GREENFIELD — The love of the game has taken some former area high school basketball standouts all the way to the NCAA tournament.
As the calendar turns, March Madness begins, and that includes the NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships. Both tournaments get underway today.
“No one is holding a scholarship over our head and forcing us to be here,” said DePauw University junior Natalie Kehrt, who played for her father, Brian Kehrt, at New Palestine High School. “We play because we love the game and want to succeed.”
There are need-based financial aid packages that help with the cost of an NCAA Division III college education, but there are no athletic scholarships.
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Kehrt is one of four former Hancock County stars playing this weekend. She is a starting guard and playing in the tournament for the third straight year. DePauw is 24-4 and ranked No. 19 in the country. DePauw plays Loras College today at a neutral site in Oshkosh, Wis.
Shaely Duff is a senior forward at Trine University. She was part of Mt. Vernon’s 2013 Class 3A state championship team and has been having similar success at Trine. After not making the tournament her first season in Angola, Ind., Duff and the Thunder are NCAA-bound for the third straight year. They will take on Emory at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Ky.
Trine reached the Sweet 16 last year and come into this tournament 25-2 and ranked No. 5 by d3hoops.com. She’s been a key reserve at Trine in each of her four seasons.
On the men’s side, former Greenfield-Central Cougar Blake Robertson is another three-time NCAA tournament veteran. He plays at Hanover College. Though his playing time has been limited with the veteran Hanover team, Eastern Hancock’s all-time leading scorer, Addison True, is a freshman teammate of Robertson.
The Panthers are playing Wheaton (Ill.) in Wooster, Ohio.
“You play for the love of the game,” Robertson said. “I have class all day from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Practice starts at 2:30, I go eat and have homework all night. During the season, it’s a grind, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“It speaks a lot for everyone that plays at the D-III level. It’s a job balancing school work and it took me awhile to learn how to balance, but it’s been beneficial to me and my time management.”
They’ve all been busy on the basketball court and in the classroom. Robertson is majoring in Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, with a minor in Psychology. Duff is on her way to earning a degree in Chemical Engineering. She changed her major and will have one more year of schooling after her basketball career finishes. Kehrt is also majoring in Kinesiology.
“I like the idea that I’m at a small school and being able to do big things in the classroom and on the court,” Kehrt said.
It has been a satisfying combination of school and basketball for Duff, too.
"It can be hard at times, but one of the advantage of Division III is the classes are smaller and you get to know your professors on a personal level," she said. "We left Thursday (for our tournament game) and the professors have been great. It’s a lot of work, but they help by working around our schedule."
Only Duff had equivalent success in high school. Kehrt, Robertson and True played on good teams at their high schools, but weren’t able to get that coveted sectional trophy that all Indiana basketball players strive to attain.
“Growing up as a kid, you dream of playing in games like this,” said Robertson, whose Panthers reached the Elite 8 in his freshman season.
This season, he has started all 27 games for the 21-6 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference champions.
“Everybody else in our conference has cleared out their locker," he said. "To be able to do this three years in a row shows how good of a program we have here.”
The goals are big for all three teams. Trine and DePauw are nationally-ranked, while Hanover has experienced recent success in tournament play.
"It’s been an honor to be part of a team that has worked hard and had so much success," Duff said. "It’s fun playing with girls that are determined to work hard and get better every day."
They are all coming off conference tournament championships, but the goals and prizes are bigger at the national level.
“It’s been super awesome,” Kehrt said of her time and tournament success at DePauw. “All of us are working for the same goal. At this level, everyone on this team is dreaming the same dream and that’s to be a national champion.”
