Greensburg High School is on spring break this week, but not the basketball team. The top-ranked Pirates are sailing toward a second straight Class 3A state championship.
"(There are) almost even higher expectations," said Greensburg senior Sean Sellers, a Ball State basketball recruit. "Like coach said before this season, the second championship is always going to be harder than the first one because everyone expects you to do it."
Fans came to Greensburg High School Tuesday morning and bought a thousand semistate tickets in just a few hours. Greensburg plays Guerin Catholic in the semistate at Richmond High School Saturday at 4:00 p.m. The winner advances to the state finals.
"I definitely think the community is getting pretty excited," said Greensburg junior Ryan Welage. "Everybody's talking about it all over town. It's neat to have another opportunity to do it all over again."
Greensburg, with a population over 11 thousand residents, is probably best known for the tree that grows out of the clock tower at the Decatur County courthouse. But once again this March, the high school basketball team is the talk of the town. At Stories Restaurant on the town square, the breaded tenderloin is as good as the Greensburg basketball team, and the Pirates make the townspeople proud.
"Their chests are popping out," said Don Storie, co-owner of Stories Restaurant, which opened in 1977. "They're tickled to death for all the kids and for all the acclaim it brings to the town itself."
"If we go on away trips, we usually have the biggest crowd, bigger than the home team's crowd," said Pirates coach Stacy Meyer, a Greensburg graduate himself. "They've really rallied behind these kids. We're a small town. Basketball is still important to us."
"It's just someplace for everybody to rally behind and support," said Greensburg senior Bryant McIntosh, Northwestern basketball recruit. "I think it helps that we're a pretty good group of kids that everyone enjoys seeing be successful."
The Pirates nine seniors have lost just three games over the past three seasons. Greensburg is 26-1 this season.
"They're motivated," said Greensburg fan Bill Wenning while enjoying a chicken salad sandwich at Stories Restaurant. "They've been there and they know they can get there. We got two more games left."
IHSAA Semistate Boys Basketball Pairings for Saturday
Lafayette Jefferson
Class A | Marquette Catholic (18-6) vs. Liberty Christian (20-6) | 1 pm ET
Class 4A | Lake Central (21-3) vs. Homestead (20-7) | To follow
Huntington North
Class 2A | Westview (22-4) vs. Cass (22-2) | 4 pm ET
Class 3A | Bowman Academy (21-4) vs. Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger (17-8) | To follow
Seymour
Class A | Clay City (20-6) vs. Barr-Reeve (25-1) | 1 pm ET
Class 2A | Park Tudor (22-4) vs. Clarksville (23-2) | To follow
Richmond
Class 3A | Guerin Catholic (22-3) vs. Greensburg (26-1) | 4 pm ET
Class 4A | Indianapolis Arsenal Technical (25-2) vs. Bloomington North (16-8) | To follow
