This correction goes out to Baldwin & Company

Posted

Most of the time in newspapers, when a reporter/editor or balding owner makes a mistake, you get something buried in the bottom of page three off the valuable front page, but plausible.

Not me.

I screwed up.

So we're gonna throw it front and center. Right here with ma' face on it.

On February 1, I wrote that Holy Trinity was closing in on a school record for wins, and in about four minutes I knew something was wrong.

I trusted the website Quik Stats Iowa, to pull my season best record for Holy Trinity Catholic's girls basketball team. I searched all the way back to 2006-07 and, for some reason, the most wins it showed was 14 in the 2014-15 season under current head coach Tony Johnson.

I now, officially on record, hate that website. I didn't like it a lot to begin with because it's only updated about once a week, and it's dependent on state coaches and staff entering data. Then there's the subjectivity of all that jazz, too, and schedule entries are, on occasion, incorrect.

But one glaring error comes at 2007-08, when your Holy Trinity Crusaders, coached by Jay Baldwin, went to the state tournament. Quik Stats shows just one win and one game. Me, being the enigma in boots with a camera bag that might as well be called a purse (I have gum, tissues and a form of lip balm in there...I swear I do), I assumed that was the year Marquette and Aquinas joined, so technically it wasn't HTC for the whole year.

My story posted to Facebook and the families and girls from the HTC teams from 2005-2008 started blowing up the feed. I tossed the phone on the bed and slooowly backed away. Bzzzz....Bzzzzz....Bzzzzz.

I quickly realized that something wasn't right and hooked up with the affable Baldwin, whom I knew coached the girls at some point. (Whom am I kidding, at this point I wasn't really sure of anything).

He indicated that apparently something happened to Quik Stats Iowa years back and information was lost and has not yet been recovered.

In addition to only showing one game in the 2007-08 schedule, they have nothing for the 2006-07 schedule. The name Holy Trinity Catholic wasn't even there, again reaffirming my incorrect assumption that there was no HTC that year. Well, the Crusaders went 22-3 that year.

Have I indicated that I don't like that website anymore?

In 2007-08 Quik Stats Iowa shows HTC with one win. That team had 1 LOSS....all year. (I'd use an exclamation point here but a burly, grumpy editor once told me I get seven of those in my career, so I'm saving it).

The Crusaders went 26-0 prior to the state tournament that year (and they weren't even the top seed, talk about metro bias). Apparently, Lady Crusaders that could hit a volleyball, don't get me started on that, transitioned well into basketball - a feat not so easy considering the state volleyball tournament cuts into the front side of the basketball season and the girls need a little downtime. So Baldwin and company were inherently behind the eight ball going into the season.

That year, southeast Iowa was rich with top-shelf basketball talent, with ranked teams sprinkled all over the area. The 2007-08 Lady Crusaders knocked off ranked Harmony in the first game of districts and then beat Maharish, also ranked by 27, bounced Melcher-Dallas by 26 and then slipped ranked New London by a bucket 51-49 to get the state tournament.

So I spent some time doing some research, because I don't want to go, again, down the dark, swallowing hole that is inaccuracy.

I found out that apparently senior Sara Fedler can shoot some hoops and led a juggernaut of an offense that had five players hovering around double digit scoring averages for the year. That's almost unheard of.

Fedler averaged 16.2 points per outing that year and Emily Fullenkamp averaged 10.4, but the three other starters, Megan Wagner, Cameron Wilkens, and Jessica Panther were all very close to averaging double figures with each at about 9.5 points per game.

What's even more ridiculous about that team is that three players averaged more than seven rebounds per game, and Julie Garmoe came off the bench and hauled in five boards per outing and scored five points.

The Crusaders averaged 57 points per game that year

HTC's Tom Gendron came over finger waggling at me after a game last week while I was trying to beg for mercy from Baldwin. Jay's a standup guy, and was laughing with me about it. I tried to explain that it was all the website's fault, but it wasn't.

We are responsible for what we report. So to Jay and staff, and the team of Sara, Megan, Emily, Cameron, Jessica, Ashley Harvey, Ashley Steffensmeier, Caitlin, Lindsey, (she's my favorite...she's a Vandenberg), Abby, Susan, Tam, Julie, Shannon, and Lauren....I ask your forgiveness.

To Tony Johnson & Co. congratulations on your winningest season at HTC with 15 wins ...and counting? I'm sure I got that right, but that's Beside the Point.

2008, beside the point, Chuck Vandenberg, girls basketball, Holy Trinity Catholic, iowa

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