Sweet honor for the RRR

Posted by RRR on Apr 27, 2010 at 9:21am | Page Views: 3,875

The RRR was extremely honored recently to receive the 2010 District I Virgil Sweet Distinguished Service Award at the IBCA coaches clinic at Lawrence North in Indianapolis last week.

The award is named in honor of Virgil Sweet (left), the former longtime Executive Director of the IBCA and Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame member. Sweet is also a Valparaiso coaching legend. Those of you who are from “Da Region” will know what I mean when I tell you that he invented the Valparaiso free throw, known for its high level of accuracy. A basketball fundamentals development pioneer, he was also the inventor of the dribbling goggles that many of you are familiar with, which helps budding basketball players learn how to dribble without looking at the ball.

Each year the IBCA Board of Directors selects individuals from each of the three IBCA Districts to receive the award. It is given to individuals who have provided meritorious service in the promotion of basketball in the state of Indiana. The award presented this year to the RRR is the first ever given specifically for girls basketball media coverage. (Sweet!)

Virgil now lives in Florida, but travels back to Indiana every year to present the awards named in his honor.

This year’s winners, besides the RRR, included Goshen News sportswriter Stu Swartz, basketball volunteer Larry Barrett of Indianapolis, boys coach Ed Siegel of New Albany and basketball historian and South Knox teacher/coach Hugh Schaefer.

We consider ourselves humbled to be in some pretty prestigious company. Past winners of the Virgil Sweet Distinguished Service Award going back to 1982 include some well-known names in Indiana, including Homer Drew, Gene Keady, Mildred Ball and former governer Otis Bowen.

Special thanks to VU women’s basketball staffer and IBCA & ICGSA volunteer Reneé Turpa, who has never confirmed, but we suspect (:-), nominated us for this honor.

One Response to “Sweet honor for the RRR”

  1. By ladycavscoach on Apr 27, 2010

    Certainly a well-deserved award, Jackie! Congratulations and thank you for your unbelievable service to Indiana high school girls’ basketball!

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