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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Longtime Wittenberg stats guru Joe Clayton dies
There was no bigger Wittenberg fan than Joe Clayton. The Catholic Central graduate and Springfield resident took stats at football and basketball games for almost three decades.
He never got paid. He was always a volunteer. He just loved the Tigers — maybe as much as his beloved Columbus Clippers.
Clayton, also a longtime member of the News-Sun sports staff, died Monday night, March 16, at 47.
“I always considered myself to be unbelievably lucky that somebody like Joe would want to be around,” Wittenberg sports information director Ryan Maurer said.
I have to point out that Joe is the 2008 Springfield News-Sun Fantasy Football League champion. He loved fantasy sports and played forever in the Paper League, the News-Sun’s baseball league for many years, and then our football league. He never won a championship until this past season.
This is the information the paper got from the funeral home this morning:
Clayton, Joseph M. 47, of Springfield died March 16, 2009. Visitation from 4-7 p.m.Friday in the Conroy Funeral Home. Mass 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Joseph Church.
This is an email from Wittenberg sports information director Ryan Maurer to the Wittenberg community on Tuesday:
Dear Wittenberg community members,
For most of you, the name Joe Clayton may not mean much - if you ever heard it at all. But without him and the more than 25 years of dedicated service he gave his hometown university, your experience following Wittenberg athletics might have been something a little less. I know mine would have been, which is why I was so sad to hear the news of his passing last night at the age of 47.
Joe was a Wittenberg Tiger to the core, and he earned his stripes with dedicated service as a statistician for a variety of the university’s athletics teams. As far as I know, he didn’t miss a home Wittenberg football game for nearly 30 years - not sitting in the stands as a fan, but sitting in the pressbox as the lead scorekeeper. In recent years, he volunteered to be our sports information representative at road games as well, tracking participation, pitching in to help with statistics and delivering stats to our coaches at halftime and the end of games. He was a walking encyclopedia of Wittenberg football knowledge, a memory bank I never could quite tap enough.
He was almost as consistent in his attendance of Wittenberg basketball games, both men and women. Despite missing three years while working in Dayton, I would estimate that Joe tracked statistics at about 600 home basketball games over the years. In recent years, he also helped with stats when we hosted NCAC and NCAA volleyball tournaments and had even offered his services at men’s and women’s soccer games. And there was a baseball season when we didn’t have anyone to keep the scorebook, so he pinch-hit at the last minute. Ably, I might add.
Finally, last year he joined the Athletics Hall of Honor committee. He saw it as an honor, and he took his responsibilities very seriously.
He did all of these things, outside of his full-time jobs and dedication to the local Catholic church…FOR FREE. I insisted that we arrange payment for a few things, like his help with the volleyball tournaments and the chilly nights in the baseball dugout. But it was never anything he asked for, or expected. He just loved sports, and he loved Wittenberg.
It’s people like Joe - unsung heroes - who make Wittenberg special. I just felt that he should be saluted.
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On this date in area sports history …
Seven years ago on this date, March 17, 2002, South Charleston celebrated the Southeastern girls basketball team’s final four appearance. Complete story on the jump.
TROJANS ARE WELCOMED HOME
FOR FANS, TEAM IS A WINNER
SOUTH CHARLESTON — They didn’t come home champions Sunday, but Southeastern High School’s girls basketball team went where 192 other Division IV schools didn’t — to the state tournament.
And though it was St. Patrick’s Day, scarlet, gray and white were the only colors that mattered here. A wailing siren led a caravan of cars and mini-vans back from Columbus, the tournament’s site, emblazoned with flags and “go Trojans” messages on them.
Though Southeastern lost 39-34 to Shadyside in Thursday’s semifinal game, it returned a winner. About 100 fans, parents and relatives were waiting in the school’s gymnasium to celebrate the school’s fifth state tournament appearance.
“The dream to go to state is always a pipe dream,” first-year Trojans coach Mike Smart told the crowd. “Mid-season, it was a pipe dream for us. To get there was neat, and I hope these girls never forget it.”
Smart was hired last June, replacing Kirk Martin who guided the team to four previous state tournaments, the most recent in 1999. But for whatever mid-season jitters there were, Southeastern overcame them when it mattered most.
After sharing the Ohio Heritage Conference with Greeneview, the team heated up, as it usually does, winning sectional, district and regional championships. An off-night in Thursday’s game against Shadyside ended the run.
“I feel privileged and humbled, and I’m already feeling the pressure for next year,” said Smart, who was named News-Sun area girls coach of the year.
Bodie Lightle, who has been a Trojan assistant coach for 16 years, said this team differed from the other Trojan state squads. Where several previous Southeastern teams had the advantage of being together for several years, this one had to take steps to improve game by game as the season went on.
“We weren’t expected by as many people to make it there this year,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize it’s hard work. That’s what counts. Keeping up the tradition is the ultimate goal, and we did it.”
The 2001-02 year has literally been a banner one for Southeastern teams. The football and volleyball teams made the Division IV regional finals, as did the boys basketball team, which missed the state tournament by a game after losing Friday 60-46 to Russia.
Southeastern girls team members included Brittany Smart, Brittany Barnhiser, Kati Kitchen, Rachel Clark-Haggy, Erica Paugh, Ashley Smart, Katie Hupp, Beth Eichelberger, Kristen Paulick, Chelsee McFarland, Rachel Cline, Mallory Smart and Ashley West.
Seniors Paulick, Paugh, Ashley Smart and Kitchen were given turns to speak to the crowd. The remarks were brief, but grateful. “I’ve never been part of anything like this, it’s cool,” Paulick said.
Paugh, who along with Kitchen was a member of the ‘99 state team, said she was grateful to her community and she thanked her parents, coaches and teammates.
The crowd was filled with potential future Trojans. Miami View eighth-graders Dakotah Waugh and Stephanie Roach were excited about joining the program next season.
“It’s a lot to follow, but, hopefully, we can take up the challenge,” Roach said.
Waugh said she was a little nervous about living up to the success of the team but is looking forward to it.
Perhaps the youngest Trojan in training at the event was 18-month- old Mackenzee Klontz. She’s about the age many of the girls on the current Trojan squad were when the team made its first state finals appearance, and she was getting in practice early, running up and down the floor.
First-year Southeastern athletic director Rick Woods has had his hands full keeping up with all the teams and their tournament exploits. As baseball coach, he now has the added pressure of keeping up the winning ways set by the fall and winter sports teams.
“I just pray it doesn’t rain for spring sports,” he said, smiling
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