NIT 10: The Return of the Mayor
Part I: An (un)expected return boosts Valparaiso as the 2015-16 team travels north to prepare for the upcoming season
The ground was starting to thaw in early April across Northwest Indiana and expectations were heating up for the 2015-16 Valparaiso men’s basketball team.
Long before players transferred on a yearly basis, college basketball rosters were generally set in stone for several years at a time. Valparaiso was coming off an oh-so-close defeat to Maryland in the 2015 NCAA tournament and was expected to return a bulk of its roster, with the exception of starting center Vashil Fernandez and reserve big man David Chadwick.
Both had been honored during a special Senior Night celebration in late February, when Fernandez surprised the Athletics-Recreation Center by dropping to a knee and proposing to Bridget, his longtime girlfriend. Fernandez had spent four years at Valparaiso and was preparing to leave campus as one of the most beloved players in program history. He was always quick to run to the student section after games to celebrate victories and his 6-foot-10 frame made him recognizable all over town.
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If Fernandez wasn’t the unofficial Mayor of Valpo, he was a close second behind Bryce Drew. The former high school and college star who returned to his hometown 10 years earlier to join his alma mater’s coaching staff, and now, entering his fifth season leading the program, Drew was coming off his second trip to the NCAA tournament as a head coach. That kind of success brought overtures from other schools. Mississippi State and Tulsa had courted him in the past and this offseason it was DePaul pursuing the former NBA first-round draft pick.
Much like he had done in previous years, Drew went through the process with DePaul, but ultimately decided to return to Valparaiso.
Drew’s return wasn’t the only one that had people around the ARC buzzing. As players began preparing for spring workouts, there was a growing sense that Valparaiso might not be losing as much as everyone believed, and that something even bigger could be on the horizon.