Division I regional track finals
Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
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May 2009
Fairmont looks to Rockne and roll at regional
We’re gonna go inside, we’re gonna go outside, inside and outside. We’re gonna get ‘em on the run boys and once we get ‘em on the run we’re gonna keep ‘em on the run. And then we’re gonna go go go go go go and we’re not gonna stop til we get across that goalline. This is a team they say is… is good, well I think we’re better than them. They can’t lick us, so what do you say men?”
Those inspiration words came from Knute Rockne, and made famous again by the movie Rudy. They might also be heard before the start of the Division I high school baseball regional semifinal between Fairmont and Lakota West.
“(Senior designated hitter) Mike Green gives a lot of pregame talks to get us fired up,” said Fairmont junior Alex Lilley, who starts on the mound 5 p.m. today at Marge Schott Stadium at the University of Cincinnati. “He brings a lot of quotes from the movie Rudy. It’s football but it still gets us fired up.”
The Firebirds make their first regional appearance since 1988 and enter today’s game outscoring three tournament opponents (Tecumseh, Centerville and Cin. Elder) 15-0.
“We were pretty much at the bottom of the polls at the beginning of the year,” said Lilley, 6-1 with a 1.68 ERA. “We knew we were going to have a blow out year. It feels great.”
Another key to Fairmont’s postseason success is the production from the bottom of the order. David Steele (.308) Don Ross (.220) and Chris Donese (.323) have all contributed and aided Lilley’s three-run homer in that 4-0 win against Centerville in the sectional final.
“I’ve always said the key to these games is the 7-8-9 hitters,” Fairmont first-year coach Kent Drake said. “If you can get good production out of 7-8-9 good things are going to happen.”
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TweetTeam USA football to play in Canton
Need a summer fix to get you to the high school football season? Head up to Canton.
The International Federation of American Football will hold the inaugural Junior World Championship at Fawcett Stadium from June 27 through July 5. The high-school age tourney features teams from eight nations and four continents: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States.
The national team is made up of the top high school players from around the country. All 50 state high school athletic associations and the District of Columbia were asked to nominate at least 10 players to a pool for the Team USA coaching staff to choose from.
Players Pat Hinkel (Cleveland St. Ignatius HS, Miami of Ohio), Storm Klein (Licking Valley HS, Ohio State), Jack Mewhort (Toledo St. John’s, Ohio State) and Brian Smith (Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit, Northwestern) represent Ohio. Chuck Kyle of St. Ignatius is the head coach.
The United States, seeded second behind Canada, plays France at 8 p.m. on June 27. Team USA will practice at Walsh University from June 14-25. All sessions are free and open to the public.
Visit http://www.usafootball.com/jwc/index for complete rosters and the schedule.
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TweetFranklin Catches Baseball Fever
Franklin’s top-seeded baseball team landed three players on the Southwestern Buckeye League first-team. Headlining the delegation is imposing left-handed pitcher Kyle Blackford who was named the Player of the Year in the Southwest Division. The talented Blackford was was POY in basketball.
At an imposing 6-foot-7, Blackford is the team’s answer to Randy Johnson and has a 9-0 record and an ERA barely over 1.00. Joining the ace on the first team are Macklin Bray and Chris Saporito.
“Kyle has quite an intimidating presence on the mound and locates his fastball, curve and change,” said SWBL Coach of the Year Matt Kinser. “His ball runs and the batters have a tough time figuring it out. he’s a battler and a gamer. You can’t ask for much more.”
Second-team selections for the Wildcats (11-1 in the SWBL) are Tyler Simpson, Dustin Martin and Jordan Pergram. Dalton Davis and Spencer Mathews earned honorable mention.
Franklin (21-5) faces traditional powerhouse Kenton Ridge (23-5) for the D-II district title at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mason.
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TweetAlter’s Petrocelli still chasing Kalida coach
Becoming Ohio’s all-time winningest coach next season won’t be a slam dunk for Alter High School’s Joe Petrocelli. Kalida’s school board voted earlier this week to bring back Dick Kortokrax for at least one more season.
Kortokrax enters the 2009-10 season with a record of 785-314 (.714) in 49 seasons. Petrocelli is No. 2 at 772-270 (.741) in 45 seasons.
Kortokrax, 75, was ready to retire two years ago after his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a son died from leukemia and Kortokrax himself was diagnosed with bladder cancer. But his health improved and he wanted to stay on. Kalida school officials, though, wanted to go in a different direction.
The board gave him another year, and another chance to hold off Petrocelli, 71.
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TweetSectional baseball games rescheduled for Thursday
Plenty of sectional baseball games have been rescheduled for today. All games start at 5 p.m.
Sectional finals in the four divisions are slated for Monday and Tuesday; weather permitting.
Only D-III is scheduled for Friday, and no games for Saturday. Of course, that could be a key makeup date.
THURSDAY’S SECTIONAL GAMES
Division I Dayton Upper
West Carrollton at Sidney
Greenville at Northmont
D-I Dayton Lower
Trotwood at Springboro
Beavercreek at Wayne
D-I Fairborn Upper
Meadowdale at Centerville
Tecumseh at Fairmont
D-I Fairborn Lower
Lebanon at Miamisburg
Division II Dayton Upper
CJ at Franklin
Eaton at Bellbrook
D-II Dayton Lower
Little Miami at Hamilton Ross
Oakwood at Monroe
D-II Urbana Upper
Spg. Shawnee at Bellefontaine
Benjamin Logan at Urbana
D-II Urbana Lower
Carroll at Tippecanoe
Indian Lake at Spg. Kenton Ridge
DIVISION III Tipp City Upper
Spg. Northeastern at Versailles
Brookville at Tri-County North
D-III Tipp City Lower
National Trail at Anna
Miami East at West Liberty-Salem
Division IV Dayton Upper
Ansonia at Franklin-Monroe
Jefferson at Bradford
D-IV Dayton Lower
Cedarville at Southeastern
Bethel at Tri-Village
D-IV Troy Upper
Russia at Covington
Lehman Catholic at Triad
D-IV Troy Lower
Troy Christian at Ft. Loramie
Houston at Riverside
FRIDAY’S GAMES All games at 5 p.m. unless noted
Division III Dayton Upper
East Clinton at Ham. Badin
Clinton-Massie at Day. Christian
D-III Dayton Lower
Stivers at Dixie
Mid. Madison at Carlisle
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TweetElks Baseball on the Cutting Edge
Centerville fields a deep pitching rotation that has carried the team to a 17-5 record and a Greater Western Ohio Conference Central Division championship at 8-2.
Top hurlers include Beau Adkins (8-0, 1.11 ERA), Andrew Brown (4-2, 2.42), Andy Evans (2-1) and Justin Broach (3-0, 2.47). Coach Terry Dickten is a proponent of the “cutter”, the cut fastball, and his pitchers believe in it.
“It’s a deceiving pitch with a lot of movement,” Dickten said. “You just need something to mix in and fool the batters. Developing a cutter makes you a more effective high school pitcher.”
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TweetTressel Highlights Boro’s Father-Son Event
The Springboro High School football program will get an early start on Father’s Day.
The Springboro Quarterback Club and the Springboro Rotary Club will host “An Evening with Jim Tressel”, Monday June 8. The Ohio State head football coach treasured the time he had with his father Lee, who was a coaching legend first at the high school level (storied Massillon) and later at Baldwin-Wallace.
In addition to the Tressel presentation, Boro’s own father-son combination will be honored. Ohio State football player Jake Ballard, twin brother Josh (Morehead State) and their father-coach Ben will be saluted.
“We’re inviting all Springboro football players from the third grade on up and their fathers to be a part of a special evening,” said Panthers head football coach Ryan Wilhite.
Tickets are $20 per person. For more information, contact Wilhite at (937) 748-3950 or rwilhite@springboro.org
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Tweet13 area football teams change divisions
Thirteen area football teams were among 117 state-wide that were reassigned divisional status Thursday by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
The change goes into effect this fall and last for two seasons. The OHSAA reassesses divisions every two years, based on male enrollment from grades 9-11. The latest revision was made from 2008 figures.
Moving up
• Changing from D-IV to D-III: Oakwood, Ben Logan.
• From D-V to D-IV: Waynesville.
Moving down
• From D-II to D-III: Bellbrook and Dunbar.
• From D-II to D-IV: Marshall.
• From D-III to D-IV: Valley View and Indian Lake.
• From D-IV to D-V: Coldwater and Greeneview.
• From: D-V to D-VI: Marion Local, National Trail and Arcanum.
Notable
• Defending D-IV state champion Alter stays put. But its playoff path was considerably cleared with Steubenville and Youngstown Cardinal Mooney both bumping up to D-III and Coldwater moving down to D-IV.
• After a two-year run in D-V that produced a state title in ‘07, Marion Local returns to D-VI. That means the MAC’s two best current powers — Local and Coldwater — still can run the table in separate divisions.
• Valley View’s drop to D-IV didn’t hurt its playoff fortunes. Of course, now the Spartans must go through Alter at some point.
• That population explosion at Bellbrook and Sugar Creek Twp. is officially suspended. The Golden Eagles’ drop to D-III brings it more in line with its SWBL brethren and should help its postseason return.
• Just two schools throughout the state made a two-division jump; Marshall and Cincinnati Taft both dropping from D-II to D-IV.
Quotable
“The fun part is finding out who’s coming with you or leaving you. … Oh, that’s great. I look a little more short sided, at the local stuff first.”
— Oakwood coach Paul Stone, whose Lumberjacks dodge Alter but are now lumped with state heavyweights Steubenville, Mooney and Parma Padua Franciscan.
The breakdown
There are 718 schools that field football programs. Those teams are divided into six divisions:
• D-I: 120 schools (518 boys or more);
• D-II: 118 schools (348-517 boys);
• D-III: 120 schools (252-347 boys);
• D-IV: 119 schools (177-251 boys);
• D-V: 120 schools (125-176 boys);
• D-VI: 121 schools (124 boys or less).
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TweetStaten and Oak Hill at Flyin’ to the Hoop?
Could Oak Hill Academy and Juwan Staten play in next year’s Flyin’ to the Hoop?
It’s a long shot, but …
The 2010 three-day Flyin’ hoopfest at Fairmont’s Trent Arena is scheduled for Jan. 16-18. Tourney director Eric Horstman reports that Oak Hill has a scheduled game that Saturday. He’s trying to lure Oak Hill into playing in Monday’s showcase game.
Already signed up for the next Flyin’ to the Hoop are Findlay (Nev.) Prep and Montverde (Fla.) Academy. Findlay handed Oak Hill its only loss in a nationally televised game on ESPN this past season to clinch the mythical high school national championship. Findlay and Oak Hill are likely to be ranked 1-2 in the upcoming preseason.
Montverde was a national top-5 team.
There are no matchups yet.
“It’s always good to match (national powers) against an Ohio team to give them a change of pace,” said Horstman, “but it would have to be a very talented Ohio team to be a good game.”
There’s history with Oak Hill and Flyin’ to the Hoop. In the 2007 event, Oak Hill defeated Trotwood-Madison 81-74 at Vandalia.
Area teams committed to the 2010 Flyin’ field are:
• Alter;
• Centerville;
• Chaminade Julienne;
• Dunbar;
• Fairmont;
• Marshall;
• Trotwood-Madison;
• Wayne;
• and Wilmington.
Other committed teams are:
• Cin. Aiken;
• Cleveland Benedictine;
• Centennial (Ga.) Roswell;
• Cleveland Heights;
• Findlay (Nev.) Prep;
• Flora Macdonald (N.C.) Academy;
• Garfield Heights;
• Lakota East;
• Marion Franklin;
• Miller Grove (Ga.);
• Montverde (Fla.) Academy;
• Princeton;
• Cin. Roger Bacon;
• West Jessamine (Ky.);
• Westerville North;
• Winton Woods.
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TweetCenterville-Fairmont Softball Wars
There was a tense moment in the Fairmont-Centerville softball game Tuesday. In the third inning Jamie Schnarr grounded out to Centerville first baseman Megan Pearson, who applied the tag to Schnarr a few feet in front of the bag.
Centerville coach Paul Martin did not like Schnarr’s flailing elbow into Pearson and wanted some kind of call from the home plate umpire. He didn’t get it.
“Schnarr you’re better than that,” Martin hollered at the hard-hitting catcher.
In the meantime, Fairmont coach Rick Armstrong instructed another player to warm up to replace Schnarr. That is, until Schnarr went over to Martin between innings and apologized for her actions.
“Jamie is a good player,” Martin said later. “I think she just was frustrated and didn’t mean anything toward her (Pearson). In fact, they might have played summer ball together. (The incident) is done with.”
Said Schnarr: “Every game is important, but Centerville is special because they are just down the road from us and some of our best friends play for Centerville. We know them through summer travel ball.”
Fairmont rallied and defeated Centerville 5-4 to raise its recordto an outstanding 18-2.
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TweetBook on it: Centerville at Wayne in a rare dual track & field meet
Remember great dual T&F meets? They disappeared about the same time wooden bats did in prep baseball.
But there’s a revival of the dual meet among the Wayne and Centerville programs. Even better, it’s for a charitable cause.
Today’s, May 6, “Race to Read” will feature Centerville at Wayne in a track and field dual meet. Besides hot laps, it’ll also showcase a book drive between the schools. All books will be donated to Children’s Medical Center of Dayton.
Racing begins at 5:30 p.m.
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TweetCJ officials planning to name replacement for Greenberg through spring, summer
The girls basketball show goes on at Chaminade Julienne.
Athletics director Mike Raiff should soon name someone in place of head varsity coach Marc Greenberg to manage the Eagles through the spring and summer. CJ wrote a release on Tuesday indicating Raiff was huddling with CJ assistant coaches to plot out the immediate future of the program.
“Until further notice, Mr. Greenberg does not have authority to represent CJ or the women’s basketball program,” said CJ president Dan Meixner.
“Nonetheless, the spring and summer activities will continue for the benefit of current CJ students and future Eagles. We will monitor the legal situation and make additional decisions as appropriate.”
On Monday, Greenberg was arrested for Internet exploitation of minors.
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TweetBaseball tourney trail set
Centerville (Division I), Franklin (D-II), Springfield Kenton Ridge (D-II), Hamilton Badin (D-III), Anna (D-III), Franklin-Monroe (D-IV), and Fort Loramie (D-IV) all were seeded No. 1 in the baseball sectional tournament draw on Sunday.
Franklin-Monroe (13-0) is the only unbeaten top seed. Fort Loramie drew its No. 1 seed despite a 12-7 record.
Sectional play begins next week.
The higher seeded team will host games through the first two rounds. Play then goes to neutral sites, with the higher seed the home team.
Sectional champions advance to single-game district championships On May 22-23 at:
• D-I, Fairmont and Princeton;
• D-II, Mason;
• D-III, Centerville;
• D-IV, Northmont.
District champs advance to the two-game regionals on May 28-29 at:
• D-I: UC’s Marge Schott Stadium;
• D-II: UD’s Time Warner Stadium;
• D-III: WSU’s Ron Nischwitz Stadium;
• D-IV: Wayne’s Jim Harrison Field.
Regional winners advance to the state tournaments June 4-6 at Huntington Park, Columbus. That’s the site of the Clippers’ new home, which replaced Cooper Stadium.
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TweetTipp’s Chin fares well in El Salvador
Tippecanoe High School junior Allison Chin finished 10th at the Americans Race Walk Championships in El Salvador on Friday, May 1. Chin, competing in the capital city of San Salvador, finished the 10,000-meter course in 60 minutes, 14 seconds.
Athletes from 16 different countries competed at the bi-annual IAAF championship for North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean Islands. Chin, 17, a distance runner on Tipp’s track team, is the United States’ top Junior race walker (16-19 years old) at 10,000 meters.
“Allison placed well and gained some invaluable experience that will suit her well at future competitions, such as this summer’s Junior Pan Am Games”, said Vince Peters, national chair of Race Walking for USATF and athletic director at Yellow Springs High School.
In the senior competition for women 20-and-up, 35-year-old Susan Randall of Beavercreek finished 17th. Randall completed the women’s Olympic distance of 20 kilometers (12.42 mile) and finished in 1 hour, 55 minutes and 55 seconds.
Overall, the USA women’s team earned the bronze medal.
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TweetWayne T&F meet called off; but it’s hot and heavy at Welcome Stadium
They tried, but it just couldn’t be done.
At Wayne.
The Endurance Sports Wayne track & field inv. is history, wiped out by a couple lightning delays. By the time a start time of 7 p.m. had been decided five teams had already vacated Huber Heights.
Other coaches wanted to save their runners for the Roosevelt Memorial at Welcome Stadium on Saturday.
Rescheduling the Wayne meet for Saturday was scratched because of the many proms throughout the area.
It was business as usual — after a couple delays — in Day 1 of the Roosevelt Memorial.
Fifth Third Field will be busy with tripleheader baseball games on Saturday and Sunday.
Friday’s Vandalia Butler vs. Troy baseball game has been rescheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday. New Bremen plays Upper Scioto Valley to open Saturday’s play at 1 p.m. Troy Christian plays Dayton Christian at 7 p.m.
On Sunday, it’s Celina vs. Coldwater at 1 p.m.; Covington vs. St. Henry at 4 p.m. and Franklin-Monroe vs. Arcanum at 7 p.m.
Of course, that’s all weather permitting.
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TweetElks Planting Seeds in D-I Baseball
The Division I baseball tournament draw will be Sunday in Troy.
Centerville bolstered its high-seed chances with a significant 7-6 win over Springboro Thursday, April 30 at Fifth Third Field.
“It’s been an unusual year because there are no dominant (big-school) teams in the area like in the past,” said Elks coach Terry Dickten, who has guided his team to an 11-4 season. “Northmont’s tough. Fairmont is playing well and then you have Beavercreek and Springboro.”
What has been his team’s winning blueprint?
“Pitching, defense and timely hitting,” Dickten said. “We’re not self-destructing, like in our earlier loss to Northmont (5-4).”
Stalwarts include .500 hitters Logan Hanes and Jake Wilson and pitchers Andrew Brown and Beau Adkins.
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TweetChitwood Goes Deep At Fifth Third Field
Smoke erupted from the scoreboard in the Bellbrook-Milton-Union baseball game at Fifth Third Field Thursday April 30. It came compliments of Bellbrook junior Tommy Chitwood.
Chitwood slammed a home run into the Dragons Lair in left field. The dinger helped propel the Golden Eagles to a 10-0 mercy rule win over the Bulldogs.
It’s a moment Chitwood will cherish the rest of his life.
“That’s definitely my career highlight,” Chitwood said. “I was halfway between first and second when the horn started blaring and I realized I had a homer. Then, the whole team met me at home plate.”
At 5-foot-6, 150 pounds, Chitwood doesn’t fit the image of a slugger. He has three home runs this season for 13-4 Bellbrook.
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