Wirt knocks off Roosevelt

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GARY -- On Friday night, Hobart gave the Brickie Bowl an emotional regular-season send-off in front of a standing-room-only crowd, and very few left the place without getting a little emotional.

On Saturday, a few miles northwest of Hobart, the Wirt Troopers had the feeling that time was ticking on them as well. One difference though: Hobart football players will lose only a legendary field, to be replaced by a new one which is, by all accounts, a must-see.

Wirt players, on the other hand, will lose something much bigger: their entire school identity, and yesterday, they began the process of making the most of its newly acquired borrowed time.

Kendall Johnson had a hand in two touchdowns as Wirt defeated Roosevelt 22-8 in the first game for the Troopers since learning that the Gary School Board voted to shut down the school after this year, replacing it with the Emerson School for the Performing Arts.

"I felt sad when I heard about it," said running back Jay Johnson.  "We were getting better year after year. I thought if the school would be allowed to stay open that the team would get better and better, so it really hurt when I heard they were closing the school."

Indeed, the timing couldn't have come at a worse time for the Troopers. After losing their first six games of the season, Wirt has won its last three -- beating Roosevelt for the first time since 2003. You'd have to go back two more seasons to find the last time the Troopers strung three wins together.

"They beat us every year so this was a wonderful game," said lineman Fredrick Madry. "It makes me feel sad that Wirt is closing, though. I thought we could go undefeated next year with the guys we had coming back, but it is what it is."

Kendall Johnson saw to it that the last regular-season game for the Troopers would be a happy one, scoring from 1-yard out to give the Troopers a first-quarter 6-0 lead,  then hitting sophomore Kane San Miguel with a third-quarter 14-yard pass to build a 14-0 hill the Panthers couldn't climb.

Jay Johnson's 104 yards on 23 carries and sophomore Joshua Upshaw's 95 yards on nine carries helped the Troopers dominate possession throughout the game, ruining Roosevelt's homecoming.

"This was a good win," said Kendall Johnson. "We got three in a row and that will carry us into the sectionals and we're hoping to get our first sectional win since 1997 (when Wirt beat Kankakee Valley). But it's going to be real tough with Wirt not being here next year."

Roosevelt coach Kennedy Hannah doesn't anticipate having the same problem. With rumors swirling that he won't be back as head coach because the Gary School Board was none too pleased that he spoke to the media about his team's lack of helmets before the annual Gary Football O'Rama, Hannah says he expects to return.

"I think it got blown way out of proportion and one thing led to another," Hannah said. "I have a young team and we have off-the-field things we plan to do. I expect to be back next year."

Of course, the same can't be said for Wirt, so for posterity's sake, the last football team the school ever will have got together at midfield and took one last team picture together. Their next loss will be their last one, but they will never forget that final regular-season game.

"It's going to be tough on me to pick a team that I'll be able to play for, especially for transportation purposes," said San Miguel, a sophomore and a student at Emerson.  "Wirt is just a short distance down the street for me so I can just walk to school.

"It's heart-breaking because we have all this momentum with the three-game winning streak, and knowing I won't be able to play with these same guys is going to be tough. We just have to fight through it and then go our separate ways and do our own thing."