Most Thursday nights you get a chance to hear from me on a topic that I think is important, not only to you in your future lives but also in the program. But I also like to take the liberty of turning it over to other people who have a wealth of knowledge to talk on the topics that I think are important.

So the two gentlemen that are here today, one of them is obviously a very good friend of mine and a mentor, and the other one I had the unique pleasure to coach as my first group of defensive linemen in my first year here at Valparaiso High School.

But without any further ado, a family, the last name Doane, which has been around Valparaiso since I think probably Valparaiso being here—maybe he'll give you a little bit more history to that—but definitely the impact that not only he and his son, his family, and even his parents had on this community and on this school goes back decades and decades.

So again, I would like to introduce Mr. Jim Doane and his son, Tyler Doane, who was one of our players. Mr. Jim Doane was an assistant principal at Ben Franklin and later the principal at Valparaiso High School, believe it or not. So please give him a huge round of applause.

Jim Doane

I had the pleasure of playing football at Valparaiso High School in the year 1970. Remember that year? Does anybody remember that year?

Not even the parents. Maybe ask your grandparents tonight.

I want to talk a little bit about homecoming in general to you guys. Maybe it's about the dance. Is anybody here going to the dance? I got a little story I want to tell you about that.

Homecoming really for you, isn't until next year, for you seniors, because then you come home.

But for all of us who graduated years ago, homecoming is very important because we are coming back. The homecoming—do you know when the first queen of homecoming was? Can anybody guess? 

In 1944, Shirley Wiencken was the football queen; that's how they named it at that time, football queen.

And that, of course, for you history people, you know that was right at the start of World War II, a couple years after Pearl Harbor was bombed. And they didn't have flowers or fancy stuff;  They didn't give flowers; they actuallyused World War II stamps, these rationing stamps that you use for food and gasoline and everything, and their corsage was made out of that.

So I talked to Shirley yesterday; she is 98—do the math, '44, you know—and she was recognized about five years, six years ago because her daughter, Tessa, was also a homecoming queen at Valparaiso High School. So she wanted to say how much homecoming was important to her, even though she's 98 years old, and how important it will be to you as you become grayer—or in some cases, less hair on your head.

I was lucky enough to be on the football team in 1970, and we came to the end of the season—they didn't have playoffs back then—they did have face masks on the helmets and that kind of thing, and it was the last year of playing at Ben Franklin. I went to Ben Franklin, I went to Parkview, I went to Valpo High School; maybe some of you went down that same path.

So in 1970, we came in ranked second in the state; there was no playoffs; we had won 26 games in a row; we were playing pretty well. So homecoming comes along, and two memories that I have from homecoming—one is a good one, a good memory, and the other one is kind of a funny one, so I'll tell you the funny one first.

Finally, I was able to get a date to homecoming with the most beautiful girl in the school.

So anyways, I thought this was going to be great. Four or five of us with our dates went out to dinner, and this beautiful girl had a red automobile convertible. Man, this was great. She was beautiful. She was rich. And she was... friendly.

So anyway, we went out to dinner at the spot up in Michigan City—it's no longer there—eight of us at a big table, you know, and the menu was like, oh my gosh, I hope I have enough money. I said, whatever you want to get. So she ordered the most expensive steak on the menu.

And I said, you got a salad with it? You want to do a steak? And I said, okay. And remember, she's beautiful, she's rich, she's friendly. And the steak was $48.

So we all ordered, we're having a great time. Last thing in mind that I'm still struggling with, I'll take some of them tonight, I'll take some of them after the game tomorrow night. She orders the steak. Steak comes, and we're all laughing and having fun. She takes one bite out of it and says, I'm full.

Are you kidding me?

Yeah, it didn't really taste that good. I'm full. I'm not going to eat anymore. I'm thinking, oh my god, I just spent 50 bucks on a steak dinner, and she's full. So we get through dinner, and I think the dance must have been after dinner, because guess how she felt between the drive there and the drive to the dance? Didn't feel too well. Didn't feel too well. And guess what? She wanted to go home.

Captain of the football team, got this beautiful girl in school, paid for a big dinner. But that was a memory, a sad but true story that I hope none of you get to repeat.

But on a more pleasant note, let's talk about the game. I think we played Gary Wirt.

Still is—I don't even think it's a high school anymore. Chuck Wells scored a school record at times six touchdowns, and we lit the field with him. And so two parts to the weekend, right? The ass kicking of Gary Wirt, as well as, you know, me crying myself to sleep after the game. So remember those years.

The last story I'll tell you—and I'll try to, this one won't be as good as it maybe will be to some of you—you know, the state championship in 1975, my brother was on the team, played out here on this field. We had moved out here by that time, played Carmel. Carmel had Mark Herrmann, who was a Purdue quarterback, went on to play in the pros. Anyway, he came up here, and you know what the final score was? Was it 14–13?

It was close.

The people from that team will be at the game tomorrow night to watch you guys play and to watch people manage and to watch Terrence cheer. And they're going to be on the sidelines. They're going to be standing there. They're going to be talking to each other about their glory days, as Bruce Springsteen would say, if they don't want them to pass them by. And the one guy on the team was the placekicker. I'm not going to tell you his name because he lives here in town.

And he kicked the extra point to win the game. If you saw him today, if I would have brought him tonight, he could get out of his wallet—he still has the clipping in the newspaper of him kicking the extra point to win the state championship game. And those are the kind of memories that, right now you guys are getting those memories, but in time when you reflect on them, you'll have maybe a little different perspective about it.

And here he is, you know, 50 years later or more, it's a little bit—yeah, it's a little bit wrinkled, but he'll get it out at every—he'll be there tomorrow night, he'll get that clipping out, and show you how to kick the extra point to win the state championship for Valparaiso.

Some of you get your name in the paper all the time, don't you? Some of you never get your name in the paper. Doesn't that get old, to see the same guy's name in the paper? Tyler was a defensive lineman, and you know, if you're a lineman, don't get much airtime or much ink anymore. So those are three stories I wanted to share with you, a little bit about the history.

On that '75 team also, did any of you have Greg Kenworthy as a teacher at Ben Franklin in English?

You probably know Greg Kenworthy, who's a longtime teacher here, was on that team. He's got the ring, like my brother has and everybody who was on that squad. Years later, when people would say, "Greg, were you on that team?" he would kind of sheepishly say, "Well, I kind of was." You know what? He was the manager of the team. He was the head manager.

But it was just as important to him to be a member of that team. It was just as important for the guys who were on that team to have him as manager, statisticians, whatever other role they played, to be a part of the big picture. And now, years later, he's a state champion.

So those are three quick memories I have. And I'm going to let Tyler talk for a minute. Then I've got a couple of things to say at the end.

Tyler Doane

I just want to start by thanking Coach Marshall for giving us the opportunity to come talk to you guys. As you heard from my dad, he talked about the tradition and history of Valpo and Valpo football. I just want to add to that a little bit.

At Valpo, we expect to win. And that's not arrogance; that's confidence.

I want to talk about where that confidence comes from. It comes from knowing that we have a set of standards here that are different than other places—a set of standards that have been passed down to us as members of this team and this community by those that came before us.

A few examples of what I mean.

I grew up watching guys like Athletic Director Clark, Coach Evans play—great players, team leaders, successful. I knew I wanted to be like them.

But I didn't know what it actually took until somebody showed me.

My freshman year, I get done with the first lift of the summer, I start to leave. Brandon Cornett, who was a year ahead of me, he stops me and says, "Where are you going?"

I tell him I'm leaving. "We're done."

He says, "We're not done."

He takes me to the stairwell with the rest of the guys, right outside the gym—we start doing stadium steps. Up and down. We sprint across the hall to the other stairwell, same thing. We start with every step, and every other step, right foot, left foot, both feet. Until finally, for what seems like forever, he says, "Now we're done."

From that point on, I knew that was the standard. That's how we did things here.

Doing the bare minimum was never going to be enough.

And I didn't know Brandon before that day, but just like someone had done for him, he made sure I understood and knew what the expectations were if I was going to be a member of this team and a part of this program.

Next year, I was fortunate enough to play varsity.

Playing defensive end at summer camp, quarterback throws an out route the opposite side of the field. We get back to the huddle, and Tim Handlon, who I think you guys got a video from a few weeks ago, starting linebacker, starts getting after me about not running to the football.

He says, "No matter where the ball is on this field, every member of this defense will be there."

From that point on, I knew that's how we did things here. That was the standard.

I don't know if he still does it, but back then, even Coach Marshall used to run to the ball with us.

We expect to win because when we step on the field on Friday night and it's finally time to play a game, we know:

• nobody's worked out harder than us
• nobody's practiced harder than us
• nobody's watched more film than us
• nobody's coaches are more prepared than ours

So no matter what happens, we're ready.

And we owe that confidence to those that came before us, and we owe it to them to pass those standards on to those that come after. I'm going to pass it back to my dad to finish things up.

More from Jim Doane

I remember coming home and saying, he got his ass chewed by Handlon and Cornett and he's passed that on to the next generation." I bet you have classmates and teammates in here who would do the same thing to you—pass on that tradition.

We expect to win because we're prepared.

Coach Marshall mentioned that I was lucky enough to be a principal at Valpo High School, and so we would try to hire the best coaches we could. Coach Marshall, Coach Bernardi, Coach Kennedy, Coach Evans was already here, and we would try to recruit those people to come here, but you know, we didn't have to talk them into it.

I had one coach from a school—the colors are red and white; I won't say what the name of the school is—who called me and wanted a job here. I go, "Why do you want to come here? You're at a good school." And he goes, "Everybody wants to come and dance with the homecoming queen." That's the way they saw Valparaiso: as the epic school, the greatest school, the best facility. They had the nicest uniforms. They traveled well. They were coached well, behaved well, and were winners.

And that's how you're perceived. And the alumni that will come to the game tomorrow night—you guys will be paying attention to the field, I hope. But your parents and other people will see guys that show up there in tattered old Viking letter jackets from the '50s and the '60s.

They come to one game, the homecoming game.

We had our class reunion, and a guy had his 1972—still wearing his letter jacket. Yours will hang in the closet for a while. Those are the kind of things that, in the parade tomorrow, the people will be standing along on their front porches. They'll be of all ages. And it'll just give them a little bit of a memory of what it was like back when they were in school. And they'll chuckle over—maybe they had a bad day like I did. But they'll remember winning the game and playing it hard and developing the friendships.

So I got one last story since you've been such an attentive audience.

So about 15 years ago, another guy from a red and white school—we were at Tony's, which was a sweet spot to go after the game for pizza and camaraderie and everything else. So we were down there, and this guy, real nice guy, kids went to school here, great community, still lives here in town.

He, for some reason, was starting to tell this group of people about his glory days at the red and white school. He was a quarterback there. He said, "God, we had a good team back then. We were beating everybody. Life was good. I was a great quarterback. We were setting records. Then we came over and played Valparaiso."

He goes, "You wouldn't believe it. The first quarter, I threw a screen pass, and the defensive end intercepted it and ran for a touchdown." Well, about six of us were standing there, and we started to get a little bit of a smile on our faces. And he goes, "Then, I was back—they sacked me twice, once for a safety," and our smiles got a little bigger. Well, he got intercepted twice more, he fumbled, Vikings win big over the red and white school. By the time he got done telling the story, when he looked at us, he knew.

Guess who the opponents were that he was talking about?

Our grade. Our classmates.

So I apologized and said, "I'm really sorry I intercepted that ball for a touchdown." And he used some language that I can't even tell you.

So those are the memories that you're developing now. I appreciate you listening to me and hearing some of these things out there. Most of these stories will have had some degree of truth to them. But don't fact-check me on it, alright?

Good luck tomorrow night. And we had a phrase that we used—we never put it on T-shirts, we didn't put it on our website or anything—but it was very simple: kick ass with class. Pick name, pick number, and after the game you're going to shake hands and they're going to thank you for kicking their butt.

Alright, good luck tomorrow night.

Beat Crown Point