Blanchard River Buzz

Catching a case of soccer fever

By JAMIE BAKER
GOAAALLLLL!!
I have to admit, I’m not a soccer superfan. But I have been trying to watch some of the World Cup since, for me, it’s on in the morning and I work evenings so it’s been pretty convienient.
I’m kind of getting into it.
I must admit, before I began working at The Courier I never watched a minute of soccer.
But after working here 14 years (and 14 years of having an English stepfather), I have developed a real appreciation of the game.
I know that sentiment isn’t shared by many of you out there reading this post.
This is, afterall, the Midwest right in the heart of football country. There is no doubt in Ohio football is king.
There’s room for a little love for soccer though.
Maybe 30-40 percent of the kids in Findlay grow up playing at least one year of soccer in some fashion. It’s a fine sport, but for American’s it’s hard for it to catch on as a spectator sport other than maybe during the World Cup, if if your kid is playing in a game.
We like scoring in this country and soccer is a game of almosts. You watch 90 minutes of action and may see one or two scoring plays. That isn’t enough for most casual sports fans in the U.S.
Still this World Cup seems to have captured the imagination of casual sports fans around the country. I see co-workers who don’t follow any sports even talking about it on occasion.
I’ve seen this question on television discussions of the World Cup: Will soccer ever catch on in the United States?
I don’t think it is going to supplant the NFL, MLB, NBA or NHL anytime soon. But there certainly is a place for pro soccer in the U.S. and the MLS is carving out a niche.
There are only so many ticket and advertising dollars to go around. And I’m not sure soccer will ever been on even footing with the other four professional sports here.
What’s your take?

L-B grad competes at USA Track and Field Nationals

By JAMIE BAKER
A Liberty-Benton graduate is competing at track and field’s highest level.
Former L-B stanbdout Jon Bowman finished 14th in the men’s discus Friday night at the USA Track and Field National Championships at Drake Stadium.
Bowman, a five-time all-Ohioan and 2005 Division III state champion in the 110 high hurdles, fouled on his first attempt, put together a throw of 152-8 on his second and saved his best until last with a toss of 178-8.
After leaving Liberty-Benton, Bowman was a multiple NAIA All-American in the hurdles and throwing events in college at Indiana Wesleyan.
Casey Malone won the event with a toss of 205-3. The American record was set by Ben Plucknett in 1981 with a throw of 237-4.
I’ll try to catch up with Bowman sometime next week.
In the meantime here is some video of Jon training.

Three new teams on Findlay High football schedule

Findlay High’s 2010 football schedule has undergone an overhaul and FHS fans will see the Trojans taking on three new teams this season.
Weeks one, three and five will find new opponents waiting to suit up against the Trojans.
Brunswick, which went 7-4 and made the Division I playoffs in 2009, replaces Toledo St. John’s and will face Findlay in the Trojans’ Aug. 27 season opener at Donnell Stadium.
Greenville, a Division II school that was 3-7 last season, replaces Upper Arlington in Week 3, and Division III Dayton Dunbar (5-5) replaces Columbus DeSales in Week 5. The Greenville and Dunbar games, along with the opener with Brunswick, are at home.
Findlay will again play Toledo St. Francis in a Week 2 game in Toledo. The Trojans lone Saturday contest will be a Sept. 18 road game against Cincinnati Moeller.
The second half of Findlay’s 2010 schedule will be Greater Buckeye Conference games. The Trojans, who shared the 2009 GBC title with Napoleon and Sandusky, open league play at home against Fremont Ross, then face Sandusky, Lima Senior and Marion Harding on the road. Findlay completes league play in its traditional matchup with Napoleon.
With the GBC disbanding after the 2010-11 season and Findlay’s possible entry into a new league with Fremont Ross and several Toledo-area schools still in the planning stages, the Trojans will likely have to play as an independent beginning with the 2011-12 school year.
Scheduling games as an independent triggers its own problems, especially considering the financial uncertainty in these tough economic times. According to FHS Athletics Director Nate Weihrauch, Findlay had originally scheduled a Cleveland team in Week 5, but had to change plans.
“Like many cities throughout the state, Cleveland has experienced budget cuts and is considering possibly closing some schools,” Weihrauch said.
“That just wreaks havoc on schools who may have already contracted them for that season.”

2010 Findlay High Football Schedule
Aug. 27 — Brunswick (H), 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 3 — Toledo St. Francis (A), 7 p.m.
Sept. 10 — Greenville (H), 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 18 — Cincinnati Moeller (A), 7 p.m.
Sept. 24 — Dayton Dunbar (H), 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 1 — x-Fremont Ross (H), 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 8 — x-Sandusky (A), 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 15 — x-Lima Senior (A), 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 22 — x-Marion Harding (A), 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 29 — x-Napoleon (H), 7:30 p.m.
x-Greater Buckeye Conference games.

Community service is a big part of Riverdale's playbook

By JAMIE BAKER
Staff Writer
MOUNT BLANCHARD — At Riverdale, football is more than X’s and O’s on the practice field and wins and losses under the bright lights on crisp fall Friday nights.
Football at Riverdale is also about picking up debris left by recent killer tornado in northern Wood County. It’s also about helping fill empty shelves at food banks close to home.
When coach Jeremy Kloepfer’s Falcons aren’t hard at work in the weight room or practice field preparing for the season, you’ll often find them out and about doing their part to help others in their own community and beyond.
“I don’t know if it’s above and beyond football, I just think it’s something the kids need to do as young men in the community, to give something back to society,” Kloepfer said. “That’s the first thing on the list of expectations for our players that I pass out each year. As Woody Hayes used to say, you pay forward.
“The people in this community have been paying taxes for this school for many years, so its hard to pay forward. We’re just trying to give something back.
“It’s not something that’s above and beyond, it’s something we need to do and the kids are willing to do it.”
On a muggy morning last Friday, several members of the Riverdale football team were busy putting clothes, games and other items on tables to prepare for a garage sale the football team was sponsoring to raise funds for food banks in Mount Blanchard and Forest.
Every item in the sale was five cents. Just a few hours after the sale began, though. a jar for donations for the food bank was nearly filled with U.S. currency in different denominations.
“We’re always trying to do our part to help the community out,” said senior quarterback Brady Weber, one of the Riverdale players who staffed the Friday morning sale.
“At this garage sale there are things people need and we’re giving it away cheap. There’s toys and kids clothes. Like coach says, we’re always trying to help our community at all times.”
“It’s just something we like to do,” added Steven Rahn, another of the Falcons’ senior. “We like to help people and we don’t ask anything in return. It’s all about giving back. The community supports us so we want to support them.”
Community service isn’t a new addition to the Riverdale playbook. The players have taken on all kinds of different projects under Kloepfer’s direction as he enters his fifth season as head football coach at the school.
“We’ve been trying to do projects since we’ve been here. We’ve scooped horse stalls, we’ve mowed lawns, moved people from one house to another. Anything we can do to help someone out who needs some help we’re willing to do it,” Kloepfer said. “People can even call me here at the fieldhouse at 419-694-8325 and we’ll see what we can do.
“The community comes out and watches on Friday night and supports us. We have to do our end and win, though. We didn’t do a good enough job of that last year. I don’t think it’s anything special. The kids are just willing to do it and the community rallies behind us and they are willing to help us out a little bit too.”
Not all of the projects are close to home.
A few weeks ago the football team took a road trip up to the Millbury area, which was hit by a strong tornado June 5. The storm completely destroyed Lake High School on the eve of its graduation ceremony. Six Millbury residents were killed.
It was an eye-opening experience for many of Riverdale’s players.
“It was crazy. It was devastating. I’ve never seen anything like it. The damage to the school and homes there was incredible,” Weber said.
“We just picked up small pieces of trash in the fields, but we found a house who’s property was covered in fallen trees and logs. It was us and the Woodmore football team. We just teamed up and started carrying giant trees. We were throwing big branches in a chipper. It really helped that family because their entire home was covered by tree limbs and branches.
“We only helped one house and there was a whole group of houses destroyed. It’s frustrating because we couldn’t do more.”
Lake High School’s athletic field house was obliterated by the storm. And the school needs any kind of athletic equipment it can get its hands on to replace what was lost. Riverdale’s athletic boosters donated $1,000 to help Lake’s recovery effort.
“Just thinking about the people that lost their lives to nature and something you can’t control, your heart just goes out to those people. It’s hard to see that stuff,” Kloepfer said.
“I was glad we were just able to take off, go up there one day and do whatever we could do. We did a lot of good, but there’s so much more to be done up there.
“You can only do so much and that’s what drives me crazy.”
Baker: 419-427-8409,
jamiebaker@thecourier.com

Prep Football: A perfect way to start summer

By Nathan Inniger
In Ohio High School athletics, nothing beats an exciting football game with two solid teams battling for a win.
Between late August and for some communities late November, the local football team is often a focal point around town, especially around here in primarily rural Northwest Ohio.
But once the season is over, unlike college football or the National Football League, high school fans need to wait eight or nine months until the next season.
That is why the Time Warner Fostoria Athletic Boosters All-Star Game is such an outstanding event at the beginning of the summer.
For the last three years, I have been present at the game and it has been a great experiene each time.
This year the game was fantastic with several big plays, which made the experience even better.
The Fostoria Athletic Boosters organization does a great job making the contest between the East and West squads a memorable event for all of the freshly graduated seniors, especially for the players that will not be playing in college.
Each player gets their own jersey, their picture in the program and most importantly gets to show off their talents one more time.
It is truly a great evening for the kids who have put in the time and effort to be the best player possible by their senior season.
The game also gives the coaches and players a chance to develop new friendships with kids they may have been in fierce competition with over the last four years.
I could tell that current Leipsic coach Joe Kirkendell, who coached the West squad during the game, had a blast coaching in the game and also getting to know several kids during the week.
“I can’t describe the pleasure that it was, how much fun we had during the course of the week working with these kids,” he said after the game.
“We got together as coaches after one of the practices and (discussed) the character of these kids and how much fun they had and how smart they were as football players, but also just good people.”
Even after suffering a heart-breaking 23-21 defeat on the final play of the game, the West’s mood as a team and coaching staff was positive. The team was laughing and joking about how the game ended.
“We laughed about it,” Kirkendell said. “It was an exciting ball game and the way it ends is the way it ends. (The kids) are going to remember the plays they made, not the last one.”
In my mind, Kirkendell pretty much summed it up right there.
The Fostoria All-Star game is something the Fostoria Athletic Boosters should be proud of and you could tell that all of the athletes that played last Saturday evening were happy to have the opportunity to play in the game.
“It was a blast, the game was fun,” Kirkenell said. “Everyone had fun and that was nice to hear and (the coaches) had fun too.”

It's official: Yeater is new Vanlue football coach

By JAMIE BAKER
Staff Writer
VANLUE — There will be a new man on the sidelines when Vanlue opens the 2010 football season against Ridgemont in a little less than 10 weeks.
Chris Yeater will be the long-struggling program’s third coach in as many years. Yeater’s supplemental contract  as the school’s new head football coach was approved at Monday’s board of education meeting.
“This will be my seventh year and all my previous coaching has been at Vanlue. I’m from Vanlue. I grew up in that town and I played there,” Yeater said.
“I know the reality of playing at Vanlue. I’m not going to come out and say we’re going to go 10-0, that goes without saying.”
Yeater knows exactly the situation Vanlue’s football program is facing.
Since the formation of the BVC in 1965, Vanlue has posted a 41-385-5 overall record in conference play and had 22 different head coaches during that span.
The school’s lack of football numbers isn’t helped by the fact that Vanlue is the smallest public school in Ohio to field a grid team.
There were just 33 boys enrolled in grades 9-11 last spring. Add in the 10 boys in the eighth grade class and that’s a pool of 43 boys in the entire school to draw from for the high school’s athletic teams.
By comparison, Hardin Northern is the next-smallest BVC school in terms of boys enrollment with 71 boys in grades 9-11. Liberty-Benton is the largest at more than four times the size of Vanlue.
“I told them in the interview if I wasn’t 100 percent confident that I could do this and be successful or if I wasn’t 100 percent committed to these kids and the school I wouldn’t have wasted their time,” said Yeater, who has hit the ground running by setting up a football camp and weight room schedule for the team.
“I think they know I’ll be someone who will bring a level of loyalty and commitment that they haven’t had in the past.”
Yeater replaces Robin Cooper, whose contract was non-renewed by a 3-2 vote by the Vanlue Board of Education in April. Cooper guided the Wildcats to a 1-9 record in his only season in charge of the program.
Numbers are an annual problem at Vanlue. Last season the team started and finished with 16 players on the roster. Yeater thinks he can boost the school’s numbers enough to possibly play a junior varsity schedule down the road.
“We want to get our numbers up, that’s one big thing we’re trying to do. I told the kids we have 19 players who are committed and I’m not going to beg anyone to play,” said Yeater, a 1993 Vanlue graduate who also has 16 players signed up for the school’s middle school team.
“I told the kids if we don’t lose any kids or even if we don’t pick up any kids in a few years we will have 27 kids playing football and that would be excellent. We can get JV football going again and that would be huge for the younger kids.”
More than anything, Yeater is just looking to help breathe some life back into a football program.
“The biggest thing is to get people excited and to get more people involved in the program. In order to do that, we have to be more competitive. We have to be committed,” Yeater said.
“My kids go to Vanlue and I told them I’m here to make a long-term commitment. We’re going to build this for the kids. The upperclassmen understand that they are out there helping me build something for the younger players who will be coming up in a few years.”
Yeater will be assisted by Vanlue grads Keith Caudill and Mike Edie.

Findlay grad making minor league umpiring debut this week

By TED RADICK
Staff writer
The baseball draft was held earlier this month, and for most teams the college season is now over. There’s a new crop of young professional players ready to make their mark on the game, but they’re not the only rookies debuting this month.
A new group of umpires is also ready to take the field, and Findlay’s  Tyler Curlis will be among the new men in blue.
Curlis, 24, will take the field as an umpire this week in the Arizona Rookie League. The 2004 FHS graduate is taking the first steps along a road he hopes will take him the majors.
“After I realized I couldn’t play any more, I wanted to do something that involved baseball,” he said. “It was either coach or umpire.
“Coaches really don’t get paid unless you’re doing high school, so I thought umpiring was the way to go. I started umpiring and really enjoyed it, really enjoyed still being part of the game.”
Curlis has been umpiring high school, ACME and youth games for a couple years. When he decided to take a shot at furthering his career the first stop was the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School in Florida.
Curlis attended the five-week course this past January.
“I learned a bunch of stuff to bring back here to do high school games or to get a job, which I was fortunate enough to do,” he said “The morning was going to a classroom, we were there from 8:30 to about noon just learning rules, covering situations and learning the two-man system.
“From about 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. we went out on the field, working on positioning. We would do controlled situations where we would play, and there would be two umpires. We also had some high school teams come out and scrimmage, and we would umpire those games.”
Experienced umpires were on hand to teach and rate the prospective umps.
“There were 10 to 12 supervisors there teaching us and evaluating us at the same time,” Curlis said.
The cream of the crop advanced to a 10-day camp run by the Professional Baseball Umpires Corp., the umbrella company responsible for minor league umpires. The top 18 students from both the Wendelstedt and Jim Evans schools attended that session, and Curlis was then placed in the collegiate wood-bat Coastal Plain League in North Carolina. He umpired there in May and this past week got the call he was waiting for, a call to become a professional.
“I didn’t know when it was going to happen or if it would happen,” Curlis said. “I was thrilled and overjoyed.”
The salary isn’t great — $1,900 per month — but Curlis is grateful for the opportunity. Just like the minor league players, he’s focused now on making a positive impression and advancing to the next level.
Umpires go from rookie league to short-season Class A, high Class A and so on through Double-A and Triple-A to the majors.
“They’ll have evaluations at midseason and at the end of the season, so you’ll know where you stand with your fellow umpires,” Curlis said.
Each umpire will have a partner as part of a two-man crew in Arizona. But the competition is fierce to make the next level.
“That’s your only friend out there, your partner, “ Curlis said. “You want to work well together. But then again, everybody’s competing for that next job.”
One tried-and-true rule in baseball is that every fan, player, coach and manager thinks they would be the best umpire.
Confrontations are bound to occur, and Curlis feels well-drilled in how to handle them. The supervisors at the Wendelstedt school worked with the students in just that scenario.
“The instructors would let you know when they were being an instructor and when they were being a coach,” he said. “When they were a coach they would heckle you like any other coach would.
“When you were behind the plate, they’d complain about your strike zone. When you were on the bases, they’d come out and argue about a safe or out call. They’d come out and argue and throw every cuss word you could imagine. You’d have to determine if they’d crossed the line and have to eject them.”
Expressing an opinion, even in colorful language, is fine, Curlis said. Personal attacks are not permitted.
“If the coach starts anything that starts ‘You (blank),’ he can easily be ejected,” Curlis said.
“You try to diffuse the situation. You don’t want a reputation of having a quick trigger, but you make the call and if the coach or manager doesn’t like it, sometimes that’s just the way it is.”