Wildcat hall of fame bulks up with three additions
May 11, 2021 at 9:38 p.m.
Wildcat hall of fame bulks up with three additions
By Will Fehlinger-
Charles “Chuck” Grimes, Steve Wewe and Mark Foster are the latest to be inducted into the Franklin County High School Athletic Hall of Fame, following Friday night’s ceremony that was postponed last spring.
An array of former and current players and family members filled the FCHS Auditorium to hear reflections on what was referred to more than once as the school’s “heyday” in athletics, from the high school’s opening in fall 1989 to roughly 2000.
Grimes directed athletics all those years, after serving at Brookville High School in the same capacity in the 1980s.
“His fingerprints are all over this school,” said his presenter and Hall-of-Famer Wes Gillman.
Indeed, Grimes is credited with designing the FC logo and letter jackets and registering a trademark for both the logo and Wildcat mascot. He also established the “Wall of Fame” to supplement the Hall inductees.
He was AD during a period that boasted 24 Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference championships, 34 sectional titles, 12 regional crowns, a pair of state finalist teams, the school’s lone state champion (wrestler Todd Sacksteder) and the state’s first Mr. Football (Alex Smith, HOF).
Grimes spoke briefly to close the evening, recognizing past school officials – Ray Amrhein, Don Jobe, Tim Heller – for sage advice in his early years on the job. “Everybody eats a quart of dirt before they die,” Amrhein had told him.
“So, you take the pain, swallow it, learn from it and that’s how you succeed,” said Grimes. “I was so immersed in the job … if you’re going to do a job, do it right.”
He realized how much it took after wife Jennifer (51 yrs.) inquired when he would finally get back into teaching. His answer: “After a good solid 15 years.” Her response: “Next year will be your 18th.”
Grimes ended by paraphrasing Abe Lincoln’s “The presidency is a splendid misery.”
“I loved it, I’m glad I did it; it was a splendid misery and I thank you.”
Sacksteder, kicking the inductions off by introducing Wewe, had commended Grimes for sticking so long in a tough job. Brad Stacy, currently the assistant AD, thanked Grimes for giving him his first shot as head basketball coach.
Wewe labeled the year 1986 as the start of something big for the high school. Greg Moe had been hired as the next BHS football coach and introduced youth leagues to the county. Around the same time, then head wrestling coach Bill Froman and assistants Wewe and Brice Sayne started the Franklin County Wrestling Club. The feeder programs started bearing fruit as the Class of 1991 entered the secondary ranks.
One of these was Sacksteder, introduced to wrestling by Wewe as a 6th grader.
“We probably had 200 kids in those (wrestling) clubs, which is hard to imagine convincing so many kids and parents,” recalled the Hall of Famer Sacksteder.
“We wrestled every Saturday for years and years.
“I tried to count up all the years he coached, and I think he coached for 75 years,” he said to a round of laughter.
On a more personal note, Sacksteder called Wewe a special person in his life.
“To be honest, I would not have done the things I’ve done without this guy in my life,” he added. “He pushed me and made me fall in love with wrestling.”
Wewe, in turn, praised Sacksteder, his teammates and succeeding athletes because “they made our jobs easier.”
“It was a great time to be a coach,” acknowledged Wewe, who took over for Froman in 1991-92 until 2000. Many of those years were also spent as an assistant football coach and defensive coordinator.
As Froman’s assistant in 1990-91, Wewe helped guide five wrestlers to the state finals – from a team ranked first in the state throughout much of the year. Along with Sacksteder, Hall of Famer Doug Deters finished as state runner-up and later succeeded Wewe as head coach.
During his tenure as head mentor, Wewe won an impressive 18 titles in conference or postseason action. He sent 11 athletes to state.
“That truly shows the dedication the guy’s had for the community and FC athletics,” said Sacksteder.
Wewe had humorous stories about both Todd, a former AD at the school, and current AD Denny Dorrel.
In the fall of 1987, he was working with the BHS freshmen on the gridiron, a team that went unbeaten. Sacksteder was called on as an emergency quarterback when starter (and Hall of Famer) Brian Bischoff got hurt.
Playing East Central for a second time, the team leaned on the run game. But Todd begged to throw and throw he did, twice completing passes to the Trojan secondary. “He was 2-for-2 in his quarterback career,” said Wewe. “We did end up winning the game on a halfback pass … by Chad Evans.”
Dorrel came to Wewe as a green freshman, playing defensive end in preparation for Lawrenceburg. His charge was to yell “Reverse” across the line to his fellow DE when a man went in motion; the first time, Dorrel said nothing. So, they ran the play again late in practice.
“Mr. Dorrel finally said something, ‘there he goes, there he goes,’” said Wewe. “He turned out to be a pretty good football player.”
Dorrel was one of a lineup of former players, wrestlers and coaches – including Wewe’s role model, Froman, and Wewe’s own two sons – who graced the stage in a nice “Mr. Holland” moment.
Wewe also thanked his wife Cheryl and noted it was great to be included in the Hall with coaches like Jim Hughes, Jeff Siebert and George Smith.
Bill Wade called Foster “the big dog” during the 11 years he coached boys golf. Former coach Vic Hauberg implored Wade to get Foster on the golf team as a freshman. Easier said than done, as Mark was invested in baseball.
“I don’t care whether you go out for golf, but if you do come out, I can see golf helping you in the future more than baseball,” Wade had told Foster.
Foster called it a tough decision, but one he doesn’t regret.
“There’s a difference between hitting a small white ball in the grass that’s not moving and a bigger white ball moving a lot quicker that suddenly starts curving,” he quipped. “I found out I was better hitting the one that did not move.”
Foster ended up as 3-time team MVP, 3-time all-EIAC (one conference MVP) and 2-time regional qualifier. He also convinced football buddies like Geremy Graf and Brandon Erfman to join, the team eventually improving enough to win conference in 1996.
“That was absolutely unheard of for Franklin County,” said Foster. “Every year, it was the country clubbers at Batesville and Greensburg winning. But we got them to come here, and we defeated them. It was awesome.”
Foster shot an 80 at the Seymour Regional in 1995 and returned a year later with teammate Michael Wilhelm. Between practice rounds and rainouts, the golfers spent nearly a week in Seymour.
Finally, it cleared up and “Mark gets hot,” said Wade. The coach remembers Foster needing a 4 on the 18th hole to qualify for state, but also remembers a steep slope on the green that put Foster into a 4-way playoff. He finished third among the foursome.
Foster also totaled 796 points as a shooting guard in basketball and averaged 22 points as a senior. He ribbed good friend and former teammate Gillman: “It should have been 1,000 points except I played with Wes … it would have been nicer if he’d passed to me a little bit more.”
He also thanked his parents for golf lessons and driving to various events over the years. Foster proceeded to play both sports at Marian College, when he was team golf MVP in 1999.
There are now 21 members of the school’s hall of fame.
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Charles “Chuck” Grimes, Steve Wewe and Mark Foster are the latest to be inducted into the Franklin County High School Athletic Hall of Fame, following Friday night’s ceremony that was postponed last spring.
An array of former and current players and family members filled the FCHS Auditorium to hear reflections on what was referred to more than once as the school’s “heyday” in athletics, from the high school’s opening in fall 1989 to roughly 2000.
Grimes directed athletics all those years, after serving at Brookville High School in the same capacity in the 1980s.
“His fingerprints are all over this school,” said his presenter and Hall-of-Famer Wes Gillman.
Indeed, Grimes is credited with designing the FC logo and letter jackets and registering a trademark for both the logo and Wildcat mascot. He also established the “Wall of Fame” to supplement the Hall inductees.
He was AD during a period that boasted 24 Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference championships, 34 sectional titles, 12 regional crowns, a pair of state finalist teams, the school’s lone state champion (wrestler Todd Sacksteder) and the state’s first Mr. Football (Alex Smith, HOF).
Grimes spoke briefly to close the evening, recognizing past school officials – Ray Amrhein, Don Jobe, Tim Heller – for sage advice in his early years on the job. “Everybody eats a quart of dirt before they die,” Amrhein had told him.
“So, you take the pain, swallow it, learn from it and that’s how you succeed,” said Grimes. “I was so immersed in the job … if you’re going to do a job, do it right.”
He realized how much it took after wife Jennifer (51 yrs.) inquired when he would finally get back into teaching. His answer: “After a good solid 15 years.” Her response: “Next year will be your 18th.”
Grimes ended by paraphrasing Abe Lincoln’s “The presidency is a splendid misery.”
“I loved it, I’m glad I did it; it was a splendid misery and I thank you.”
Sacksteder, kicking the inductions off by introducing Wewe, had commended Grimes for sticking so long in a tough job. Brad Stacy, currently the assistant AD, thanked Grimes for giving him his first shot as head basketball coach.
Wewe labeled the year 1986 as the start of something big for the high school. Greg Moe had been hired as the next BHS football coach and introduced youth leagues to the county. Around the same time, then head wrestling coach Bill Froman and assistants Wewe and Brice Sayne started the Franklin County Wrestling Club. The feeder programs started bearing fruit as the Class of 1991 entered the secondary ranks.
One of these was Sacksteder, introduced to wrestling by Wewe as a 6th grader.
“We probably had 200 kids in those (wrestling) clubs, which is hard to imagine convincing so many kids and parents,” recalled the Hall of Famer Sacksteder.
“We wrestled every Saturday for years and years.
“I tried to count up all the years he coached, and I think he coached for 75 years,” he said to a round of laughter.
On a more personal note, Sacksteder called Wewe a special person in his life.
“To be honest, I would not have done the things I’ve done without this guy in my life,” he added. “He pushed me and made me fall in love with wrestling.”
Wewe, in turn, praised Sacksteder, his teammates and succeeding athletes because “they made our jobs easier.”
“It was a great time to be a coach,” acknowledged Wewe, who took over for Froman in 1991-92 until 2000. Many of those years were also spent as an assistant football coach and defensive coordinator.
As Froman’s assistant in 1990-91, Wewe helped guide five wrestlers to the state finals – from a team ranked first in the state throughout much of the year. Along with Sacksteder, Hall of Famer Doug Deters finished as state runner-up and later succeeded Wewe as head coach.
During his tenure as head mentor, Wewe won an impressive 18 titles in conference or postseason action. He sent 11 athletes to state.
“That truly shows the dedication the guy’s had for the community and FC athletics,” said Sacksteder.
Wewe had humorous stories about both Todd, a former AD at the school, and current AD Denny Dorrel.
In the fall of 1987, he was working with the BHS freshmen on the gridiron, a team that went unbeaten. Sacksteder was called on as an emergency quarterback when starter (and Hall of Famer) Brian Bischoff got hurt.
Playing East Central for a second time, the team leaned on the run game. But Todd begged to throw and throw he did, twice completing passes to the Trojan secondary. “He was 2-for-2 in his quarterback career,” said Wewe. “We did end up winning the game on a halfback pass … by Chad Evans.”
Dorrel came to Wewe as a green freshman, playing defensive end in preparation for Lawrenceburg. His charge was to yell “Reverse” across the line to his fellow DE when a man went in motion; the first time, Dorrel said nothing. So, they ran the play again late in practice.
“Mr. Dorrel finally said something, ‘there he goes, there he goes,’” said Wewe. “He turned out to be a pretty good football player.”
Dorrel was one of a lineup of former players, wrestlers and coaches – including Wewe’s role model, Froman, and Wewe’s own two sons – who graced the stage in a nice “Mr. Holland” moment.
Wewe also thanked his wife Cheryl and noted it was great to be included in the Hall with coaches like Jim Hughes, Jeff Siebert and George Smith.
Bill Wade called Foster “the big dog” during the 11 years he coached boys golf. Former coach Vic Hauberg implored Wade to get Foster on the golf team as a freshman. Easier said than done, as Mark was invested in baseball.
“I don’t care whether you go out for golf, but if you do come out, I can see golf helping you in the future more than baseball,” Wade had told Foster.
Foster called it a tough decision, but one he doesn’t regret.
“There’s a difference between hitting a small white ball in the grass that’s not moving and a bigger white ball moving a lot quicker that suddenly starts curving,” he quipped. “I found out I was better hitting the one that did not move.”
Foster ended up as 3-time team MVP, 3-time all-EIAC (one conference MVP) and 2-time regional qualifier. He also convinced football buddies like Geremy Graf and Brandon Erfman to join, the team eventually improving enough to win conference in 1996.
“That was absolutely unheard of for Franklin County,” said Foster. “Every year, it was the country clubbers at Batesville and Greensburg winning. But we got them to come here, and we defeated them. It was awesome.”
Foster shot an 80 at the Seymour Regional in 1995 and returned a year later with teammate Michael Wilhelm. Between practice rounds and rainouts, the golfers spent nearly a week in Seymour.
Finally, it cleared up and “Mark gets hot,” said Wade. The coach remembers Foster needing a 4 on the 18th hole to qualify for state, but also remembers a steep slope on the green that put Foster into a 4-way playoff. He finished third among the foursome.
Foster also totaled 796 points as a shooting guard in basketball and averaged 22 points as a senior. He ribbed good friend and former teammate Gillman: “It should have been 1,000 points except I played with Wes … it would have been nicer if he’d passed to me a little bit more.”
He also thanked his parents for golf lessons and driving to various events over the years. Foster proceeded to play both sports at Marian College, when he was team golf MVP in 1999.
There are now 21 members of the school’s hall of fame.
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