Indians hunt for first title

By Dustin Kent

Published: March 15, 2008

A year after coming up one win short of the school’s first-ever national championship, the Chipola Indians are heading back to Kansas for another shot at national glory.
The Florida state champions began their journey from Marianna to Hutchinson, Kan., Saturday and will open first-round play of the NJCAA tournament Tuesday against Seward County at 6:30 p.m.
The nation’s No. 2-ranked team didn’t seem nervous at Friday’s afternoon practice, the final one of the season for the 2007-08 version of the Indians.
“I would say we’re very focused, but also very relaxed,” Chipola coach Greg Heiar said Friday. “These guys have a great understanding of this being a business trip for us.  They’re all bought into our system and the plan we come up with.
“I don’t think they’re feeling any pressure. The only pressure you feel is the pressure you put on yourself.”
Chipola made it all the way to the title game last year before losing 95-74 to Midland.
Only two Indian players who played in last year’s national tournament are on this year’s team.
Sophomore Mario Little, the Panhandle Conference Player of the Year this season, said he remembers the game well.
“You never forget that,” Little said Friday of the heartbreaking loss to Midland. “That’s in the back of everybody’s mind. You remember that you can’t win the national title playing 20-30 minutes. You have to play great for 40.
“I think we took a couple of teams for granted last year and it came back to bite us.”
The Kansas-bound guard-forward said he didn’t anticipate that happening again.
“We’re going up there with a different mindset,” Little said. “Everybody out there won their region like us and they won’t lay down. We have to play hard every possession to win.”
Heiar said he also feels like a different team is heading to Kansas this year.
“I feel a lot different, more relaxed and more focused,” the coach said. “I think when I feel more relaxed and focused, that carries over to the team.
“I don’t think we dealt with adversity well last year and I think that has made us a really good team this year. We’ve played in hostile environments, came back from big deficits with little time on the clock...these guys are tough guys who take a lot of pride in the program.”
They were also, arguably, the best team in the nation during the regular season.
The Indians were ranked preseason No. 1 and spent most of the year in the top spot, losing their first and only game on the road to Panhandle and state runner-up Okaloosa-Walton Feb. 2 after a 24-0 start.
Chipola averaged 85.7 points per game this season, taking advantage of a deep and talented roster that allowed Heiar to rotate 10 or more players regularly.
The Indians also won what many believe to be the toughest conference in America with only one loss.
That has the Indians believing that no challenge they face in Hutchinson will exceed what they’ve already seen during the course of the season.
“We’ve had plenty of hard games and plenty of battles,” Chipola freshman forward Gary Flowers said Friday. “We feel very confident.”
Heiar agreed, noting the team’s primary focus being on simply playing their game, as opposed to worrying about what the opponent will do.
It has been the team’s mantra all season.
“We believe that if we just execute like we’re capable,” Heiar said, “good things will always happen.”
Flowers said he was given encouragement from a recent phone conversation with former Chipola All-American Jamarcus Ellis, now a starter for the Indiana Hoosiers, who led Chipola to its national runner-up finish last season.
“Jamarcus just told me it was time for Chipola to get a ring,” Flowers said. “This is the right team, the time is right and we need to capitalize.”