MERRILLVILLE | Clank. Thud. Boing. Clank. Clank. Clank.
Those six words pretty much describe the way Collin Wojcik's senior season went at Andrean. The 6-foot-4 sharpshooter through his sophomore and junior season couldn't hit a shot throughout this cold winter.
Thankfully, though, spring has sprung.
After shooting over 40 percent from beyond the arc as a sophomore and junior, Wojcik shot just 29.1 percent during this regular season.
"I was in a funk," Wojcik said. "It was frustrating. I thought I was going to have a dominating senior year, but it just didn't happen. When the postseason came I stopped thinking.
"I just wanted to have fun with my friends. We've been playing together forever and I didn't want it to end."
On Saturday, Wojcik and his 59ers (22-3) will play Fort Wayne Concordia (22-4) in the Class 3A Northern Semistate. Without Wojcik's re-found shot, such a thing never would've happened.
Wojcik shot 9-of-14 from beyond the arc at sectionals and was 8-of-10 on Saturday at the Plymouth Regional. Now, the 59ers are one win from playing for it all.
"Plymouth's fire marshal called me and said that Woj can't play there anymore," quipped Andrean coach Carson Cunningham. "He said he was afraid that the place would burn down if Woj kept shooting in there."
Wojcik was a Times Preseason All-Area member after scoring 13.5 points a game for Andrean. He scored 8.2 during the regular season and shot 35 percent from the field.
"When Collin was struggling we had a talk," Cunningham said. "I told him, 'Hey, you're a great person and you've already had a great career. So if you miss a few shots, who cares?'"
Wojcik struggled mightily in a loss against Penn. He had a last-second shot against Munster that rimmed out.
"I lost my confidence," Wojcik said. "So I relaxed and I got it back. It wasn't anything mechanical. It was all inside of me."
Wojcik is getting strong looks from Rose-Hulman, Wabash, Lake Superior State, Eckerd and Brown. But that is in the future. The present is trying to beat Concordia and get to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis next Saturday.
Andrean beat Concordia 77-57 in the 2000 semistate semifinal in a different playoff system. Those 59ers went on to get to the state final.
"We finally got over the regional hump," Wojcik said. "We're looking at the light at the end of the tunnel. We're pretty focused. Concordia is a tough team."
Cunningham concurs.
"We're not isolating the Higgs Boson Particle here, we're just trying to get the apple in the bucket," said Cunningham, a professor at DePaul. "(Concordia)'s long, athletic and good. We've played in a large number of intense games and this will be another one.
"We're trying to get better today and tomorrow and we'll see what happens."
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