Answers were tough to find

If only there was an Elias Sports Bureau for Patriot athletics.
Elias is the organization sports fans hear referenced frequently on ESPN’s SportsCenter and other similar shows. If there’s an obscure record or odd reference about the first time something happened on a certain day in June when the temperature was above 90 degrees and a Republican was president, Elias is the source.
Unfortunately, there is no such organization for Jay County High School athletics.
Readers came up with a variety of interesting questions this month, but most of them are just not that easy to research or have a variety of complicated factors involved. In some cases, records just weren’t kept.
But I’ll do the best I can with the information I was able to find. Here we go.
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What Jay County point guard had the best career assist to turnover ratio, minimum 100 assists?
—Chris Snow, Portland

Unfortunately Chris, these numbers do not seem to exist. The assist stats are available, but the turnovers are a different story.
So the best I can do today is name the Patriots’ all-time assist leaders.
Coming in at No. 1 is 2007 JCHS graduate Scott “Scooter” Bruggeman. The point guard from the 2006 state runner-up squad finished his career with 335 assists.
Following him are Heath Williams (321), Mark McEwen (316) and Ben Reinhart (304). Classmates Kegan Comer (296) and Brock McFarland (284), both 2013 graduates, are fifth and sixth on the list.
Bill Bentz holds the mark for assists in a season with 137, while Dan Dirksen, father of current Patriots Justin and Adam Dirksen, holds the single-game record of 15.
What strikes me is that so many of the career assist leaders also rank highly on the all-time scoring list, including McFarland at No. 1. McEwen is No. 3, Comer No. 10 and Bruggeman and Reinhart are in the top 25.
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How much do individual JCHS sports programs cost to run and how much revenue does each generate? Are any of the programs self-sustaining and which ones have the worst deficits?
—Steve Garbacz,
Greenwood

It all depends on how these figures are calculated.
Do I include the addition of a second level to the football press box, labor for cleaning up the gym after a basketball game and time spent mowing the baseball and softball fields?
In Jay School Corporation, lighting for fields, building of facilities and other similar items are part of the capital projects budget and aren’t funded or decided by the athletics department. So for the purposes of this question, we will look at how much money each sport brings in with ticket sales and whether that covers basic costs (officials, scoring software, equipment, uniforms and transportation). And we’ll use 2013-14 numbers, though ticket sales fluctuate from year-to-year based on scheduling, weather and other factors.
Football brings in by far the most money of all teams in terms of ticket sales, reaching more than $20,000 last year. The boys basketball ($12,700), girls basketball ($5,700) and volleyball ($4,500) teams follow, and each of those sports makes enough money to cover its basic costs and help support other squads.
The only other program that is self-sufficient is wrestling.
Swimming, gymnastics, baseball, softball, soccer and track are able to cover some, but not all, of their own expenses. No admission is charged for tennis, golf and cross country events.
The department also brings in money through the sale of super and season tickets — $32,700 in 2013-14 — and teams can run concessions stands at home events to help cover expenses.
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What is the highest team ranking that a Jay County team has had in a statewide poll?
—Jan Simmons,
Portland

This question proved the most difficult to research. But the following is what I was able to find. (If readers have more information, please send it along and I’ll be happy to include it in next month’s column.)
The top ranking is shared by the 2006-07 Patriot boys basketball team and the 2008 baseball team. Both topped out at No. 5, with boys basketball in Class 3A and baseball in Class 4A.
That boys basketball team, coming off of a trip to the state finals in 2006, opened 6-0 to climb to its highest ranking. It finished the regular season at 16-4 and won the sectional title before being upset by Tippecanoe Valley in the regional semifinal round.
The baseball team was 13-1 and had already broken the school’s home run record when it climbed to No. 5. It went on to hit 65 homers, third-most in state history, but dropped a heartbreaker to Homestead on a walk-off grand slam in the sectional title game.
A year later, the Jay County girls basketball team reached the No. 6 spot in the Class 4A poll during its undefeated regular season.
As for earlier days, the highest ranking I was able to locate when Indiana still employed a single-class system was No. 9 for the 1987-88 boys basketball team. That squad famously upset top-ranked Richmond, but lost to Delta in the sectional semifinal.
The 1986-87 wrestling team was ranked 10th on multiple occasions and went on to finish third in the state behind state championships from Geoff Glogas and David Ferguson.