David Wilkerson was past of the 1987 Indiana All-Star games as a member of the South team.
Submitted photos
Two months shy of his 16th birthday, David Wilkerson had earned the right to jog to second base with glove in hand.
And not just any second base. Rather, this was a stop on the infield dirt inside Bush Stadium in Indianapolis, which for a total of 27 years (1967-70, 1972-73 and 1976-96) was home of the state baseball finals.
Wilkerson, one of three sophomore starters for the Warriors’ 1985 squad, couldn’t help but appreciate the newfound surroundings as Whiteland, then still a small school with Milan-esque dreams, prepared for its state semifinal game against Kokomo.
“We were excited because it was the biggest crowd we had ever played in front of. The whole town of Whiteland was there,” said Wilkerson, 53, who resides in Whiteland with his wife, 1989 WHS graduate Michelle (Hines).
“Being 15 years old and playing in front of 10,000 to 12,000 people, that was the pinnacle.”
Wilkerson, the starting second baseman for the 1985 Warriors, was also leadoff hitter. Two fairly pressure-packed responsibilities for the 5-foot-9, 175-pounder to shoulder.
“And he was asked to steal bases,” longtime Whiteland baseball coach Butch Zike added. “David was a prototypical leadoff hitter for me in that he had speed, and he had some power in his bat.
“David hit home runs, and was one of the smartest baseball players I’ve ever coached.”
Those 1985 Warriors won the program’s fifth sectional championship by defeating Indian Creek, Triton Central and Center Grove to finally end what had been a 14-year dry spell.
Whiteland kept the good times going by by downing Mooresville and Edgewood for its first regional title and, a week later, its first semistate crown by knocking off Madison and Castle.
A trip to the Final Four, which is how state finals were commonly described during the single-class era, was next on the itinerary.
The Warriors lost to the eventual state champion Wildkats, 8-2, in the Friday night semifinal, their season coming to an end with a 32-5 record.
Wilkerson remained a mainstay in the Whiteland lineup as a junior and senior, though both squads lost to Center Grove in the championship game of the Franklin Sectional. He later played at the University of Indianapolis, where three-plus decades later is still tied atop the career stolen bases list with 85.
He also remains in the top 20 all-time for the Greyhounds in runs (12th with 127), walks (13th, 72), hits (15th, 163) and at-bats (16th, 483).
Zike, who retired in 2012 following a long career as a teacher, administrator and coach at Whiteland, played a major role in Wilkerson’s development as a player and person.
“I just always appreciated Butch because he was a great teacher. Not only on the baseball field, but in the classroom,” Wilkerson said. “Because we were such a small school then, he had to get the most out of every kid.”
Wilkerson’s love for and knowledge of the game benefitted his alma mater when he served as one of Zike’s assistant baseball coaches for four seasons (1994-97). The Warriors captured a sectional title in Wilkerson’s final year as part of the coaching staff.
“David loved baseball, and worked hard at it,” Zike said. “As an eighth-grader, he started coming over to varsity summer workouts. The pitching machine would be on the mound at 1 o’clock every day in the summer.
“David and (classmate) Mike Helton were there at 1 almost every day and stayed until 3 or 3:30.”
These days, Wilkerson owns his own construction company, Simplicity Siding & Windows, in Whiteland. He and Michelle have three sons ranging in age from 27 down to 22.
Wilkerson, who still follows Warrior athletics, feels fortunate to have played for one of the great teams in the school’s history. Fittingly, he was part of the massive contingent of fans watching another one of those teams this past fall when Whiteland football lost to Valparaiso, 35-31, in a memorable Class 5A football state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Once a Warrior, always one.
“My early years, I remember Whiteland being a small town. Everybody knowing everybody,” Wilkerson said. “I really enjoyed the years I coached at Whiteland, too, so I just have a lot of great memories about the people in town.”
