Deron Newland is now a member of the 1,000-point club at Indian Lake, news that was announced to him 35 years after his Laker basketball career ended.
Newland, who graduated from Indian Lake in 1985, was not aware of his final point total when he left high school. Neither was anyone else at the school.
A coaching change after Newland’s sophomore season resulted in the absence of the scorebook, which left no evidence of the stats recorded that year.
Newland went on to have two more strong seasons for the Lakers — he scored 730 points over his junior and senior campaigns — before heading off to Bluffton College where he continued his basketball career.
At the time he departed ILHS, he thought he ended up close to the 1,000-point mark, but without the scorebook from his sophomore season, there was no official declaration of the achievement.
Decades passed without Newland’s jersey on the wall of the Indian Lake gymnasium despite many other players having their numbers placed there after hitting the 1,000-point mark.
Thanks to many hours of research done by current Indian Lake boys coach Zach Overturf, it was discovered that Newland was indeed a 1,000-point scorer.
“I actually started this last year when Austin Parker scored 39 against Ben Logan,” said Overturf. “People thought that was the record for points in a game. I had no idea. So I decided to go back through all individual, team and coach records … Long story short, I just wanted to give credit where credit was due with all of our records in the program.”
Overturf pored over newspaper articles and his research determined that with the points Newland scored as a sophomore, his career total was 1,022.
“It’s humbling, no doubt about that,” said Newland, who has served as an assistant coach for the Indian Lake boys hoops program. “You don’t get awards without teammates and coaches. Although this looks like an individual award, it’s very much a team award. It’s very humbling after this many years.”
Overturf wanted to make sure Newland received the proper recognition he deserved, so he had a jersey cutout made to go on the gym wall along with the presentation of a basketball displaying Newland’s name and point total.
Newland stopped by a Laker practice this week to pose with his hardware.