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Welcome to The Southsider Voice .... for the most current edition, click on the front page. It will direct you to the full edition. HIT DOWNLOAD when there.
The Southsider Voice, owned by Kelly Sawyers, has a newsprint / digital audience of more than 60,000 weekly and covers the Southside of Indianapolis, from downtown, South to Stones Crossing in Center Grove, West to Highway 37 and East to Emerson Avenue. The paper is an excellent conduit for news, opinions and features.
“Our coverage of sports, education and community news and events provides a good read, which is why so many people look forward to our publication,” said Kelly, adding that she loves her job. "We really enjoy what we do.” Top StoriesA new school emerges on a historic campus at Manual
(SOUTHSIDER VOICE PHOTOS BY AL STILLEY)
Christel House Manual athletic director Nolen Dowling, left, and assistant athletic director Robert Orkman are all smiles as the first day of school approaches on Aug. 4. Most teams will compete in IHSAA Class 3A as the “Eagles” instead of “Redskins.” Below, the message board in front of the school on South Madison avenue shows the official full name of the Christel House charter/innovative Indianapolis Publlc Schools merger. Christel House Watanabe High School at Emmerich Manual High School will be known commonly as Christel House Manual. 
By Al Stilley
Editor A new high school is emerging on the near-Southside with a 126-year history. The changes at Emmerich Manual High School are dramatic as well as far-reaching into the future of the 68-year campus on Madison Avenue and Pleasant Run Parkway. Last year after eight years of being operated as a state-mandated charter school, EMHS was approved by the state to be operated by Christel House and as an innovative school of Indianapolis Public Schools. EMHS officially is now known as Christel House Watabe Manual High School and will be easier identified publicly as Christel House Manual. The students from Christel House, grades K-12, will be educated on the EMHS campus with those students in grades 11-12. The school’s high school athletic teams will compete as the “Eagles” in IHSAA Class 3A in most sports as Manual’s traditional nickname “Redskins” goes in the history books. The two high school’s competed separately last year with the Christel House Eagles in Class A and Manual Redskins in Class 3A. “The offerings, academics and athletics, are exciting,” Christel House Manual athletic director Nolan Dowling said Monday. “Great opportunities lie ahead for the students.” Dowling said that school will offer football, coed soccer, volleyball, cross country, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, track and field, and cheerleading for the 2021-2022 school year that begins Aug. 4. Assistant athletic director Robert Orkman, who has coached at EMHS for six years, will continue to coach boys basketball. Last year, EMHS did not have enough players for teams in baseball, volleyball, and boys and girls soccer. EMHS advanced three wrestlers to the IHSAA regionals. Orkman, a former EMHS football coach, said the number of football players increased for the upcoming season with 38 players reporting. He expects a larger number of students to try out for all sports. “Both schools have diverse student populations,” said Orkman. “We expect to be able to grow all (athletic) programs.” Dowling, a former Western Kentucky University football player, was more emphatic when stating, “There is a proud athletic history here, but that was many years ago. We want to build a new history of success on the Southside.” Three schools combined into Christel House Manual are: Christel House South, K-8; Christel House Watanabe, 9-12; and EMHS, 11-12. Manual juniors and seniors will receive EMHS diplomas. Christel House also offers an evening school for adults that will expand to a daytime option in 2022-2023. ROTC, graphic arts, photography, welding, band and some dual-credit classes are among the offerings at Christel House Manual. A quick walk through the newly-named Christel House Manual reveals workers who have been busy renovating the main classroom building since January. Christel House Academy and the adult high school also will be separated. First floor classrooms are being renovated for kindergarten through second-grade students. An existing courtyard is to be turned into a school playground. The gymnasium reveals the past with a red “M” in the middle of the hardwood court and the future with a scorer’s table from the home of the Christel House Eagles. “Right now, we’re doing the best we can to merge schedules while looking at previous commitments of Christel House and Manual,” Dowling said. “It’s a challenging process, but it is going smoothly.” An eight-game CHM football schedule has been put together by Dowling four home games at Ray Schultz Field. CHM has a unique history. The Industrial Training School at 525 S. Meridian St. opened in 1895 and was renamed Manual Training School in 1899 and Charles E. Emmerich Manual Training High School in 1916 in honor of the first principal of the Industrial Training School. The school was relocated to its current site at 2405 S. Meridian St., with the former site renamed Harry E. Wood Vocational Training School that operated until 1978. Christel House was founded in 1998 by the late Christel DeHaan and expanded to five different learning centers by 2002. Dr. Sarah Weimer serves as executive director of Christel House Schools, including the current transition of combining EMHS with Christel House on the EMHS campus. She spearheaded the partnership with IPS as an innovation school and Christel House as a charter. BATTER UP!Southsiders develop device to revolutionize training of batters
By Al Stilley
Editor A training device that will revolutionize baseball and softball training for all ages and skill levels is announced today by a group of Southside entrepreneurs. The patented device, now owned by BU Technologies and rebranded Perfect Swing, improves the hitter’s acceleration of his or her swing at the “point of impact,” according to officials of newly incorporated BU Technologies. “There is nothing out there like this,” exclaimed Joe Gilliland, president and CEO of Sheet Metal Models Machine & Tool Co., Inc., and vice president of BU Technologies “The final prototype is good enough to go to market. There is a lot that goes into this mechanism, but everybody associated with this project has everything on the right key, the right chord, and the right song.” The Perfect Swing is a practice device “to help further develop the feel and muscle memory of a proper swing,” according to its U.S. patent. Essentially, the swing training device features a specific sport handle, a shaft, and a slidable weight that moves to a distal end that contacts a stop, creating an audible “snap” giving the swinger tactile and audible feedback to the success of the swing. Area coaches and athletes are praising the Perfect Swing (see comments by Bobby Plump and Scott Fleming). The device’s inventor is Michael “Mick” Davenport of Pomeroy, Ohio, who came up with the concept and made a workable prototype. He has a degree in exercise physiology from Ohio University where he became involved with the university’s mechanics program that tests various sports products. He also has coached baseball players from T-ball through American Legion. “I was looking for something that a multitude of players could use to teach them the proper timing, proper swing mechanics, and improve their velocity at the point of impact,” Davenport recalled in an exclusive interview with The Southsider Voice. “And that’s what this (Perfect Swing) does with a resistance tube and a slide at the end. It’s all of your muscle groups and sequence that causes that weight to slide and hit the end of the shaft. When that happens, you will be at the full velocity and proper timing of your swing.” Davenport continued, “That’s what produces power – velocity at the point of impact. People think it’s only swing velocity that matters, but it’s the point of impact that matters.” About 12 years ago, Davenport realized the potential of his idea but did not have the where-with-all to manufacture a prototype or market a final device. He continued to be dissatisfied with his talks with other suitors. Then Davenport recalled a meeting that took place in southern Ohio in 2002 with Beech Grove entrepreneur Joe Wolfla. At the time, Davenport was a Meigs County Commissioner and Wolfla was representing a group that wanted to develop a residential project. He recognized Wolfla for his ability to introduce and complete a project. “I like to tinker with stuff and invent things, but it doesn’t do any good unless someone can take it and run with it, and Joe has that ability,” Davenport said. “We both have a sports background. He knows how to move a business along.” After talking with Davenport, Wolfla reached out to Gilliland, a former NCAA and IHSAA basketball referee, to see if SMM would have any interest in the project. After some urging, Gilliland agreed and went to work on “reverse engineering” of the Perfect Swing because there were no blueprints for the device that was originally called Power Snap. The name was changed with a comment from SMM machinist Mike Pope. The name stuck, and Wolfla came up with a tagline, “It’s a winner – be a winner.” After testing by coaches and sports notables, the fifth prototype was approved. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” said Wolfla, who is a familiar sports enthusiast in and around Beech Grove. “I had never obtained a patent, either.” Then in his familiar laugh, Wolfla commented, “I can’t even spell entrepreneur and I am one.” Wolfla formed BU Technologies officers, a board, and an advisory board of mostly Southsiders. BU Technologies was recently incorporated by the state. Wolfla is the corporation’s president with vice presidents Gilliland, chairman of the board William T. Kelsey, Greg Cox, and David Mayfield (secretary). “We have the prototype and it’s good enough to go to market,” Wolfla said. “The ones who have tried it out, think it’s great. It’s a winner, so you can be a winner, too.” Different units can be made for specific training for golf, tennis, and ice hockey. For now, the emphasis by BU Technologies is on the production and marketing of the Perfect Swing. Info: 317-782-8381 
SOUTHSIDER VOICE PHOTO BY AL STILLEY)
Beech Grove businessman Joe Wolfla tries out the Perfect Swing in his office. Wolfla also is president of the newly incorporated BU Technologies that involves several Southside members and officers. The Perfect Swing also is to be produced and manufactured locally. Joe Wolfla is a Beech Grove businessman and sports enthusiast who is no stranger when it comes to taking products to the market. Wolfla, a former owner of the Continental Football League 1969 champions, the Indianapolis Capitols, has always approached his successes by out-of-the-box thinking and living by the personal mantra “listen before you talk.” Wolfla was key in the revival of the beloved drink Choc-Ola, getting it into stores such as Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and Martin Super-Markets (a Northern Indiana and Michigan chain) before leaving the company to pursue other endeavors. Having owned a very successful printing company, Industrial Litho Inc., Wolfla created Good Morning Publishing Co., Inc. which published the world renowned book Bobby Plump: Last of the Small Town Heroes which is about to receive a special edition re-release in the coming months. In addition to the Special Edition of Bobby Plump: Last of the Small Town Heroes, Wolfla and Good Morning Publishing Co. Inc. are in the process of writing a new book on the Indianapolis Capitols and their championship season. Well-known Southside company to manufacture Perfect Swing
(SOUTHSIDER VOICE PHOTO BY AL STILLEY)
Lifetime Southsider Joe Gilliland is CEO and president of Sheet Metal Models Machine & Tool Co. Inc., 2720 National Ave. The company was founded in 1956 in Beech Grove. By Al Stilley Editor A well-known Southside company, Sheet Metal Models, is ideally suited for the manufacturing and production of The Perfect Swing. Under Joe Gilliland’s 30-plus years of ownership, the machine and tool facility has the machinery, personnel, and capabilities to produce items from prototypes to full productions. “We combine old-school theory with today’s technology,” said Gilliland, a lifelong Southsider. “It takes modeling ingenuity to re-design a product that doesn’t have a blueprint with it. Now they call it re-engineering.” Gilliland’s company previously has produced and manufactured parts for aerospace, electrical, retail, telecommunications, vehicular, medical, defense, automotive, and rail industries. When Gilliland was approached about the Perfect Swing, he told longtime Beech Grove entrepreneur Joe Wolfla that he could do a prototype without any blueprint of the revolutionary training apparatus. The COVID-19 pandemic lengthened the time to develop prototypes; the fifth one turned out to be the one to prepare for mass production. “If we could produce the items we have manufactured for airplanes and submarines, I figured we could do this, too.” Gilliland said. “So, we reversed engineering. It was a tricky combination, but when you have the opportunity to put a new product on the market like this, then you’ve done something.” So, Sheet Metal Models Machine and Tool Co.(SMM) became the perfect manufacturer for The Perfect Swing through newly incorporated BU Technologies with Gilliland as one of its vice presidents. “We’ve had a background of the hard-to-do things that other machine and tool companies did not want to do,” Gilliland said. “We have employees with more than 100 years (combined) in the trade. They have been schooled by experience in hard tooling and stamped-out production parts. I can tool any job you want on a turret press and add a laser to it. I call it tricky technology.” The Perfect Swing has multiple pieces, big and small, that SMM will produce and manufacture the Perfect Swing for coaches and players of all ages and abilities. “I’m sure lots of people will wonder how this (Perfect Swing) came from somewhere in Ohio to Beech Grove to a sheet metal company on the Southside and to land in stores everywhere,” smiled Gilliland. Gilliland is a graduate of Beech Grove High School and is a lifelong Southsider. The son of a New York Central railroader (Joe Gilliland, Sr.), he did not want a railroad career. After graduation, he eventually accepted a sheet metal apprenticeship at SMM that led to a fulltime job. Founded in 1956 by Alonzo Stratton, SMM is in its fourth location after originating in Beech Grove. Gilliland became the owner of SMM in the mid-1970s, shortly after a recession because the owner wanted to move it to Denver, Colorado. Gilliland didn’t want to go. “I really didn’t know anything about being a business owner, but I figured if I bought and it didn’t work that I could go work for someone else,” Gilliland said. He never had to. In the mid- ‘80s, he invested two million dollars in CNC equipment to stay competitive in the industry. Since then, SMM has continuously grown and prospered. Gilliland’s interest in sports never waned. He began officiating recreational basketball games in the late ‘70s, advanced to high school games, and refereed IHSAA state championship games in 1984, 1985, and 1988. Then he moved up to the college level, including games of teams in major conferences in the Midwest and East. He refereed NCAA D1 and D2 tournament games, but the travel and time away from SMM led to his retirement. And now with the Perfect Swing, BU Technologies Co. is positioned to revolutionize the training of baseball and softball training. POLE SITTER
for the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500 
Marco Andretti proudly displays the American flag during front-row shoot Monday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is the first time in 33 years that an Andretti has earned pole position for the race. Andretti qualified for the pole at 231.068 miles per hour and is joined by “500” winners Scott Dixon and Takuma Sato on the front row. They are among eight “500” winners among the 33-driver field. The race will be televised on NBC-TV at 2:30 p.m., with no blackout. No spectators will be allowed due to health restrictions.
(IMS PHOTO BY CHRIS OWENS) 
Mary Bryan DAR sew nearly 900 facemasks
Several members of the Mary Bryan Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) are making facemasks daily for various Southside facilities and businesses. Chapter members Carolyn Ferraro, JoAn Nichols, Candy Close, Jill Werner, Cathy Pollachek, Laura Manning and Molly Chizum began sewing this month with Vicki Kurtz picking up and delivering needed supplies to sew the masks. see more 
Bubba’s 33 helps feed Franciscan Health staff
Restaurateurs, including Bubba’s 33 on the Southside, are stepping forward to help feed frontline personnel and support staff at Franciscan Health Indianapolis. On the Monday after Easter, Bubba’s 33 donated several boxes of fresh produce in partnership with Piazza Produce on Indy’s westside. see more 
Sports
FC’s Loobie honored to be all-star; no games due to cancellations
NCAA basketball players were not the only student-athletes impacted by the cancellation of the college tournament. At the University of Indianapolis, cheerleaders lost out on their final chance to support their Greyhounds with the cancellation of the Division II regional at UIndy. see more Car Nutz
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