on the Bruins.

After three games this season, the Hoosiers have scored 150 points. Last season, it took them nine games to hit that mark. Cignetti’s hiring is the nightmare every Boilermaker fan fears, helping IU gain plenty of reasons to gloat over their bitter home-state rivals. This coach will produce great results and reap Oaken Buckets of joy for the IU faithful.

As badly as Notre Dame fans felt after an earlier home loss to Northern Illinois University, the Purdue game was just what the doctor ordered. In fact, an inside source reveals that many of the ND (and, to be truthful, Purdue) fans had enough by halftime and left Ross-Ade Stadium to get an early start home. Purdue fans like me were feeling just OK following a 0–49 August 31 victory against Indiana State University, but after this “contest,” the accumulated confidence level is about as low as a snake’s belly in a wagon wheel rut, with many of us thinking, “My Saturday afternoons just opened up.”

This game, so totally dominated by the Irish, illustrates the vast difference between the talent attracted by a perennial national contender like Notre Dame and a team like Purdue, struggling to stay relevant in a league where the overall talent is passing them by. As big as Purdue’s players looked against ISU, that’s how small they appeared against ND.

The offensive and defensive lines for Purdue were mere papier mâché for the Irish to break through. Quarterback Hudson Card, with a 24 of 25 passing record the week prior, had mere seconds before three defenders pinched him in the pocket. The defense’s ability to own and control both lines made for a long afternoon for Card and the Boilers.

Missing from Purdue’s game was any hint of solid fundamental football. Time and time again, defenders bounced off the thighs of Irish running backs, who amassed 362 yards and six touchdowns that day. And here I thought Purdue head coach Ryan Walters’ schtick was defense.

Borrowing a trope from the children’s fable “Jack and the Beanstalk,” the harp has left West Lafayette and now resides in Bloomington. All that is left to do is to bring the bucket along with it.

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Naysayer: Greenwood’s Scenic Greens https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/naysayer-1/naysayer-greenwoods-scenic-greens/ Thu, 12 Sep 2024 15:54:01 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=332075 WHEN YOU LIVE in Carmel and your golfing buddy lives in Columbus, Indiana, choosing courses halfway in-between can be challenging. We often find ourselves playing in Edinburgh or Franklin, but a couple weeks ago we decided to try something different and go to Greenwood. Of the two courses in town, Bluff Creek Golf Course sounded […]

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WHEN YOU LIVE in Carmel and your golfing buddy lives in Columbus, Indiana, choosing courses halfway in-between can be challenging. We often find ourselves playing in Edinburgh or Franklin, but a couple weeks ago we decided to try something different and go to Greenwood.

Of the two courses in town, Bluff Creek Golf Course sounded intriguing. The club is located 11 miles south of I-465 on I-69 and sits on 171 acres. Another attractive feature is the price: $29 for seniors and $35 for adults to ride 18 holes on weekdays (the rate goes up to $42 for both on weekends).

As soon as we pulled into the steeply inclined parking lot situated on the side of a massive hill and trekked upward to a newly renovated clubhouse atop the bluff, the course’s appeal became clear. With the Indy skyline visible above the tree line and the course spreading out below, the view was surprisingly spectacular—a Kodak moment for sure.

Many of the holes at Bluff Creek sport elevated tees, driving the ball down to the fairway below, or greens that are located at least one or two club lengths above the fairway, providing strategic opportunities and challenges.

The most spectacular holes are 9 and 10, both short par 3s. The hole 9 tee shot is straight up to a blind green where the top of the flagstick is all that is in view. Recently updated, hole 10 sports another semi-blind tee shot 70 feet straight down to the green. Both were super fun and very cool to play. Depending on the crowd, trying the shot at hole 10 multiple times can be fun and harder than you expect.  

Bluff Creek was originally designed with a lot of water in play, but the water has been removed and replaced by grass bunkers. Because the course is constructed in the flood plain of the White River, all flatland greens are elevated, which puts a little more pressure on the approach shots.

The greens were supple, allowing my shots to “bite” so the approach could be aggressive. Many greens are domed and undulate from front to back or side to side. Depending upon pin placement and whether you stick your approach shot or just get the ball on the green, a 3-stroke putt easily lurks.

I judge a golf course a lot on the condition of the greens and how fairly they play and putt. According to Bluff Creek’s website, the greens are sand-based bent grass, which provides a smooth surface on which to putt. The green reads are true, meaning that if you read the putt correctly and stroke it on the proper line with proper pace, you will be rewarded. But real precision (and some luck) is required on every stroke, especially on putts of 20 feet or more.

The fairways on this self-proclaimed “country course” are bluegrass, flat and dry with a lot of bounce and roll at this time in the season. The rough is in rugged shape and consumed with crabgrass, which offers its own set of challenges. Most courses have long-grassed roughs, making it hard to put the ball back in play. I must admit, I don’t have a lot of experience hitting off crabgrass. I would say it’s like skipping your club across a hard, slick surface with mixed results. This is just another reason to try to keep your ball in the fairway.    

After an enjoyable round with my Columbus-based buddy, we enjoyed the views from the newly expanded clubhouse deck, enjoying the breeze and a cold beverage while watching cartoon-perfect clouds pass by and spying fellow golfers on the holes below. Although it was a little rough around the edges, this is a course I will play again.

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Naysayer: Hey, NBA! Let’s Get Physical, FIBA-style https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/naysayer-1/naysayer-hey-nba-lets-get-physical-fiba-style/ Fri, 23 Aug 2024 19:01:53 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=330668 DURING THIS YEAR’S Olympic basketball competitions, viewers witnessed what appeared to be blatant holding and moving screens on nearly every play. But because International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules were in effect, those normally illegal moves were not called by officials. I questioned whether the competitiveness of those games was worse or better than what we […]

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United States’ LeBron James (6) celebrates after beating France to win the gold medal during a men’s gold medal basketball game at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

DURING THIS YEAR’S Olympic basketball competitions, viewers witnessed what appeared to be blatant holding and moving screens on nearly every play. But because International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules were in effect, those normally illegal moves were not called by officials. I questioned whether the competitiveness of those games was worse or better than what we typically see in sanctioned NBA and WNBA matchups.

But how exciting were the Olympic men’s and women’s basketball games and the finals? Off the charts—that is, if you are a fan of USA Basketball. Even if you aren’t, the on-court action in nearly every game was fast, exciting, and fantastic.

If the NBA adopted a smattering of FIBA rules, those changes would greatly enhance the play, competition, and entertainment value of NBA games. My suggestions include:

  • Eliminate the defensive three-second violation, allowing players to stay in the free throw lane indefinitely, even when not defending an opponent. Removing this violation helps defense but also puts the onus on offense to cut through the lane to open the middle and move the ball effectively around the perimeter of the court to create open shots. It also helps if the center can hit 3-point shots. Getting rid of this violation would not take away layups, just uncontested blow bys or overmatched back downs.
  • Limit the number of fouls allowable to five per contest per player, instead of six. This puts more pressure on players to perform better and coaches to work smarter.
  • My biggest recommendation is to allow players to be more physical. With a big man allowed to clog the middle and the expectation that defensive players keep their hands and arms vertical—especially when an offensive player initiates contact (which, in my estimation, is an offensive foul that never gets called)—this change would help keep defensive players from getting backed down to the basket, where they have two choices: Allow a score or get called for a foul. Actually playing defense is not a choice in that situation. This would change that.

The NBA is all about high energy offense, while defense is the casualty. If the adage, “Offense wins games; defense wins championships,” is true, then let teams play defense in the paint without getting a foul called. Offense has a distinct advantage in the game with the current rules.

For much of the 1980s, I played basketball at the Jordan YMCA on Westfield Boulevard. At the time, the first court in the old gym was reserved for talented Hoosiers like John Laskowski, Ray Tolbert, and Vicki Hall, among other former high school and college stars who came to play pickup ball.

Those games were self-officiated. If I called a foul, it had to be a good one. Many times, games devolved into a pushing match for inside position or a hack-fest for driving players, with an occasional minor “discussion” over a call.

In retrospect, those games had many of the same characteristics as FIBA-officiated games. We saw lots of holding, moving screens, and slapping, but very few fouls were called. Each game was hotly contested, and the competition was fierce, but we shook hands at the end (fist bumps and high fives weren’t the norm yet). The winners stayed, and the losers called next game.

I enjoyed watching that same style and physicality play out in the Olympic games. Let’s face it, the NBA—and don’t get me wrong, I love watching the NBA—has become desensitized.

When I say desensitized, I’m referring to the plethora of ticky-tacky fouls officials call based on what they see on screens away from the ball for things like reaching and hand checking—the overemphasis on these fouls to get calls that do nothing but slow the game and stop the flow of play.

In my opinion, the main reason to adopt some of these FIBA rules is to give the players final say in how they play. Let the game be decided and settled by the athletes instead of the officials. And really, isn’t that all we ever want out of basketball anyway?

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Naysayer: The Superstars Of The Indiana Fever Not Named Caitlin Clark https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/naysayer-the-superstars-of-the-indiana-fever-not-named-caitlin-clark/ Fri, 16 Aug 2024 16:39:52 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=327059 There's more to the Fever than their star player. This is your primer on the who's making the Fever one of the most exciting basketball teams in the game.

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I’m positive that by now, everyone has witnessed Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever in action. How could you not? Even the most casual sports fan can’t miss the impact Clark has on her sport. I say “her sport” because it is her sport right now, and everybody else is just playing in it.

It’s being called the Caitlin Clark Effect, much like the Michael Jordan Effect and the Larry Bird Effect. Whatever you call it, Clark reigns supreme in the public/media eye for now. And why not? There is even a name for the increased revenue she’s brought the WNBA— Caitlin-nomics.

Opponents love to see her come to town because their arenas sell out. Courtside seats cost in the thousands. Las Vegas set a new attendance record of 22,000 to watch Clark and the Fever get blown out by 20.

She is setting rookie records weekly and recently recorded the first ever triple-double for a rookie in a July home win over the mighty New York Liberty. The Fever were on a roll leading up to the break in their season for the Olympics. Clark led all players in fan votes (700,735) for the All-Star team. Teammate Aliyah Boston came in second (618,680).

But despite all Clark’s accolades, records, interviews, commercials, and shoe deals, one player does not a team make. Other Fever players are present on the court and, despite their lack of publicity, form the core of this WNBA team.

So, let’s start with fellow All-Star Boston. She is the Fever’s original building block. Her talent gave the fledgling team credibility during last year’s late-season push, and now her play contributes a solid inside presence and defensive stability.

The more I watch her and Clark work together on the pick and roll, with Clark dumping down to a rolling Boston for an easy deuce, I see why Boston was a No. 1 draft pick, a collegiate All-American selection, and Player of the Year when she was with the University of South Carolina. She is a powerhouse.

She’s much more effective scoring off the dribble, attacking her defender, rather than off the block. Plus, when given the time to line her feet up, she’s a capable 3-point shooter, at 40 percent, and is nearly a 50-percent shooter from the field. She’s not an automatic double-double yet but is working her way there quickly.

Then there is the third Fever All-Star, point guard Kelsey Mitchell, an exceptional scorer to say the least. This Ohio State grad and second overall pick by the Fever in the 2019 draft is a tough, gritty player who can fill up the hoop quickly. She came into this season as third in franchise history in points scored, third in field goals made, and second in 3-point field goals made.

Her outside prowess allows her to drive to the basket with ease, in part because of her ball-handling skills. In a recent road win, she singlehandedly brought the Fever back from the jaws of defeat by popping in 16 points in the second half after going scoreless in the first half. She raised her 3-point shooting from 40.5 percent to over 51 percent while leading the Fever in scoring at 16.6 PPG.

NaLyssa Smith was a 2022 No. 2 selection and lived up to the pick by making the All-Rookie team. She also participated in the WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge, averaging 13.5 points and 7.9 rebounds. She shot 41.9 percent from the field in the 22 games she started in as a rookie.

Smith is flourishing in her role as the team’s blue-collar worker. She’s a “do whatever it takes for the team to win” kind of player, which is a valuable commodity for any squad, currently pulling down eight rebounds per game and disrupting opponents’ inside plans with her defense.

Watching her play and on-court interactions with her teammates improve as the season progresses has been compelling; she has an uncanny ability to shed her defensive person and get “lost” in the offense, only to pop down the lane wide open for a pass from Clark and an easy two. Smith is also scoring well this season, averaging over 11 points per game and 1.3 assists.

Coming off the bench is veteran forward Katie Lou Samuelson, the 2019 fourth overall pick by the Chicago Sky. She has a well-traveled career so far, with the Fever being her fifth WNBA team. She plays over 18 minutes per contest, and she brings a calm experience to the lineup. She’s not a big scorer anymore (5 PPG), but she certainly was a scorer when she played for UConn.

Erica Wheeler is another savvy veteran off the bench. Originally undrafted out of Rutgers, Wheeler is in her second stint with Indiana after playing elsewhere for two seasons. Her assist to turnover ratio is nearly 2 to 1, and she shoots a high percentage (88.9 percent) from the charity stripe, which increases her value in late-game situations.

Moving on to guard Lexie Hull, the sixth pick in the 2022 draft. Now in her third season with the Fever, Hull played in 26 games her rookie season and prior to that was a pivotal member of the 2021 Stanford national championship team. Her emphasis this season is on defense, but she is a more than capable ball handler when Mitchell and Clark are on the bench.

For some local talent, Grace Berger, the seventh overall pick in 2023 out of Indiana, is coming on strong. The four-time All-Big Ten selection is averaging just less than 4 points per game so far and grabbing two rebounds per contest.

As one can see by looking at the draft positions of the Fever roster over the past four years, this team is jam-packed with youthful talent, and it is just a matter of time before they begin to win more consistently.

The victory over the Liberty recently provided a key win over one of the WNBA’s elite teams. As it stands now, that home win was only the second over a team with a winning record.

Caitlin Clark will be Caitlin Clark. She’ll get what she’ll get and set records in the process. But for the Fever to attain greatness—which is within their grasp—the players behind the player that propelled them to being a household name must also be pretty darn talent. And lest we forget, they are.

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Naysayer: Introducing Indy Ignite Coach George Padjen https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/naysayer-introducing-indy-ignite-coach-george-padjen/ Thu, 08 Aug 2024 09:09:20 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=328808 “I WAS A basketball player. Loved it. Thought I was going to be really good—small town Northern Wisconsin kid. I got to college at [University of Minnesota in Duluth], and, man, I wasn’t as good as I thought,” says George Padjen in his first interview as head coach of first-year volleyball team Indy Ignite. “There […]

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“I WAS A basketball player. Loved it. Thought I was going to be really good—small town Northern Wisconsin kid. I got to college at [University of Minnesota in Duluth], and, man, I wasn’t as good as I thought,” says George Padjen in his first interview as head coach of first-year volleyball team Indy Ignite.

“There was a friend who asked, ‘Hey you want to play intramural volleyball?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I can do that,’” he goes on. “I figured [the game] out pretty fast. I got proficient, and after a couple years of playing in high-level adult leagues, the coach at St. Scholastica, a club in Duluth, asked me, ‘Hey, could you come be an arm [coach] at practice?’ I was 21or 22 at the time.’”

In 2003, a new job took Padjen to the Twin Cities, where he reconnected with an old friend who had just been hired as assistant volleyball coach at Concordia University.

Often in life, timing is everything, and at that time, Concordia was transitioning into Division 2. While on the golf course, Padjen’s friend asked him if he wanted to be an arm coach at Concordia. He agreed, coming on part-time for the first year.

The next year, he became a little more involved, and the following year, his friend informed him that a full-time position had been created for him if he wanted it. “I’m like, ‘Yeah let’s do it,’” he says, and so began his time at the university as an assistant coach. “And 21 years later, here I am in Indy.”

Word-of-mouth was a most effective promotional tool in helping Padjen make his journey from college assistant coach to head coach of a professional volleyball team.

He describes how Sydney Hilley, a setter and free agent signed to the Ignite, boosted his career, explaining, “I worked with Sydney when she was 13 to 14 years old until she left to play for Wisconsin. When she’d come home, I would help her. She just trusted my coaching.”

Last year, Hilley played professionally for the Omaha Supernovas in the Pro Volleyball Federation’s inaugural season. While Omaha had coaches in place, Hilley felt that Padjen could help them with their skills training. “Because she thought I was a strong trainer, she went to the Omaha brass and talked to them about me.” 

Around the same time, Ignite co-owner Don Hutchinson called Padjen up and said he’d heard Padjen’s name through Hilley. “We went through a few days of figuring things out, and they offered me the job.”

In his 21 years at Concordia, Padjen was happy in his role and never considered looking for another coaching job. “After 10 years of telling people, ‘No, thanks,’ the calls stopped coming,” he recalls. “So, when [the Ignite management] called, I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this opportunity will come up again.”

After meeting with Hutchinson, fellow Ignite co-owner Jim Schumacher, and the team’s general manager and president, Mary Kay Huse, Padjen could see their passion for the sport. “I could tell the city’s passion also. I am familiar with the reputation of Indy as a sports city,” he adds.

“I really appreciate Don and Jim for taking a shot. I never had the ego where I had to go coach somewhere bigger than where I was. It was never about me.”

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Ask Me Anything: Matt Anderson, Olympian https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/sports/ama-matt-anderson-olympian/ Fri, 02 Aug 2024 17:51:39 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=328355 He led team USA to a bronze medal in indoor volleyball at the 2016 Rio Olympics with his offensive prowess. Now, the 6-foot, 10- inch Zionsville resident and his teammates aim for nothing less than a gold medal in Paris. He credits his family with helping him get there.

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You’re originally from the Northeast. How have you liked living in the Hoosier state?
I grew up in West Seneca, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. My wife Jackie is from Indianapolis. In trying to find a place of our own to call home, we fell in love with our house in Zionsville—so much so that we got married on our property. I love the area. I’m not there as much as I’d like to be with my professional contract obligations and Team USA training, but I’ve been able to make a few friends through Jackie and our kids.

How did you wind up falling in love with volleyball?
The sport has been in my family. My grandfather played in the senior games, and two of my older sisters played high school, club, and college volleyball. I started to play my freshman year in high school after becoming bored with soccer. The real love of the game followed quickly after that. Being part of a team carried a sense of belonging. The transition to high school can be tough, but with volleyball practice starting early in the fall, I went into high school with built-in friends, some of whom I’m still close with to this day.

Who was your inspiration when you were first starting?
I wasn’t aware of who the best players in the world were when I first started playing. My inspirations then were the older guys on the varsity team at my high school. I wanted to be as confident as they were playing and as cool as they were off the court. That theme was constant as I continued at Penn State and throughout my years on Team USA, always striving to fill the shoes of those who had gone before me.

You seem to have a quiet confidence about your team. Why is that?
A majority of this team has been together and competing together for Team USA since 2013. During those 11 years, we’ve shown that we are able to win in big moments. Our dedication to our pursuit of Olympic gold has never wavered. We have worked hard to refine our systems of play. Every single one of us has fully invested in that process.

At the last summer Olympics in Tokyo, your team didn’t advance beyond pool play [the qualifying competition for the medal round], stunning fans. Were you and your teammates bitter over that unexpected outcome?
It’s hard to translate the feelings about our performance in Tokyo into simple emotions. “Heartbreaking” is a term that comes up often because of the amount of time and effort we individually and collectively put into preparing for those games. It amounted to five years. And we had great performances along the way, so we were slotted in as a favorite. And then not to advance from pool play … it was shock, followed by grief.

How is this team going to grab the gold in Paris?
We’ll do it by leveraging our strength, which is in the way we can adapt our game plans to specific opponents and still stay true to our core system of play. We’ve really worked hard over the past few years, especially to implement new strategies that give us more ways to win by exploiting the weaknesses in other teams.

You are a three-time Olympian, soon to have four under your belt, at age 37. Have you got a fifth in you?
I realize I am very fortunate to have had this long career. Of course, I also understand the finiteness and fragility of being a professional athlete. As I continue to play, my body feels the wear and tear more. But I’m dedicated to putting everything I have, physically and mentally, into the Paris games. Then, with the support of my family, I’ll take it year by year after that. The Los Angeles 2028 games are still far off.

You’re clearly a big family guy. Did you grow up in a close-knit family?
You’re right; my family is everything to me. And yes, I grew up spending every weekend and holiday with aunts, uncles, and cousins. My cousins were my first friends, actually, and they remain a great reminder of who I am deep down inside. My brother and I inadvertently started a holiday tradition by dressing up as Uncle Eddie from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation one Christmas. The next year we wore Batman and Superman jumpsuits. Our dressing up for Christmas eventually expanded into themed New Year’s parties the whole family participated in. I remember a masquerade, a disco- themed party, and a pajama party. I want to give my kids an even better childhood than I had.

You travel 50 weeks out of the year to locations as far away as Korea, Italy, China, and Turkey. Surely that is difficult?
Yes, plain and simple. Jackie is the best thing in my life, providing constant support and love, as well as  challenging me to be better for myself and for our family. My children, Jamie and Juno, are my inspiration to be the father that they deserve, the one I know I’m capable of being. But I can only be that father when I’m active in their lives and present. However, I feel setting the examples of dedication, consistency, sacrifice, and grace as I pursue my professional goals is valuable to them as well. Finding the balance between work and home requires consistent attention, but I’m committed to doing it.

Has that ongoing challenge affected your focus on the court at all?
At times it has been very trying. It’s a delicate balance that I fight for daily. Juno and Jamie are still so young, and it’s been difficult to miss their early childhood milestones. Being away from my wife is just as hard, if not worse. I’ve considered retirement a few times since starting a family. But right now, I’m confident in my abilities to be fully invested in our team’s mission to bring home gold from Paris.

Was the struggle to maintain a work- life balance part of the reason you quit volleyball for a time?
I was pushing everything aside for the sake of my volleyball career and the teams I played for. I sacrificed my personal life with everyone dear to me, which only made me a selfish and lonesome person. So I stopped playing to address the major derailment of my relationships with the people I cared about most, my family. I returned to volleyball a few months later, after time in therapy and being more open with my loved ones. Before I took the break, I was sure it would only hurt my abilities on the court. But ironically, it enriched my life so much that it carried over to the court and significantly increased my enjoyment of playing.

During your offseasons, you played for Russian volleyball team Zenit- Kazan. Being a fan favorite, your jersey was hung from the arena rafters in St. Petersburg. What accomplishment is most memorable to you from your time in Russia?
We won 18 gold medals in the seven seasons I was with them, including winning the CEV Champions League Competition [the top men’s volleyball competition for the whole of Europe] for four consecutive years. Zenit- Kazan is one of the best club teams of the past 20-plus years.

How about when it comes to Team USA? Which achievement are you most proud of?
Two come to mind. We played 11 matches in 15 days at the 2015 World Cup to win the title for the United States for the first time in 30 years. That was a big accomplishment. And, of course, taking the bronze home from Rio.

What’s next for Matt Anderson once his competitive days are over? Or have you not thought that far ahead?
I actually have thought about it, although I haven’t allowed myself to fully dive into all the possibilities. I have spent the last 20 years on someone else’s schedule, having my days planned out for me by coaches, trainers, travel agents. It will be foreign to me to have full control of my daily life. All I know for certain right now is that I will take some time to be fully present at home with Jackie and our kids, enjoying the fruits of my hard work, before embarking on anything else.

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Unspoken Rules: Indianapolis Speedrome https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/entertainment/unspoken-rules-indianapolis-speedrome/ Tue, 30 Jul 2024 17:32:00 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=327251 A manner-festo for the oldest operating figure eight track in the U.S.

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Indianapolis Speedrome is pictured at night during a race.
Photography by Tony Valainis/Indianapolis Monthly

Photography by Tony Valainis/Indianapolis Monthly

  • Races happen only on weekends through mid-October.
  • Grandstand seating is first come, first served. But the “nosebleed” section is still close enough to smell rubber and gasoline.
  • July 20 is Hall of Fame Night.
  • You can buy a pit pass—but only the day of—in the office at the north end of the track.
  • Bring your earbuds. You can listen to the public address live.
  • Teacher? Show your school ID for a discount.
  • Don’t even think about bringing your dog.
  • Or a cooler.
  • It’s great for kids, but find the no smoking, no alcohol section: the aluminum seats on the south end.
  • Get live timing and scoring on the Race Monitor app.

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Par For The Course https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/lifestyle/home/par-for-the-course/ Wed, 10 Jul 2024 17:24:36 +0000 https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/?p=324041 Central Indiana residents are not only opting in for artificial turf for golf greens installations but for their landscaping too.

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Homeowners are opting into artificial turf not only for golf course installations but for landscaping purposes as well.
Photography by Tony Valainis/Indianapolis Monthly

Depending on who you ask, Central Indiana residents might define a perfect summer morning in a variety of ways. Some homeowners, for example, enjoy a cup of coffee and then a quick walk off their back decks to the links to start the day. They have no need for golf carts or caddies. They’re happy with the simple tranquility of swinging a golf club and the satisfying thwack of the ball leaving the tee and soaring through the air. With a golf green right in the backyard, there’s no worrying about the ball disappearing into a forest or
nearby pond.

Russ Greene, owner of Greene Exterior Design, has watched the artificial turf trend for home landscaping projects explode over the last few years, reaching a peak during the pandemic. “It catapulted interest in golf into the stratosphere,” Greene says. “People quickly realized they could play golf and social distance easily.” That popularity created demand in the marketplace—clients not only wanted to play the game, but they wanted a worry-free space to practice.

Greene recently installed an artificial turf golf green for a Carmel attorney with the goal of bringing a little slice of Crooked Stick Golf Club to the family’s yard.

The client wanted a place to practice the game he loves, hitting a huge variety of short game shots, with the green mimicking real course conditions. “My short game stinks,” the client laughs. “As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Greene created a setup for the family to work through pitching longer wedge shots from 75-90 yards, closer wedge shots from 35-50 yards from a variety of different angles, short and long greenside bunker shots, pitches and runs, flop shots, and everything in between from both short and deep rough areas.

Artificial turf installation are not limited to golf greens, but also pickle ball courts and more.
Photography by Tony Valainis/Indianapolis Monthly

An avid golfer himself, Greene spent the last several years honing his craft to help him better collaborate with customers to create truly unique backyard setups. The client did some research and contacted Greene, who took the client on a field trip to three completed in-home golf green installations and let him tee off. “That firsthand experience from these projects gave us a sense of what we liked most about his prior work,” the client says. “When Russ started asking us questions about the design or where holes should be cut, how deep the rough should be, how severe a break should be, we just kept repeating, ‘Build it like you would for yourself, Russ!’” Artificial turf installation requests these days aren’t limited just to the links. Greene describes a recent project that included bocce ball and pickleball courts and a whiffle ball tee, in addition to a golf green. He says the family wanted to get their kids outside and away from screens.

Greene also points to turf as a great option for man’s best friend. “I’ve installed dog and pet runs,” he says. “These projects minimize the amount of mud your dog will track into the house because artificial turf drains naturally and quickly. That’s a win for everyone, really.”

Greene says clients are opting for artificial turf even for basic home landscaping. He points to his own yard as an example. “I realized I was spending hours of my weekends just on basic maintenance,” he says. “Artificial turf always looks good and cuts yard work time significantly. I now have more time with my family.”

Whether the new backyard golf green in Carmel has improved the client’s golf game remains to be seen. But anything that brings family together to enjoy the outdoors is a definite hole-in-one.

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