LAWRENCE CO. – In May 2023, The Godfather of the Stars: Pete Pritchett’s legacy will live on within the BNL program; the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department released an app, a one-stop shop for all things Sheriff’s Office-related, and a Lawrence County Superior Court I jury found a Springville man guilty of beating his children with a belt and industrial size glue sticks.
THE GODFATHER OF THE STARS: Pete Pritchett’s legacy will live on within the BNL program
C. Austin “Pete” Pritchett, 89, of Bedford, passed away peacefully on Monday, May 1, 2023, at the
Stonebridge Health Campus in Bedford.
People come and go, and their faces fade as the years go by, but the Stars will always shine at Bedford North Lawrence because of one man’s remarkable influence.
Austin “Pete” Pritchett, the giant gentleman, the coach who started what has become an iconic basketball program, will never be forgotten, as long as the team photos of state champions adorn the walls, as long as the banners wave quietly in the northeast corner of BNL Fieldhouse. He was the Godfather of BNL basketball, a Hall of Famer whose fingerprints will be found in future generations.
Pritchett, the beloved coach who guided BNL to its first two girls’ basketball state championships, died at 89. He took over the Lady Stars for the 1982-83 season and guided that first team to the state title, and the rest is history. His overall record of 271-25 from 1982-94 included 12 sectional titles, ten regionals, four semistates, and the second state crown in 1991.
Those are numbers. They hardly tell the story of the man. If Indiana girls’ basketball ever chisels out a Mount Rushmore of icons, Pritchett must be included. All those who have followed – whether BNL coaches who will be measured against his standard or contemporaries and peers who must thank him for his contributions to the game – will struggle to match his footprints. Big shoes, big heart.
Pritchett was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and was a formidable player, graduating from Oolitic in 1952 (scoring 1,092 career points) before going to Indiana State. After coaching stints at Mooresville and Oolitic, he left the profession. When he was hired to take over the BNL girls, he was an unknown among the team he was inheriting.
His first BNL team went 26-1. Then came the second set of glory years. The Stars competed in three straight state championship games from 1990-92. They set records with 55 straight wins, with 89 consecutive regular-season wins over four seasons. BNL also boasted three straight Mental Attitude Award winners during that incredible span.
That’s a lot of winning. And that only scratches the surface of his influence.
Pritchett made his mark on the relationships he crafted. Success was just a byproduct. Brandi Hughes grew up next door to the Pritchett family, and many after-dinner nights were spent running plays on the kitchen table with salt-and-pepper shakers.
“He was more than a coach to me,” Hughes said. “He was a big ol’ teddy bear. And that laugh – oh, my gosh.
“He taught us that we are Lady Stars, and we are ladies first. It was about how others perceived us, what we represented, and taking pride in who we were. That’s what he instilled in players at a very early age. We walked around with our heads held high. When you wore a Lady Stars jersey, Mr. Pritchett always ensured we understood what that meant and who we represented. He expected nothing less.”
The laugh fit the big man. Maybe the signature red socks did not. His aura was overwhelming, so raising the deep voice an extra octave was usually unnecessary.
That’s the ultimate sign of respect. His former players never refer to him as Pete. It’s Mr. Pritchett.
After his retirement, Pritchett settled back to watch the program’s growth. When Kurt Godlevske was hired in 2006, his first call was to set a lunch date with the former head coach and pick his brain for ideas.
BNL has returned to state prominence, winning Class 4A titles in 2013 (under Kurt Godlevske) and ‘14 (with Damon Bailey in charge), then again in 2023 under Jeff Allen. They all point back to the man who started it all.
During the Pritchett Era, BNL boys basketball was also at its zenith. Dan Bush, the Hall of Fame coach for the Stars (and another Bearcat), would spend most lunch hours in Pritchett’s office, discussing the game and exchanging information. Oh, to be a fly on that wall.
Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office App is now available
The Lawrence Sheriff’s Office App is now available. You can download it free from the Apple Store or Google Play Store.
This is a one-stop shop for all things Sheriff’s Office-related.
Current Features (with more still to come):
- Submit a Tip
- Request Extra Patrols
- Job Announcements
- Direct Link to Sex Offender Registry
- Jail Information for family and friends of inmates (basic info, visitation, communications, commissary deposits, bond info, and more)
- Sheriff Sales
- Crash Report Copies
- Link to Handgun Carry Permits
- Tax Warrant Payments
- Lawrence County Resources Map and Contact Info (police, fire, hospital, Hoosier Hills PACT, Centerstone, and more)
- Direct Link to LCSO Website
Jury finds Springville man guilty of five counts of domestic battery and one count of strangulation
On Tuesday, May 23, a Lawrence County Superior Court I jury found Scott Blattert of Springville guilty of five counts of domestic battery and one count of strangulation.
The jury deliberated for more than 4 hours.
Judge John Plummer III presided over the trial.
In an explicit video, Blattert is seen smacking his second oldest daughter, who was 14 at the time, with a belt 27 times, slamming her face down into the couch cushion, telling her, “You are a rebellious, wicked animal” and then slamming his elbow into the back of the child’s neck, hitting her and then pushing her to the floor and strangling her.
In the video, Cherry Blattert, Scott’s wife, walks around the room. She states, “Oh my goodness and is then seen ushering the two youngest children from the room. Cherry does not attempt to stop Scott from injuring the child.
Blattert’s charges and the jury’s verdicts are listed below.
- Count 1: Aggravated Battery used when the assault possesses a substantial risk of death, a Level 3 felony – guilty. This charge stems from incidents seen in the video.
- Count 2: Strangulation, a Level 6 felony – guilty. This charge stems from incidents seen in the video.
- Count 3: Domestic battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, a Level 6 felony – guilty. This charge stems from an incident involving the oldest female child in which she was spanked with a belt.
- Count 4: Domestic Battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, a Level 6 felony – guilty. This charge stems from an incident involving the oldest female child being kicked in the leg by her father, leaving a bruise that was photographed.
- Count 5: Domestic Battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, a Level 6 felony- guilty. This charge stems from an incident where the oldest female child was hit with a glue stick.
- Count 6: Domestic Battery resulting in bodily injury to a person under the age of 14, a Level 5 felony – guilty. This charge stems from the incident captured in the video.
- Count 7: Was dismissed because it would be double jeopardy if found guilty of Count 1.
- Count 8: Domestic Battery resulting in bodily injury to a person under the age of 14, a Level 5 felony – guilty. This charge stems from an incident in which a 10-year-old boy was hit by the belt just before the video incident.
- Count 9 – Domestic Battery resulting in bodily injury to a person under the age of 14, a Level 5 felony – not guilty. This charge stems from an incident where a 9-year-old female child was hit with a glue stick.
- Count 10 – Domestic battery resulting in bodily injury to a person under the age of 14, a Level 5 felony – not guilty. This charge stems from a 3-year-old female getting smacked on the bottom, falling off a couch, and suffering an abrasion to her head.
After the verdicts were read, Scott Blattert was escorted from the court in handcuffs while his wife Cherry sobbed.
Blattert was arrested, posted a $5,000 cash bond, and released from jail on November 8, 2019. Lawrence County Superior Court I Judge John Plummer III issued a no-contact order with his children. The explicit video was filmed on September 23, 2019.
The two oldest daughters testified that the children’s punishments were becoming more violent.
Cherry Blattert is also charged in the case. She is facing charges of neglect of a dependent, resulting in bodily injury and domestic battery. She is also facing a charge of invasion of privacy after violating the protective order by contacting her children. A three-day jury trial is scheduled to begin on January 17, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. in Lawrence County Superior Court I, with Judge Plummer presiding.
Cherry and Scott are being represented by the same attorneys, Justin and John Boren, of Boren, Oliver & Coffey LLP in Bloomington.
Deputy Prosecutors Joshua Scherschel and Sarah Cummings present the case for the state.
The couple have 11 children. The children are all currently living with two foster families. One family has the couple’s five older children, and another family has the couple’s six younger children. At the time of the incident, the couple only had nine children. Cherry was pregnant with her 10th child and had another child later.
Blattert previously attempted to use Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense in this case, arguing that physical punishment of children is outlined in the Bible in references to the Rod of Correction. This defense was struck down by Lawrence County Superior Court I Judge John Plummer III, a decision which Blattert appealed in the Indiana Court of Appeals. That court ultimately upheld, affirming Judge Plummer’s decision.
Blattert and his wife, Cherry, also filed a lawsuit against Indiana DCS, claiming the department’s decision to remove their ten children from their home violated their religious freedoms. Blattert’s case against DCS was dismissed on June 9, 2022, by Monroe Circuit Court IV Judge Catherine Stafford.
He was sentenced on June 16, 2023, by Judge John Plummer III to serve 13 years in prison after being convicted of violently beating his children with industrial glue sticks and a belt. “My actions were in response to their actions,” Scott Blattert said during sentencing.
Scott Blattert is appealing his conviction.
