<p><strong>A</strong>t the beginning of the classic movie “Hoosiers,” ex-equipment manager Ollie gives a self-deprecating explanation for why he hadn’t been on the Hickory basketball team all along.</p>
<p>“Too short, and I’m not no good,” he said shyly.</p>
<p>There is roughly a less than zero percent chance that Isaac Ebeyer would say something like that about himself.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>The diminutive Whiteland senior — who was listed as 5-foot-3 and 120 pounds during football season but got bumped up to 5-4 on the basketball roster — has managed to enjoy a successful year in three sports despite often being a full head shorter than his opposition.</p>
<p>“I just look at sports a different way,” Ebeyer said. “Other people use their height as an advantage, and I actually use being short as an advantage.”</p>
<p>Forced to look up to the rest of the competition for most of his life, Ebeyer decided to turn a liability into an asset — and it’s paid off. He played a large role as a cornerback on the Warriors’ football team and provided some consistent minutes off the bench in basketball as well. In the spring, he’s one of Whiteland’s top golfers.</p>
<p>On the surface, playing football would seem like an impossible task for someone so undersized, but Ebeyer made it work. He made 29 tackles, 24 of those solo stops, in the fall, adding a blocked field goal and his second career interception.</p>
<p>Whiteland football coach Darrin Fisher attributed Ebeyer’s success to a healthy dose of moxie, as well as a knack for being in the right place at the right time.</p>
<p>“He understands football,” Fisher said. “He plays angles well, he understands body position really well, and his knowledge of the game allows him to anticipate things.”</p>
<p>When it came to making tackles against bigger players, Ebeyer says he tried to make use of every tool imaginable.</p>
<p>He took advantage of whatever leverage he could — low man wins — by going after an opponent’s legs. When that didn’t work, he tried whatever else he could.</p>
<p>“I use my shoulder a lot. And my head — it probably wasn’t good to use my head,” he admitted with a shrug.</p>
<p>On the basketball court, Ebeyer did most of his offensive damage from the outside; all 15 points he scored in 21 games this past winter came on 3-pointers. But he certainly wasn’t afraid to mix it up with the big guys, and Whiteland coach Matt Wadsworth was proud of how well he held his own on the defensive end, largely by utilizing the same mental advantage he used on the gridiron.</p>
<p>“When teams saw him walk on the court, they saw a mismatch because of his height,” Wadsworth said. “Rarely were his opponents ever able to exploit that mismatch.”</p>
<p>Ebeyer says that he learned how to use his entire body to his advantage while wrestling in middle school. He probably could have enjoyed some success in that sport going against athletes his own size at the high school level — he won a county title in the 80-pound weight class as an eighth-grader — but he said that “basketball has always had my heart.”</p>
<p>Even on the golf course, Ebeyer’s lack of size works against him in some ways; he’s not able to generate as much distance off the tee as many other players are. But much like he did in football and basketball, he finds a way to negate any disadvantages.</p>
<p>“I just use my smarts more,” he said. “People can hit the ball farther than me in every single match, but I don’t let that faze me. I just go out there and play my game, and if it’s not enough, it’s not enough. But normally, I play smart enough where I can get it done.”</p>
<p>Ebeyer has managed to push through any negative stereotype that might have led players on other teams to dismiss him, and he’s done the same with his coaches.</p>
<p>Fisher admitted that Ebeyer probably had to do more to earn a spot in the lineup than a bigger player would have had to do — but whatever extra something needed to be done, Ebeyer did it.</p>
<p>There simply was no denying him.</p>
<p>“His persistence, I think, is what you notice most in practice,” Fisher said. “It wasn’t like he had one good day; he had a lot of good days in a row. And you can’t ignore somebody that performs on a regular basis. … He proved it every day.</p>
<p>“A lot of people say, ‘Put me in the game and I’ll show you what I can do.’ His attitude was, ‘I’m going to show you what I can do in practice so you’ll put me in the game. … You have to play me, because I’m going to show you in practice.’ That’s Isaac Ebeyer.”</p>
<p>Disadvantages are in the eye of the beholder, and Ebeyer has never seen himself as being at a disadvantage. Good luck trying to convince him otherwise.</p>
