Columbus North’s Emma Long, left, looks to pass while guarded by East Central’s Emily Klem during a basketball game in Memorial Gym at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.
The Republic file photo
As point guards for the Columbus North boys and girls basketball teams, Ty Ferguson and Emma Long were adept at setting up their teammates for baskets.
Through their work off the court in academics and in the community, Ferguson and Long set themselves up to earn assistance to pay for college. Earlier this week, they were selected as recipients of the Marion Crawley Scholarship through the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.
“I had no idea about this scholarship,” Long said. “Coach (Brett) White just handed me the paper (Wednesday) morning at school, and I was super excited and blessed to get that from him.”
Criteria for the Crawley Scholarship, which presents a $500 grant to each recipient, includes achievement in basketball, achievement in academics, participation in extracurricular activities and service to one’s school and community. Crawley was a former four-time boys basketball state championship coach — two with Washington and two with Lafayette Jeff — who amassed 644 career wins and later became the first executive director of the IBCA.
Long ranks third in her senior class with 4.312 GPA. She competed in track and field her first three years of high school, was a leader of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and student body treasurer, has been on Student Assembly since her freshman year and has been a catechist at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church.
Long is headed to Purdue to major in engineering with a biomedical focus.
“I’m so excited,” Long said. “It’s been a dream of mine to go up there because my dad went there, and he’s told me about it. The atmosphere is great up there with the academics and the sports teams. It will be so much fun up there.”
Columbus North’s Ty Ferguson goes for a layup against Whiteland in the sectional championship at Columbus North, Saturday, March 4, 2023.
The Republic file photo
Ferguson has 3.96 GPA. He is vice president of National Honor Society, helps coach Columbus Revolution youth basketball teams, has been on the IHSAA Student Athletic Advisory Committee the past two years and works with Beloved by packing bags when foster kids get moved along in the system.
“It was an awesome feeling to be rewarded for all the hard work I’ve put into basketball, as well as academics and those things.,” Ferguson said. “College is expensive, so you have to find ways to pay for it.”
Ferguson received a three-year ROTC Scholarship to Wheaton College. He is considering majoring in business and is unsure if he will continue his basketball career at Wheaton.
Ferguson went to elementary school at Wheaton until fifth grade, when his father Paul, who had coached at both Wheaton College and Wheaton Prep High School, took the coaching job at North.
“I really liked the culture of Wheaton College,” Ferguson said. “It’s a Christian college, so I really like the atmosphere. Plus, my grandparents live two miles from there, and I have a lot of friends there. The hard part was finding a way to pay for it, and I’m getting that through ROTC. I feel like it’s a place I was being led toward.”
