INDIANAPOLIS â Fifty-three seasons and over 1,100 games.
Never absent, never unavailable.
Every. Single. Contest.
Keith Nuest, a 1961 Kouts grad, has spent more than half of his life as his alma mater s boys basketball statistician.
On Saturday, the 78-year-old was finally able to see the Mustangs play for their first state title at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Of course, he was keeping stats. You can count on him just like you can count on paying taxes every year, Kouts coach Kevin Duzan said. He s always going to answer the bell, and he s always going to be there.
Prior to the Mustangs Class A state final appearance, which ended in a 64-48 loss to Barre-Reeve, I spoke to Keith about his labor of love, which has helped him become a walking, talking almanac for not only Kouts but several other schools around Porter County and the Region.
Kouts, making its first state final appearance, had its chances against Barr-Reeve in the Class A state championship Saturday morning at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. After the Mustangs missed all six of their 3-point attempts in the first half, senior twins Cale and Cole Wireman jump-started the team in the third quarter.
Cale opened the period with a corner 3 in front of Kouts bench, and a few moments later Cole drained back-to-back 3-pointers to keep the Mustangs within striking distance. It just came to the fact that we had to just start shooting the ball and not think about it, Cale said. Once we hit two or three (shots) I thought, Well, we just need to keep shooting and keep in rhythm and we could easily win this game.
KOUTSÂ â Kouts was right there.
Sophomore guard Matthew Baker drained a corner 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the third quarter to cut Andrean s lead down to one point heading into the final period on Wednesday night. The Mustangs fans, though limited due to COVID-19, cheered loudly in their home gym as their team inched closer to a potential upset.
It didn t happen.
Another test for the Mustangs and another shortcoming.
This time, however, the loss didn t mark the end of the their season. Instead, it represents an opportunity for the team to improve on its quest for respect. The conversation after the game was that we knew what we were walking into with Andrean, Cale Wireman said. That s why we played them and played in the (Wabash Valley Classic). We want to play teams that are going to push us. . No one is going hang their head on our team because we knew we might take some losses by (playing a stiffer schedule), but it s going to make us better and help us re