Find out first-hand why Indiana is called the basketball state as we dive into this winter favorite by taking a close look at a Greensburg versus South Decatur boys high school basketball game at Greensburg Community High School. You can literally hear the excitement and pulse of the crowd as we listen in. We talk strategy and heart with South’s Coach Kendall Wildey and Greensburg’s Coach Stacy Meyer. After that we make our way to a very sweet destination boasting jelly and bavarian creams amongst nearly 35 other flavors. Doug and Linda Spitler show us the doughnut-making ropes at Cornerstone Bakery. Last, Lori Durbin joins us again for an update at the Decatur County Public Library where you can join an adult oreo tasting and simultaneously pick up your tax forms.
*Note: This story incorrectly identifies the Greensburg-South Decatur game as happening in February. Greensburg defeated South Decatur 108-73 on January 25th, 2020.
Andrew:
Thank you for listening to Beyond the Tree Tower: Stories From Decatur County, Indiana. My name is Andrew. We're listening to the South Decatur High School pep band performing under the direction of Celia Colter. On each episode, we look to tell stories that make Decatur County what it is. On this episode, we take a close look at high school basketball, featuring both Greensburg and South Decatur.
Kendall Wildey:
When things are going well, and teams are having a good season, just the way that it pulls the community together.
Andrew:
We also stop by Cornerstone Bakery for the county's best doughnuts.
Doug Spitler:
Everybody gives Doug the credit for making the doughnuts. You see what Doug does with the doughnuts right here. That's it. The labor is what Linda's been doing all night.
Andrew:
And we hear what's happening at the Greensburg Decatur County Public Library.
Lori Durbin:
The West port branch serves the South end of the county and basically anything that you can find here at the Greensburg Decatur County Library, you would find in Westport.
Andrew:
All this and more is Beyond the Tree Tower. One of the great things about Southern Indiana is the seasons and the strong images that come with each one. There's the majestic jolt of green each spring as the plants and trees begin to grow, there's a cornfield lit up with lightning bugs in the summer, and the crisp air crunch of fallen leaves in the autumn, but in the winter, well, there may be nothing more quintessentially Southern Indiana in the winter than the sound of a crowded gymnasium.
Andrew:
When you push open the doors to the gym and feel that blast of warm popcorn scented air and hear those familiar sounds, you know it's high school basketball time in Indiana. When the local team is hot and playing good basketball, there's an energy that comes with those sounds. And when two local teams are racking up wins and playing a good fun style of basketball, and those two teams play each other, it becomes a community event. Such a game happened on a Saturday night earlier this February, when an undefeated in class 2A, number three ranked South Decatur team came to Greensburg to play class 3A, fifth ranked Greensburg in a boys basketball showdown. South Decatur came into the game as a real feel good story.
Kendall Wildey:
We have the core of South Decatur kids that have worked so hard over the years, and it hadn't had a lot of success.
Andrew:
I spoke to head coach Kendall Wildey before the teams Friday night match up with Centerville.
Kendall Wildey:
Their work ethic and them wanting to turn the corner and then you take those that nucleus of South Decatur kids, and we did have a couple of kids that moved in from Jennings County that came over, but yet we started building around Lane Lauderball, our 6'5" junior who's a really great ball player. And then at the end of last year, as we went into the summer, it's like, hey, everybody's coming together now. We got all the pieces, we think. Let's up the tempo, let's have some fun playing and they just bought into it. If I would have told you that we're going to be 13-0 coming into this weekend with two big games, I don't know that... you not only have to be good, you got to be lucky for that to happen as well and we've had games where the ball bounced our way at the end and we've had some breaks.
Andrew:
Coach Wildey is definitely part of that feel good story.
Kendall Wildey:
I started coaching when I got out of college back in 1984 and was a JV coach at Jennings County for a couple of years, then got my first varsity job at Waldron High School, stayed there through the late eighties and went to Rushville in 90-91 season and then most of the years during that span was at Jennings County High School. I went back home to Jennings County and coached there for nine years and then was out of it for 17 years and now this is my third year at South Decatur. I didn't know if I'd have the passion that I used to have after 17 years. Life changes, but the more I got into it, the more I started working with the young men again and everything, that fire did come back and so that has been three years ago now, and we're having more fun than ever now.
Andrew:
We like to think high school basketball is different in Southern Indiana and South Decatur's recent success shows part of why that is.
Kendall Wildey:
I think that the evidence that I would have to that is just in the experiences of, especially the smaller towns, which most are in Southern Indiana, is when things are going well and teams are having a good season, just the way that it pulls a community together. There was a lot of pride. Indiana is known as the basketball state and I think in Southern Indiana, there's a lot of pride with that. So it brings people together, it's a common thing to do on a Friday, Saturday night, and I don't think you can find any better entertainment for a $5-6 ticket than high school kids out there playing their hearts out for their community. So yeah, Cougar nation has been great.
Announcer:
And now, Cougar fans, get on your feet for your South Decatur Cougars.
Kendall Wildey:
We got a couple of games in before we played North Decatur in that first, what they call the civil war game, the north south game, and that's a big deal here. In the other two years I've been here, we haven't had a chance to win down the stretch or anything else. So to be able to win that and win the civil war and just see what it did for the community. I mean, these people in this Westport area have been hungry to jump on board and back a team and they certainly have. They're coming out, we're having great crowds. I really expect tomorrow night, there to be a huge crowd at the Greensburg game.
Announcer:
From Greensburg, Indiana. Number 23...
Andrew:
The cougars went on to easily dispatch Centerville that night. Their tenacious full court press was called off toward the end of the first quarter, when the lead had already swollen near 20.
Announcer:
Foot violation against the bulldogs, and its cougar basketball.
Andrew:
With this game over, the cougars turned their attention to the real test, the game that would tell them just how far they've come and how much work there is left to do.
Kendall Wildey:
Teams that are especially county rivals, those are always going to be big games and we know Greensburg is going to be a great game tomorrow night as well. People get up for those games because they know people. I know your kids at North Decatur and we're from South or both the north and south would do anything in the world to get the chance to beat Greensburg because they're the big school, you know?
Andrew:
That test would not be easy.
Stacy Meyer:
We're currently, we've lost two games. Bloomington, South got us and Southport got us.
Andrew:
Just up the road in Greensburg is a program that has seen a great deal of recent success.
Stacy Meyer:
I think you never want to lose games, but I think has really better prepared us for the season.
Andrew:
The team won back-to-back state championships in 2013 and 2014. Head coach, Stacy Meyer has that state champion pedigree and a crop of talented multi-year starting athletes.
Stacy Meyer:
We've got Andrew Wellage as our starting point guard. He's a four year starter for us. He's committed to Wright State, will have an opportunity to further his basketball career. Miles Wilkinson is a three year starter for us. He'll start at a guard spot. Lane Sparks is a junior three year starter.
Andrew:
At their morning walk through the day of the South Decatur game, they handled themselves with a no-nonsense confidence as they ran through defensive setups for sets South Decatur was likely to run.
Stacy Meyer:
And two bigs are going to cross and they're going to X out and cross... Okay, so go ahead and run..
Andrew:
Coach Meyer is also well versed in the mythology of Southern Indiana high school basketball.
Stacy Meyer:
Played here, graduated in 90 and really stayed in Indiana. Went to Hanover and played there, right after graduation went to Franklin College as an assistant for six years and then got into high school. Was at Southwestern Shelby Whiteland and then had an opportunity to come back here. So yeah, throughout my life, it's been Indiana high school basketball. In today's world of basketball, high school basketball, you see it in smaller communities and in Southern Indiana, you see some smaller pockets, some smaller communities and it is still important. It's a community event.
Andrew:
With sustained success comes in increased connection with the community.
Stacy Meyer:
We've been very fortunate to have success, and I know our city, our town enjoys it. Tonight's game, you'll see it. It'll be pretty full tonight. So it is really neat and some of the old timers will say it's going to be a throwback game. And it is in a sense which is rejuvenating. It's good for high school basketball. Gives our kids currently that opportunity that a lot of kids don't have.
Andrew:
And the community turned out in full force for this one. 30 minutes before the doors open, there was already a buzz in the building. You know, off the top of your head what the capacity of the gym is?
Staff 1:
5,000.
Andrew:
You think we'll be full tonight?
Staff 1:
I don't know. I'm not sure if it'll be a sell out, but it's going to be a good crowd.
Staff 2:
I work in the athletic office so we're just making sure, we're just going around and check the doors so that at five o'clock only the two doors open and that everybody gets access at the time they were told.
Concessions:
Well, the doors open in six minutes so I've got all the popcorn ready, the pizza is ordered, the cookies are baked and the hot dogs are going in the warmer. Pretzels are ready. So we're expecting a larger crowd than normal and we're going to be ready.
Andrew:
South Decatur side of the gym filled up within an hour of the doors opening. People joked that all of Westport was in the Greensburg high school gym that night.
Stacy Meyer:
We're loving this. Before JV game and look at this. Our side's full basically. We know a few schools that are coming because they're not playing tonight so they'll help fill out.
Announcer:
Welcome to Greensburg Community High School for tonight's contest between the vising South Decatur Cougars-
Andrew:
By the time the teams were warming up for the varsity game, the Greensburg side was full as well.
Announcer:
And your Greensburg Pirates.
Andrew:
The 5,000 seat gym was almost full when the lineups were announced. As the game got underway, the energy was phenomenal. As the first quarter wore on, it began to seem the Greensburg's athletic ball handlers were unaffected by the Cougar press, unable to rack up points off turnovers, South began to fall behind.
Kendall Wildey:
You're worried about whether or not Wellage is going to block you. You just take it to the rim and finish. Okay? Keep the defense up, be aware of the back side and look at jump and passing lanes. Keep it up, let's go.
Announcer:
South Decatur basketball will begin the second quarter.
Customer:
Can I please have the sour extreme ropes, please? And a Sour Patch Kids and then a blue Powerade please.
Andrew:
So it sounds like the cookies are popular tonight.
Concessions:
Yes they are, we've probably gone through over 300 of them. So that's a lot of cookies for one night.
Kendall Wildey:
Again, we've got to show early. When they take their shots, you've got to go find a body and you've got to go rebound, okay? Listen, if we get in a situation against Andrew where they pin him up-
Andrew:
By half time, the Pirates had a commanding lead, but the 4,500 plus fans stayed to enjoy the basketball. While the Cougars seemed over-matched on this night, they're clearly a fun team to watch and a force going into the 2A tournament. Here's coach Wildey.
Kendall Wildey:
Well, first of all, is we played somebody that finally exposed a lot of things that we need to work on. So I think you got to forget the score and look at the film and say, okay, this is what they did. And we've been getting by maybe doing some stuff against some smaller schools or whatever, so we got a lot that we can look at and I think correct, and make us better. 14-1 is still not bad. And we've got eight games of regular season left and the tourney, so we just have to regroup.
Andrew:
Coach Meyer was happy about the win and also excited for the community.
Stacy Meyer:
I think it probably played out as we had planned, it was up and down, put 108 up and I thought it was, first of all, the atmosphere, this is high school basketball and it's awesome that both teams and kids get to have an opportunity like this and kudos to both sides of the fans for coming out and supporting these kids. And it means a lot.
Andrew:
Fans and families left the gym back into the cold night to drive home, still buzzing with the excitement and pulse of a great basketball game, played in front of a packed house. With so much interest and energy surrounding a non-conference game in February, just wait until sectional time the first weekend in March. That is where legends are made.
Andrew:
A special thanks to Coach Wildey and Coach Meyer for taking the time to talk and being so accommodating during the game. As of this recording, the sectional tournament starts for Greensburg this Friday night, March 6th, the sectional is in Connersville this year for reasons too absurd to go into. Meanwhile, North Decatur is hosting the sectional with South playing Tuesday night and hopefully Friday. North Decatur begins sectional play Friday as well. Good luck to all the county schools.
Andrew:
I recently had the opportunity to stop by one of Greensburg's favorite sweet spots, Cornerstone Bakery. Their doughnuts are a local favorite. Doug and Linda let me stop by at 3:00 AM while they were prepping doughnuts for the morning.
Doug Spitler:
I just put jelly donuts or jelly inside the donut now I'm switching over to the Bavarian cream. My name is Doug. Doug Spitler, wife's name's Linda. She had worked here years before when it was James Bakery. She worked for a man named Jack Hawkins. She went to IGA bakery for about a year, but later went on to GCOM and was there for 13 or 14 years. She wondered if she could still make a doughnut. Well, I think it's kind of like riding a bicycle, once you learn how to do it, then you know how to do it. Start putting icing on the doughnuts that I just filled. I'll do my maple icing first and I'll turn around and I'll do the white ice doughnuts. And then I'll get to everybody's favorite, the chocolate ones. And I'll say this right now, everybody gives Doug the credit for making the doughnuts. You see what Doug does with the donuts right here? That's it. The labor is what Linda has been doing all night. It takes four hours. It takes roughly four hours to go through these doughnuts. Make a bunch of doughnuts. Linda's been in here since eight o'clock last night.
Linda Spitler:
Its about 8:30 when I started. Fridays and Saturdays is so busy we make two times this much, if not three times as much. It's a lot bigger batches and a lot more time consuming. So I can be here. I've been here 12, 14, 16 hours a day before.
Doug Spitler:
The amount of doughnuts we make each day varies. Last week or week before, we had an order from one of the factories here in town and that was, I forget how many dozen. It was like 25 dozen.
Linda Spitler:
I'm real picky on my doughnuts. My yeast, I like them to be the same color like you can see on both sides. I'm really picky about the appearance of it. I like the white ring around the middle.
Doug Spitler:
If it's something we think will sell, we'll put it there.
Customer:
Are you out of the glazed?
Doug Spitler:
As it is right now, I think we've got like 35 or 37 different varieties.
Customer:
All right, I'll do three of those and two maple bars.
Doug Spitler:
That front case is all full. Different variety of doughnuts.
Andrew:
Do you come here regularly?
Customer:
Yes. Probably a bunch more than I should.
Doug Spitler:
That side case has got some different variety donuts in there, plus the Danish.
Andrew:
Do you have a favorite doughnut?
Customer:
The honey bun, by far, yeah. My wife's favorite is the glazed. Yeah.
Doug Spitler:
We have customers from, we have them coming up here from Versailles, down from Rushville, down from Shelbyville, up from Batesville, North Vernon, Columbus. We've had doughnuts going out as far as California.
Linda Spitler:
Good morning.
Customer:
Good morning.
Linda Spitler:
What can I get for you?
Customer:
May I please get two honey buns and one chocolate glazed please.
Linda Spitler:
Is that going to be it?
Customer:
Yep, that will be it.
Linda Spitler:
Alrighty.
Doug Spitler:
And we appreciate the citizens of Greensburg because without them we'd have no business. Love goes into each one of these doughnuts, and that's how we look at it.
Andrew:
Thanks, Doug and Linda Cornerstone Bakery is located at 1202 Lincoln Street in Greensburg. They open at 5:00 AM and close when the donuts are gone or around 11:00 AM. Let's take a look at a few upcoming events in the area. Tree County Players production of Winnie the Pooh is coming up this weekend, March 6th, 7th, and 8th. For tickets and showtimes visit treecountyplayers.com. You may remember on episode three of Beyond the Tree Tower, Winnie the Pooh director, Lori Durbin was telling us about the auditions. It'll be fun to see how the weeks of work all those young people have put in turns out. Speaking of Lori Durbin, let's check in with her at her day job and see what's happening at the Greensburg Decatur County Library.
Lori Durbin:
On Thursday, March 5th, we are doing an Oreo taste test for grownups because we've done that for teens and the older children's age group. Can you tell the difference between the birthday cake Oreo and the mint Oreo or whatever?
Lori Durbin:
So we do offer a limited number of tax forms on a table in the library so that you can just walk in and pick those up, but we have been driven mostly by what the IRS will provide to us and they're actually trying to make everybody do everything online, but we can always print things for people. So if people know what form they need, we can help them look that up. The tax form information is all on our website. You can find a link to that to actually go to a site on our website that will give you links to the federal and the state government forms. So that is a nice way to find out what it is, even what form you need before you come in.
Lori Durbin:
And then I know that the Baptist church, we try to promote this for them. They will actually do free taxes for people who can't afford to have someone do that for them, or for the elderly who maybe don't understand some of those tax rules and some of the changes. But we do try to provide as much as we possibly can to people for their tax needs.
Lori Durbin:
A lot of times people will say, "Well, there's a library in Westport. That's not part of your library, right?" And yes, the Westport branch is a part of the Greensburg Decatur County Library System. The Westport branch serves the south end of the county, and basically anything that you can find here at the Greensburg Decatur County Library, you would find in Westport, maybe a smaller scale, but they have computers. They do check out hotspots. All of the same things that you would find here at the Greensburg library and also on our bookmobile. We do still have a bookmobile that travels throughout the county as well.
Andrew:
Thanks Lori. And finally, the end of March finds a unique event coming to Decatur County, thanks to the Decatur County Community Foundation Ag Field of Interest Committee. Dr. David Cole, a nationally recognized speaker and expert will be at the Next Generation Red Barn on Smith Road for an Ag seminar and luncheon. You can visit the Decatur County Community Foundation on Facebook for more information.
Andrew:
That's all for this episode of Beyond the Tree Tower: Stories from Decatur County, Indiana. Thanks again to both South Decatur and Greensburg boys basketball for being so accommodating and thanks again to Doug and Linda at Cornerstone Bakery.
Andrew:
If you like what you've heard, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, help us spread these positive stories from Decatur County. Be sure to tell your friends, share the podcast on social media. You can find Beyond the Tree Tower on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Beyond the Tree Tower: Stories from Decatur County, Indiana is a production of Decatur County tourism. Here's more of the South Decatur High School pep band. We'll catch you next time Beyond the Tree Tower.
