Outside The County-Maconaquah

Results from Maconaquah for Tuesday, February 14th

Maconaquah High School Boys Varsity Basketball beat Northfield High School 85-51

The Braves went to Northfield and got the TRC win. The Braves are 13-6 overall, and 4-3 in the TRC.

Coach Burrus Quote: ” We started the week off with a good win at Northfield. We put up 85 points and held Northfield to 20 points in the second half. We had great balance in this game. Lots of players scored for us. Bauer Maple just missed a triple double with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. Bauer and Josiah have been our main scorers all year but the play of the other guys is also a big key. Last night they were double teaming Bauer. He got AJ Kelly the ball and he knocked down some 3’s. MJ has changed shots all year on defense. Ethan has really done great on defense this year. He has a lot of steals and can play multiple positions. Fuddy is Fuddy. He makes plays on both ends of the floor. Trace comes in and is a physical presence on both ends. He will battle anyone. He has improved his perimeter defense, as well. Jackson has been a great teammate.He has made our team better by working hard, and being positive every day. I am really proud of this team to be sitting at 13 wins. We started 1-3. We are 12-3 from that point. I have coached some exciting teams. This team is one of those teams. I know this group will finish the season STRONG!!!”

Extra- Rick Clark: I wanted to take a few minutes and write about a former coach at Maconaquah, Rick Clark. First of all, I think it is important we remember the people who helped build something, in this case Maconaquah Basketball. Rick came to Maconaquah from Blackford HS. He was a football coach at Blackfor during his time there as well as basketball. Rick also was a wide receiver at Ball State on the football team. He set some receiving records there.

Some things I remember about teams that Rick coached. They could always shoot. He did a great job developing shooters. I can’t name all the shooters but they had em. His teams always moved the ball and found the open man. They always seemed comfortable and ready to do what was needed to win. The teams always seemed well-conditioned. Coach Clark was very innovative in getting kids in shape by learning and playing the game. They played to their strengths. His teams very seldom had a glaring weakness. Well-rounded usually means well-coached! This was Maconaquah Basketball. Coach Clark had the passion for the game and Maconaquah. It showed in his teams.

Rick also had a loyal staff of coaches. This says a lot about what was going on in the program. When you can keep quality coaches around it helps to build the program. You also build a sense of credibility that the program is established. The players could see the tradition they were part of.

I was a young head coach at North Miami. I started to know Rick as we would meet every Saturday in Peru for Coaches Corner. For Rick, it was a time he could have been so into his team and himself, but he found time to share with me and listen to what was going on with my team. I believe one quality of the complete coach is having time to listen to other coaches. Rick Clark is a coach I think of who had this quality. He paid attention. He cared. He showed me coaches can be human! I got to watch Rick handle winning big games and losing big games. He was the same guy no matter what the results were. I never forgot that. You learn a lot about people when you see them every Saturday for several years. I would bring my son Joel in there to the radio show. Rick treated him like gold. If you ask Joel today about Coach Clark he would tell you how great he was to him. Joel has been a head coach for several years. A coach who influenced him as a young boy was Rick Clark.

Rick won 312 games at Maconaquah. He did this in 23 years of coaching. That means he won close to 14 games per season. That is incredible and the consistent quality that Maconaquah produced was a huge credit to his longetivity. We only played 20 games then. Rick coached a lot of his years during the single class era. Playing Kokomo, or at Logansport was no easy task. Check the records. Those schools usually won their sectional. It honestly wasn’t fair. Playing the bigger school, and on their home court? Maconaquah was always a tough out though. I also think the success of Maconaquah in the very tough MIC showed the quality of Maconaquah Basketball. He won 11 MIC Championships which is a credit to him and all the players who brought home those championships. This was not easy and Rick never feared playing quality opponents. He always opened with a tough opponent. I remember scouting Maconaquah against Broad Ripple. They were always a big challenge for Maconaquah, but that was what Rick wanted.

During the time Rick coached a lot of players came through that were from other places because of Grissom Air Force Base. There were lots of positives from these players coming in. However, Coach Clark had to manage all of this. He had to blend these kids with kids who had been at Maconaquah all their lives. They wanted to be Brave Basketball players, too. Every year, he always found a way to bring the team, together. Kids didn’t always stay. Every year he had to figure out how to fit this puzzle together. I think Coach Clark did a great job working through this. Many of these kids had fun in Rick’s program. He also had a hand in shaping them into great adults. Life lessons, basketball… he taught both.

As I thought about this tribute to Coach Clark what kept coming back to me was how loyal he has been to Maconaquah. I have asked many kids at school about Mr. Clark. They had no idea he has been part of greatness. He is still giving back even now. I can tell you this… Rick Clark loves Maconaquah. I can see it. I hear it in his voice. To have a great program it takes everyone. It takes the players, parents, the student body, even the community. It also takes a coach. Maconaquah needs to be thankful that they had Coach Clark for all those years. Come out and honor him Friday night as we play Manchester. Coach Clark deserves to be remembered. Thank him for all he has done here. All the tradition he built with Maconaquah Basketball. I have one thing to say to Coach Rick Clark.

Thanks, Coach!!!

Coach Burrus

Northfield game stats

Maple 29pts 8reb 8ast 2st

Ball 15pts 6reb 1ast 3st

Kelly 11pts 1reb 4ast 3st

Kile 8pts 4reb 1ast 1bl 1st

Ellis 7pts 2reb

Zeiser 6pts 2reb 3st

Armstrong 4pts 3reb

Miller 5pts

Adams 1reb

Collins 2reb

Reeser 1reb 1ast

Birner 1ast