Each year the IBCA Board of Directors selects individuals from each of the three IBCA Districts to receive the Virgil Sweet Distinguished Service Award. The award, named in honor of the longtime former Executive Director of the IBCA, is given to individuals who have provided meritorious service in the promotion of basketball in the state of Indiana.
Joe Arredondo
District 1
No one has been involved with Lakeshore Public Television longer than Joe Arredondo.
With more than 24 years invested in the station, Arredondo is the local sports expert and personality for 'Lakeshore News Tonight,' 'Inside Valpo Basketball,' 'Prep Football Report,' 'Prep Sports Report' and 'PFR Scoreboard.'
Get this: All of that reporting, and he doesn’t use a teleprompter. That's a lot of scores to remember.
As a media member, Arredondo has received the Indiana Football Coaches Association’s Media Award in 1992, the Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations Production Award in 1993 and the IHSAA Media Award in 1998.
Arredondo has served as Sports Director for Lakeshore Public Television since October 1990. He began his broadcast career at WWJY Radio in Crown Point in 1987 as a news reporter, becoming the station's sports play-by-play voice a year later. He also has worked for radio broadcasters WXRD-FM and WJOB-1230 AM.
In addition to Arredondo’s duties as sports anchor of 'Lakeshore News Tonight,' he produces and co-hosts 'Prep Football Report,' 'Prep Football Scoreboard' and 'Prep Sports Report,' which are some of Lakeshore PTV's longest-running programs.
By day, Arredondo is the Director of K-12 Initiatives for Ivy Tech Community College Northwest. He has worked for the college for 18 years and is in his third year in his current position.
A graduate of Merrillville High School, Arredondo received bachelor’s degree in telecommunications and political science from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1987. He later earned a master’s in management of public affairs from IU-Northwest in 1989.
He and his wife live, Liz, in Valparaiso.
Wayne Svetanoff
District 1
Wayne Svetanoff is a sportscaster for Lakeshore Public Television. He is a veteran co-host of 'Prep Football Report,' 'PFR Scoreboard' and 'Prep Sports Report.'
Prior to joining Lakeshore Public Television, he provided color commentary on football and basketball games for radio station WJOB-1230 AM.
Svetanoff is an English and Speech teacher at Lake Central High School and a former high school basketball coach at the school. He has taught at the school in St. John, Ind., for 39 years, seeing it grow from a tiny, small-town high school to the thriving, urban school of today.
As an Indians’ boys basketball coach, he was an assistant coach on the 1984 Lake Central team that appeared in the IHSAA State Finals under Jim Hammel. As a head coach at Lake Central, Svetanoff guided the team to 134 wins from 1985 through 1996. His teams won sectional championships in 1988, 1991 and 1994.
Svetanoff is a graduate of Merrillville High School and played basketball there with, among others, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. Svetanoff then went to Indiana University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English, and Speech and Theater as well as a Master’s of Science in Education degree.
Svetanoff and his wife, Marilynn, a teacher at Portage, have one daughter: Wendy Jo, a doctor doing her internship in Omaha, Neb.
Rich Nye
District 2
Rich Nye, “The Sports Guy,” brings vast experience and hometown perspective to his sports reporting for WTHR, Channel 13, Eyewitness News.
Nye, 44, was raised in Indianapolis and has spent his entire broadcasting career in Central Indiana. He dreamed in elementary school of growing up to be a sportscaster and feels blessed to have realized his dream. He is the second-longest-tenured local sportscaster in Indianapolis, behind only his Channel 13 colleague, sports director Dave Calabro.
Nye joined Channel 13 in August 1994 as a sports reporter. A year later, he became the first weekend morning TV sports anchor in Indianapolis. He has filled many roles in the sports department. He produces 'Operation Football,' 'Operation Basketball' and the '13 Sports Jam.'
Before joining Channel 13, Rich was the first sports anchor for WALV-27 Alive, which was Channel 13's sister station at the time and later became SkyTrak weather. Rich also worked for Network Indiana and several radio stations early in his career.
Nye has covered three Super Bowls, several NCAA basketball Final Fours and multiple Daytona 500s, all in addition to the major events rights in Indianapolis each year. But his favorite stories are about local athletes who enjoy special victories or overcome unique challenges.
Nye’s reporting has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio & Television News Directors Association. He has also received a regional Emmy award for sports reporting.
A graduate of Franklin Central High School and Butler University, Nye enjoys reading, listening to music, working out and playing basketball. He coaches youth basketball and volunteers in student ministry at Mount Pleasant Christian Church.
Nye has three sons -- Caleb, Joshua and Luke -- and lives in Indianapolis.
Keith Doades
District 3
Keith Doades has broadcast more than 2,000 high school sports events in southwestern Indiana over the past 36 years, including basketball, football, baseball, softball, cross country, track and golf.
Doades currently coordinates coverage for full schedules of basketball games involving South Knox and Crawford County as well as other numerous other games that include Bloomfield, Eastern Greene, Linton, Shakamak, Union (Dugger) and White River Valley.
Doades began his broadcasting career on a part-time basis, but after graduating from college, he became more heavily involved in high school coverage, calling games for Knox County teams on two Vincennes radio stations. In the early 1980s, Doades initiated coverage of girls basketball on one of those stations, and was the first broadcaster in southern Indiana to carry all regular-season and tournament games of one team – North Knox – on a new station he built in 1991.
Doades currently serves as the owner and manager of Media Five Marketing, a media management and consulting firm that develops marketing strategies for a variety of retail and service-oriented businesses in the Vincennes area, and Media Five Sports, a production company that purchases times on various radio stations in southern Indiana to broadcast high school sports events.
Doades also works as the director of marketing for Greater Post Buildings, a leader in the post frame-building industry based in Daviess County.
Earlier in his career, Doades worked for the Vincennes Sun Co., the Green Broadcasting Co., as president of Media Five Corp., and as owner-manager of WFML Radio of Vincennes.
Doades is a member of the Vincennes Kiwanis Club, the Knox County Chamber of Commerce and the Wabash Valley Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He currently is a Lt. Governor of the Kiwanis Club and previously has served on its board and as its president. He also has been on the Knox County Chamber of Commerce board of directors for 12 years and serves on the board of directors for PACE Community Action Agency of Knox, Daviess, Greene and Sullivan counties.
Doades is a certified Radio Marketing Professional and a certified Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church.
A lifelong sport fan, Doades was raised in Decker, Ind., a town of 250 residents in southern Knox County, and attended the home and away games of the hometown team, the Decker Aces, prior to the school’s consolidation into South Knox in 1968.
John Heaton
District 3
John Heaton was born in Bloomfield, Ind., and graduated from Bloomfield High School and Indiana University.
Heaton served as varsity basketball coach at Eastern Greene, Southwestern (Shelby), Silver Creek and Shelbyville. In 33 years of varsity coaching, he accumulated a record of 418-377. Success in tournament play followed throughout Heaton’s coaching career as his teams were victorious in 16 sectionals, five regionals and one semistate. His teams also won six conference championships and five holiday tournaments. In addition, he was selected as conference Coach of the Year on various occasions.
While coaching, Heaton also served on the Board of Directors and as president of the IBCA. In 1995 he was chosen as an assistant coach of the Indiana All-Stars. Upon retirement from coaching, Heaton was awarded the Sagamore of the Wabash award by then-Gov. Frank O’Bannon.
Since his retirement from coaching he has served on the Shelbyville City Council and has worked as executive director of the Shelby County Drug Free Coalition and as coordinator of the Shelbyville Central Schools Expulsion Center.
Heaton and his wife, Laura, reside in Shelbyville.
