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St. John’s football 2014The 2014 St. John’s football crew has, front from left, Zach Gable, Zach Fischer, Austin Schulte, Alex Haunhorst, Wyatt

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Blue Jay gridders using new ‘O’, ‘D’ in 2014

Austin Schulte Austin Heiing

Nick Martz

By JIM METCALFEDHI Media Sports Editor

[email protected]

DELPHOS — The St. John’s foot-ball team has a lot of veteran coaches that have been through more than a few grid wars over the years.

They will need to call on that veteran moxie as an overall inexperienced team will try to execute new systems on both sides of the ball in 2014.

The Blue Jays return 10 starters from last fall’s 9-5 edition (6-2 in the Midwest Athletic Conference).

“We don’t have a lot of overall ex-perience, especially in certain spots. We don’t have quite the depth we’ve

had in the past either,” St. John’s head coach Todd Schulte explained. “That is why we chose to play three scrimmages this preseason instead of two; we needed as much live action as possible to see what we can do about ad-dressing the lack of experience, running different schemes and trying to find depth by moving people around. When I call the offensive plays or Coach (Steve) Recker the defense, we want to know the kids have it down and can execute.”

However, implementing a new 1-back, shotgun of-fense and a 3-3-5 de-fense will mean a few changes.

“One of the rea-sons we’re switch-ing out of the ‘I’ is we aren’t the power-running team we’ve been; we just don’t have that kind of per-sonnel right now. We believe with the skill set we have, we’re better off trying to spread things out and get our kids in space to see if they can make plays 1-on-1, where a 5-yard gain can become 20,” Schulte explained. “Defensively, we looked

at what we have and figured we have more linebackers and defensive backs than we do linemen. We aren’t huge

by any stretch but we aren’t small, either. We’ll run some of the same schemes as we did in the 4-3 but the plan is to do more stunting, getting into the gaps and blitzing than we have in the past. We just can’t sit in there and try to

overpower teams.”With six starters back on that de-

fense, including three in the second-ary, that is a good a place to start for the Jays.

Back for more are senior corner (Bear) Evan Hays (5-10, 181; 53 solo stops, 37 assists; 2 picks), senior safe-ty Nick Martz (5-10, 170; 30 and 15), junior corner (snake) Jordan Mohler (5-10, 17; 51 and 182), former end-turned-Sam linebacker Wes Buettner (6-0, 212, senior; 22 and 6), Mike linebacker Austin Heiing (6-1, 187, senior; 65 and 37) and former tackle-turned-nose Trent Closson (6-2, 218, junior; 31 and 21).

Key losses include top tackler Cody Looser (89 and 56), Tyler Jettinghoff (50 and 24), Luke MacLennan (47 and 13), Luke Wrasman (42 and 11) and Jason Wittler (23 and 28).

New starters in the first 11 are left end Jaret Jackson (6-2, 197, sopho-

“We don’t have a lot of overall experience, especially in certain spots. We don’t have

quite the depth we’ve had in the past either. That is why we chose to play three scrimmages this preseason instead of two; we needed as much

live action as possible to see what we can do about addressing the lack of experience,

running different schemes and trying to find depth by moving people around.”

— Todd Schulte,head coach, St. John’s football

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more), right end Alex Haunhorst (5-10, 174, senior), Ax linebacker James Harrison (5-11, 188, senior), rover Aaron Reindel (5-9, 175, sophomore) and safety Zach Fischer (6-0, 163, senior).

“The strength of our defense is the secondary with three of the four starters from last year back,” Schulte con-tinued. “However, outside of our sec-ondary people/wide receivers, many of the same guys you see starting on de-fense you will see on the offensive side.

We’re not even close to the days of 2-platoon right now. What we’re focusing on is trying to make sure we can get peo-ple a rest when they need it, some some of the younger guys will have to step up and show they can play right away. We’ll ro-tate as much as we can and hope it gets better as the season wears on.”

With two of the five offensive line-men returning last year — Buettner (a guard-turned-center; 6 pancake blocks) and right tackle Aus-tin Schulte (6-4, 235, senior) — they will

be leading the way for veteran sig-nal-caller Martz (49-of-112 passing, 633 yards, 4 touchdowns, 10 picks; 118 rushes, 615 yards, 6 TDs) and ‘Z’ receiver/wing Hays (9 grabs, 111 yards).

New starters in the front five are left tackle Closson, left guard Jackson and right guard Haun-horst.

Outside are ‘Y’ re-ceiver/tight end Hei-ing, ‘X’ receivers/split ends Fischer and Eric Vogt (6-1, 154, sophomore) and run-ning back Harrison.

Gridders(Continued from Page 5)

“For us, staying healthy will be even more of a

concern, especially up front. If we lose one guy, we lose

two starters at this point. Ex-ecution is always a

concern when you are switching systems that

you have played for years into something new, so

we’ll have to keep improving each day and each practice.

— Todd Schulte,head coach St. John’s

footballSee GRIDDERS, page 7

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Gridders(Continued from Page 6)

“In the MAC, we have two defending State champions: Marion Local (Division VII)

and Coldwater (Division V). They are

both loaded again. Outside of that right

now, it’s open.”

— Todd Schulte,head coach, St. John’s

football

The 1-2 backfield punch of Jettinghoff (256 rushes, 1,620 yards, 29 scores; 10 grabs, 98 yards, 1) and MacLennan (109 rushes, 908 yards, 7; 15 grabs, 265 yards, 3) is gone, as is Andy May (7 grabs, 105 yards) and linemen Spencer Ginter (18 pancakes), Ryan Shumaker (8) and Kellen Shomaeker (2).

“For us, staying healthy will be even more of a concern, especially up front. If we lose one guy, we lose two starters at this point,” Coach

Schulte added. “Ex-ecution is always a concern when you are switching systems that you have played for years into some-thing new, so we’ll have to keep improv-ing each day and each practice.

“We have a typical tough schedule and we expect to play a lot of close games. Our young guys are going to have to learn to win those close games: physical and mental mistakes can be the difference be-tween a win and a loss, so that is anoth-er focus; being funda-mentally sound.

“In the MAC, we have two defend-

ing State champions: Marion Local (Divi-sion VII) and Cold-water (Division V). They are both loaded again. Outside of that right now, it’s open.”

Assisting Schulte in the coaching du-ties are assistant head coach/defensive co-ordinator “Peanut” Recker and assistants Dan Metzger, Jerry Jackson, Sean Huli-han, Jason Bockey, Adam Lee, Dustin Hesseling and Steven Metcalfe.

The Blue and Gold commence 2014 on Friday, Aug. 29, at Stadium Park versus Elida.


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Lady Jays hope to ‘net’ more wins in new seasonDELPHOS — Carolyn Dammeyer has

coached varsity volleyball throughout the area for 30 years, compiling a 350-143 overall mark.

That included a 5-19 season in her in-augural campaign at St. John’s in 2013.

However, with the departure of three letterwinners from a year ago, she has high hopes in 2014 as she welcomes back 10 vet-erans to the Lady Blue Jays.

Among them are five starters: se-nior Bekah Fischer, se-nior Colleen Schulte, junior Maddie Buettner, sopho-more Jessica Geise and classmate Maya Gerker.

Figuring to become either the sixth starter or come off the bench are veteran hands like senior Kestley Hulihan, senior Samantha Kramer, junior Hayley Jetting-hoff, junior Maddie Pohlman and class-mate Sydney Fischbach.

Gone via graduation are Alicia Buettner (right/middle hitter), Kaylie Youngpeter (outside) and Brittany Claypool (outside).

In replacing that trio, Dammeyer is especially pointing to expected contribu-tions from newcomers in freshman Ellie Csukker, freshman Kennedy Clarkson and classmate Madison Ellis.

“We have improved in all areas and worked very hard in the off-season. We are striving to win more games, especially Midwest Athletic Conference wins,” she

Lady Blue Jay nettersThe 2014 St. John’s volleyball varsity has, kneeling from left, Samantha Kram-

er, Olivia Kahny, Maya Gerker, Jessica Geise, Kestley Hulihan and Maddie Pohl-man; and standing, head coach Carolyn Dammeyer, Colleen Schulte, Bekah Fischer, Sydney Fischbach, Maddie Buettner, Hayley Jettinghoff and assistant coach Maggie Wannemacher. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

noted. “We have a great bunch of girls!“The entire MAC is tough but espe-

cially Versailles, Marion Local and New Knoxville.”

The remainder of the varsity roster has junior Olivia Kahny and sophomore Ally Gerberick.

Assisting on the varsity ranks is Maggie Wannemacher.

The junior varsity unit has Gerberick, Clarkson, Csukker, Ellis; juniors Jana Hamilton and Shannon Bockey; sopho-mores Brooklyn Mueller and Brooke Richardson; and freshmen Allie Buettner, Abby Stocksdale, Holly Krites and Hannah Bockey.

The Lady Jays have started the 2014 campaign.

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Hammons takes over Lady Jays’ soccer unit

St. John’s soccer 2014The Delphos Herald

DELPHOS — The St. John’s girls soccer team will have a new head coach and staff for 2014.

Katrina Smith, a former Lady Blue Jay player as Katrina Hammons and most recently the head coach for the Lincolnview girls pro-gram, takes over the reins from John Munoz.

The Blue Jays return fourth-year senior Sa-mantha Wehri (goalkeeper), fourth-year senior Emilee Grothouse, senior Liz Winhover, third-year junior Erin Williams, third-year junior

Rachel Pohlman and third-year junior Ashlyn Troyer.

Other veteran returnees include sophomore Brandy Baldauf, sophomore Courtney Wras-man, sophomore Carleigh Ankerman, sopho-more Kelsi Gillespie and classmate Maria Giambruno-Fuge.

The new coach has to replace seven mem-bers of the St. John’s Class of 2014: 4-year varsity players Sam Bonifas and Madison Kreeger; 3-year players Lindsey Warnecke

See HAMMONS, page 11


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The St. John’s cross country team consists of, front row from left, Anthony Hale, Evyn Pohlman, Patrick Stevenson, Nick Pohlman and Curtis Pohlman; and coach Brian Kopack, Samantha Stevenson, Breece Rohr, Baylee Lindeman, statistician Shelby Wilhelm and coach Steve Hellman. Runner Lexi Pohlman and statistician Andrew Shawhan were absent from the photo. (DHI Media/Erin Cox)

2014 St. John’s cross country

Blue Jay harriers’ number woes continueBy JIM METCALFE

DHI Media Sports [email protected]

DELPHOS — St. John’s cross coun-try coach Steve Hellman has struggled with numbers during his four previous seasons as head coach.

Those woes continue as Hellman barely has enough for a boys team and doesn’t for the girls.

“We are still lacking numbers this year but I do have five boys running so we can compete as a team again this year,” Hell-man said. “For the girls, I only have four runners, so we will not be able to com-pete as a team this year. I do have eight junior-high runners this year, so I do have more runners coming in future years.”

He returns five letterwinners from 2013 — the only ones he has for 2014 — for a boys’ team that was 66-109: lone senior Anthony Hale (3 varsity letters), junior Curtis Pohlman (2 varsity letters), sophomore Nick Pohlman, sophomore Evyn Pohlman and sophomore Patrick Stevenson.

The lone graduated boy was Aaron Hellman (personal record 18:58), a 4-year varsity letterwinner who is run-ning cross country this fall for Heidel-berg University.

“I only have one senior this year and that is Anthony (PR of 20:01); I am look-ing for him to take over the leadership after following Aaron and Megan (Jo-seph) the last few years. I look for him to compete for the #2 spot,” Hellman ex-plained. “The boys will be led by Curtis (PR 17:46), a 2-time regional qualifier. We have upped his mileage this sum-

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mer with the hope that we can get him to State this year.

“I have three sophomores I expect big improvement out of: Nick (PR 19:32) should compete for the #2 spot, Patrick (PR 21:40) is looking to get under 20 minutes this year and Evyn (PR 21:08). He is a little behind in getting his miles in this summer due to issues with his prosthetic, which he hope to get correct-ed soon so he can work on his goal of getting under 20 minutes this year.”

The Lady Blue Jays return three from a 6-14 team last fall — they only had a full team for two meets: sophomore Breece Rohr, sophomore Baylee Linde-man and sophomore Lexi Pohlman.

The lone departure due to graduation was 4-year letterwinner Joseph, a 3-time Regional qualifier who is running CC for Ohio Northern University this fall.

“The girls will be paced by those three veterans: Breese (PR 22:09) will be lead-ing the way; she was on pace last year to

qualify for Regionals until an injury took her out for three weeks in the middle of the season,” Hellman continued. “I ex-pect her to be competing for a regional spot at Districts. Lexi (PR 24:08) made great improvement during the season last year and hopes it continues into this sea-son. Baylee (PR 27:02) missed the first eight weeks last year due to injury but has been running very well this summer.

“I have only one new runner this year, a junior — Sam Stevenson. She made great improvement as the summer went on and I am hoping she has a great sea-son.”

With so few numbers, injuries be-come crucial.

“With only five boys, I am hoping for no injuries so we can compete as a team all season. Our goal it to try to be in the top half of the team scoring this season,” Hellman added. “The senior class in the area is very good, so we will have to im-prove to keep up with the schools in the area. As far as the Midwest Athletic Con-ference, it is going to be very good again this year led by Coldwater, Minster and New Bremen.

“With only four girls, we will have to look for individual improvement to make the season successful since they cannot compete as a team. In the MAC, Minster will be again the clear favorite to win the title.

“Both teams have been working very hard this summer. With most of them having at least one year of high-school running experience, I have been able to bump up our mileage this summer so I hope it pays off with faster times this fall. We started our season Aug. 23 with our home Blue Jay Invite at Stadium Park that will bring in 20 schools and about 500 runners.”

The 2014 St. John’s boys golf unit has, front row, left to right, Matt Dickrede, Robbie Buescher and Derek Klausing; and back, Ryan Dickman, Elliott Courtney, Brandon Slate, Stephen Leathers, Austin Lucas and head coach John Klausing. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

St. John’s boys golf 2014

Blue Jay(Continued from Page 10)

and Jessica Koverman; 2-year players Maddie Burgei and Lyndsay Mohler; and Bre Stepleton.

Assistant coaches are Adam Smith and Megan Etzkorn.

The Lady Blue Jays have com-menced the Hammons era.

Hammons(Continued from Page 9)

Good Luck Blue Jayson a successful 2014 year


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The 2014 Jefferson football crew has, front from left, Trevor Dudgeon, Derek Foust, Warren Poling, Aaron Parkins, Cameron Jones, Tyler Talboom, Tyler Foust, Jordan McCann, Alec Lindeman, Kurt Wollenhaupt and Gaige Rassman; row two, Blake Kimmet, Drew Wannemacher, Easton Siefker, Cole Gasser, Noah Illig, Dalton Hicks, Bryce Lindeman, Tyler Dickrede, Ryan Goergens, Josh Teman, Mike Cline and Adam Rode; third row, David Grant, Eli Edie, Corbin Betz, Chase Harmon, Tristan Fetzer, Drake Schmitt, Sebastian Brown, Ryan Wittler, Brandon Herron, Jace Stockwell and Hunter Binkley; row four, Brenen Auer, Tyler Bratton, Cooper Chung, Cole Arroyo, Drew Re-iss, Nick Vulgamott, Nick Long, Spencer Wannemacher, Jordan Bonifas, Corey Dudgeon, Davion Tyson and Eric Lehman; row five, Ramone Olmeda, Trey Gossman, Bobby Stevenson, Tyler Shrider, Tyler Gorman, Troy Dudgeon and Evan Poling; and back row, assistant coaches Adam Wollenhaupt, Jon Kroeger, Roger Arroyo, Greg Gossman and John Edinger, head coach Chris Sommers and assistant coaches Michael Wiltsie, Bryan Weimarskirch, Jeff Stockwell and Seth Wollenhaupt. Absent were Clint Walker, Brice Metzger and Parker Poling. (DHI Media/Charlie Ashby)

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Jefferson set for changes under new grid coach SommersBy JIM METCALFE


DELPHOS — There will be more than a few new looks to the Jefferson varsity football crew in 2014.

New systems on both sides of the football — the Wing-T on offense (as opposed to last fall’s spread) and the 4-3 on defense (a 4-4 last season) — and a most-ly new coaching staff headed up by first-year head man Chris Sommers.

As well, only six full-time starters and 18 lettermen are back from the 9-2 playoff edition (6-1 in the Northwest Conference) under then-head coach Larry “Bub” Lindeman.

“It’s taking some time to instill the new systems and philosophies we want to have but we feel these new schemes best fit what we have talent-wise,” Sommers began. “We are running an up-tempo Wing-T; it’s traditional in that we’re stressing the running game but we will also run multiple out of

it. We feel we have a lot more running backs than receivers at this time and the point will be to wear teams down and make them adjust quicker to our pace.

“The 4-3 is to deal with all the multiple offenses we face, especially the spread, but also the pro-I and the empty backfield.”

The offense has the most holes to fill as only one starter: All-NWC hon-orable-mention left guard Noah Illig (5-10, 180, junior).

It must replace stalwarts like running back Zavier Buzard (243 carries, 1,792 yards, 32 touchdowns; 10 grabs, 145 yards, 2), wingback/tight end Ross Thompson (39

grabs, 714 yards, 7 TDs; 19 totes, 162 yards, 3), signal-caller Aus-tin Jettinghoff (111-of 195 passing, 1,789 yards, 14 scores, 5 picks), Tyler Mox (30 grabs, 476 yards, 3), Joe Gorman (10 catches, 112 yards) and linemen Adam Crabtree (28 pancake blocks), Isaac Illig (16) and Justin Stew-art (15).

The defense has five full-timers: se-nior end Jordan McCann (6-0, 190; 47 solo stops, 26 assists; 9 sacks), senior tackle Warren Poling (5-10, 190; 19 and 12), senior cornerback Trevor Dudgeon (5-9, 155), junior end/outside linebacker Drew Wannemacher (5-8, 175; 31 and 18) and junior safety-turned corner Josh Teman (6-0, 155; 30 and 25). As well,

sophomore safety Jace Stockwell started the playoff game a year ago.

The Wildcats will need to find replace-ments for Thompson (77 solos, 43 assists), Gorman (59 and 30), Issac Illig (45 and 17), Tyler Mox (38 and 21) and Ryan Kerby (34 and 21).

“We have a lot of holes to fill in the starting lineup. Though we are inexpe-rienced, we are not a young team with a number of seniors (11) and juniors (16 out of 57 total),” he continued. “I think one of our strengths is our physi-cality; the kids have bought into what we’re doing in the weight room and in conditioning and we’re showing the hard work they put in. We’re not huge by any means but we have good size overall, to go along with good team speed and strength.

“We also have a lot of hungry young-er guys that are excited about playing and are looking to help us out. Because of that depth, we are going to focus on being two-platoon; outside of two play-ers, that will be the case in our starting 22. We challenged our kids in March and April to put in the effort needed so we can do this, especially with our up-

“Like every team at this time, we have to avoid injuries; even with depth, you still want your

front-liners out there, plus we’re not as deep as we’d like at every spot. We’ll be working to make sure we have kids ready to step in when needed and that also improves the competitiveness of practices and makes everyone better. We’re

excited and enthusiastic for the season to start.”— Chris Sommers,

head coach, Jefferson football

Go Wildcats!

Parkins

McCann

Dudgeon Rassman

Wollenhaupt See SOMMERS, page 14

tempo offense.”On the offense,

new tentative start-ers up front include left tackle Bryce Lindeman (6-0, 345, junior), center Tyler Foust (6-1, 190, senior), right guard Derek Foust (5-8, 170, senior) and right tackle Alec Lindeman (5-10, 235, senior).

Stockwell will be under center, with junior Dalton Hicks (6-1, 220) at fullback, junior Adam Rode (5-7, 160) at left half-back and Mike Cline (5-10, 150, junior) at right half-back. Senior Tyler Talboom (6-1, 200) is the tight end and either Grant Wallace (5-11, 155, junior) or Ryan Goergens (6-0, 170, junior) is at split end.

“The biggest concern is getting varsity experience at this point; the second is getting on all cylinders on both sides of the ball, especially of-fensively,” Som-mers said. “We need to make sure we are ready to go from the start and be

mentally focused to win on the road. We expect to be play-ing a lot of tough, close games on the road.”

The six new starters include Hicks at middle linebacker (73 and 42), Corbin Betz (5-6, 210, junior) at the open tackle slot, senior Kurt Wollen-haupt (5-9, 160) and sophomore Hunter Binkley (5-7, 165) at outside line-backers and senior Gaige Rassman (5-8, 165, senior) at safety, once he returns from injury.

“Like every team at this time, we have to avoid injuries; even with depth, you still want your front-liners to be out there, plus we’re not as deep as we’d like at every spot. We’ll be working to make sure we have kids ready to step in when needed and that also improves the competitiveness of practices and makes everyone better,” Sommers added. “We’re excited and enthusiastic for the season to start.

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“Like every team at this time, we have to avoid injuries; even with

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head coach, Jefferson football

Talboom

Alec Lindeman

Jones

Warren Poling

Tyler Foust

Derek Foust

Sommers(Continued from Page 13

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Assisting Sommers are John Edinger, Jon Kroeger, Jeff Stockwell, Brent Bin-kley, Roger Arroyo, Greg Gossman, Mi-chael Wiltsie and Seth and Adam Wol-lenhaupt.

Jefferson begins the Sommers ten-ure in earnest on Friday, Aug. 29, on the road at non-league foe Waynesfield-Goshen.


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2014 Lady Jefferson soccer teamThe 2014 Jefferson girls soccer crew has, front from left, Kaitlyn Antrican, Abby Parkins, Kiya Wollenhaupt, Arianna Knebel, Bailey Miller and Kendall Marquiss;

second row, Kaelin Anders, Makaya Dunning, Jennifer Ditto, Jessica Pimpas, Tasha Shaeffer, Jordy Radler and Arielle Thompson; third row, Sierra Marlow, Addison Schimmoeller, Elisabeth Miller, Kylee Haehn, Logan Hamilton, Cheyanna Scirocco, Brandy White and Alexa Marlow; and back, head coach Josiah Stober and assistant coach Jason Klint. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe).






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Lady Jeffcats return battle-tested core to pitchBy JIM METCALFE


DELPHOS — Jefferson’s girls soccer unit under second-year head coach Josiah Stober had a very youthful roster in 2013, going 5-9-2 with only one senior on the roster.

That included a second-place finish in the Northwest Conference and ended with a loss in the Division III Sectionals.

Stober, entering 2014 with a 9-19-4 overall mark, hopes to reap the benefits of having eight returning starters and five more letterwinners on what is a much more veteran group.

Back for another go-round as starters are fourth-year senior Elisabeth Miller midfielder), fourth-year senior Kylee Haehn (striker), fourth-year senior Jordyn Radler (backer), fourth-year senior Bailey Miller (midfielder), third-year junior Lo-gan Hamilton (midfielder), junior Alexa Marlow (backer/midfielder), sophomore Arianna Knebel (midfielder) and classmate Makaya Dunning (backer/goalkeeper).

As well, third-year junior Tasha Shaef-fer (backer), third-year junior Brady White (backer), sophomore Kiya Wollenhaupt (backer), sophomore Addison Schim-moeller (backer/midfielder) and classmate Cheyanna Scirocco (backer) are looking to fill in the blanks and provide needed depth.

“We are bringing back a lot of experi-ence to the 2014 season. While losing only one senior, a very talented group of girls return,” Stober said. “There will be more

depth at multiple positions, which will cause a lot of competition for playing time. We look to put more pressure on opposing teams with this added depth.”

The lone departure due to graduation was 3-year player Brooke Hesseling.

Looking to further bolster the Lady Wildcat fortunes on the pitch in 2014 — with Stober having far more options to choose from than in any of his two previ-ous seasons — promising newcomers in the likes of Jessica Pimpas (junior goal-keeper), sophomore Abby Parkins (back-er/midfielder), potential freshman starter Kendall Marquiss (midfielder), freshman midfielder Kaelin Anders and classmate Jennifer Ditto (midfielder).

The final members of the roster are se-

nior Arielle Thompson (backer), Kaitlyn Antrican (sophomore backer) and fresh-man Sierra Marlow (backer).

Assistant coach is Jason Klint.“One of the areas we need to improve

this year is communication, with move-ment second,” Stober added. “There are a lot of good teams in the area and the Northwest Conference. We look to con-tinue to improve on our fundamentals and working together.

“With improved depth, we will look to compete in many games this year. The girls have been working really hard lead-ing into the season and look to improve as the year goes on.”

Jefferson has several matches under its belt in 2014.

“We are bringing back a lot of experience to the 2014 season. While losing only one

senior, a very talented group of girls return. There will be more depth at multiple

positions, which will cause a lot of competition for playing time. We look

to put more pressure on opposingteams with this added depth.”

— Josiah Stober,head coach Jefferson girls soccer Good Luck

Wildcatsin 2014!

“With improved depth, we will look to compete in many games this year. The girls have been work-ing really hard leading into the season and look to improve as the year goes on.”

— Josiah Stober,head coach, Jefferson girls soccer


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Lady Jeffcat volleyball varsityThe 2014 Jefferson varsity volleyball crew has, front from left, Sarah Miller, Anna Slonaker, Brooke Culp, Devyn Carder and Macy Wallace; and back, acting head

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Jefferson volleyballers facing changes in 2014By JIM METCALFE


DELPHOS — There will be some changes early in the 2014 Jefferson vol-leyball season.

One is temporary: fourth-year head coach Joy Early will begin the campaign finishing up her maternity leave, so new assistant coach Josh Early — the former head coach of Spencerville in 2013 — will slide over to the end of the bench until sometime in September.

However, the other changes are of a more lasting type: six Lady Wildcats ex-hausted their eligibility last fall, leaving an overall inexperienced team for 2014.

That group of departures includes

five of last fall’s starters: Katie Goer-gens (4 varsity years, 3 years starting; middle hitter), Rileigh Stockwell (4 varsity years, 3 years as a starter; out-side hitter), Kamie Pulford (4 years, 3 years as a starter; libero), Lindsay Deuel (middle hitter) and Kenidi Ulm (outside hitter).

As well, defensive specialist Gabby Pimpas also departed as a member of the Jefferson Class of 2014.

The leader of this group of Wild-cats is fourth-year senior setter Brooke Culp.

As well, help is expected from let-terwinners in senior Shannon Coil and senior Desteni Lear.

Hoping to step into the starting line-up or provide relief off the pine are the

likes of senior Andrea Geise, senior Jen-na Gilden, junior Anna Slonaker, junior Claire Thompson, sophomore Danielle Harmon, freshman Devin Carder, fresh-man Sarah Miller and classmate Macy Wallace.

Kristi Hageman is the junior varsity coach.

That team has Slonaker, Miller, sophomore Brittany Phillips, sopho-more Alexa Plescher, sophomore Chel-sea Reynolds, classmate Tori Schleeter, freshman Kristi Claypool, freshman Maggie Kimmett, freshman Alaina Kor-tokrax, freshman Tristine Lehmkuhle, freshman Katie Pohlman and classmate Sara Zalar.

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The 2014 Jefferson golf unit has, front row, left to right: Nathan Pohlman, Tyler Klint, Aaron Stant, Andrew Foust, Alex Theobald, Tristan Moore, Connor Berelsman and Evan Mox; and back row: Brooke Gallmeier, Zack Wannemacher, Nick Fitch, head coach Chad Brinkman, Ryan Bullinger, Carter Mox and Bailey Gorman. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

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VAN WERT — In his third season at the helm of the Cougar football program, head coach Keith Recker knows the time has come to stop talking about getting better and start putting more wins on the board.

“Expectations within our program are much higher than they have been the past two season,” Recker explained. “When this coaching staff came in, we were forced to play a lot of freshmen and sophomore. Those players are now seniors and juniors and they have matured physically and mentally to the point where we expect to be competitive against the teams in our league.”

The Cougars have posted back-to-back 1-9 seasons under Recker’s guidance after going winless the season before he arrived. Each of the two wins Van Wert has record-ed have come against St. Marys, which has gone winless since 2012. The Cougars had a few opportunities to steal wins last season, but couldn’t seal the wins when they had the chance.

In 2014, the Couagrs need only replace five lost letterwinners from last year, but those five each played enormous roles on both sides of the ball.

Junior quarterback Colin Smith returns to guide the offense for a second straight season. One of only two sophomore start-

ing quarterbacks in the Western Buckeye League last year, Smith is expected to take another step forward in his development this fall, which improving his accuracy among the biggest needs.

Classmate Justice Tussing, who emerged as a weapon in the backfield last year, fig-ures to get the bulk of the carries in Recker’s spread system. With Smith’s mobility and Tussing’s elusiveness, the Cougars have the capability to create excitement with the read-option.

When Smith does throw, he’ll have a pair of 3-year lettermen to target on the outside in Chandler Adams and speedster Nick Krugh, along with fellow senior Quincey Salcido.

One of the biggest areas of need last year

was size on the offensive and defensive lines. Another year of growth and maturity for the young players counted upon for the past cou-ple of years is welcome, but the Cougars still have a disadvantage of playing a conference schedule that features six schools in Division III and two others in D-IV. Van Wert is one of two WBL schools (along with Ottawa-Glandorf) that play in Division V.

“We understand we are up against some very big challenges,” Recker added. “But this team is hungry for the chance to com-pete.”

The Cougars will be counting on big years from senior Ethan Williams and ju-niors Jon Averesch and Nolan Smith in the trenches.

“Our offensive and defensive lines must have a great year,” Recker announced. “We need to be able to run the ball and stop the run to be successful.” The Cougars gained an average of 116 yards per game on the ground in 2013 while allowing opponents to rush for better than 250 yards per contest.

Junior Ryan Stoller returns to the second-ary, where he recorded 90 tackles last season, second-most on the team. Adams figures to again anchor the linebacking corps, where he managed 78 stops a year ago, including six tackles for loss and one sack. Adams also recovered two fumbles last year.

The Cougars open the campaign with the traditional opener versus Bryan at Egg-erss Stadium on August 29. They have home dates with Shawnee, Elida, Defiance and St. Marys during conference play.

Cougars griders expecting big things in 2014“We understand we are up against some

very big challenges. But this team is hungry for the chance to compete. Our offensive and

defensive lines must have a great year. We need to be able to run the ball and stop

the run to be successful.”— Keith Recker,

head coach Van Wert football

Experience key for Van Wert boys soccer for turn aroundBy Nick Johnson

DHI Media [email protected]

VAN WERT- The Van Wert Cougars

boys’ soccer teams looks to start its 20th season in the Western Buckeye League with a renewed hope. Into the coach’s box steps first year manager Matt Hernan-dez to take over a squad that went just 1-15 last year and 0-9 in the WBL. The Cougars lone win was a 3-1 win over Spencerville on the road.

There are a couple different factors leading to the new optimism around the Cougars training grounds. Last year’s squad featured 19 new members of the to-tal 30 kids who played on both varsity and junior varsity. This year’s squad has only six new members and looks for their expe-rience to play a big role with the Cougars this year.

Van Wert does bring back second-team all-conference player Joe Lisa to the squad. “We got a lot of starters coming back from last year. We have a lot of guys that started around 50 percent of last year’s games. Ex-

perience will not be as big as of a problem as it was last year. I try to promote that we are one team and when there are 11 guys on the field, although one player may get the positive end result, the other ten may have had a hand in it. We have some kids that have been around for

four years which is a good thing,” said Her-nandez.

Another factor to the renewed hope is a change in philosophy by the Cougars coaching staff and coach Hernandez looks to focus on possession and ball control, rather than the style most of his kids played with in the younger leagues.

“This year I’m trying to instill the idea of a possession game, but I still want the guys to take their chance when they are there. But since all the way back at the youth level we have been taught to just go, go, go, and you get in a rush and you force things, and when you do that, rarely do you

get a positive result. Offensively, we just want to possess the ball and play the game at the speed that we want the game to be played at.”

Van Wert gave up 66 goals last year while only scoring 10, which is why de-fense will be a key for the Cougars this year as they look to improve on last year’s re-cord.

“We are looking to play a possession game to minimize the chance that our opponent has to score, because the longer you have the ball, the less time your oppo-nent has to score. We can go without a loss on season by simple just holding them to a tie. So playing good defense is a key. De-fensively, we have to adjust on the fly but we need to realize that is where the game is won,” continued Hernandez.

“Our goal is to everyday get better. We have kind of adopted a slogan, every day I ask them who is here to get better. For the season our goal is improve and we would like to improve a lot over last year.”


By Nick JohnsonDHI Media [email protected]

VAN WERT — Expectations couldn’t get any higher for Van Wert boys and girls cross country team as the boys come into the season as the number one team in the pre-season polls for Division II and the girls are ranked 22.

The boys look to improve on last year’s finishes in the Western Buckeye League and also their finish at the State meet. The girls look to show that the loss of some key run-ners will not affect their results this season. The Cougar boys finished the 2013 season

with a 176-19 record and the girls had a re-cord of 118-48.

The boys return all seven runners from last year’s State squad and even have a cou-ple newcomers who will look to push the up-perclassmen.

“We return everyone that ran at the state cross country meet for us, which is unusual for most programs. So those guys returning are Connor Holliday, Connor Schaffer, Ryan Rice, Daniel Perry, and Jordan Butler, Nick Keber and Cade Fleming - six seniors and a junior. In addition, a couple good freshmen join the team. Thane Cowan was one of our top runners last year as an eighth grader. I think he will break into the varsity lineup

sometime this season just based off how strong our training has been going this year. Dylan Lautzenheiser was one of our alter-nates and he ran at regionals for us, and he is just a sophomore. We are probably 10 or 12 guys deep and can only race seven come tournament time,” said Van Wert coach Brendon Moody.

The girls team has to deal with the loss of three senior leaders and runners but also have some freshmen and underclassmen ready to fill the void left by the departed seniors.

“We lost three quality seniors last year on the girls side but we have three seniors, Schealissa Williams, Whitney Myers and Marissa Sperry. We also have two juniors in Chloee Gamble and Alicia Danlychuck, and we also have two sophomores in Natalie Ri-ethman and Morgan Bracken. We also have a good core group of freshmen girls that should push for spots in my varsity squad,” continued coach Moody.

The Van Wert girls are looking for a three-peat in the Western Buckeye League after winning the past two league titles. The girls also look for a return trip to the state meet this year.

“With losing three seniors, a return trip to State would be a huge accomplish for these ladies. I think a lot of people don’t think we can do it after losing what we lost last year, but I think that it is very realistic that both teams could make it back to state.” added coach Moody

The Cougars boys were disappointed with a second place finish in the WBL be-hind State champs Defiance and also not pleased with their 10th place finish at the State meet.

“Last year we were really disappointed with our tenth-place finish. We thought we would be a top two or three team and we just didn’t run well that day. So we have a chip on our shoulder and our sights are set high, and we want to bring home some hardware on the guys’ side. In all reality I don’t see why the guys can’t run the table from the gun,” finished coach Moody.

Cougar boys/girls cross country teams looking to dominate WBL

“We return everyone that ran at the state cross country meet for us, which is unusual for most programs. So those

guys returning are Connor Holliday, Connor Schaffer, Ryan Rice, Daniel Perry, and Jordan Butler, Nick Keber and Cade

Fleming - six seniors and a junior. In addition to a couple good freshmen joining the team. Thane Cowan was one of

our top runners last year as an eighth grader. I think he will break into the varsity lineup sometime this season just based

off how strong our training has been going this year.”— Brendon Moody,

head coach Van Wert boys cross country

“With losing three seniors, a return trip to state would be a huge accomplish for these ladies. I think a lot of people don’t think we can do it after losing what we lost last year, but I think that it is very re-alistic that both teams could

make it back to state.” — Brendon Moody,

head coach Van Wert girls cross country

By Jim CoxDHI Media [email protected]

VAN WERT — Van Wert golf had a great run from 2001 to 2012. During that stretch the Cougars won four Western Buckeye League championships and nev-er finished out of the top half of the league. That run came to an end with a ninth place finish in 2013 — tied for eighth (3-6) dur-ing the regular season and eighth in the WBL tourna-ment. For the young 2014 team, getting back into the top half would be a major accomplishment, admits coach Jeff Hood.

“(It’s a) young inexperienced team that cannot realistically compete for the WBL title as we have in years past,” says Hood. “We must focus on improvement and learn-ing the game. Expectations would be to fin-ish in the upper half of the league and to build a set of fundamental skills in the new

players that would allow them to show im-provement.”

Senior Brandon Hernandez (43.3 nine-hole average, all-WBL honorable mention) and junior Jacob Covey are the only return-ees from last year’s league tournament and sectional tournament teams. The remainder of the roster is made up of untested fresh-

man and sophomores. The sophomores are Carter Eikenbary, Colton De-schner, and Gabe Rollins. The freshman are Jared Hernandez, Tim Mankey, and Daniel McGowan.

Brandon Hernandez and Jared Hernandez have been the top two golfers in early-season matches.

Bath is the defending WBL champion, and the Wildcats return their top three players. Bath also leads the league in to-tal championships with 15. Van Wert and Shawnee have 10 titles apiece. The Cougar championships came in 1975, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1991, 2001, 2003, 2007, and 2012.

Cougars linksters looking to improve on 2014 season

“We must focus on improvement and learning the game.

Expectations would be to finish in the upper

half of the league and to build a set of

fundamental skills in the new players that would allow them to show improvement.”

— Jeff Hood,head coach, Van Wert golf

Good Luck to allCougar teams

in the 2014season





VAN WERT — Spurred by a stellar defense, Van Wert’s volleyball team went 15-8 overall and 5-4 (fifth) in the Western Buckeye League in 2013. The biggest challenge in 2014 will be to duplicate or top that defense, consider-ing the fact that three of the back row stalwarts — Claire Gamble, McKenna Merkle, and Cheyenne Handy — have graduated. Also gone is outside hitter Taylor Doidge.

The 2014 roster, however, includes six seniors who saw plenty of ac-tion in 2013 and even in 2012. They are OH Alexa Dunlap (all-WBL first team, all-District 8 first team), setter/OH Amanda Coplin (all-WBL second team), setter/DS Riley Jones (all-WBL

honorable mention), MH/OH Alexis Dowdy, MH/OH Saige Royer, and MH/OH McKenzie Collins. The other returning letter-winner is junior OH Landrie Koontz.

Non-letter winners on this year’s varsity are senior DS Kelsey Sprid-geon, junior setter/DS Domonique Grothause, junior DS Karli Turnwald, sophomore setter/MH Peyton Flem-ing, sophomore OH Emma Kohn, and sophomore setter/OH Megan Spray.

Jones, an excellent passer and one of last year’s setters, will be the start-ing libero this year, thus filling one of the defensive vacancies. Dunlap, Col-lins, and Coplin are good all-around players who will be fine defenders. The same is true of Fleming, whom coach Vicki Smith describes as the “newcomer to watch out for.” Smith is also expecting Kohn and Grothause to

become top-notch defenders.Offensively, the Cougars will need

to improve to contend for a league ti-tle. “We’ve been focusing a lot on our attackers being consistent and being smart,” said Smith. “I think they’re coming around pretty well. We’re still working defensively with the block and our defensive coverage. We’re getting there. We lost a lot, but we’re getting back with it.”

Smith expects the starting lineup to come from Dunlap, Coplin, Jones, Dowdy, Royer, Collins, Koontz, and Fleming. “We had eight losses last year; I’m hoping to cut that in half,” said Smith. “Of course, our goal is to win the WBL, but that’s a pretty hefty goal. We want to finish what we start-ed, unlike last year.” At one point dur-ing the 2013 season, the Cougs were 12-2 overall and 4-1 in the WBL, but they faltered down the stretch.

Smith expects the other WBL con-tenders to be Celina, Ottawa-Glandorf, Defiance, and St. Marys. Celina has been the perennial league power with

25 championships. Bath is a distant second with six. Van Wert’s best fin-ishes were seconds in 1980, 1984, and 2008.

Smith is assisted by Ashley Breese, Di Kiehl, and Matt Krites.

Smith sees VW volleyball as a top contender in ‘14

“We had eight losses last year;

I’m hoping to cut that in half.

Of course, our goal is to win

WBL, but that’s a pretty

hefty goal. We want to finish

what we started, unlike last year.”

— Vicki Smith,head coach, Van Wert volleyball

“We’ve been focusing a lot on our attackers being consistent and being smart. I think they’re coming around pretty well. We’re still working defensively with the block

and our defensive coverage. We’re getting there. We lost a lot, but we’re getting back with it.”

— Vicki Smith,head coach, Van Wert volleyball

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“The Cougars will be fighting to stay in the top half

of the league. The major keys to success will be finding a way to

win matches with the inexperienced players that we will have in our lineup. My number one priority every year is to help kids

become better tennis play-ers and have fun playing this great sport. Winning matches along the way is nice, but our main focus is developing our

players to reach their maximum potential.”

— Chuck Rollins,head coach, Van Wert tennis


VAN WERT — “The strength of our team will be the play of Ali Moreland at first singles,” says Van Wert girls ten-nis coach Chuck Rollins. “When we can walk into a match and know that 90 per-cent of the time we can count on a win at first singles, that’s a great plus for our team.”

The other six varsity players will need to step it up a notch, however, if the Lady Cougars are to meet their goal of staying in the top half of the Western Buckeye League. Last year’s team fin-ished at 8-8 overall and 6-3 in the WBL regular season.

The Cougs were fifth in the league tournament and fifth in the WBL overall — a combination of regular season place and tournament place. Gone from that team via graduation are second singles player Sydney Dull (WBL Tournament Sportsmanship Award winner) and third singles player Claire Butler (second in the WBL tournament).

A pleasant surprise has been junior Katie Trittschuh. “Katie is playing ten-nis for the first time and discovering that

she has a unique talent for the sport,” said Rollins. “She will be holding down the second singles spot this season.”

All four of last year’s doubles players return, but two of them will be moving up a notch. Senior Sydney Felger goes from first doubles to third singles, and junior Kali Agler moves up from second doubles to first doubles. Agler is teamed with senior Hannah Stemen, who re-mains at first doubles.

Sophomore Jess Agler stays at sec-ond doubles where she is matched with junior Phoebe Eutsler, who is new to the sport.

The four remaining players on the roster will be competing for varsity slots. They are sophomore Cheyenne Brown, sophomore Maggie Kistler, freshman Emma Vervielle, and freshman Chey-enne Sloan.

“The Wapakoneta Redskins are far and away the top team in the WBL,” said Rollins. “The Cougars will be fighting to stay in the top half of the league. The major keys to success will be finding a way to win matches with the inexperi-enced players that we will have in our lineup. My number one priority every year is to help kids become better tennis players and have fun playing this great sport. Winning matches along the way is nice, but our main focus is develop-ing our players to reach their maximum potential.”

Shawnee has been the traditional WBL power with 18 championships. Ottawa-Glandorf is a distant second with seven titles, and Celina has six. Van Wert, Bath, and Defiance are the three schools who have never won a WBL title.


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VAN WERT — After a year away, Rich Nouza returns in 2014 to guide the girls soccer program he helped to build at Van Wert.

The still-young Lady Cougar pro-gram, which has just four seasons of varsity action, placed eighth in the 10-team Western Buckeye League last year, going 2-6-1 in conference and 3-10-2 overall. For the Lady Cougars to improve on that record, they will have to find a way to replace the school’s first-ever first team all-WBL selection, Hannah Hulbert, who leaves a gaping hole in the front of the Cougar attack.

“She had a very unique skill, that’s very hard to find in soccer, in that she was a finisher, a goal-scorer, and that was a natural ability,” Nouza said of Hulbert. “She really helped carry the offense a lot during her tenure at Van Wert; those are tough shoes to fill. Find-ing a striker, a goal-scorer is the hardest job for any coach of any team, finding

that person that can put the ball in the net.”

A pair of returning seniors, Alea Hill and Carisa Burgos, will be leaned upon heavily by very young Cougar roster, one that features 13 freshmen and six

sophomores.“Burgos will play in the center

midfield. (She’s a) great-conditioned athlete, hard-worker. I think she’ll do a really good job. She’s been with the program for a few years, but she’s tak-

ing on more of a leadership role,” Nou-za explained.

“Alea Hill is our central defender, kind of our quarterback of the defense. It’s a role she’s been in before and this year she’s been asked to be more of a leader. I think she’s done a good job of that so far in the preseason.”

Joining the seniors as captains is ju-nior Hayley Klausing, a newcomer to the team, and to the sport, this season.

“She’s new to the program, she’s a junior,” Nouza noted. “Great work ethic. She’s aggressive and she’s earned the respect of her teammates already, being named a captain.” Klausing will join Hill as a defender.

Pair of seniors lead a very young Lady Cougar soccer squad

“(Carisa) Burgos will play in the center midfield. (She’s a) great-conditioned athlete, hard-worker. I think she’ll do a really good job. She’s been with the program for a few

years, but she’s taking on more of a leadership role. Alea Hill is our central defender, kind of our quarterback of the defense. It’s a role she’s

been in before and this year she’s been asked to be more of a leader. I think she’s done a good job of that so far in the preseason.”

— Rich Nouza,head coach Van Wert girls soccer

GOT A INTERESTING

SPORTS STORY?CALL OR EMAIL JIM METCALFE,

Sports Editor, 419-695-0015

[email protected]


E l i d a B u l l d o g s

105 S. Greenlawn Ave., Elida

2014 Elida Gridiron

Bulldogs return boatload of veterans to gridiron


[email protected]

ELIDA — Jason Carpenter is begin-ning his eighth year at the helm of the Elida football program with a 37-40 overall mark.

That includes last season’s 5-5 re-cord, 4-5 in the Western Buckeye League.

With 17 returning starters, he ex-pects to make more noise in 2014.

Among the veterans back are seniors Clark Etzler (6-0, 175, senior/wide re-ceiver/defensive back), Jesse Guerrero (5-8, 160; defensive back), Desmend White (5-8, 180; linebacker), Jared Bly-myer (5-7, 200; offensive line), Damien

Eaton (5-7, 260; offensive line), Quinn Searcy (5-11, 240, offensive line), Shane Lengefeld (5-9, 175; defensive line), Will Legge (5-11, 275; defensive line), Patrick Brockert (6-2, 185; wide receiver) and Christian Moran (6-2, 185, senior/wide receiver/free safety).

Juniors include Brian Upshaw 6-0, 150; wide receiver), Logan Alexan-der (6-0, 195; quarterback), Tristan Edwards (5-11, 210; offensive line), Jordan Rothermel (offensive line) and Dylan Holcomb (5-8, 175; offensive line).

Sophomores are Baylee Stinson (6-1, 180; linebacker) and Peyton Smith (5-10, 170; defensive back).

Newcomers expected to make a big impact in 2014 are senior Henwin

Duffy (6-1, 180; tight end), junior Joey Glick (5-6, 190; defensive line), fresh-man Cole Harmon (5-8, 150; wide re-ceiver) and classmate Daneille Lowe (5-10, 170; linebacker).

“We need to remain balanced on of-fense and be aggressive on defense. The biggest concern is stopping the run on defense; that is a must,” Carpenter said. “Clark is a dynamic wide receiver and we have some others to look out for: Logan under center, Desmond at line-backer and Will on the line. Christian (wide out), Peyton (secondary) and Baylee (linebacker) I think will surprise people.

“If we can limit turnovers, stop the run and make sure everyone is do-ing his job, we can compete in the

WBL.”Assistant coaches include Dan Lari-

more, Kyle Harmon, Bill Kellermeyer, Jeff Thomas, Mo Sumpter, Brett Halsey and Jay Terry.

Elida opens 2014 on Friday, Aug. 29, at St. John’s.

GO BULLDOGS! Cheer them on in 2014


Sneary heads up Lady Dawg volleyball for 2014


[email protected]

ELIDA — Elida’s volleyball pro-gram has been headed by Kevin King the last seven years.

Now, Traci Sneary heads up the Lady Bulldog program and has three starters and three letterwinners returning from an 11-14 edition a year ago.

Back to familiar spots for the first-year coach are starters Aubrey Williams (5-8 senior defensive specialist/outside hitter), Katie Hawk (5-9 senior setter/opposite hitter) and Summer Grogg (5-11 junior middle hitter), with letterwin-ners Erin Bowman (5-7 setter/opposite hitter), Karmyn Martinez (5-7 junior li-bero) and Megan Tracy (5-8 junior out-side hitter/defensive specialist).

Having lost a pair of starters/letter-winners to graduation in Erika Kierl and Tori McAdams, Sneary has hopes that a trio of promising newcomers in Katelyn Sumption (5-10 sophomore middle hit-ter), Taylor Creps (5-8 junior opposite hitter) and Emily Bowman (5-7 junior outside hitter/defensive specialist) will help fill the void.

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“Our biggest weakness is our defense. We’ve been workingreally hard over the summer on that aspect of

the game, so hopefully, it will be better this year. There are some good teams in the Western Buckeye League this year. I just hope to compete with them and finish in the top half.”

— Traci Sneary,head coach, Elida volleyball

Elida volleyball 2014“Our biggest weakness is our de-

fense. We’ve been working really hard over the summer on that aspect of the game, so hopefully, it will be better this year,” Sneary said. “There are some good teams in the Western Buckeye League this year. I just hope to compete with them and finish in the top half.”

The other members of the varsity

roster are 5-7 sophomore Mallory Et-zler (outside/middle hitter) and class-mate Racheel Davisson (5-6 defensive specialist/outside hitter).

The junior varsity unit has Davisson, Etzler, sophomores Natalie Carder (5-10 opposite hitter) and Rebecca Tschuor (5-10 outside hitter/defensive special-ist); and freshmen Madison Allemeier

(5-11 middle hitter), Presley Knotts (5-5 libero), Cydney Lyons (5-8 defensive specialist), Dakota Roberts (5-8 middle hitter), Sidney Roberts (5-8 outside hit-ter), Isabelle Shrider (5-5 setter) and Jordyn Stewart (5-10 defensive special-ist/outside hitter).

Elida has commenced its new season under Sneary.


Thomas seeks to have more success for Elida boys soccer

Elida girls soccer

Elida boys soccer

By JIM METCALFEDHI Media Sports Editorjmetcalfe@delphosherald.

com

ELIDA — Tom Thomas had a solid 2013 season at the helm of the Elida varsity boys soccer crew, going 12-5-2 and getting knocked out in the Division II District final.

That included a 5-2-2 mark in the tough Western Buckeye League.

As he begins his 12th season, he brings back nine lettermen — eight of them starters — from that unit to build the newest crew around.

The starting unit should be sound everywhere as senior goalkeeper Garrett Brinkman returns.

Third-year senior Shawn Ezell (defender) and third-year junior Nathan Stewart — both who have started three years — are rocks on the back line, while the midfield is built around third-year starter Adam Ordel (senior), third-year starter Dalton Reichert (junior) and third-year junior Kyle Finnerty.

Finally, third-year starting forward Jerod Houston (senior) and third-year starting forward Gaerid Littler (junior) look to provide offensive punch up

front.Third-year senior midfielder Chase

Walton came off the bench last fall and looks to step into an open starting spot.

Also looking to do so in their first season on the varsity level — replac-ing four members of the Class of 2014 in Austin Calvelage (defender), A.J. Siefker (defender), Brice Coolidge (de-

fender) and Riley Overholt (midfielder) — are senior Ethan Schaefer (defend-er), junior Gunner Braun (midfielder), Oliver Fessler (midfielder), junior Matt Graymire (forward), classmate Austin Morrison (forward) and sophomore de-fender Matt Cellar.

“The boys are excited for the season and have been preparing well,” Thomas

said. “We’ll focus on ball possession and strive to improve ourselves each match. The players have shown they want success; they just have to go out each night, be focused and they’ll be rewarded.”

The 12th season for Thomas has been kicked off.

GOOD LUCKBULLDOGS IN 2014




Elida harriers return handful on each side


[email protected]

ELIDA — Elida head cross country coach Bruce Marshall went 79-81 last sea-son in his second season at the Lady Bull-dog helm (7th out of 10 Western Buckeye League schools) and 30-134 on the boys side, good for 10th in the WBL.

A handful of returnees — none of them seniors — are back on both sides as the Bulldogs prepare for 2014 without a se-nior on either roster.

This fall’s girls crew will be paced by

first-team All-WBL sophomore Alyssa Turrentine (6th at Districts; 27th at Re-gionals).

As well, four more veterans are back from a year ago: junior Tori Bowen, junior Hannah Malone, sophomore Lauren Bull and sophomore Aerianna Littler.

He only lost one letterwinner from that team due to graduation — Kaiti Hinegard-ner — but has her replacement in fresh-man Kelsey Goodman.

“We have many veteran runners return-ing and they have also done track in the spring,” Marshall observed. “At the same time, we have only one freshman on the

team and she has not run before.“Our goals are to improve our times

as the season progresses with the hope of peaking at the WBL conference meet as well as Districts. Alyssa has her eyes set on qualifying for the state meet.”

On the boys side, back for another go-round are junior Eric Anthony, junior Gaerid Littler, sophomore Trevor Brook-man, sophomore Caleb Newland and classmate Daulton Buetner.

A pair of promising newcomers in Matt Hesseling (sophomore) and freshman Gavin Peare finish the rest of the boys roster in re-placing a pair of letterwinning graduates in

Max Stambaugh and Logan Malone.“We have the same thing on the boys

as the girls: most of our runners have done cross country for many years as well as track in the spring,” Marshall added. “Again, though, we only have one fresh-man on the boys roster.

“Our goals for the boys are the same as the girls: improve our times as the season progresses with the hope of peaking at the WBL conference meet as well as Districts. We also need to stay healthy and injury-free.”

Elida’s 2014 cross country campaign has already commenced.

Elida cross country

Lady ‘Dawg netters return 5 to the hard courts


[email protected]

ELIDA — Elida girls tennis coach Quinn Whittaker returns five letterwinners from last fall’s 8-8 edi-tion.

That includes a 5-4 mark in the Western Buckeye League, good for fourth place, and participated in the Division II sectionals.

Those returnees hopes to improve Whittaker’s 36-28 4-year mark.

They include third-year senior Ashley Fay (doubles), senior dou-

bles Summer Slusher, senior doubles Jenna Mekolites, third-year junior singles Meredith Little and classmate Jacey Higbie.

Needing to replace graduated players in Hailey Hurst, C’era Sanage and Elizabeth White, the coach will look to promising junior newcomer McKenna Griffith, as well as other youngsters, to fill out the 7-girl line-up of three singles players and a pair of doubles.

“We are looking forward to a strong, successful season this year,” Whittaker added.

Assistant coach is Chris Kelley. Elida 2014 tennis


Lady Green ready for pitch in 2014O t t o v i l l e B i g G r e e n

Members of the Ottoville girls soccer team (front row, from left) are Alexis Wannemacher, Megan Lambert, Haley Landwehr, Courtney Von Sossan, Lyndsey Wannemacher and Robyn Turnwald. In the second row are Erica Brickner, Madicyn Schnipke, Carly Kortokrax, Dana Eickholt, Alena Horstman, Lyndsay Schweller and Elyse Baker. In the back row are Tim Kimmet, head coach, Megan Burgei, Katlyn Kelch, Brittany Winhover, Amber Miller, Nicole Williams, Brena Bowersox, Brian Eickholt, assistant coach, and Jessica Beining, assistant coach. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Ottoville 2014 girls soccer

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OTTOVILLE — The Ottoville Lady Green girls soccer crew comes off a rare down season, compiling a 5-11 mark last fall.

Head coach Tim Kimmet and crew hopes that 10 letterwinners back from that team, plus a few more players at his dispos-al, will add up to a more successful season in the win column in 2014.

Back for a final go-round for the Green and Gold are fourth-year senior Courtney Von Sossan (captain), fourth-year senior Alexis Wannemacher (captain), fourth-year senior captain Haley Landwehr (coming off an injury that kept her out of action last fall), veteran senior Robyn Turnwald and veteran senior Megan Lambert.

Back for more are third-year junior Dana Eickholt, third-year junior Alena Horstman (captain), third-year junior Carly Kortokrax and third-year classmate Erica Brickner.

The remainder of the overall young ros-ter — no sophomores are out in 2014 on a roster of 19 versus 16 a year ago — roster has senior Lyndsey Wannemacher, fresh-man Lyndsey Schweller, freshman Nicole Williams, freshman Amber Miller, fresh-man Brittany Winhover, freshman Megan Burgei, freshman Breana Bowersox, fresh-man Katlyn Kelch, freshman Elyse Baker and classmate Madicyn Schnipke.

That group will be the main part of replacing six graduates: 4-year players Monica Sarka, Megan Schnipke, Daniel Trenkamp and Amy Tumblin, Stephanie Horstman and Haylee Koester.

“Those freshman are going to have to

fill the starters’ positions when they get tired,” Kimmet noted. “We have a good returning junior and senior class. We are a young team with good senior leaders; if they

stay focused, we can be all right.“It’s a toss up in the Putnam County

League, with Continental a definite favor-ite.”

Jessica Beining and Brian Eickholt re-main as assistant coaches.

The Lady Green’s 2014 campaign has commenced.

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Members of the Ottoville volleyball team (front row, from left) are Emily Landin, Beth Maag, Chelsey Boecker, Makayla Miller and Julia Langhals. In the middle row are Abi Hilvers, Madison Knodell, Maizee Brinkman, Morgan Beining, Nicole Kramer, Ali-cia Honigford and Briley Wertenberger, manager. In the back row are Alicia Haselman, junior varsity coach, Alexis Thorbahn, CJ Kemper, Annie Lindeman, Bridget Landin, Brooke Mangas and Andi Wertenberger, head coach. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Ottoville 2014 volleyball

Big Green volleyballers welcome in new ‘old’ coachBy JIM METCALFE


OTTOVILLE — Andria Werten-berger coached the Ottoville Big Green volleyball team in the early to late part of the last decade.

The erstwhile head coach of the Lady Green nett-ers has returned to her “roots”, taking over for Kirt Martz after a 6-15 season a year ago.

She brings back five starters from that group from a year ago and also has a sixth letterwinner to begin her second stint at the end of the varsity bench.

Back for another go-round as starters for the Green and Gold are senior Annie





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Gerker returns 10 for Big Green boys soccerBy JIM METCALFE


OTTOVILLE —The Big Green boys soccer crew of eighth-year head man Eric Gerker returns seven out of 11 starters from last fall’s 11-4-2 mark (1-2-1 in the Putnam County League).

He hopes that with that experience — along with three more letterwinners and 11 others on the roster — he can add signifi-cantly to his 94-29-7 Big Green mark and career record of 102-36-7.

“We return those 10 letterwinners from 2013, seven of which will be returning start-ers. The entire back line of defense returns and our second-team All-Northwest District goalkeeper, Colin Bendele (senior),” Gerker explained. “We were hurt with the loss of midfield captain Alex Horstman to gradua-tion, as well as our top scorer from a year ago in Lucas Maag. Offense will be an early concern as we try to fill the void of Lucas.

“We also bring in a very talented class of 10 freshmen. Some of them will be called upon early and often to play a lot of minutes and make valuable contributions.”

Back to the lineup are the likes of Brandt Landin (senior midfielder), Austin (Frosty) Honigford (senior sweeper/defender), Joe Van Oss (senior sweeper/defender), Joel Beining (senior midfielder), Jared Fanning (junior forward), Drew Williams (junior forward/midfielder), Rudy Wenzlick (ju-nior defender), Emitt German (sophomore defender/midfielder) and sophomore mid-fielder Connor Kuhlman.

Having to replace Maag, Horstman, Jordan Kelch and Kyle Bendele, Gerker will look to prospects like Alex Krouskop (sophomore goalkeeper/defender), Brendan Siefker (freshman midfielder/forward), Nick Moorman (freshman defender/midfielder), Derek Kemper (freshman defender), Lo-gan Kemper (freshman forward), Connor

Ottoville boys soccerMembers of the Ottoville boys soccer team (front row from left) are Logan Kemper, Brendan Siefker, Connor Fanning, Evan

Boecker, Derek Kemper. Zane Martin and Josh Sarka. In the middle row are Emmit German, Jon Knippen, Drew Williams, Con-nor Kuhlman, Nick Moorman, Jared Fanning, Troy Warnecke and Alex Krouskop. In the third row are assistant coach Dustin Markward, Joe Van Oss, Austin Honigford, Brandt Landin, Joel Beining, Colin Bendele, Rudy Wenzlick and head coach Eric Gerker. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Fanning (freshman forward/midfielder), Zane Martin (freshman midfielder), Josh Sarka (freshman midfielder), Evan Boecker (freshman forward), Troy Warnecke (fresh-man defender) and Jon Knippen (freshman

goalkeeper/defender).The junior varsity unit has all of the un-

derclassmen from the juniors on down.“We look to be competitive in all our

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The Big Green 2014 season has started.

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Members of the Ottoville girls cross country team (from left) are Brittany Schleeter, McKenna Byrne, Bob Kaple, head coach, Elizabeth Luersman and Elyse Baker. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Ottoville girls cross country team

Kaple back for more for Ottoville runners

See CROSS COUNTRY, page 33


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OTTOVILLE — Long-time Ottoville boys and girls cross country coach Bob Kaple — entering his 46th season — has struggled with the numbers in his program over the last couple of campaigns.

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This year, he has six boys and four girls, just short of having enough for a full team.

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Members of the Ottoville boys cross country team (front row, from left) are Cody Kemper, Brendon Stoner and Eric Von Sossan. In the back row are Bob Kaple, head coach, Brandon Kimmet, Ryan Kimmet and Trevor Fischer. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Ottoville boys cross country

Cross Country(Continued from Page 32)

sophomore Trevor Fischer, sophomore Cody Kemper and classmate Eric Von Sossan.

He brings in only one newcomer from the junior-high ranks, freshman Brandon Stoner.

“We still have a very young team,” Kaple explained. “We have three boys competing for our number-1 runner: Ryan, Eric and Cody. I expect to them all improve from last year.”

On the Lady Green side, last year’s lone runner, fourth-year senior Elizabeth Luersman, will lead a 4-person unit, with freshman Elyse Baker, freshman McKenna Byrne and classmate Brittney Schleeter.

“We have three talented freshmen to go with the leadership of our only senior. They should learn and grow this year,” Kaple added.

The Big Green has had two meets so far in 2014.



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Lindeman (outside/middle hitter), senior Chelsey Boecker (setter/defensive spe-cialist/outside hitter), lone varsity junior Nicole Kramer (outside hitter), sopho-more Brooke Mangas (outside hitter) and classmate Alexis Thorbahn (setter).

The sixth veteran — for a largely un-derclass-player-laden unit — is sopho-more outside hitter Alicia Honigford.

Wertenberger has to replace four let-terwinners that graduated: Taylor Man-gas, Tonya Kaufman, Kelsey Miller and Kara Schimmoeller.

Replacing that quartet at the varsity level are the likes of senior Morgan Beining (outside hitter), sophomore Maizee Brinkman (outside hitter), Madi-son Knodell (outside hitter/defensive specialist), freshman Bridget Landin (middle/outside hitter) and classmate Emily Landin (outside hitter/defensive specialist).

Ottoville has already begun the 2014 season.

Big Green(Continued from Page 30)

Members of the Ottoville golf team (front row, from left) are Kaleb Hanicq, Andy Schimmoeller and Brendon Schnipke. In the back row are James Brown, head coach, Wesley Markward, Isaiah Miller and Thomas Waldick. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

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Fort Jennings 2014 girls soccerThe 2014 Fort Jennings girls soccer unit has, front from left, Keri Eickholt, Alyssa Wiedeman, Alyssa Louth, Erin Osting,

Sarah Chandler, Hannah Clay and Jenna Calvelage; row two, Renee Kraner, Jenna German, Jacie Thomas, Jessica Young, Jordan Horstman, Lydia Mesker, Kasidy Klausing, Madison Grote and Brandi Kaskel; row three, Brooke Rice, Emily Freund, Hailey Young, Abby Von Sossan, Devyn Wiechart, Erin Eickholt, Allainda Zehender and Lauren Core; row four, Marissa Krietemeyer, Vanessa Wallenhorst, Haley Wittler, Lillian Wisner, Makenna Ricker and Rachel Kneale. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

Wagner has veteran crew of Lady Musketeers soccerBy JIM METCALFE


FORT JENNINGS — Head Fort Jen-nings girls soccer coach Rodney Wagner has won far more that he has lost in his 13 years at the helm — 137-70-26.

With 14 letterwinners back from a 7-5-4 mark a year ago (2-1-1 in the Putnam Coun-ty League), the Division III program hopes to add more than a few wins to that total in 2014.

Back for another go-round to the Orange and Black are third-year senior keeper Erin Osting, veteran 12th-graders Alyssa Louth (midfielder), Alyssa Weideman (fullback), Hannah Clay (midfielder), Jenna Calvelage (fullback), Keri Eickholt (midfielder) and Sarah Chandler (midfielder); third-year ju-nior Brandi Kaskel (forward), veteran class-mates Jenna German (midfielder), Jessica Young (fullback), Jordan Horstman (for-ward), Kasidy Klausing (midfielder); and sophomore Erin Eickholt (forward).

Having to replace lost letterwinners in fullback Cassie Horstman, forwards Maris-sa Good and Emily Grone and midfielders Jamie Saum, Ashley Gable and Nicole Rick-er, he and assistant coach Jim Buettner will do so with junior varsity letterwinners in ju-niors Jacie Thomas (forward), Lydia Mesker (forward) and Madison Grote (fullback) and sophomores Devyn Weichart (goalkeeper/fullback), Hailey Young (forward) and Abby Von Sossan (forward).

“We should be strong defensively and at goalkeeper with our keeper having two years of experiance. We are returning some key players from injuries from last season and we have starters returning in every po-sition.,” Wagner noted. “As with any team, the health of the team during the season is our main concern. We had a few injuries during the season and at the end of the regu-lar season and we lost key players at forward and in the midfield that we were counting on to make a tournament run. As well, how quickly we get started this season and how quickly the players pick things up and start playing together are always questions to start a season, especially filling in players for the players we had graduate from last season.

“Also, getting the ball in the back of the net is always what we have to address.”

A bevy of new players — with 30 total members on the roster, giving Wagner solid overall numbers — in junior Renee Kraner (forward); sophomores Lauren Core (mid-fielder) and Haley Wittler (midfielder); and freshmen Emily Freund (midfielder),

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Rachel Kneale (fullback), Marissa Kreite-meyer (midfielder), Brooke Rice (forward), Makenna Ricker (forward), Vanessa Wallen-horst (midfielder), Lillian Wisner (fullback) and Allaina Zehender (fullback); will pro-vide further options for the mentor.

“We should be competitive; we return a lot of experience in most key positions. If

we stay healthy, we have girls that can put the ball on frame this year,” Wagner added. “Our speed should be average this year and if we pick up our passing and ball control to keep possesion of the ball during the game, we will have a good season.

“The PCL is always a tough league. Most of the teams lost some key players to

graduation. Kalida and Continental will still be strong, followed by us, Miller City and Ottoville. This season may be closer in the league than past seasons but when you play a league game, any team can win on any given day.”

The Lady Musketeers have four matches under their belt.


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Fort Jennings boys soccer 2014The 2014 Fort Jennings boys soccer team has, sitting from left, Lucas Ricker, Cole Horstman, Isaac Schuck, John Gerdeman,

Quinton Neidert and Jeremy Smith; kneeling, Aaron Sealts, Brad Rice, Kyle Maag, Aaron Neidert, Alex Berelsman, Chad Wurst, Dylan Wiechart, Dillon Schimmoeller and Mike Fields; and standing, Ryan Koester, Troy Ricker, Mark Metzger, Austin Wisner, Evan Ricker, Connor Wallenhorst, Austin Kehres, Kyle Hellman and Adam Howbert. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)


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FORT JENNINGS — Gregg Luthman has coached many an experienced team in his 27 years of head soccer varsity coaching.

He has just such a team this fall for his Fort Jennings boys as seven starters and four other lettermen return from an 8-7-1 edition last fall (2-2-0 in the Putnam County League).

In his current stint as the Musketeer boys head man, he sports a 22-26-3 mark after having served as their head coach in the mid-2000s for three seasons.

Among the returning starters is the most decorated Musketeer, junior Alex Berels-man (midfielder/forward; second-team All-Northwest District, first-team All-Putnam County League), senior Mark Metzger (mid-fielder/forward; honorable-mention All-NW District, second-team PCL), senior Connor Wallenhorst (defender; honorable-mention PCL), Austin Kehres (senior defender; hon-orable-mention PCL), Troy Ricker (sopho-more midfielder/forward; HM PCL), Aaron Neidert (junior sweeper/outside back/mid-fielder) and Kyle Maag (sophomore sweep-er/midfielder)

The other experienced hands at Luth-man’s disposal are senior goalkeeper Ryan Koester, senior Chad Wurst (outside back/midfielder/forward), senior Evan Ricker (outside back/midfielder) and junior Austin Wisner (midfielder/forward).

Gone from a year ago due to gradu-ation are Garrett Berelsman (defender/midfielder), Seth Ricker (center mid-fielder/sweeper), Alex Vetter (goalkeep-er), Dylan Van Loo (outside midfielder/forward) and Spencer Dray (defensive midfielder).

In order to compensate for those losses, Luthman figures it will come from the im-

provements of his veteran players.“All returning prospects are top pros-

pects this year because it will take all their past efforts and their experience upon which they can build to meld together the under-classmen into a team that puts their best out on the line everyday and in every minute of every game,” he explained. “We have a very good mix of underclassmen pushing the un-

derclassmen. If an upperclassmen thought a position was secure, they’ve found that they have a battle to get that game time. With this being said, all these players are pushing for their team working very hard for each other. With that attitude, this 2014 Muske-teer team is going to reach high for all they can. Excitement abounds and will energize their actions.

“The league outlook is Continental, Ka-lida, Miller City and Ottoville are always geared to be unrelenting opponents. Never-theless, the Fort Jennings Musketeers will be hunting for the top.”

The assistant coach is Alex Maag and the volunteer assistant is Bill Calvelage.

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Grove gridders experienced and yet youthful in ‘14By Charlie WarnimontSentinel Sports Editor

COLUMBUS GROVE — Columbus Grove was a very young football team during the 2013 season.

Looking at the 2014 roster you could consider the Bulldogs young once again as they have just seven seniors, including a pair of seniors out for football for the first time. However, the Bulldogs return several under-classmen that have varsity experience giving them a nice group of lettermen returning for the upcoming season.

The Bulldogs open the season on Aug. 29 as they host Pandora-Gilboa in their annual Route 12 rivalry game.

While the Bulldogs graduated nine seniors from a team that went 2-8 in 2013, they have 17 letter winners returning for the 2014 season with five seniors back on the team with play-ing experience. Despite the overall youthful-ness of the team, coach Andy Schafer is opti-mistic about what this group of Bulldogs will do this season.

“That’s the crazy thing about this team,” Bulldog head coach Andy Schafer said. “When you say you were young the previous year, that means you will have a whole bunch of seniors that next year. We were just so young last year and to have only seven seniors this year, and two of those guys are going to contribute quite a bit this year and they didn’t play last year. You could tell that’s how young we were and that makes a difference because of that many guys coming back.

“Thing have been going real well. We have been impressed with just how far along we are this year compared to other years. Obvi-ously its due to the experience we have com-ing back. We had a very, very young team last year, so the majority of the team is back and that makes a huge difference.”

While the Bulldogs return several let-termen, they have some key positions to fill

including quarterback with the graduation of 2013 starter Riley Brubaker (1,089 passing yards, 11 TDs and 532 rushing yards). Step-ping into the quarterback role this season will be sophomore Reid Stechschulte (5-11, 155). As a freshman, Stechschulte was the Bulldogs junior varsity quarterback, which allowed the coaching staff to prepare him to be the starter this season.

“During the JV games we were working

with Reid to be the replacement this season,” Schafer said. “We have been pretty impresssed with the way he handled himself in the seven on seven games. Obviously seven on seven is different from tackle football, but we are look-ing forward to him stepping up. Even though he is a sophomore he is surrounded by a lot of experience, but we tell him don’t try to go out there and prove yourself, just use the weapons around you and play with confidence.”

Among the experienced players returning for Grove on offense is senior running back Joey Warnecke and receivers. David Bogart, senior, and juniors Aiden Fortman and Baily Clement. Warnecke rushed for 599 yards last season and six touchdowns, while Bog-art caught 36 passes for 388 yards and five scores. Fortman had 18 catches for 118 yards and a score.

“Joey is kind of the heart and soul of our offense and defense really,” Schafer says. “I’m expecting great things out of Joey. He is just a great kid and leader. He is going to be the face that we hang our hat on on Friday nights.”

Three linemen return for the Bulldogs in seniors Andrew Burgei, tackle, and Christian Stechschulte, center, and sophomore Rece Roney, guard. The other line spots will be handled by senior Noah Kohls, who hasn’t played football since his freshman year, and junior Andrew Nichols.

Senior Tanner From will step into a wide receiver role for the Bulldogs this season as a starter. From missed the 2013 season with an injury suffered during two-a-day workouts.

Six starters return for Grove on the defen-sive side of the ball in Roney on the defensive line, linebackers, Andrew Nichols (61 tackles, 9 TFL’s), a junior, and Warnecke (69 tackles,

Members of the Columbus Grove football team (front row, from left) are Noah Kohls, Joey Warnecke, Christian Stechschulte, David Bogart, Tanner From, Elisha Jones and Andrew Burgei. In the second row are Andrew Nichols, Eli Schroeder, Tyler Brooks, Aidan Fortman, Brandt Follas, Dylan Blankemeyer, Eli Wiswasser and Reid Stechschulte. In the third row are TJ Pardo, Logan Diller, Baily Clement, Justin Calveledge, Isaac Siefker, Jake Utendorf and Brandon Grigsby. In the fourth row are Andrew Wheel-er, Emilio DeLarosa, Logan Ridenour, Grant Cassidy, Eric Warnecke, Ethan Blankemeyer, Adam Birkemeier and Bryce Ricker. In the fifth row are Clark Sturgeon, Rece Roney, Lachlan Clymer, Grant Schroeder, Noah Drake, Dylan Fruchey and Ross Renner. In the sixth row are Kyle Siefker, Owen Fuerst, Rayne Sharrits, Logan Malsam, Enoch Jones and Bayden Brubaker. The coaches are in the back. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

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See GROVE , page 40





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Grove volleyball set for continued successBy Charlie WarnimontSentinel Sports Editor

COLUMBUS GROVE —After a 19 win season in 2013, the Columbus Grove volleyball team is looking for similar success in 2014.

That will be a difficult challenge for the Bulldogs as they graduated seven players from that squad including Northwest Conference Player of the Year Julia Wynn from its lineup. Columbus Grove finished the 2013 season with a 19-4 overall record as they went 8-0 in the Northwest Conference and 5-1 in the Putnam County League, where they finished second.

Despite the loss of experienced players, Columbus Grove doesn’t have to start from scratch as they have five players returning with a varsity letter.

Among the players returning this season are seniors Sydney McCluer, outside hitter, Rachel Kohls, defensive specialist, Briana Glass, setter, Hope Schroeder, outside hitter/defensive specialist, and Kristin Wynn, middle hitter. McCluer led the Bulldogs in ace serves last season with 36 and she had 105 kills, third on the team.

Looking to help the Bulldogs this season will be junior middle hitter Mad-die Vorhees, sophomore setter Jade Clement and freshman outside hitter Car-lee McCluer.

Second year coach Susan Jones is optimistic about the upcoming season with the talent the Bulldogs have back.

“We have a good group of seniors that work well with the new girls,” Jones said. “We should be a good defensive team as we return a lot of experience.”

Overall height is a concern for Jones after they graduated a tall front line last year. The Bulldogs tallest player is Kristin Wynn at 5-11, then it drops off to Vorhees at 5-9 and goes down from there. “We are shorter this year and need to work on our blocking,” Jones said.

“We are looking forward to a strong season. We are trying to stay focused and healthy. We also would like to have a better run in the tournament.”

Despite the Bulldogs success last season, Columbus Grove saw its tourna-ment run end in the sectionals as they lost to Ottawa-Glandorf.

As for the two leagues Columbus Grove plays in, they are looking to make a run at repeating as NWC champions and would like to move up a spot in the PCL this season. Jones knows the competition in both leagues will be strong once again this year.

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The 2014 Columbus Grove volleyball team consists of (front from left) Carlee Mc-Cluer, Jade Clement, Briana Glass and Hope Schroeder. In the middle are Mikayla Roman, Mackenzie Clymer, Sydney McCluer, Rachel Kohls, Robyn Schumacher and manager Shay Schroeder. In the third row are head coach Susan Jones, Becca En-dicott, Kristin Wynn, Madison Vorhees and assistant coaches Amy Young and Lori Schroeder. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Members of the Columbus Grove golf team (front row, from left) are Brooke Silver, Noah Oglesbee, Wyatt Mayberry and Kyle Welty. In the back row are Geddy Davis, Dylan Selby, Travis Gallmeier, head coach, Brandon Hoffman and Logan Hardeman. Not pictured are Gage Gerdeman and Gage Irwin. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

GOOD LUCK GROVE


Cross country expectations remain high for Grove




By Charlie WarnimontSentinel Sports Editor

COLUMBUS GROVE — The 2013 cross country season was supposed to be a rebuilding one for the Columbus Grove boys.

After advancing to state in 2012 the Bulldogs graduated most of their top run-ners, including all-Ohioan Jake Graham. But instead of waiting “until next year”, Columbus Grove quickly reloaded the lineup and ran all the way to Hebron and another state appearance.

Once again the Bulldogs will need to replace som ekey components from that state team, but they are excited about their chances this season. Columbus Grove fin-ished ninth at the 2013 state meet, but will need to replace three runners from that team, two that graduated and one that trans-ferred out of the school district.

The 2014 version of the Bulldogs will be led by senior Colton Grothaus. Grothaus earned all-Ohio honors in 2013 as he fin-ished 21st at the state meet. Overall, Gro-thaus won three invitationals in 2013 and was the teams undisputed leader.

“Colton stepped up last year as a junior. He was a captain and a great leader for us. He is the one the rest of the guys look to when it comes to leadership, experience and success. Colton has made three trips to state in cross country and two in track already. I believe he is one of the top ten runners in

the state in Division III cross country. The problem is that three of the top ten runners in the state happen to be on our conference. It should be a real battle for the NWC’s top runner this year, “ ninth year head coach Terry Schnipke quipped.

Last year, Grothaus was beaten out by a hair by Crestview’s Mycah Grandstaff at the Northwest Conference meet. Lincol-niew’s Bayley Tow finished third in the conference race, but earned the NWC Ath-lete of the Year award. Lincolnview also made a trip to National Trail Raceway as a team in November and should be Grove’s biggest competition in the NWC.

“It was a really exciting experience for our conference to send two teams to the state meet, along with some individu-als from other schools. It has been a while since we sent two teams to the state meet. We battled back and forth with Lincolnview all year and I expect more of the same this year. It will be a very competitive confer-ence.”

In addition to Grothaus, Grove returns a core of solid seniors in 2014.

Bryce Sharrits, a senior, returns after having finished 100th at state cross coun-try meet and competed in two events (4X8 relay, 800) at the state track meet. Senior Alex Tabler (103rd at state) and sophomore Boone Brubaker (132nd at state) return from the 2013 team as well. Sophomore Preston Brubaker and senior Ryan Tabler look to contribute to the 2014 team, as well.

12 TFL’s), and sophomore Brandon Grigsby (33 tackles, 3 TFL’s). Senior David Bogart (44 tackles, 4 INT’s) and junior Eli Schro-eder (33 tackles, 1 sack) play in the defensive backfield. Grigsby played defensive tackle for Grove last season, but is being moved back to middle linebacker this year.

Stepping into roles on the defensive line are senior Elisha Jones and his younger broth-er, freshman Enoch Jones and junior Brant Follas. From and junior Logan Diller will be the other two starters in the defensive back-field. Elisha Jones is the other first year senior as he hasn’t played since junior high. Sopho-more Adam Birkemeier and junior Brant Fol-las could also see some time at defensive end as they have several players looking for time at defensive end or tackles.

“I have been just so impressed with his work ethic, his leadership, his everything for a first year guy,” Schafer says of Elisha Jones. “He is just amazing. His younger brother will be standing next to him. Those two Jones’ brothers are just something else. For those two to step foot on the field for the first time can be intimidating, but in our first scrimmage they looked pretty good.

“All three linebackers have experience

and one end. I feel pretty confident with our defensive front seven this season. Scott Sny-der, who joined our staff last year, has done such a nice job with our defensive backs and its hard to mention four starters at defensive back since he feels we have nine players that are capable of starting for us.”

Both of Bulldogs safties, From and Logan Diller, a junior who has not played since eighth grade, give the Bulldogs size at safety as both are 6-2 or better. Juniors Baily Clement and Aiden Fortman along with sophomores Grant Cassidy and Lachlan Clymer also will vie for time in the secondary.

Another key for Schafer’s ‘Dogs is the play-ers familiarity with the system and the coaches. This is the first time since Schafer has taken over the program that they did not make a coaching change from the previous season.

“We have not changed a thing and that’s been the best part about it. I can see it in the kids eyes, the confidence level, not only the confidence level in themselves, but the confi-dence in us, its just a whole different atmo-sphere,” Schafer says. “The installation and transition phase of a new coach and a new sys-tem is complete.”

After the Bulldogs opener with the Rock-ets, they open Northwest Conference the fol-lowing week when they host Allen East.

(Continued from Page 38)

Grove

The 2014 Columbus Grove boys harriers are Colton Grothaus, Zach Schafer, Bryce Sharrits, Alex Tabler, Cody Wischmeyer, Alex Giesige, Phillip Vance, Ryan Price, Aaron Page, Boone Brubaker, Preston Brubaker, Austin Sager, Jacob Otto, Ryan Tabler and head coach Terry Schnipke. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Columbus Grove boys cross country

Columbus Grove girls cross country


GOOD LUCK BULLDOGs!


S p e n c e r v i l l e B e a r c a t s

In Business Since 1925

MPH InsuranceAgency, Inc.

121 N. BroadwaySpencerville, OH 45887

Office Phone (419) 647-4051 Fax (419) 647-6724Steve Paulus Troy Perry Steve Smith Rick Homan

The 2014 Spencerville football crew has, front from left, Cole Bellows, Grant Goecke, Trevor McMichael, Elijah Hawk, Logan Vandemark, Daniil Gelivera and Andrew Emery; row two, Hunter French, Mason Nourse, Evan Pugh, Devin Hennon, Wyatt Krouskop, Chandler Schrolucke, Damien Corso, Zach Goecke, Zach Brown and Evan Barnett; row three, Keaton Lotz, Damon Jenkins, Nick Freewalt, Caleb Sutherland, Dakota Prichard, Alex Vickers, Brady Becker, Dakota Davis and Peyton Ford; row four, Gage Goecke, Lucas Carpenter, Daniel Corso, Ben Dues, Trenton Schwartz, Calvin Wilson and Cody Dickson; row five, Chris Picker, Jacob Settlemire, Brandon O’Dell, Cole Market, Ethan Rahrig and Logan Rex; and back, assistant coaches Tim Wilson and Jim Morris, Athletic Trainer Anna Quick, A.T.C., assistant coaches Cole Roberts, Rick Orr, Gabe Davisson, Todd Merriman and Ben Krouskop and head coach John Zerbe. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

Bearcat football 2014

Bearcat gridders look for bounceback in ‘14


[email protected]

SPENCERVILLE — Spencerville sixth-year head grid coach John Zerbe has a dozen

starters back from the Bearcats’ 5-5 crew from 2013, including a 3-4 finish in the Northwest Conference.

He hopes that five returning front-liners to his Wing-T offense and seven to his Des-ert Swarm defense will add positively to his 21-29 career mark.

The defense will be led by returning first-team All NWC honoree Logan Vande-mark (5-11, 250, senior; lineman/running back) and second-teamer Zach Goecke (6-1, 185, third-year junior; linebacker/running back).

Bolstering that duo are veteran starters in senior defensive back Daniil Gelivera (6-0, 170; running back), senior defensive back Trevor McMichael (6-0, 185; running back), senior lineman Cole Bellows (5-10, 145; offensive line), junior linebacker Hunt-er French (6-0, 190; tight end) and junior linebacker Evan Pugh (6-0, 215; lineman).

All-NWC second-team senior lineman Elijah Hawk (6-2, 225; lineman/defensive line) returns to pace the offense.

Also back are senior tight end Grant Goecke (6-0, 175; linebacker), junior quar-

terback Mason Nourse (6-1, 175; lineback-er), junior lineman Evan Barnett (5-8, 225; defensive line) and lineman Pugh.

Two others gained valuable varsity ex-perience a year ago: senior Andrew Emery (5-11, 175; running back/linebacker) and junior Wyatt Krouskop (6-3, 210; offensive/defensive line).

“We bring back a lot of experience but will be looking for consistency and for new starters to step and play at a high level,” Zer-be said. “We have a real nice mix of upper-classmen and underclassmen that have come together nicely.

“The NWC will be very balanced, so anything is possible.”

Gone from a year ago are the gradu-ated Colton Miller (running back/defensive back), Anthony Schuh (running back/line-backer), Lucas Perkins (offensive/defen-sive line), Tyler Core (defensive line), Gabe Davisson (offensive/defensive line), Aaron Crider (offensive/defensive line) and Hunter Hardesty (running back/linebacker).

Zerbe will look to the likes of players to watch such as junior tight end/defensive

back Damien Corso (6-3, 190), sophomore running back/defensive back Calvin Wilson (5-7, 145), sophomore quarterback/defen-sive lineman Dakota Prichard (6-3, 195) and classmate Keaton Lotz (running back/line-backer; 5-9, 155).

Three juniors: Chandler Schrolucke (6-4, 220; TE/DL), Zach Brown (5-9, 160; RB/DL) and Devin Hennon (6-2, 190; OL/DL); and sophomores Peyton Ford (5-5, 135; RB/LB), Cody Dickson (5-9, 135; RB/DB), Da-kota Davis (5-8, 125; TE/LB), Gage Goecke (5-9, 125; QB/DB), Brady Becker (6-0, 185; TE/LB), Damon Jenkins (5-8, 260; OL/DL), Trenton Schwartz (5-11, 180; OL/DL), Alex Vickers (6-1, 240; OL/DL), Lucas Carpenter (5-10, 190; OL/LB), Caleb Sutherland (6-4, 215; OL/DL) and Nick Freewalt (6-0, 195; OL/DL) are in the running for starting spots and depth.

Assistant coaches include Rick Orr, Todd Merriman, Jim Morris, Tim Wilson, Ben Krouskop, Cole Roberts and Gabe Davisson.

Spencerville begins the 2014 campaign on Friday, Aug. 29, at home versus non-league foe Leipsic.


732 East Fourth StreetSpencerville, Ohio 45887

Phone: 419-647-1665Fax: 419-647-1666

E-mail: [email protected]

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The 2014 Spencerville varsity volleyballers include, front from left, Schylar Miller, Katie Merriman, Megan Miller, Cierra Adams and Amanda Crider; and back, as-sistant coach Sydney Kuhlman, Gaby Romaker, Tiffany Work and head coach Shelby Cox. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

2014 Spencerville varsity volleyball

Cox hopes to stabilize Lady Bearcat volleyballers


[email protected]

SPENCERVILLE — The Spencer-ville volleyball team has had a spate of turnover the last three seasons.

In the 2012 season, it was the finale of head coach Kari Wicker.

Last fall, it was the turn of Josh Early to head up the program.

This fall, enter Shelby Cox as the newest head coach for the Lady Bearcat netters.

However, if there is a silver lining in all this, it is the fact that she returns five of the six starters from the 2013 unit.

That five has fourth-year senior in Schylar Miller (setter), third-year senior Katie Merriman (middle hitter), third-year senior Megan Miller (outside hitter on both sides), third-year Cierra Adams (outside hitter on both sides) and third-year classmate Amanda Crider (middle/left-side hitter).

Unfortunately for Coach Cox, four letterwinners from a year ago — the

Lady Bearcats had no seniors on the ros-ter in 2013 — chose not to go out this fall.

The onus of stepping into the sixth spot in the starting six and providing a little depth falls to Gaby Romaker and

Tiffany Work.The assistant coach is Sydney Kuhl-

man.The Black Attack has commenced

the Cox era and has several matches un-der its belt.

GOOD LUCK BEARCATS IN THE 2014 SEASON




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The Spencerville golf crew for 2014 has, from left, Collin Davis, Mitchell Young-peter, Sam Reed, Chance Campbell, Lydia Dunlap and head coach Mike Harmon. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

Wisher in for Hobbs as head of Bearcat soccer teamBy JIM METCALFE


SPENCERVILLE — Josh Hobbs fin-ished 1-13-3 last season as the head coach of the Spencerville boys/co-ed soccer squad.

Andy Wisher takes over the reins in 2014 and returns 10 starters and three more veterans off the bench for his inaugural season.

Back for an-other go-round in the starting 11 are lone senior goalkeeper/midfielder Byron Gay, junior Billie Sidey (midfielder/defender), junior Austin Rex (midfielder/defender), junior Cole Ward (defender/goalkeeper), junior David Wisher (striker/defender), sophomore Bailey Croft (midfielder/defender), soph-omore Griffin Croft (striker/midfielder), sophomore Chandler Kahle (striker), sophomore Thad Ringwald (defender/midfielder) and classmate Trevor Osting (defender).

Also back are junior defender Noah Schweizer, junior defender Riley Klaus and sophomore J.T. Thiery (defender/striker).

Only one starter/letterwinner gradu-ated: Tricia Riley (midfielder).

A pair of freshmen look to make their marks for Wisher and crew in the upcom-

Bearcat linksters ‘14





VANCREST

Spencerville soccer 2014The 2014 Spencerville soccer crew has, kneeling from left, Riley Klaus, Billy Sidey, Bailey Croft, Griffin Croft, Byron Gay,

Trevor Osting, Thad Ringwald and Justin Thiery; second row, Chandler Kahle, Chase Van Shoyck, Sidney Shaffer, Christina Emery, Meagan Maag, Carleigh Hefner, Madison Pugh, Alexis Wolfe and Brandon Bockey; and back, head coach Andy Wisher, David Wisher, Keith Nielson, Austin Rex, Cole Ward, Gage Bellows, Jaret Montenery, Skyler Ward and Noah Schweitzer. Absent are Eric Mack and assistant coach Garret Croft. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

ing campaign: Jaret Montenery (striker) and Alexis Wolfe (midfielder/striker).

“Our strength will be our returning starters. Our weakness is offense and passing,” Wisher commented. “This year, we are looking forward to take the next

step in our program. We have almost ev-erybody back and are looking to improve from last year.

“We look to finish in the top half of our league (Northwest Conference).”

The remainder of the much-deeper roster — the team will have a limited ju-nior varsity schedule — has junior Chase Van Shoyck (defender), Carleigh Hef-ner (sophomore striker), Chandler Kahle (sophomore striker), Brandon Bockey (sophomore defender), Keith Nielson

(sophomore midfielder), Christina Emery (sophomore midfielder/defender), Skylar Ward (sophomore defender), Eric Mack (sophomore defender), Sidney Shaffer (freshman wing), Meagan Maag (fresh-man striker), Madison Pugh (freshman defender/midfielder) and freshman Gage Bellows (midfielder/striker).

Assistant coach is Garrett Croft.The Bearcats have several matches un-

der the belts to commence the 2014 cam-paign.


Spencerville girls cross country 2014

Spencerville boys cross country 2014The 2014 Spencerville boys harriers has, from left, head coach Brian McMichael,

Josh Cook, Matt Wood, Austin Conrad, Hunter Stephen and Robert Modic. Absent are Ed Smith, Kalob Pitson and assistant coach Bev Wisher.

The Lady Bearcat cross country unit for 2014 has, from left, head coach Brian Mc-Michael, Cierra Adams and Destiney Fiely. Absent is assistant coach Bev Wisher. (DHI Media/Jim Metcalfe)

Bearcat runners face inexperience, youth for 2014By JIM METCALFE


SPENCERVILLE — Spencerville’s cross country teams under long-time head coach Brian McMichael has had their share of success.

Take the boys team: McMichael is beginning his 43rd year at the helm with a 2,600-1,951 mark, including last fall’s seventh-place finish in the Divi-sion III Districts, a fifth-place ending in the Northwest Conference and a 50-96 overall mark.

However, with the graduation of let-termen Matt Hurles and several other experienced runners deciding to try oth-er sports this fall, he is left with a mere two lettermen from that edition.

Ed Smith, a sophomore who was last fall’s fifth man, and classmate Austin Conrad, the seventh man.

That leaves the bulk of this year’s crew in the hands of five freshmen that were running in junior high a season ago to step into big shoes and become major contributors as promising newcomers: Josh Cook, Robert Modic, Kalob Pitson, Hunter Stephen and Matt Wood.

“One thing we do well is work hard in practice and have a good attitude. What we need to work on, as usual for so many young runners, is learn how to race at the varsity level, especially run-ning as a pack, improving speed and endurance,” McMichael began. “The team’s success will depend on how fast the runners develop.

“In my opinion, the top four teams in the NWC are Lincolnview, Crestview, Columbus Grove and Bluffton. How-ever, our team goals are to finish in the top 2/3 of the teams in each meet and improve throughout the season.”

The Lady Bearcat situation is even more dire for the 33-year coach, whose mark on that side is 1,505-592.

With the departure of the last ves-tiges of the 2012 Lady Bearcats that fin-ished 16th at the Division III State Cross Country Meet and the 2013 NWC cham-pions for the seventh year in a row, he only has one letterwinner from a 92-32 team that ended up fourth in the District and sixth in the Regional.

Gone due to graduation are num-ber-1 runner Karri Purdy (3 varsity let-ters), number 3 Tori Hardesty (4 years), number 7 Tesa Horton (2) and number 8

Ashley Keiber (3).As well, other veteran girls expected

to be key cogs this fall decided to try their hands at other sports this fall.

That leaves one veteran, third-year senior Cierra Adams, last year’s number 2.

Only one other harrier is on this fall’s unit: freshman Destiney Fiely.

“Cierra is a great senior leader in a tough spot and both of these girls work hard in practice,” McMichael added. “We will need to work on running with the race leaders and running at a fast pace, meaning improving our endur-ance.

“I expect Bluffton, Columbus Grove, Lincolnview and Crestview to be the top four NWC teams this year.

“We do not have a full team, so our runners will try to win individual awards in meets and advance in the tournament. Individual goals are to improve during the season, place high in meets, win in the NWC, qualify to Regional and then to the State.”

The assistant coach for six years is Bev Wisher.

The Bearcat harriers have com-menced the newest season.

“One thing we do well is work hard in

practice and have a good attitude. What we need

to work on, as usual for so many young

runners, is learn how to race at the varsity level,

especially running as a pack, improving speed

and endurance. The team’s success will

depend on how fast the runners develop.

— Brian McMichael,head coach, Spencerville cross country


K a l i d a W i l d c a t s

801 Ottawa St.P.O. Box 390

Kalida, OH 45853

Phone: (419) 532-2026Fax: (419) 532-2027




LadyCat netters hope 7 a lucky number of returneesBy JIM METCALFE


KALIDA — Kalida’s volleyball crew finished 10-12 last season, including 3-3 in the Putnam County League.

Second-year coach Kristen Stech-schulte returns a “lucky” number of seven to try and better last fall’s efforts.

Among the veterans are senior setter Nicole Recker (5-7), senior Kennedy Hoff-man (5-6 defensive specialist/libero; 2 letters), 5-8 senior middle hitter Morgan Niese, 5-6 senior Alexis Vorst (out-side hitter/setter), junior 5-8 middle/out-side hitter Kylie Osterhage (2 letters), ju-nior middle/outside hitter Allison Recker (5-8) and 5-6 sophomore Carlee Miller (outside hitter).

In having to replace departed letter-winners Alexis Decker, Kylie Siebeneck, Madison Burgei and Elizabeth Turnwald, Stechschulte will turn to varsity new-comers Caitlyn Stechschulte (6-0 senior middle hitter) and 5-6 sophomore outside hitter/setter Brooke Kimball, as well as the improvement from her veterans.

“Most of our team is coming back from last year,” Stechschulte said. “These

girls have a great sense of teamwork and work ethic. Our defense this year will be one of our many strengths.

“Improving on a day-by-day and week-by-week basis will be the key to the success of our team this season.”

Assisting the head coach on varsity is Cathy Berr.

The junior varsity unit, headed by Alison Luderman, has Kimball, junior Allison Wurth (5-4 defensive special-ist), junior Madison Ellerbrock (5-6 outside/middle hitter), An-drea Remlinger (5-6 sophomore outside hitter), Keara Hop-kins (5-7 sophomore outside hitter/setter), Abby Langhals

(5-4 sophomore outside hitter), Saman-tha Langhals (5-5 sophomore defensive specialist), Jenna Siefker (5-7 sopho-more middle hitter), Brooke Lucke (5-2 sophomore defensive specialist), Aubrey Stechschulte (5-5 sophomore outside hitter), Erica Edwards (5-7 sophomore outside hitter), Dana Knueve (5-5 sopho-more outside hitter) and freshman Sarah Klausing (5-10 outside hitter/setter).

The freshmen unit, coached by Kim Lammers, has Klausing, Kierstan Siebe-neck (5-3 outside hitter/defensive spe-cialist), Taylor Lucke (5-3 outside hitter/setter), Tori Niese (5-8 middle hitter),

Kalida volleyball 2014Members of the Kalida volleyball team (front row, from left) are Brooke Kimball,

Morgan Niese, Kennedy Hoffman, Nicole Recker and Carlee Miller. In the back row are Jillian Knueve, manager, Cathy Berry, varsity assistant coach, Allison Recker, Ky-lie Osterhage, Caitlin Stechschulte, Alexis Vorst and Kristen Stechschulte, head coach. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Kalida golf 2014

Kara Siefker (5-6 outside hitter/setter), Anna Berheide (5-4 outside hitter) and Kyona Gray (5-8 outside/middle hitter).

The LadyCats have already played their first matches of the 2014 volleyball campaign.

Go Wildcats

Members of the Kalida golf team (front row, from left) are Evan Recker, Derek Buss, Devin Giesige and Trent Siebeneck. In the back row are Josh Klausing, Nathan Nor-dhaus, Zach Erhart, Jeffrey Knueve, Noah Lambert, Alex Meyers and Ken Schnipke, head coach. Not pictured is Collin Nartker. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)


Kalida boys varsity soccer LadyCat soccer 2014 Members of the Kalida boys soccer team (front row, from left) are Trey Webken,

Alex VonderEmbse, Brent Hovest, Grant Unverferth, Drew Hovest and Kaleb Selhorst. In the second row are Mark Czubik, head coach, Luke Langhals, Logan Roebke, Austin Swift, Nathan Meyers, Derrick Schimmoeller and scott States, junior varsity coach. In the back row are Devin Kortokrax, Ryan Siefker, Jordan Kortokrax, Brandon Verhoff, Nathan Vorst and Michael Schroeder. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Kehres,LadyCat soccer crew primed for stellar 2014

Members of the Kalida girls cross country team (front row, from left) are Makenna Vorst, Megan Vine, Molly Ellerbrock, Jackie Gardner, Courtney Buss and Mariah Doepker. In the second row are Brittany Kahle, Jaylen Vandemark, Joni Kaufman, Al-exa Ellerbrock, Makenna Richey, Paige Roller and Laine Laudick. In the back row are David Kehres, head coach, Alecia Dunn, Hannah Warn, Taylor Zeller, Cathy Basinger, Hannah Kahle, Morgan Knapke, Danielle Storey, assistant coach, and Alexis Wurth, assistant coach. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

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KALIDA — David Kehres has built up a strong program for the Kalida girls soccer unit over the years.

Coming off a stellar 14-2-2 unit that fell short in the Division III District finals last fall (ending up 3-0-1 in the Putnam County League, good for the title), he brings back an experienced core of 15 letterwinners for what is expected to be a 2014 encore.

Back for more for the LadyCats are six seniors: fourth-year starters Mariah Doep-ker (defender) and Jackie Gardner (mid-fielder/forward) and fourth-year varsity players Courtney Buss (forward/midfield-er), Molly Ellerbrock (defender), Makenna Vorst (midfielder/forward) and Megan Vine (midfielder).

See kehres, page 47




[email protected]

KALIDA — Long-time Kalida boys soc-cer mentor Mark Czubik keeps on going in the coaching ranks, returning 13 lettermen from a 15-3-3 edition that made another long run in the Division III tournament a year ago.

That team went 3-0-1 in the Putnam County League.

This year’s group is expected to be led by the likes of post-season honorees in senior Brent Hovest (4th-year senior goalkeeper - 7 shutouts; 1st-team All-PCL, honorable-mention All-North-west District), fourth-year senior midfielder Devin Kortokrax (2nd-team PCL), fourth-year senior defender Logan Roebke (2nd-team PCL) and third-year junior forward Austin Swift (hon-orable-mention PCL).

Also back are seniors Luke Langhals (4th-year midfielder), third-year forward Derrick Schimmoeller, third-year Michael Schroeder (forward) and third-year midfielder Ryan Siefk-er; and juniors Drew Hovest (defender), Jordan Kortokrax (defender), Grant Unverferth (for-ward), Brandon Verhoff (midfielder) and Alex

vonderembse (defender),“We have a solid starting 11 and an overall

experienced group returning. However, we have little to no depth and no backup goalkeeper at this point, a major concern,” Czubik said. “We have the potential to be very good if we can keep start-ers healthy and develop a bench.

Four juniors: Nathan Meyers (midfielder), Kaleb Selhorst (midfielder), Nathan Vorst (de-fender) and Trey Webken (midfielder); make up the remainder of the varsity roster.

That quartet will replace the graduated foursome of Ian Richey (2nd-team All-State, 1st-team District, 1st-team PCL), Adam Lang-hals (1st-team PCL, HM All-District), Andrew Krouse (2nd-team PCL) and Trevor Guisinger (HM PCL).

Scott States is the junior varsity coach with sophomores Ryan Ellerbrock (D), Tyler Lehman (F), Griffin Recker (MF) and Collin Wurth (D); and freshmen Nick Cleemput (MF), Brady Deck-er (D), Dillon Elkins (D), Trent Guisinger (MF), Kevin Hamburg (F), Noah Hermiller (D), Chan-dler Hopkins (D), Anthony Houston (MF), Ja-cob Kahle (D), Josh Klausing (F), Carter Moore (MF), Dylan Schimmoeller (GK) and Trevor Wurth (GK).


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Veteran Kalida runners expect strong 2014 season


jmetcalfe@delphosheraldcom

KALIDA — Scott Miller has headed up the Kalida boys country team for seven years, the only one the current program has had.

He returns seven from an eighth-place team in last fall’s Division III Districts.

Among the veterans back for Miller’s ninth season are fourth-year senior Grant Zeller, senior Noah Verhoff, senior Austin Vorst, third-year senior Jacob Dunn, third-year junior Adam von der Embse, sopho-more Caleb Siebeneck and classmate Aus-tin Nartker.

This is for a team that had no seniors on the roster last fall.

There are a pair of promising new-comers Miller points to in senior Mitchell Kerner and freshman Carter Moore.

“We have an experienced team led by five seniors. The seniors have taken leadership roles and are working hard and pushing the underclassmen to better themselves and the team,” Miller noted. “Continually pushing each other at prac-tice and creating depth with the new or young athletes in the program. We need to continue working on running in packs to be successful for this upcoming season.

“I am looking forward to the upcoming season. We are looking to improve on our 8th-place finish at Districts with four of our top five runners back from last year.

This summer has been one of our best in terms of mileage and team chemistry as the seniors have been great leading and sophomores pushing for spots in the top seven.”

On the LadyCat side, second-year head coach Kayla King’s crew finished sixth last fall at the District level.

Five from that team are back, led by fourth-year senior Jackie Gardner, fourth-year senior Becca Brinkman, third-year junior Katelyn Siebeneck, sophomore Kelly Doepker and classmate Kristen Fortman.

“We have great team leadership com-ing from our few juniors and seniors. The girls are working hard to push each other and better themselves every single prac-tice,” King said. “In being such a young group overall, the younger girls will have to step up and fill key varsity roles for the team.”

Promising junior newcomer Allison Siebeneck will have to help off-set the losses of a pair of 4-year varsity letterwin-ners: Katelyn Kortokrax and Paige Wurth.

“With the off-season work the girls have put in this summer led by the juniors and seniors, I am excited to see improve-ments each weekend at our meets,” King added. “If the girls continue to work hard at every practice and challenge each other to get better each day, I think the team will be surprised at what they can accomplish.”

Kalida has opened the new campaign

LadyCat harriersKalida boys harriers Members of the Kalida girls cross country team (front row, from left) are Mikki

Smith, Jade Zeller, Bailey Eickholt and Erica Honigfort. In the back row are Kayla King, girls head coach, Allison Siebeneck, Kristen Fortman, Becca Brinkman, Kelly Doepker, Katelyn Siebeneck and Scott Miller, boys head coach.Members of the Kalida boys cross country team (front row, from left) are Caleb

Siebeneck, Austin Nartker, Adam vonderEmbse and Jacob Kahle. In the back row are Kayla King, girls head coach, Grant Zeller, Jacob Dunn, Noah Verhoff, Austin Vorst, Mitchell Kerner and Scott Miller, head coach. (DHI Media/Charlie Warnimont)

Kehres(Continued from Page 46)

Seven juniors add to the depth, topped by third-year starters Cathy Basinger (de-fender) and Brittany Kahle (midfielder/forward) and third-year players Alexa Eller-brock (forward), Joni Kaufman (defender), Laine Laudick (midfielder/goalkeeper), Makenna Richey (midfielder) and Paige Roller (midfielder/forward).

Two letterwinning 10th-graders: Han-nah Kahle (midfielder/forward) and Mor-gan Knapke (goalkeeper/midfielder); also return.

“We play good team defense with this group but for us, consistency on offense is crucial this season; we need to put the ball in the net on a regular basis,” Kehres said. “This season will be a learning experience for some of the girls. We hope to learn as

the season goes on and play our best soccer at tournament time.

“Every league game is a fierce rivalry; all PCL teams come to play their best.”

Having to off-set the graduation of a quartet of 4-year letterwinners in Kiersten Recker (defender), Whitney (defender/midfielder), Justine Verhoff (midfielder/forward) and Sarah Verhoff (goalkeeper/forward), four freshmen — the rest of the roster — will be called upon to do just that: Jaylen Vandemark (midfielder/forward), Alecia Dunn (midfielder), Hannah Warn (forward/midfielder) and Taylor Zeller (for-ward).

Assistant coaches are Danielle Storey and Alexis Wurth.

The have commenced the newest cam-paign.


L i n c o l n v i e w L a n c e r s


419-695-4450

Dan Warnement


MIDDLE POINT — After six years in the JV ranks, including three at Lincoln-view, JaNahn Evans takes over a varsity Lady Lancer program that managed just two wins in Northwest Conference play a season ago.

While the Lancers will be without a pair of steady seniors from last year’s squad, Ev-ans is excited about the development of many of her returning players. Taking over for the graduated Kelsey Mohr as the primary setter this season is senior Devann Springer, who moves over from middle hitter. Springer will be in charge of orchestrating what Evans ex-pects to be a “quicker, smarter offense.”

Much of the success of this Lancer team will likely be determined by the play of a pair of all-conference performers. Sophomore Katie McClure is returning from a knee in-jury suffered during basketball season, but was a second-team all-NWC selection as a

freshman. As an outside hitter, McClure was among the team leaders in kills last year and is known for her aggressive play.

Junior Ashton Bowersock, another sec-ond-team all-NWC pick, developed as a weapon on the right side last year and Evans expects that to continue in 2014. The lefty-swinging Bowersock was among the team leaders in blocking last season.

The Lady Lancers return six letterwin-ners, with middle hitter Baylee Neate and OH/Defensive specialist Ashley Teman re-turning along with junior libero Grace Gor-man. Teman and Gorman will be counted on to read the court and fuel what Evans hopes is a team-wide aggressiveness.

In the middle, Neate is joined by sopho-more Katlyn Wendel to give the Lancers great size up front.

“We will continually look to improve throughout the season,” noted Evans. “We are looking to keep focused and control our offense. We have the individual skills to be a good team, we are working on becoming a cohesively great team.”

Underclassmen lead Lancer volleyball team for new coach

Lancer volleyball 2014Lincolnview girls soccer bringsback experience for 2014 campaign


MIDDLE POINT — In 2014, Mark McCleery will coach the Lincolnview girls soccer team after being involved with the boys team for five years, the last two as head varsity coach. With five all-Northwest Conference players returning, he’s probably going to enjoy the experience.

Last year’s Lancers were 3-11-3 overall and 1-3-1 (fifth) in the NWC. Among the returnees, how-ever, are five fine players — senior mid-fielder Hannah McCleery (first team all-NWC), senior goalie/midfielder Julia Thatcher (first team all-NWC), junior forward Brooke Schroeder (second team all-NWC), senior defender Claire Clay (honorable mention all-NWC), and junior defender Savannah Bigham (honorable mention all-NWC). The other two return-ing letter winners are junior forward Au-tumn Proctor and sophomore midfielder Cierra Brown.

Proctor will be one of the keys to the team’s success. Coach McCleery describes her as having “all the athletic

tools to be a great player, just lacking some soccer-specific skills.”

Thus, the Lancers have a solid nucle-us. With a total roster of only 15 players, however, good health will be important for the blue-and-gold.

The remaining eight players, all fresh-man who will be in contention for spots

in the starting 11, are midfielder Sydni Thatcher, goalie/midfield-er Maddie Gorman, defender Ali-son Warnement, midfielder Trin-itey Brown, defender/midfielder Frankie Carey, midfielder Lainie

Jones, defender Haley Pollock, and de-fender/midfielder Allie Crow.

“We’re returning a lot of good ex-perienced players,” said Coach Mc-Cleery. “We need some of the younger players to step up their games to the var-sity level.”

Coach McCleery hopes to have a .500 or better season overall and to contend for the NWC title. Allen East and Bluff-ton tied for the 2014 championship at 4-1. The Mustangs will again be formidable, returning three first team all-league play-ers, including the NWC Player of the Year, sophomore Jade Meyer. McCleery is assisted by Tyson Thatcher.

Lincolnview girls soccer 2014





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MIDDLE POINT — Coming off a North-west Conference championship and a trip to the State meet in Hebron, the 2014 version of the Lincolnview boys cross country team has an expectation of success.

Led by senior Bayley Tow, the Lancers return three of their top five runners from a season ago. Losing Ben Bilimek and Travis Lippi to graduation, the Lancers will look for junior Colton Snyder and sophomore Tracey West to step into larger roles.

While Tow was the headliner for most of the season, and the NWC Male Runner of the Year in 2013, it was classmate Alex Rodri-

guez that paced the Lancers at both the re-gional meet and in Hebron. Rodriguez and Tow are joined by junior Trevor Neate to form a formidable trio that figures to keep the Lancers at or near the top of the conference once again.

While the boys were at the top of an ex-tremely competitive conference last year, the girls struggled through a season of growth.

One of the bright spots for the 2013 Lady Lancers was the improvement of then-sopho-more Anna Gorman, who wound up placing third at the NWC meet in October. Sopho-more Abbie Enyart returns as does classmate Claira Rhodes and senior Mikinzie Dull. Sophomore Ryanne Ducheney also returns while freshmen Alena Looser and Trinity Welch look to make an immediate impact.

Lincolnview boys cross country looks to compete; girls harriers hoping for improved season

Inexperienced Lincolnview boys soccer starting 2014 season with new coachBY JOHN PARENT


MIDDLE POINT — The Lincolnview boys soccer program enters a new era un-der new head coach Britt Munson in 2014. Playing in the newly-formed Western Ohio Soccer League, the Lancers boast a roster that features four seniors and nine juniors.

Those numbers don’t necessarily trans-late into experience, however, as several of the Lancers are new to the sport.

“We have some good athletes, but none of these kids are going to play soccer any-

where else,” Munson said of his team. “Some may play basketball (beyond high school) because we have a few excellent basketball players, but none will be playing soccer. So, part of what we want to do is to make this experience fun. I want them to look back on high school soccer and re-member that they had fun.”

Of course, winning games is always more fun than losing, and the Lancers have the talent to put some wins together. Learn-ing to play consistently and cohesively will be key to the team’s development, Munson says.

“We went up to Bowling Green (for a

preseason tournament) and spent about six days up there, so we got a chance to really get to know each other on the field. I think that’s important, to learn how to play to-gether.”

For Munson, the experience so far as been as much about learning his players at it has been about them adapting to his style.

“We’re still trying to figure out who is going to fit best where,” Munson said, not-ing that trying players at different positions has been part of the early-season process.

Seniors Tyler Wannemacher and Jacob Pollock will see extensive time at forward, while classmates Dalton and Wyatt Schmer-

sal and junior Keli Ralston will anchor the defense. A handful of juniors, led by Austin Leeth, Hayden Ludwig and Cole Schmersal figure to see the bulk of the time in the mid-field and forward spots.

Chandler Adams will handle the bulk of the duties as goal keeper, while Louis Crow and John Mason will also see plenty of ac-tion as defenders.

The new soccer-only league will feature eight schools. The Lancers will play Bot-kins, Fairlawn, Sidney Lehman, LCC, New Knoxville, Spencerville and Temple Chris-tian once each to determine the conference champion.

Lincolnview boys soccer

2014 Lancer girls cross country2014 Lancer boys cross country


Lancer boys linksters 2014

Lancer girls linksters 2014


MIDDLE POINT — The Lady Lancers golf team is very young and looks to make some big strides this year.

“I have a junior coming back, Mikenna Klinger, who is a two-year letterwinner. We have two sophomores coming back, Macala Ashbaugh - she lettered last year - and Makenzie Kraft, who also lettered last year. So I have three returning lettermen,” said Lady Lancers coach Brad Doidge.

The three returning letter winners all shot 50 or below last year.The Lancers boys’ golf squad brings back one first team all-North-

west Conference member and two honorable mention players.“We got a lot of strength on the team this year. Returning varsity let-

termen Joshah Rager, who was run up medalist for player of the year in the NWC. We have some returning starters in Derek Youtsey, a junior, Damon Norton and Justis Dowdy, both are seniors, who have played varsity golf since their freshmen year. A lot of strength there but still need to work on the mental game,” said Lancers coach Daryl Dowdy.

Rager holds the school record for lowest 18 hole score and, along with his three other returning starters, no boy averaged above a 47 for nine holes of golf.

The boys team has some bright young players that coach Dowdy hopes can step up and replace the two departed seniors from last year. “We have Nick Motycka, who just started golfing last year and has made a lot of change from last year to this year, went from 70s last year to 50s this year,” continued coach Dowdy.

The girls squad has some newcomers in the fold to help round out the Lady Lancers golf team. “I have two sophomores, McKenzie Davis and Madison Shepherd, and a freshmen, Marissa Miller, coming out this year. At this point we play six people and when tournament comes around we play five.” added coach Doidge.

The NWC doesn’t have enough members schools with girls golf teams to support a conference championship, so Doidge has set his sights on some other goals.“I want to be in at least the top three of all the tournaments we play, in if not top five. And this gets us ready for sectional, districts and hopefully advance far in the state tournament. With some luck we may be able to get someone to state,” finished up coach Doidge

The Lincolnview boys team looks to improve on last year’s results as a team and individually. Last year the boys finished 13-3 in the NWC.

“Number one goal, we want to compete as a team and have our top players know that we have people behind them to help them. Number two goal is to win the NWC and win the tournament and get out of sec-tionals. We are also try to get Rager to be player of the year in the NWC since he was runner up last year,” concluded coach Dowdy.

Young Lincolnview linksters looking for improvement“Number one goal, we want to compete as a team and have our top players know that we have people behind them to help them. Num-ber two goal is to win the NWC and win the tournament and get out of sectionals. We are

also try to get Rager to be player of the year in the NWC since he was runner up last year.”

— Brad Doidge,head coach, Lincolnview girls golf


C r e s t v i e w K n i g h t s


CONVOY — With only one senior on his 2014 roster, Crestview golf coach Jer-emy Best will be counting on a solid group of returning underclassmen this fall.

The Knights welcome four returning let-terwinners from a team that struggled to a seventh-place finish in the Northwest Con-ference. Junior Connor Lautzenheiser paced the Crestview effort at the NWC tournament last season and is off to a fine start in the 2014 campaign. He’s joined by classmates Cyler Miller and Ronnie Schumm as return-ing lettermen, along with senior Jon Ger-mann.

“We are counting on our four returning

letterwinners to play well,” Best said. “We look to be improved over last year and we think we can be much more competitive in conference play.”

Junior John Bauer will see some varsity action this fall, as will sophomore Derek Biro and freshmen Caden Hurless and Brett Schumm.

Filling out the Crestview roster are soph-omores Kaleb Myers and Ethan Waddles and freshmen Kalieb Hanicq, Jacob Bow-man and Reba Ries.

The Knights have six conference titles in boys golf, tying them with 2013 NWC champ Allen East for third all-time. Bluff-ton, which finished second last year, has 14 NWC crowns. The Knights last won the conference in 2003.

Crestview golf looking for help from underclassmen


CONVOY — With 19 players, including 12 returning letterwinners, Crestview girls soccer coach Joy Short is looking forward to the 2014 season. The Lady Knights were 1-13-2 overall and 1-2-2 (fourth) in the Northwest Conference in 2013.

Gone via graduation from last year’s team are four all-NWC players — Brooke Bowen (first team), Riley Guest (second team), Courtney Grote (second team), and

Jamie Moore (second team). That’s a lot of lost talent, but the returnees include senior sweeper Lauren Schmid (second team all-NWC), junior stopper Amanda Cole (hon-orable mention), and sophomore forward Kylee Agler (honorable mention).

Other letter winners returning are junior goalie/mid Alyssa Walter, senior mid Kait-lin Hallfeldt, junior defender Jada Preston, sophomore goalie/mid Kenzi Case, senior mid Kylee Gent, senior mid/forward Siera Wood, sophomore goalie/mid Abby Clous-er, senior mid Bekka Tracey, and senior mid Karlee Trammell. The newcomers are fresh-

man mid/forward Alyssa Gent, freshman mid/forward Jalyn Brown, junior defender/mid Alexandra Boroff, sophomore defend-er/mid Deanna Wells, freshman mid Kate-lyn McClure, freshman mid Maddi Tracey, and freshman mid Kara Strabbing.

Nine of the 11 starting positions will likely be filled by Schmid, Preston, Cole, Hallfeldt, Kylee Gent, Bekka Tracey, Alyssa Gent, Brown and Agler, the other two slots being up in the air at this point.

“Speed will be on our side this year,” said Short. “Many of the newcomers have some good speed with them. Also, numbers will be in our favor. Our goal is to be bet-

ter than last year. With so many new faces, though, most of whom have never played soccer before, it’s time consuming to go through fundamentals and how to play the game of soccer.”

Allen East and Bluffton tied for the 2014 NWC championship at 4-1. The Mustangs will again be formidable, returning three first team all-league players, including the NWC Player of the Year, sophomore Jade Meyer.

Short is in her first season as the head coach after four seasons as an assistant. She is assisted by Kyle Watson and Meagan Fokker.

Short sees many new faces in her initial season as girls soccer coach

By Daniel JosephDHI Media [email protected]

CONVOY — Coach Jared Owens and the Knights of Crestview look to build off a very successful season a year ago as fall rolls around once again. Crestview returns 12 let-terwinners from their historic 2013 campaign, along with 12 seniors to pave the way for the Knights.

“Our seniors have done a great job of leading by example and helping teach the younger guys what we expect and how to do things,” said Owens. “It has been fun watching their maturity and watching them work with our younger guys.”

The offense returns several key pieces including quar-terback Preston Zaleski and tailbacks Malcolm Oliver and Jake Lippi. Zaleski threw for nearly 1,200 yards last season but wasn’t afraid of running the ball either, as he managed to gain over 700 yards on the ground.

Oliver averaged 100 yards per game last season and is beginning his third year at the position. Lippi ran for over 400 yards last season as well. Justin Overmyer also got a lot of touches and will continue to do so. The three of them will cause a lot of havoc for the rest of the league.

Zaleski’s main target through the air was Isaiah Simer-man, whom the Knights lost to graduation. Oliver was also a major target for him last season, along with fellow senior Nate Owens. The Knights will look for Isaiah Kline and Alex Cunningham to step into bigger roles on the offensive side of the ball this year.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Knights return their leading tackler in senior Jordan Roop. Roop is trouble for opposing offensive lines as he had nearly 70 tackles last sea-son, along with a sack and an interception. The Knights also return Jordan Miller and Seth Moser who totaled 40 tackles apiece last season.

Simerman led Crestview with seven interceptions a year ago, five more then anyone else on the team. The Knights do return seven other players from last season that had at least one pick last season. The Knights lost a large part of their offensive and defensive lines to graduation last year, as Scott Miller, Jon Young, and Zen Burdette departed for life after high school.

Coach Owens and the Knights will look for some young-er linemen to step into much bigger roles this season. Senior Coban Grubb will be called on to become a leader on the offensive and defensive lines this. Grubb played on the line

last year, and has experience at the position.“We have people competing for positions all over the

field, but we have the most competition right now in the of-fensive and defensive lines,” said Owens.

Crestview also lost their primary kicker, Kameron Grubaugh, to graduation. Though the Knights attempted zero field goals last season, Grubaugh was 47-51 in extra point attempts. Jake Tatum, who got limited experience last season, will take over as the Knights primary kicker.

Crestview finished last season with a 9-3 record, which was good enough for a share of the NWC title. The Knights reached the playoffs for just the second time in school his-tory. They took on the Lima Central Catholic Thunderbirds in week one of the playoffs last year, and defeated them for their first-ever playoff victory, before bowing out with a loss to Ada in the second round.

“The only thing we have said about last season since we started our summer workouts on June 1st, is that this season doesn’t care what happened last season,” said Owens. “In other words, we have to approach this season with new en-ergy, hunger and enthusiasm. The NWC will be very good again this year, but for now we are focused on Parkway and putting ourselves in position to play well against them.”

Knight gridders look to improve on successful 2013



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Defense key to Knights success in 2014 volleyball seasonBy Daniel Jospeh


CONVOY — The Lady Knights look to have yet another successful season on the court this year as they finished well last year and had several girls represented on the all-conference teams.

Crestview lost three girls to graduation last season, including four-year letterwin-ner, 12 overall in her career, Kirstin Hicks. Hicks received an honorable mention in the NWC last season, despite being an injured for a big part of the season. Hicks received first team all-conference the year before.

The Knights also lost Grace Callow and Nicole McClure. Callow was a leader who always brought energy to the team and the floor. McClure went down with a torn ACL just days before Hicks, leaving the Lady Knights without two senior leaders.

“It is going to be tough to find girls that can match what Grace (Callow) brought to us last season,” said Head Coach Tammy Gregory. “We lost Kirstin (Hicks) and Nik-ki (Nicole McClure) last season so some younger girls stepped in last year.”

Also receiving all-conference honors last season were Courtney Trigg and Haley Helm, each named to the first team, and Ti-anna Rager, who earned second team recog-nition. The Lady Knights finished 6-2 in the conference last season, which was enough for third place overall. They fell out of the

2014 Crestview volleyball team


CONVOY — The boys and girls cross country teams were very successful on the courses last season and they’re hoping to do the same this season. Mycah Grand-staff, who raced his way all the way to the State meet, earning all-Ohio honors, led the Knights last season.

The Knights lost four boys to graduation last season, all of which were key parts of the success of the team. Grandstaff again leads the boys this year, but also five other senior runners, four of which have run in previous seasons. The Knights are returning seven letterwinners from years past, making them an experienced group of runners.

“We have six seniors who have an op-portunity to be visual and vocal leaders on our team,” said Bagley. “They also have the opportunity to watch and be a large part of our younger runners’ improvements.”

The Knights look to be major competi-tors, not just during every race, but also in the Northwest Conference. They fell short

of the title a year ago as they placed third behind the Lincolnview Lancers and Co-lumbus Grove Bulldogs. Grandstaff took the NWC title last season, finishing first overall.

“The NWC has a rich tradition of be-ing a strong cross country conference,” said Bagley. “The top two teams from last year look to be strong again this year.”

“Our boys team has established three goals for the upcoming season while we were at camp. We hope to continually keep those goals in front of us, particularly when going through the necessary tough parts of the preparation phase.”

Grandstaff enters his senior year with al-ready several honors and accomplishments in his running career. Grandstaff’s current personal record is just under 16:30 and only 22 seconds off of the school record, which is currently held by Darrel Clayton. Grand-staff is currently sitting sixth on Crestview’s all-time top 20 list.

“Mycah will be one of our seniors who this team will look to for leadership in ac-tions and words,” said Bagley.

On the girl’s side of the team, the Lady Knights graduated two runners after last season in Chelsea Hancock and Janelle May and return plenty of experience this season.

Senior and 4-year runner Hali Finfrock will lead the Lady Knights with fellow se-nior Vicki Callow on the course. These two bring experience and leadership to the team.

“Our younger runners will look to them (Hali and Vicki) when we face tough situ-ations and adversity,” said Bagley. “Vicki and Hali will do a great job of keeping our team pointed in a positive direction.”

The Lady Knights are returning five let-terwinners, which will help the team when they get to the tough part of their season.

“It goes back to being able to look back and gain confidence from obstacles that have been overcome,” said Bagley. “The power of knowing that you can handle tough stuff can really propel your team forward.”

The Knights have a slightly different look to them this year as they have added some new runners, other than the four fresh-men. Leslie Skelton will be a junior this fall and is new to the sport but look for her to be

up toward the front of the pack.The Knights placed fourth in the NWC

last season but will look to move up a few spots this year. Spencerville and Columbus Grove are the early favorites to lead the conference this season.

Crestview cross country teams hope to repeat 2014 accomplishments

“Defense is key and it will win games for us. We have a lot of great hitters on our

team to go along with our solid defense. I think we have a great

chance to compete well in the conference

and postseason this year.”— Tammy Gregory,

head coach, Knights volleyball

tournament with a loss to McComb in the district semis.

“Our goals are set very high this year,” said Gregory. “We have great team chemis-try and the girls have been putting in a lot of great work. Each and every game we might send out a different set of girls so we can see how they play together.”

Along with the three returning award winners, Megan Hartman will be a large part of the Knights’ success. Hartman is a great hitter and is always working to be better.

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Brady Guest and Reghan Waltmire will also be influential in the Lady Knights’ season.

“Defense is key and it will win games for us,” said Gregory. “We have a lot of great hit-

ters on our team to go along with our solid defense. I think we have a great chance to compete well in the conference and postsea-son this year.”


P a r k w a y P a n t h e r s

Parkway girls golf

Parkway football 2014

Parkway 2014 cross country teams

Parkway boys golf


ROCKFORD – After a very successful 2013 season, the Parkway boys golf team looks to overcome the loss of three major contributors and compete well again this fall.

There are zero seniors on this year’s Panther team, but there are three returning letterwinners, including juniors Conner Morton and Hayden Lyons.

“I am looking for Hayden and Connor to step into some big shoes in terms of maturity and work ethic left by the gradu-ation of our three seniors last year,” said Panther head coach Joseph Falk.

Two of the three seniors that graduated from the Panthers last year have taken their golf careers to the next level. Brian Schatzer is playing for UNOH while Jor-

dan Bollenbacher is playing for Tiffin University. The Panthers finished second

Parkway golf teams looking for improvement

See PARKWAY, page 59


ROCKFORD — The Parkway Panther football comes into every season knowing that each game will be a difficult one. The Panthers play in the Midwest Athletic Con-ference, a league that routinely sends mul-tiple teams deep into the state playoffs.

The 2014 version of the Panthers foot-ball team returns 17 lettermen from last year’s 3-7 squad. It also returns four starters on offense and six on defense.

“Offensively, Devon Stover, Jared Puthoff, Justin Barna - who is a sophomore and started five games last year because of injury, right now he is the favorite at the quarterback spot. Returning at receiver, I

have Caleb Heindel, Hayden Abromavich and Ryan Lautzenheiser, and we also bring back Sage (Dugan) at running back,” ex-plained Panther coach Dan Cairns. “Defen-sively, we bring back two of our three line-backers - Sage Dugan and Cody Coffman - and on the defensive line, Adam Stutz. In our secondary, we bring back Kris Gangwer, Ryan Lautzenheiser and Caleb Heindel.”

The Panthers got off to a good start last season starting 3-2 before losing their senior quarterback and two senior wide outs, forc-ing them to start a freshman quarterback. That experience should serve Barna well, assuming he wins the starting role.

“It’s not his job quite yet,” Cairns noted. “He’s battling Abromavich, and Hayden has done a pretty nice job, but the big difference

Avoiding injuries key to Panther success

See INJURIES, page 59

See CROSS COUNTRY STORY on page 59

Parkway volleyball story and picture on page 59




W a y n e T r a c e R a i d e r sBy Kevin Wannemacher


HAVILAND — After graduating 11 se-niors from last year’s state runner-up squad, the Wayne Trace football program takes on a new look in 2014 with 15 seniors looking to lead this year’s version of the Raiders.

The Raiders went all the way to the State championship game last season before fall-ing to Kirtland behind a stellar offense and a stingy defense. While duplicating the suc-cess will be very difficult for this year’s team, head coach Bill Speller is optimistic about further success with this year’s roster still containing several quality athletes.

“Obviously, we lost a lot from last year,” commented the Raider head coach. “But we still have a lot of talent and we are looking forward to the season. The guys have worked very hard and we believe we can still be very competitive.”

The Raiders have had to work through some adversity though. Wayne Trace has lost

the services of a pair of seniors in Jake Ar-end and Matt Baxter due to injuries, creating some depth issues. Arend and Baxter are both expected to miss the season.

“The injuries have forced us to change some roles,” continued the Raider mentor. “But one positive out of that is the fact that it gives some younger kids an opportunity to step up and fill those roles. One key for us is going to be staying healthy and to develop some of those younger players.”

Offensively, Wayne Trace will have a dif-ferent look from an offense that scored over 48 points a contest.

Senior Jake Dingus will take over the role of quarterback due to the injury to Arend.

“We may not throw the ball quite, as much as Jake is a good runner,” Speller add-ed. “He has gotten more reps recently with the changes and has become more and more comfortable in that role and will just continue to get better for us.”

Daron Showalter will be the featured run-ning back while Shepherd and David Sinn are the probable split ends. In the slots, Tyler Showalter and Saylor are expected starters.

“Our offense is going to be different but we think we will be able to score points,”

continued Speller. “We’ve got a lot of athletes in some key spots. I think we have an oppor-tunity to be very good,” Speller commented. “We’ve got some good athletes but we have to stay healthy and avoid the injury bug.”

The Raider schedule will bring three tough non-league challenges before starting Green Meadows Conference action.

Wayne Trace opens the year with the an-nual rivalry game against Paulding before visiting Otsego and Crestview in a pair of key playoff-point games.

Inside the league, traditionally tough Tinora will provide a big challenge while Speller also feels Hicksville and Ayersville will also be very competitive.

“Our schedule has some tough games on it again this year,” concluded the Raider head coach. “With two big rivalry games against Paulding and Crestview in the non-league portion and a road trip to Otsego in there, there will be a lot of playoff points at stake. Then we get into league with teams like Tinora, Hicksville and Ayersville. It will be a very challenging schedule for us.”

By Kevin WannemacherDHI Media [email protected]

HAVILAND – After posting 15 vic-tories a year ago, the Wayne Trace Lady Raider volleyball team looks to raise the bar in the 2014 season, led by a trio of re-turning seniors.

Addison Baumle, Sarah Young and Gina Sinn all come back from that squad for third year head coach Angie Speice and the Lady Raiders look to build on last year’s success.

Baumle, a third year varsity player, will

be an outside hitter and defensive specialist for Wayne Trace. The senior recorded 77 kills while adding 75 digs and 15 aces last season for the red-white-and-blue.

Young comes back as a middle hitter following a season that saw her post 107 kills, 35 digs and a dozen aces. Meanwhile, Sinn finished second on the squad with 272 digs as a defensive specialist for Wayne Trace last season. The senior also recorded 20 kills.

“I have been very pleased with what we have shown so far,” noted Speice. “We have an athletic group of girls and they have worked very hard so far. They have

done a pretty good job to this point in being aggressive even though we have been try-ing some new positions.”

The Raider roster also includes four oth-er seniors seeing action at the varsity level for the first time.

Defensive specialist Mackenzie Swary, outside hitter/defensive specialist Haley Saylor, setter Blair Baumle and outside hit-ter/defensive specialist Carrigan Critten all will look to find their roles at the varsity level.

“The seniors as a group have done a very

Raider volleyball looking for another outstanding year

See WAYNE TRACE, page 55

Wayne Trace hoping to repeat success of 2014“Our offense is going to be different but we still think we will be able to score points,” continued Speller. “We’ve

got a lot of athletes in some key spots. I think we still have an opportunity to be very good,. We’ve got some good athletes

but we have to stay healthy and avoid the injury bug.”— Bill Speller,

head coach Wayne Trace football



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good job in leading the team,” added the Raider head coach. “They aren’t so much the vocal style leaders but they lead by example.

Three juniors also will vie for playing time in setter/outside hit-ter Stacy Flint, defensive specialist Sydney Critten and outside hit-ter/middle hitter Erin Mohr. Sophomore outside hitter/middle hit-ter Danae Myers is expected to get time at the varsity level as well.

“One of the concerns is our overall lack of experience at the varsity level,” continued Speice. “We have to learn how to play at this level. The new girls did enjoy some success at the junior varsity level last season so they know how to win but they have to be able to adapt when it comes to varsity.”

Speice is hopeful that the Raiders overall athleticism is some-thing that helps Wayne Trace be very competitive.

“All of the girls are athletic and overall our quickness will be better than last year,” commented the third-year head coach. “This is a smart and very athletic group of girls.”

“We’ve got a versatile group of kids and we have changed up the way we do a few things this year,” concluded Speice. “They have adapted pretty well and they get along pretty good together. Learning new roles and developing that chemistry will be a key for us. We are looking forward to the season and we feel we can be very competitive this year. I think once we get some experience that this team could be very fun to watch.”

(Continued from Page 54)


HAVILAND – Sixth-year head coach Chris Rosswurm enters the 2014 boys golf season with high expectations for his Wayne Trace squad as the Raiders feature depth and good balance entering the upcoming campaign.

Despite having only one senior, the Raid-ers have four juniors and six sophomores on the roster with several players capable of playing at the varsity level this year. Senior Corbin Linder will be counted on for some key leadership as well as being one of the top players for Rosswurm this year.

Juniors Alec Vest, Luke Miller, Quinten Miller and Austin Fast also are looking to battle for playing time at the varsity level according to the Raider head coach.

“The biggest thing with this team is we will have a lot of depth,” noted Rosswurm, who again is assisted by Jeremy Daeger.

“We don’t have that number one player who will be at the top every time, but we have a good group of kids that are capable of being that number one player on any given day.”

Five sophomores also are expected to be in the battle for time at the top level.

Brady Stabler, Christopher Davis, Evan Baughman, Ethan Crates and Ethan Dunham hope to be in the mix in their second year of high school golf. Freshmen Owen Denny and Jordon Offerle also look to garner some key playing time as well.

“One of the big things for us will be just improving from day to day,” continued Rosswurm. “Learning how to handle the ups and downs of a round and not let a bad hole carry over to the next hole is a big part of golf.”

A schedule that features only three home matches also will be challenging according to the Raider coach.

“Sometimes having a lot of away match-es is a good thing,” Rosswurm added. “It forces you to make adjustments to each in-

dividual course instead of getting too famil-iar with your home course. Our guys will be challenged with this schedule and it will pre-pare us for the conference tournament and postseason play.”

Four freshmen and one senior comprise the roster of the Wayne Trace girls golf squad under the direction of head coach Al Welch.

Welch welcomes back a senior leader in Paige Rahrig, who was a district qualifier a year ago. Rahrig, who averaged a 46 last sea-son, will be counted upon heavily this year.

“Paige was a district qualifier last year and she comes back as the only experienced player we have this year,” noted Welch, who is entering his 17th season at the helm of the Lady Raiders. “She is going to have to be a good leader for us and we will need her to play to her capabilities.”

Rahrig, who has participated in tourna-ments throughout the summer, has the po-tential to have a very successful season ac-cording to Welch.

“She has worked very hard this sum-mer,” noted the Raider head coach. “She took part in the Lima Junior program all summer and has played a lot of golf. I feel like she can be one of the top players in our area if she continues to work hard and get better.”

Joining Rahrig are four freshmen who will be experiencing varsity golf for the first time.

Gracie Gudakunst, Brooke Sinn, Hal-ey Dempsey and Jilly Wiseman all hit the course this year and the group has shown potential according to the Raider head coach.

“They have some potential and I think they will get better every week,” noted the Raider mentor. “A lot will depend on how they handle situations. Getting better at the little things is a key for them and that just comes from playing the game and practic-ing.”

Depth and balance are keys for success for Wayne Trace golf in 2014

Wayne Trace


HAVILAND – The Wayne Trace cross country program will be faced with several challenges in the 2014 season as the Raiders are short on numbers and will feature a lot of youth.

The Raider boys squad has no se-niors, juniors or freshmen on the roster but will field a full team with six sopho-mores making up the roster. Head coach Annette Sinn knows the youth will make things interesting, especially with no se-nior leadership due to the graduation loss of Brandon Zartman, Logan Fast and Ar-len Stoller.

“We are interested in seeing how all

of the sophomore boys will do this year since they are young,” stated Sinn. “We lost Brandon, Logan and Arlen to gradu-ation, so we have no senior leadership.”

Filling out the Raider roster are Tan-ner Cook, Chance Elliott, Ruger Goelt-

zenleuchter, Kolyn Hilkey, Levi Priest and Chandler Thompson.

On the girls side, the Lady Raiders are even shorter on numbers as the red-white-and-blue roster includes no se-niors, sophomores or freshmen. Two ju-

niors are the only members of the squad in Shayna Temple and Hollie Wannem-acher.

“We are disappointed that we don’t have a girls team, but the girls have worked hard and are running strong,” continued Sinn.

With the lack of numbers on both squads, Sinn feels the Raiders will need to work with athletes on an individual basis as much as the team basis.

“Generally, we hope to take each in-dividual athlete as far as we can,” con-cluded the Raider mentor. “We have to try and get the most gains possible.”

The numbers don’t figure to improve anytime soon for Wayne Trace. The ju-nior high squad features just two girls and only one boy.

Wayne Trace teams face small numbers for 2014 cross country season

“Generally, we hope to take each individual athlete as far as we can. We have to try

and get the most gains possible.”— Annette Sinn,

head coach, Wayne Trace cross country

300 West Jefferson streetPaulding, oH 45879

Rex A. Gray, Sr., Lynn C. Keller& James D. Philpot, Owners

Phone: 419.399.4941Fax: 419.399.4951

New ConstructionRemodeling

Building Supplies& Hardware

S c h e d u l e s56 — DHI Media Fall Sports • August 2014

GIRLS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 18 Van Wert Home 5 p.m.Aug. 21 Ottoville Away 6 p.m.Aug. 25 Miller City Away 5 p.m.Aug. 30 Coldwater Away 11 a.m.Sep. 4 St. John’s Home 5 p.m.Sep. 8 Lincolnview* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Kalida Away 5 p.m.Sep. 15 Ada* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 18 St. Marys Mem. Home 5 p.m.Sep. 20 Continental Home 1 p.m.Sep. 23 Fort Jennings Away 5 p.m.Sep. 25 Crestview* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 29 Cory-Rawson Home 5 p.m.Oct. 4 Lima Senior Home 11 a.m.Oct. 6 Allen East* Away 5 p.m.Oct. 9 Bluffton* Home 5 p.m.* - Northwest Conference matchAll home matches at St. John’s Annex

————

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 25 Waynesfield-Goshen Away 6 p.m.Aug. 26 Perry Away 6 p.m.Sep. 3 Miller City(no JV) Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 4 Ottoville Home 6 p.m.Sep. 6 Pandora-Gilboa Home 10 a.m.Sep. 8 Antwerp Home 5:30 p.m.

Sep. 9 Columbus Grove* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 11 Crestview* Away 6 p.m.Sep. 16 Ada* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 18 Lima CC Home 6 p.m.Sep. 20 Cory-Rawson Invite Away 10 a.m.Sep. 22 Lima Temple Christian Away 6 p.m.Sep. 23 Lincolnview* Away 6 p.m.Sep. 25 Paulding* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 29 Bath Home 6 p.m.Sep. 30 Spencerville* Away 6 p.m.Oct. 2 Allen East* Home 6 p.m.Oct. 6 Wayne Trace Away 6 p.m.Oct. 7 Bluffton* Away 6 p.m.Oct. 9 Kalida Away 6 p.m.* - Northwest Conference match

———-

FOOTBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 29 Waynesfield-Goshen Away 7 p.m.Sep. 5 Paulding* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 12 Bluffton* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 19 Allen East*(Sr. Night) Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 26 Lima CC Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 3 Crestview* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 10 Columbus Grove*(HC) Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 17 Evergreen Home 7 p.m.Oct. 24 Ada* Away 7:30 p.m.Nov. 1 Spencerville* Home 7 p.m.* - Northwest Conference game

GIRLS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 Fort Jennings Home 11 a.m.Aug. 26 Coldwater* Home 5 p.m.Aug. 28 Allen East Home 5 p.m.Aug. 30 Lima Senior Home 11 a.m.Sep. 4 Jefferson Away 5 p.m.Sep. 9 Crestview Home 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Anna* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 13 Elida Away 1 p.m.Sep. 16 Kalida Away 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Botkins* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 22 Miller City Away 5 p.m.Sep. 27 Lincolnview Away 11 a.m.Oct. 2 Lima CC Home 5 p.m.Oct. 7 Ottoville Away 6 p.m.Oct. 9 Sidney Lehman* Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 11 Continental Away 1 p.m.* - Western Ohio Soccer League match

———

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 25 Van Wert Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 26 Spencerville Away 5:30 p.m.Aug. 28 Fort Recovery* Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 30 Kenton Home 11 a.m.Sep. 3 Lima CC Away 6 p.m.Sep. 4 New Knoxville* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Kalida Pioneer Inv. Away 9 a.m.Sep. 8 Miller City Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Coldwater* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 16 Marion Local* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 18 St. Henry* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 20 Kalida Home 10 a.m.Sep. 22 Lincolnview Away 6 p.m.Sep. 25 Parkway* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 27 Ottoville Away 10 a.m.

Sep. 29 Columbus Grove Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Minster* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 4 Crestview Home 10 a.m.Oct. 7 New Bremen* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 Versailles* Away 5:30 p.m.* - Midwest Athletic Conference match

———

COED CROSS COUNTRYDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 St. John’s Invitational Home 9 a.m.Aug. 26 Wayne Trace Invite Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 30 Wapakoneta Night Meet Away 7 p.m.Sep. 2 Spencerville Quad Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Spencerville Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 9 Elida Invitational Away 5 p.m.Sep. 13 O-G Blue/Gold Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 20 Van Wert Hosp. Invite Away 8 a.m.Sep. 25 New Bremen Away 5 p.m.Sep. 30 Allen County Invite Away 4:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Coldwater Lions Invite Away 5 p.m.Oct. 9 MAC Meet Away 5 p.m.

————

FOOTBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 29 Elida Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 5 Lima CC Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 12 Versailles* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 19 Fort Recovery* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 26 New Bremen* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 3 Minster* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 10 Anna* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 17 Parkway* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 24 Coldwater* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 31 Marion Local* Away 7:30 p.m.* - Midwest Athletic Conference game

DELPHOS ST. JOHN’SDELPHOS JEFFERSON

COLUMBUS GROVE

SPENCERVILLEBOYS SOCCER

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 16 Ottoville Away 11 a.m.Aug. 23 Ada Home 11 a.m.Aug. 26 New Knoxville Away 5 p.m.Sep. 8 Allen East Away 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Lima Temple Christian Home 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Botkins Home 5 p.m.Sep. 20 Fairlawn Home 11 a.m.Sep. 23 Lincolnview Away 5 p.m.Sep. 27 Cory-Rawson Away 11 a.m.Oct. 4 Lima CC Away 11 a.m.Oct. 6 Van Wert Away 5 p.m.Oct. 9 Sidney Lehman Home 5 p.m.

————-

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Ottoville Away 6 p.m.Aug. 21 Minster Away 5:30 p.m.Aug. 26 St. John’s Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 28 Wayne Trace Away 6 p.m.Aug. 30 St. Marys Invitational Away 10 a.m.Sep. 2 New Knoxville Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Kalida Pioneer Invit. Away 9 a.m.Sep. 8 Waynesfield-Goshen Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 9 Paulding* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Ada* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 16 Allen East* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 18 Bluffton* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 22 Perry Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 23 Columbus Grove* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 25 Crestview* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 29 Lima Temple Christian Away 6 p.m.

Sep. 30 Jefferson* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Lima CC Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 7 Lincolnview* Home 5:30 p.m.* - Northwest Conference match

———

COED CROSS COUNTRYDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 St. John’s Invitational Away 9 a.m.Aug. 30 Columbus Grove Inv. Away 9 a.m.Sep. 2 Home Quad Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Bearcat Invitational Home 9 a.m.Sep. 13 O-G Blue-Gold Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 20 VW Country Hosp. Inv. Away 8 a.m.Sep. 27 Best in the West (boys only) Away 9:30 a.m.Sep. 30 Allen County Invitational Away 4:30 p.m.Oct. 4 Anna Rocket Invitational Away 10 a.m.Oct. 11 NWC Championships Home 10 a.m.

———-

FOOTBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 29 Leipsic Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 5 Ada* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 12 Allen East* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 19 Paulding* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 26 Columbus Grove* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 3 Lima CC Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 10 Bluffton* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 17 Crestview* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 24 Vermilion Away 7:30 p.m.Nov. 1 Jefferson* Away 7 p.m.* - Northwest Conference match

COED CROSS COUNTRYDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Upper Sandusky Ice Breaker Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 23 Seneca East Invitational Away 9 a.m.Aug. 30 Columbus Grove Invitational Home 9 a.m.Sep. 6 Tiffin Carnival Away 8 a.m.Sep. 13 Galion Invitational Away noonSep. 16 Ohio Caverns Inv. Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 20 Van Wert Co. Hosp. Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 27 Sault St. Marie Road Race Away 9 a.m.Sep. 30 Old Shoe Invitational Away 4 p.m.Oct. 4 Rocket Invitational Anna 10 a.m.Oct. 11 NWC Meet Spenc. 10 a.m.Oct. 18 Districts TBA noonOct. 25 Regionals Tiffin 11 a.m.Nov. 1 State Meet Hebron 11 a.m.

———-

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Ayersville Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 23 Tri-Match Away 10 a.m.Aug. 26 Leipsic* Away 6 p.m.Aug. 30 Arlington Away 10 a.m.Sep. 9 Jefferson# Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 10 Miller City* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 11 Lima CC Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 15 Ottoville* Away 6 p.m.

Sep. 16 Lincolnview# Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 18 Paulding# Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 23 Spencerville# Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 25 Allen East# Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 27 Continental* Home 10 a.m.Sep. 29 St. John’s Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 30 Bluffton# Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Ada# Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 4 Pandora-Gilboa* Home 10 a.m.Oct. 6 Kalida* Home 6 p.m.Oct. 7 Crestview# Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 11 Ottawa-Glandorf Home 10 a.m.* - Putnam County League match# - Northwest Conference match

———-FOOTBALL

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 29 Pandora-Gilboa Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 5 Allen East* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 12 Ada* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 19 Lima CC Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 26 Spencerville* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 3 Swanton Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 10 Jefferson* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 17 Paulding* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 24 Crestview* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 31 Bluffton* Away 7:30 p.m.* - Northwest Conference game

S c h e d u l e s DHI Media Fall Sports • August 2014— 57

ELIDA LINCOLNVIEW

KALIDA

FORT JENNINGS

GIRLS TENNISDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 11 Lima CC Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 15 Wildcat Invitational Away 9:30 a.m.Aug. 18 Defiance* Home noonAug. 19 Sidney Lehman Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 21 Wapakoneta* Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 25 St. Marys Mem.* Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 2 Van Wert* Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 4 Shawnee* Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Elida Invitational Home 9 a.m.Sep. 8 Kenton* Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Ottawa-Glandorf* Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 13 Bryan Home 10:30 a.m.Sep. 15 Bath* Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 16 Bluffton Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 22 Sidney Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 24 Lima Senior Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 29 Findlay Away 4:30 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

————-

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Miller City Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 21 Leipsic Away 5:30 p.m.Aug. 23 Parkway Invitational Away 9 a.m.Aug. 26 Hardin Northern Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 28 Defiance* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 4 Wapakoneta* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Lima Senior Tri Away 11 a.m.Sep. 11 St. Marys Mem.* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 13 Elida Tri Home 10 a.m.Sep. 18 Van Wert* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 25 Shawnee* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 27 Van Wert Invitational Away 9 a.m.Sep. 30 Kenton* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Ottawa-Glandorf* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 7 Bath* Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 Celina* Away 5:30 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

———-

GIRLS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Coldwater Away 7 p.m.Aug. 20 Maumee Home 7 p.m.Aug. 26 Defiance* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 2 Wapakoneta* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 6 Lima CC Home 2 p.m.Sep. 8 St. Marys Mem.* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 11 Van Wert* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 13 St. John’s Home 1 p.m.Sep. 16 Shawnee* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 17 Riverdale Home 7 p.m.Sep. 20 Van Buren Home noonSep. 22 Kenton* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 25 Ottawa-Glandorf* Home 7 p.m.

Sep. 27 Fort Jennings Away noonSep. 30 Bath* Away 7 p.m.Oct. 7 Celina* Away 7 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

————

BOYS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 21 Elida Fall Classic Home 5/7 p.m.Aug. 23 Elida Fall Classic Home 5/7 p.m.Aug. 28 Defiance* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 4 Wapakoneta* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 9 St. Marys Mem.* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 11 Bryan Away 7 p.m.Sep. 15 Van Wert* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Shawnee* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 23 Kenton* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 27 Lima Senior Home noonSep. 29 Ottawa-Glandorf * Away 7 p.m.Sep. 30 Kalida Home 7 p.m.Oct. 2 Bath* Home 7 p.m.Oct. 4 Napoleon Away 1 p.m.Oct. 6 Lima CC Home 5 p.m.Oct. 9 Celina Home 7 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

———-

COED CROSS COUNTRYDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 Celina Rotary Invite Away 9:30 a.m.Aug. 30 Wapakoneta Night Meet Away 7 p.m.Sep. 2 Bath Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Bearcat Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 9 Elida Invite Home 5 p.m.Sep. 13 OG Blue/Gold Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 16 OG Tri Meet Away 5 p.m.Sep. 20 VW Hospital Invite Away 8 a.m.Sep. 23 Bath Invitational Away 6 p.m.Sep. 27 Kalida Wildcat Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 30 Allen County Invite Away 4:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Coldwater Lions Invite Away 5 p.m.Oct. 11 WBL Meet Away 9 a.m.

—————

FOOTBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 29 St. John’s Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 5 Defiance* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 12 Wapakoneta*(Youth Night) Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 19 St. Marys Mem.*(HC) Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 26 Van Wert* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 3 Shawnee*(Parent’s Night) Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 10 Kenton* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 17 Ottawa-Glandorf* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 24 Bath* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 31 Celina*(Band Night) Home 7:30 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League game

GIRLS VARSITY SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 18 Wapakoneta Away 7 p.m.Aug. 21 Lincolnview Away 5 p.m.Aug. 23 St. John’s Away 11 a.m.Aug. 27 Miller City* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 2 Continental* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 5 Kalida* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Crestview Home 5 p.m.Sep. 13 Bath Away 1 p.m.Sep. 16 Bluffton Home 5 p.m.Sep. 19 Ottoville* Away 6 p.m.Sep. 23 Jefferson Home 5 p.m.Sep. 27 Elida Home noonSep. 30 Allen East Away 5 p.m.Oct. 4 Van Buren Away 11 a.m.Oct. 6 St. Marys Mem. Home 5 p.m.Oct. 9 Ottoville Home 5 p.m.* - Putnam County League match

BOYS VARSITY SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 21 Fall Classic Elida 5/7 p.m.Aug. 23 Fall Classic Elida 5/7 p.m.Aug. 25 Ottawa-Glandorf Home 5 p.m.Aug. 28 Kalida* Home 5 p.m.Aug. 30 Archbold Away 7 p.m.Sep. 4 Continental* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 6 Van Wert Home 11 a.m.Sep. 8 Cory-Rawson Away 5 p.m.Sep. 12 Miller City* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 16 Van Buren Away 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Liberty-Benton Home 5 p.m.Sep. 20 New Knoxville Home noonSep. 23 Riverdale Away 5 p.m.Sep. 27 St. Marys Mem. Away noonOct. 2 Lima Temple Christian Home 5 p.m.Oct. 7 Ottoville* Home 5 p.m.* - Putnam County League match

GIRLS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 16 Lima Senior Home 11 a.m.Aug. 21 Fort Jennings Home 5 p.m.Aug. 25 Crestview* Away 5 p.m.Aug. 28 Sidney Lehman Home 5 p.m.Aug. 30 Van Wert Home 11 a.m.Sep. 2 Bluffton* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 6 Botkins Away 11 a.m.Sep. 8 Jefferson* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Continental Away 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Coldwater Home 5 p.m.Sep. 22 Allen East* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 27 St. John’s Home 11 a.m.Sep. 29 Ada* Home 5 p.m.Oct. 4 Anna Home 11 a.m.Oct. 7 New Knoxville Away 5 p.m.Oct. 9 Lima CC Away 5:30 p.m.* - Northwest Conference match

————

BOYS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 16 Lima Senior Home 1 p.m.Aug. 19 Fort Wayne Fusion Away 5 p.m.Aug. 23 Sidney Lehman Away 3 p.m.Aug. 26 Ottoville Away 5 p.m.Sep. 2 Bryan Away 6:15 p.m.Sep. 4 Botkins Home 5 p.m.Sep. 6 Miller City Home 11 a.m.Sep. 10 Woodlan Home 5 p.m.Sep. 13 Fairlawn Home 11 a.m.Sep. 16 Ada Away 5 p.m.Sep. 18 New Knoxville Away 5 p.m.Sep. 20 Paulding Away 11 a.m.Sep. 23 Spencerville Home 5 p.m.Oct. 1 Van Wert Away 4:15 p.m.Oct. 4 Lima Tem. Christian Away 1 p.m.Oct. 9 Lima CC Home 5 p.m.

———VOLLEYBALL

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Van Wert Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 23 Antwerp Away 5:30 p.m.Aug. 25 Continental Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 26 Ottoville Away 6 p.m.Sep. 4 Kalida Away 6 p.m.Sep. 9 Allen East* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Bluffton* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 15 Parkway Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 16 Columbus Grove Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 18 Crestview* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 20 Minster Invitational Away 9 a.m.Sep. 22 St. John’s Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 23 Jefferson* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 27 Wayne Tr./Hick. WT 10 a.m.Sep. 30 Ada* Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Paulding* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 6 New Knoxville Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 7 Spencerville* Away 5:30 p.m.* - Northwest Conference match

———-

COED CROSS COUNTRYDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 St. John’s Invitational Away 9 a.m.Aug. 26 Wayne Trace Invit. Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 30 Columbus Grove Inv. Away 9 a.m.Sep. 6 Tiffin Carnival Away 9 a.m.Sep. 9 Elida Invitational Away 5 p.m.Sep. 13 Ottawa-Glan. Invit. Away 9 a.m.Sep. 20 Van Wert Cty. Hosp. Inv. Away 8 a.m.Sep. 27 Edgerton Invitational Away 9 a.m.Oct. 2 Coldwater Invitational Away 5 p.m.Oct. 11 NWC Meet Away 10 a.m.

BOYS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Wapakoneta(Parents) Home 7 p.m.Aug. 21 Defiance Away 7 p.m.Aug. 25 Shawnee Away 7 p.m.Aug. 28 Fort Jennings* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 2 St. Marys Mem. Home 7 p.m.Sep. 4 Van Buren Home 7 p.m.Sep. 9 Miller City* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 12 Pettisville Home 7 p.m.Sep. 16 Liberty-Benton Away 5 p.m.Sep. 19 Continental* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 23 Cory-Rawson Home 7 p.m.Sep. 27 Celina Away 2 p.m.Sep. 30 Elida Away 7 p.m.Oct. 3 Ottoville* Home 7 p.m.Oct. 7 Bluffton(Senior) Home 7 p.m.Oct. 11 Ottawa-Glandorf Away 7 p.m.* - Putnam County League match

————GIRLS SOCCER

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 21 Van Buren Away 5 p.m.Aug. 23 Liberty-Benton Away 1 p.m.Aug. 25 Lima CC Away 7:30 p.m.Aug. 30 Wauseon(Parents) Home 1 p.m.Sep. 3 Miller City* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 5 Fort Jennings* Away 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Jefferson Home 5 p.m.Sep. 13 Cory-Rawson Away 1 p.m.Sep. 16 St. John’s Home 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Kenton Away 5 p.m.Sep. 25 Archbold Home 7 p.m.Sep. 27 Bluffton Home 1 p.m.Sep. 29 Ottoville* Home 7 p.m.Oct. 2 Swanton Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 7 Continental* Away 5 p.m.Oct. 9 Bath(Senior) Home 7 p.m.* - Putnam County League match

———-

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 21 Van Buren Away 6 p.m.Aug. 26 Van Wert Away 5:30 p.m.Aug. 29 Ottoville(Parents)* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 4 Lincolnview Home 6 p.m.Sep. 6 Pioneer Invitational Home 9 a.m.Sep. 9 Continental* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 11 Ayersville Home 6 p.m.Sep. 13 Crestview/Antwerp Home 10 a.m.Sep. 16 Wapakoneta Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 20 St. John’s Away 10 a.m.Sep. 23 Miller City* Away 6 p.m.Sep. 25 Archbold Home 6 p.m.Sep. 27 Van Wert Invite (V only) Away 9 a.m.Oct. 2 Leipsic* Away 6 p.m.Oct. 6 Columbus Grove* Away 6 p.m.Oct. 7 Pandora-Gilboa Away 6 p.m.Oct. 9 Jefferson(Senior) Home 6 p.m.* - Putnam County League match

———-

COED CROSS COUNTRY

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 St. John’s Invitational Away 9 a.m.Aug. 30 Col. Grove Invite Away 9 a.m.Sep. 13 O-G Blue/Gold Invite Ottawa 9 a.m.Sep. 20 LibertyCtr. Widewater Inv. Away 10 a.m.Sep. 27 Kalida Invitational Home 9 a.m.Sep. 30 PCL Ottawa 4:30 p.m.Oct. 4 Anna Rocket Invite Away 10 a.m.Oct. 18 Districts TBA TBA


S c h e d u l e sGIRLS SOCCER

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Continental Away 5 p.m.Aug. 21 Cory-Rawson Away 5 p.m.Aug. 25 Lincolnview* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 6 Ada* Away 1 p.m.Sep. 9 St. John’s Away 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Fort Jennings Away 5 p.m.Sep. 13 Lima Senior Home 11 a.m.Sep. 16 Allen East* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 20 Kenton Home 10 a.m.Sep. 23 Ottoville Away 6 p.m.Sep. 25 Jefferson* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 27 Van Wert Home 1 p.m.Sep. 30 Coldwater Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 6 Bluffton* Away 7 p.m.Oct. 9 Miller City Away 5 p.m.Oct. 11 Lima CC Home 1 p.m.* - Northwest Conference match

————VOLLEYBALL

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 Arch./Stryker Stryker 10 a.m.Aug. 26 Coldwater Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 4 Wayne Trace Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 8 Parkway Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 9 Ada* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Jefferson* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 13 Kalida/Antwerp Away 10 a.m.Sep. 16 Lima CC Away 5:30PMSep. 18 Lincolnview* Home 5:30PMSep. 22 Van Wert Home 5:30PMSep. 23 Paulding* Away 5:30PMSep. 25 Spencerville* Home 5:30PMSep. 27 8-team Lady Knight Invite Home 9 a.m.Sep. 30 Allen East* Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Bluffton* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 4 St. John’s High Away 10 a.m.Oct. 7 Columbus Grove* Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 11 Hicksville Away 10 a.m.* - Northwest Conference match

———-

COED CROSS COUNTRY

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 St. John’s Invitational Away 9 a.m.Aug. 30 Columbus Grove Invitational Away 9 a.m.Sep. 13 O-G Blue/Gold Invitational Away 9 a.m.Sep. 20 VW County Hosp. Away 8 a.m.Sep. 23 Lima CC/Lima Sr. Away 4:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Coldwater Lions Invit. Away 5 p.m.Oct. 11 NWC Championships Away 10 a.m.

————-

FOOTBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 29 Parkway Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 5 Hicksville Away 7 p.m.Sep. 12 Wayne Trace Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 19 Bluffton* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 26 Allen East* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 3 Jefferson Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 10 Ada* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 17 Spencerville* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 24 Columbus Grove* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 31 Paulding* Away 7:30 p.m.* - Northwest Conference game

GIRLS TENNISDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 18 Ottawa-Glandorf* Home 4:30 p.m.Aug. 19 Lima CC Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 21 Shawnee* Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 23 Lima Invitational Away 8:30 a.m.Aug. 25 Kenton* Home 4:30 p.m.Aug. 26 Bryan Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 28 St. Marys Mem.* Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 2 Elida* Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 4 Bath* Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 6 Elida Duals Away 9 a.m.Sep. 8 Celina* Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Defiance* Away 4:30 p.m.Sep. 13 Shawnee JV Invit. Away 9 a.m.Sep. 15 Wapakoneta* Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 18 Lima Senior Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 23 Bluffton Home 4:30 p.m.Sep. 25 WBL Away TBASep. 27 WBL Away TBASep. 30 Lima CC Home 4:30 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

———-

BOYS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 18 Ottoville Home 5 p.m.Aug. 21 Lima Temple Christian Away 5 p.m.Aug. 25 Lima CC Away 5:30 p.m.Aug. 28 Ottawa-Glandorf* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 4 Shawnee* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 6 Fort Jennings Away 11 a.m.Sep. 9 Kenton* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 11 Lima Senior Home 5 p.m.Sep. 15 Elida* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Bath* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 23 Celina* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 29 Defiance* Home 5 p.m.Oct. 1 Lincolnview Home 4:15 p.m.Oct. 2 Wapakoneta* Away 7 p.m.Oct. 6 Spencerville Home 5 p.m.Oct. 9 St. Marys Mem.* Home 5 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

————

GIRLS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 18 Jefferson Away 5 p.m.Aug. 19 Ottoville Home 5 p.m.Aug. 26 Ottawa-Glandorf* Home 5 p.m.Aug. 30 Lincolnview Away 11 a.m.Sep. 2 Shawnee* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 8 Kenton* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 11 Elida* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 16 Bath* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 18 Lima Senior Home 5 p.m.Sep. 22 Celina* Home 5 p.m.Sep. 25 Defiance* Away 7 p.m.Sep. 27 Crestview Away 1 p.m.

Sep. 30 Wapakoneta* Home 5 p.m.Oct. 4 Bryan Home 1 p.m.Oct. 7 St. Marys Mem.* Away 7 p.m.Oct. 9 Coldwater Away 5 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

———

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 21 Paulding Away 6 p.m.Aug. 25 St. John’s Away 5:30 p.m.Aug. 26 Kalida Home 5:30 p.m.Aug. 28 Ottawa-Glandorf* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 2 Ottoville Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 4 Shawnee* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 8 Coldwater Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Kenton* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 18 Elida* Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 20 Wayne Trace/Bryan Home 10 a.m.Sep. 22 Crestview Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 25 Bath* Home 5:30 p.m.Sep. 27 Van Wert Invit. Home 9 a.m.Sep. 30 Celina* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 Defiance* Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 6 Antwerp* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 7 Wapakoneta* Home 5:30 p.m.Oct. 9 St. Marys Mem.* Away 5:30 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League match

————-

COED CROSS COUNTRYDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 30 Greenville Invit. Away 8 a.m.Sep. 6 Tiffin Carnival Away 9 a.m.Sep. 13 O-G Invitational Away 9 a.m.Sep. 20 V. W. County Inv. Home 9 a.m.Oct. 2 Coldwater JV Invit. Away 5 p.m.Oct. 4 Portage Central (MI) Away 11 a.m.Oct. 11 WBL Meet Away 9 a.m.Oct. 18 District Away TBAOct. 25 Regional Away TBANov. 1 State Away TBA

———-

FOOTBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 29 Bryan Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 5 Ottawa-Glandorf* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 12 Shawnee* Home 7:30 p.m.Sep. 19 Kenton* Away 7:30 p.m.Sep. 26 Elida* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 3 Bath* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 10 Celina* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 17 Defiance* Home 7:30 p.m.Oct. 24 Wapakoneta* Away 7:30 p.m.Oct. 31 St. Marys Mem.* Home 7:30 p.m.* - Western Buckeye League gam

VAN WERTCRESTVIEW OTTOVILLEGIRLS SOCCER

Date Opponent Site TimeAug. 16 Wapakoneta Away 6 p.m.Aug. 19 Van Wert Away 5 p.m.Aug. 21 Jefferson Home 6 p.m.Aug. 23 Bryan Away 11 a.m.Sep. 3 Cory-Rawson Home 6 p.m.Sep. 9 Lima CC Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Miller City* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 15 Lima Senior Away 6 p.m.Sep. 19 Fort Jennings* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 22 Ada Away 5 p.m.Sep. 23 Crestview Home 6 p.m.Sep. 25 Coldwater Home 6 p.m.Sep. 29 Kalida* Away 7 p.m.Oct. 2 Continental* Home 6 p.m.Oct. 7 St. John’s Home 6 p.m.Oct. 9 Fort Jennings Away 5 p.m.* - Putnam County League match————

BOYS SOCCERDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 16 Spencerville Home 11 a.m.Aug. 18 Van Wert Away 5 p.m.Aug. 21 Fall Classic Elida 5 p.m.Aug. 23 Fall Classic Elida 5 p.m.Aug. 26 Lincolnview Home 5 p.m.Sep. 2 Findlay JV Home 5 p.m.Sep. 4 Ada Away 5 p.m.Sep. 8 Continental* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 11 Lima CC Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 13 Sidney Lehman Home 2 p.m.Sep. 16 Paulding JV Away 5 p.m.Sep. 20 Archbold Home 5 p.m.Sep. 22 Lima Temple Christian Home 5 p.m.Sep. 26 Miller City* Home 7 p.m.Sep. 29 Kalida JV Away 5 p.m.Oct. 3 Kalida* Away 7 p.m.Oct. 7 Fort Jennings* Away 5 p.m.Oct. 10 New Knoxville Away 5 p.m.Oct. 11 Riverdale Home 5 p.m.* - Putnam County League match————

VOLLEYBALLDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 19 Spencerville Home 6 p.m.Aug. 21 Perry Home 6 p.m.Aug. 25 Parkway Away 6 p.m.Aug. 26 Lincolnview Home 6 p.m.Aug. 29 Kalida* Away 6 p.m.Sep. 2 Van Wert Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 4 Jefferson Away 6 p.m.Sep. 9 Upper SV Away 5:30 p.m.Sep. 11 Wayne Trace Away 6 p.m.Sept. 15 Columbus Grove* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 18 Miller City* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 22 Ottawa-Glandorf Away 6 p.m.Sep. 23 Pandora-Gilboa* Home 6 p.m.Sep. 25 Leipsic* Away 6 p.m.Sep. 27 St. John’s Home 10 a.m.Sep. 29 Ayersville Away 5:30 p.m.Oct. 2 McComb Home 6 p.m.Oct. 4 Lima CC/Coldwater Cold. 10 a.m.Oct. 7 Lima Temple Christian Home 6 p.m.Oct. 9 Continental* Away 6 p.m.* - Putnam County League match————

COED CROSS COUNTRYDate Opponent Site TimeAug. 23 St. John’s Invitational Away 9 a.m.Aug. 26 Wayne Trace Away 4:30 p.m.Aug. 30 Columbus Grove Away 9 a.m.Sep. 6 Spencerville Away 9 a.m.Sep. 9 Elida Away 5 p.m.Sep. 13 Ottawa-Glandorf Away 9 a.m.Sep. 20 Van Wert Away 8 a.m.Sep. 23 Bath Away 5 p.m.Sep. 30 PCL Away 4:30 p.m.Oct. 4 Antwerp Away 8:30 a.m.Oct. 7 Ottawa-Glandorf Away 5 p.m.


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R u n o v e r

overall in both the MAC tournament and the overall rankings last season. Minster finished first in both to swep the confer-ence.

“Our team goals this year are to work hard to refine our games through the sea-son, as we are so young,” said Falk. “With no seniors and a majority of freshmen and sophomore players, we hope to re-main competitive in the MAC league race and place well in the tournaments on our schedule, including the Mercer County Invitational and the Antwerp Invitational, both of which we won last year.”

On the girls’ side for the Panthers, they look to have a more successful season then they have had in the past few seasons. The Panthers finished seventh in the conference in each of the last two seasons. They fin-ished ahead of Fort Recovery last season, the first year for the Indians girls’ team.

Parkway graduated no girls last season, returning the entire team this year, includ-ing seniors Terra Walls and Brenna Brazle. Walls received first team All-MAC honors a year ago. Brazle was given the honor of second team All-MAC for the second year in a row.

Along with Brazle and Walls, juniors Autumn Setler and Taylor Hesse are re-turning and will help lead the way for the Panthers. Though they’ve struggled greatly the past few seasons, the Panthers have an entire roster of experienced golfers, giving them an edge on several other teams in the MAC.

Parkway(Continued from Page 53

(in Barna from last year) is his confidence. He got thrown in the fire, he didn’t have the benefit of working with the varsity group in scrimmages or 7-on-7 drills. He was a fresh-man working with the JV and freshman kids then all of a sudden he was a starter. He is getting a chance to prepare himself as a start-er, so I think some confidence comes with that.”

The Panthers come into the season with two very simple goals that are heightened by the fact that they play in one of the toughest conferences in Ohio.

“We have several goals: one is to go 2-0 in our non-conference schedule and the sec-ond one is to make the playoffs,” Cairns stat-ed. “I think in the MAC it’s easier to make the playoffs then it is to win the MAC cham-pionship. Last year, Coldwater lost the MAC but won state. When you are in the MAC, once you make the playoffs the gloves are off and you have as good a shot as anyone to make a run at the title. For us, a key to mak-ing the playoff is we have to go 2-0 in our non-conference games, but they are against two really solid non-conference teams who both made the playoffs (last year).”

Parkway opens the season at Crestview before hosting Arlington on September 5.

Avoiding the injury bug will be a big key to the Panthers season. Parkway was off to a decent start last season before injuries de-railed them.

“We have to cross our fingers and hope we are healthy coming out of those two games and hope we can stay health through the MAC season, because it’s a grind and we can’t afford to lose many kids,” finished coach Cairns.

Injuries(Continued from Page 53)


ROCKFORD — There weren’t many bright spots for Parkway cross country squad in 2013, but the biggest certainly had to be the performance of freshman Caleb Rollins.

Now entering his sophomore season, Rollins is looking to continue his record-setting career. As an eighth grader, Rollins broke the school record for his class. In his first season at the varsity level, Rollins turned in times faster than any previous Panther freshman.

The Panther boys placed ninth at the 2013 Midwest Athletic Conference meet, finishing just behind St. John’s and ahead of only Marion Local.

On the girls side, the Lady Panthers will be looking to replace a trio of key runners from last year after losing Shan-non Joseph, Courtney Dicke and Emilie Fisher to graduation.The Lady Panthers placed eighth of eight teams at the 2013 MAC championships.

Parkway will look for improvement from the returning letterwinners, such as last year’s top female runner Allison Gaerke, as well as Jazmine Olds. The Panthers are coach by Ann Vian.

Panther cross country teams rebuilding for 2014


ROCKFORD — It might be easy to look at a 3-6 conference record and a 14-10 over-all mark and assume the Lady Panthers had a down year in 2013. When you consider the quality of the competition in the Mid-west Athletic Conference, however, where both Marion Local and Versailles captured State championships and another school, Coldwater, reached the regional final, Park-way’s middle-of-the-park mark becomes much more impressive. In fact, five of the eight MAC teams that didn’t win titles last year were knocked out of the tournament by other MAC schools. In short, the league is not for the weak.

On the plus side, Panthers head coach Jeff Marbaugh, entering his ninth season at the helm of the program, needs to replace just one senior from last year’s team. The problem is that senior is Raegen Bransteter,

a second-team all-MAC performer who has gone on to play collegiately at Ohio North-ern.

Parkway returns seven letterwinners in 2014, five of which are seniors including Whitney Rollins, an honorable mention all-MAC selection last year.

Rollins and sophomore Sarah Gehron figure to share the setting duties, with se-niors Madison Roehm and Kayla Stephen-son taking up positions on the outside. Se-nior Paige Hamrick returns as libero and Halle Beougher will anchor the defense as a specialist.

The biggest disadvantage the Panthers had in conference play last year was a lack of great size at the net, and that doesn’t fig-ure to improve much in 2014. At 5-foot-8, freshman Haley Hawk will step right into a sizeable role on the varsity squad, join-ing sophomore Clista Hellwarth at middle hitter. Senior Sam Wood also figures to see plenty of varsity action this year.

2014 Parkway volleyballSize a concern for Parkway volleyball coach


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