Brinkman, Wininger to be honored by Indiana Basketball Coaches Association
          Game officials Bill Brinkman and Nick Wininger will be recognized with special awards in 2025 by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.
        Brinkman and Wininger will be honored as respective winners of the Roy Gardner and Mildred Ball awards as outstanding officials throughout long careers on the hardwood. The two officials are being cited for their work impacting the game floor, Brinkman from 1990 to the present and Wininger from 2000 to the present.
              Brinkman is in his 35th season as an official, including five times in the IHSAA boys’ basketball State Finals while a member of the Mid Hoosier Officials Association. He has served the MHOA as president, vice president, certification clinician and mentor.
        A 1987 graduate of Lawrenceburg High School, Brinkman competed in basketball, football, golf and track & field. He later competed in football and track at Franklin College and has been an educator for 34 years. He resides now in a suburb of Cincinnati.
              Wininger, a Montgomery resident, is in his 25th season as an official. He has worked the boys’ basketball State Finals three times and the girls’ basketball State Finals five times. He has been a member of the Southwestern Indiana Officials Association for 25 years. He served his association as basketball chairman for two years and has been a basketball clinician on several occasions. He recently was recognized by the IHSAA with its 2025 Interscholastic Athletic Officials Award for girls’ basketball.
        A 1999 graduate of Shoals High School, Wininger played basketball and and was an all-Blue Chip Conference selection in baseball. He attended Indiana University and now is in his 20th year as a history teacher at North Daviess Junior-Senior High School. He also is the North Daviess girls’ golf coach.
        The Gardner Award is named after the late Roy Gardner, a Lawrenceburg native, Ball State graduate and former Batesville High School math teacher who worked three boys’ basketball State Finals and officiated in the Big Ten from 1959-69. He passed away in 1977, and the IBCA has presented an award in his name since 1978. Gardner was inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Ripley County Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
        The Ball Award is named after Mildred Morgan Ball, a graduate of Gary Roosevelt High School and Indiana University who served as an IHSAA assistant commissioner from 1977-97. During her time at the IHSAA, Ball was responsible for licensing and training of contest officials and also worked with the National Federation of High School Associations rules committee. The IBCA has presented an award in her name since 1997. Ball was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998, and she was the 2022 recipient of the Richard G. Lugar Award for Distinguished Service.
        Brinkman and Wininger each will receive his award during the IBCA’s annual clinic on April 24-25 at Mt. Vernon High School in Fortville. For more information about the IBCA, go to in.nhsbca.org.
        More information about each award winner follows. In addition, a list of previous winners for these awards follows the biography information.
2025Â IBCA Roy Gardner Award
Congratulations to the Roy Gardner Award Winner: Bill Brinkman
      Bill Brinkman of Lawrenceburg is the winner of the 2025 IBCA Roy Gardner Award.
      Brinkman started officiating in 1990 while a student at Franklin College. In the ensuing years, he has called 30 sectionals, 20 regionals, nine semi-states and five State Finals in boys’ basketball. His title games were in 2006 (4A), 2010 (2A), 2014 (3A), 2019 (4A) and 2024 (4A). He also has called games in three Hall of Fame Classic tournaments.
      Brinkman is in his 35th year as a member of the Mid Hoosier Officials Association. He has served the association as president, vice president, certification clinician and mentor.
      A 1987 graduate of Lawrenceburg High School, Brinkman competed in basketball, football, golf and track & field. He was a member of the 1985 Class 2A state runner-up team in football. Brinkman matriculated to Franklin College, where he competed four years each in football and track & field while earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1991. In 2008, he earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Cincinnati.
      He now is in his 34th year as an educator, 18 years as a math teacher – including six years at Center Grove, four years at Lawrenceburg and eight years in Ohio – and now in his 16th year as a school administrator. He currently is an Associate Principal at Lakota East High School in Liberty Township, Ohio.
      Brinkman and his wife, Michelle, reside in Lebanon, Ohio. He is father to London, 23, and Beck, 21, and step-father to Logan, 18, and Camryn, 15.
          When not at school or officiating, he enjoys time with family, attending sporting events and concerts, and follows the Cincinnati Bengals and Purdue Boilermakers.
2025 IBCA Mildred Ball Award
Congratulations to the Mildred Ball Award Winner: Nick Wininger
       Nick Wininger of Montgomery is the winner of the 2025 IBCA Mildred Ball Award.
       Wininger began officiating in 2000 while a student at Indiana University. Over the years, he has called 18 sectionals, 12 regionals, seven semi-states and three State Finals in boys’ basketball (2013-4A, 2016-1A and 2021-4A). He also has called 19 sectionals, 13 regionals, seven semi-states and five State Finals in girls’ basketball (2011-4A, 2014-4A, 2017-2A, 2021-3A and 2025-3A). In addition, he worked the 2009 girls’ Hall of Fame Classic as well as the 2011 and 2023 boys’ Hall of Fame Classic events.
       Wininger is in his 25th year as a member of the Southwestern Indiana Officials Association. He served his association as the basketball chairman in 2012-13 and 2013-14, and he also has been a basketball clinician on several occasions. Wininger recently was recognized by the IHSAA with its 2025 Interscholastic Athletic Official Award for girls’ basketball.
       A 1999 graduate of Shoals High School, Wininger competed in basketball and baseball and was an all-Blue Chip Conference selection in baseball. He went on to IU, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 2004.
       He now is in his 20th year as a junior high history teacher at North Daviess Junior-Senior High School, and he also is the North Daviess High School girls’ golf coach.
       An avid golfer, Wininger was runner-up in the 2021 Country Oaks Classic tournament at Country Oaks Golf Course in Montgomery.
       Wininger and his wife, Lee Ann, are parents to two children – Hadley, 12, and Holden, 7.