Being in a giving mood helped the Indiana boys beat Ohio for a third straight year in the 20th annual Nancy Rehm/Border Wars Classic on Saturday.At the beginning of his high school career, Zac Van De Water wanted to avoid some drama. It proved to be unavoidable, though, at the end.
The Whitko senior grew up in Warsaw being home-schooled and even spent a season playing at Edgewood Middle School, but when it came time for high school he went east to South Whitley and played four years with the Wildcats.
“I knew coach (Rob) Irwin pretty well, and there was some drama at Warsaw, so I tried to avoid it all and stay out of it,” he said of choosing Whitko.
In January, Irwin, also the school’s athletic director, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and missed a couple of weeks.
“We handled it pretty well,” Van De Water said. “We always stayed positive, and we always played hard. We tried to do what we could. We had coach (Mike) Kline coming in, and he did a good job. He was always trying to keep things the same.
“Of course we were upset and worried for (Irwin). We tried to stay in touch with him and keep playing for him. He didn’t like the attention. He just wanted us to get our stuff done and not worry about it. It is way different not having your coach there, and Coach is so vocal.”
Van De Water also saw how the situation affected junior Logan Irwin, Rob’s son, who became the school’s all-time leading scorer by going over 1,500 career points while averaging 25 pointsper game.
“He was fine,” Van De Water said of Logan. “You could tell it was in his head a little. But Logan is Logan, and he always does his thing. I thought he handled it well.”
Van De Water, an Indiana Wesleyan recruit, was a solid contributor for Whitko, averaging 15.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2 assists per game and earned a spot on the Indiana team for Saturday’s Nancy Rehm Border Wars Classic.
Van De Water finished with 1,043 career points, becoming the ninth player in school history to go over 1,000 points. He was named a team captain the last two years and was voted the team MVP as a senior.
The all-star game gives the 6-foot-5 shooting guard a chance to reunite with Warsaw senior and 2011 Mr. Basketball runner-up Nic Moore, who played the season at Edgewood with Van De Water (who took one class at Edgewood to be eligible to play basketball).
