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FALL SPORTSPreview2012
A Special Sports Supplement of the Sidney Daily News
2 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
SIDNEY
It’s there, and every-one knows it. They justdon’t talk about it, sayssecond-year head coachAdam Doenges.He’s trying to resur-
rect the Sidney HighSchool football program,and it’s turned into amonumental job. Heknows it won’t happenovernight, but he saysthe Jackets need to takethat first step – a victory.Sidney heads into the
upcoming football sea-son in the throes of along losing streak, back-to-back 0-10 seasons.And playing in a leaguelike Sidney does, theGreater Western OhioConference, makes dig-ging out of that hole allthe more difficult.“You don’t get back
over night,” said Do-enges. “And you don’tturn really goodovernight. I don’t want tosay we’re rebuilding. Westill want to win andthat’s our expectations.But we know where weare and we know wehave some building to do.“We don’t bring up the
losing streak, but it’sthere,” he added.“There’s no reason tobring it up. I haven’theard the kids bring itup, and the coaches don’tbring it up, either. Butwe need to get that firstone. You put the timeand effort in and youneed that taste of vic-tory.”He has 15 lettermen
returning, but he saidthat number is skewed abit because of injurieslast season. “Some other
kids got some playingtime that might nothave, but most of the let-termen are legit. But westarted quite a few soph-omores last year.”There are 52 players
out in the upper threegrades, with a freshmen
or two also in the mix. Ofthat number, 20 are sen-iors, but Doenges saidonly six of those seniorshave played all fouryears. “That’s not verygood, only six true sen-iors on the team. But itdoesn’t matter where
you’re at or at whatlevel, if that’s theamount of seniors, thenyou’re relying on a lot ofyoung kids.”He said there will be
some changes this sea-son, but not dramatic.“Obviously, when you
have a season like wedid, you want to go inand change somethings,” he said. “Wewent to some clinics andtalked to other coaches,visited some college pro-grams. It doesn’t matterif you go 15-0, you stillwant to change.”He said offensively,
the Jackets will go tomore two-back sets,whereas last year therewas just one behind thequarterback. “We havesome more skilled kidsthat we can put in thebackfield and makethings happen,” he said.“Defensively, the basiclook will be the same.Wejust have to coach themup better.”Kyle Dembski, a 5-
foot-8, 222-pound junior,will be in the backfield,as will Eric Barnes, whois a 5-10, 170-poundsophomore.The battle is ongoing
for the quarterback spot,with senior Kaleb Dot-son and junior JordanFox vying for the posi-tion. “We’re still lookingfor a guy to take charge,”Doenges said.The O-line will be an-
chored by three-yearstarter Jacob Lochard atcenter, 5-10, 252-poundGeorge Latimer and 5-8,208-pound junior NoahStramen.They will all bestarters. Levi Fitz-patrick, 6-1, 230, andCorey Saunders, 6-2,218, are both first-yearvarsity players lookingfor playing time.He thinks he has good
people to throw to in 6-0,148-pound junior Jalen
Herd, and 5-7, 160-pound speedster KalebMartin. “He was secondin the GWOC in the 200and he had a good springand winter of lifting.He’s one of the fasterguys in the GWOC andwe’re looking for him tomake some plays,” Do-enges said of Martin.Anthony Yates, Brian
Fishbaugh and TroyRosengarten are alsogood targets. Yates wasan all-league punter lastseason, and he teamswith Andre Spillers togive the Jackets an ex-cellent kicking game.Spillers has hit fromover 40 yards in presea-son field goal attempts.Defensively, the
strength is at linebacker,where Dembski, 5-10,158-pound Taylor Shep-herd and 5-7 DylanOwen line up. “We’repretty solid there,” saidDoenges. “And in presea-son, we were real happywith our D-line, and thatwas one of our biggestweaknesses.”Up front will be
Spillers, ZachWeldy, 6-1,210 and a senior, andConnor Bodenmiller, 5-10, 208 and a sopho-more. Austin Elmorewas also in the startinglineup, but suffered abroken arm in preseasonand is out for a while yet.Doenges said players
off the O-line will alsosee action up front on de-fense. “Weldy is a first-year player but he’s beena nice surprise so far,”said the coach.
Jackets look to take first step back
SDN File Photo/Todd B. Acker
JJALEN HERD (3) goes up for an interception last year against Bellefontaine.He’s among the returnees for the Yellow Jackets this season.
See EIGHT/Page 3
(From page 2)In the defensive back-
field, Martin, JacobRoediger and DariusSouthern are solid, andjoined by a freshman,Darryl McNeal.
Doenges feels he hasan excellent coachingstaff,which added two for-mer players in DevonLanghorst and ThomasGoffena. “Devon has beentremendous,” said Do-enges. “Thomas wascoaching down in NorthCarolina and was able toget a job back up here.Thekids look up to those two.They played here, gradu-ated here and went on tosuccessful things. We’rehappy to have them.”
Girls soccerThe Sidney girls soc-
cer team has a lot ofopen spots to fill thisseason after losing 11seniors, eight of whichwere starters last sea-son.
“While it’s going to bea transition year, I don’tnecessarily consider itrebuilding,” said coachStacey Goffena. “I feelthe term rebuilding hasbeen used in the past asan excuse to lose, andwhile I am putting to-gether a new varsity
team, I still feel that thegirls that step on myfield are good enough tocontinue the winningways we have seen inpast seasons. As a newteam, we just need tolearn to adapt to eachother and learn how toplay together. We havehad a successful sum-mer, playing in four tour-naments, so hopefullywe’ll be ready to go byour first game.”
Returning letter win-ners for the Lady Jack-ets are MoniqueHanayik, Lauren El-more, Tina Echemann,Morgan Knasel, McKen-zie Anderson, TaylorYoung, Clara Snavleyand Lindsey Sturwold.Konner Harris will alsobe returning this seasonafter recovering from anACL injury that kept herout last season.
There are still sevenseniors this season. Of-fensively, MoniqueHanayik is a second-team all conference,third-team all Daytonarea returning starterfor the Lady Jackets.Last season she finishedwith 12 goals and sevenassists as an outsidemidfielder. She will be
playing both outsidemidfield and striker forus this season.
“She’s had a fantasticsummer and has a verystrong left foot,” saidGoffena. “She will needto score for us to be suc-cessful.”
Joining Hanayik onthe offensive end will beHarris, who will also besplitting time as outsidemidfielder and striker.As a sophomore, shescored 20 goals and had10 assists before her in-jury sidelined her lastseason. “Having her re-turn will definitely helpus offensively and she’sjust a great athlete tohave on your team. Herleadership and competi-tiveness are going to bewhat this team needsthis season,” said thecoach.
Elmore and Eche-mann will play the cen-ter midfield position.“Tina has really im-pressed me over thesummer and does a greatjob of controlling the balland starting our offense.She usually has to markthe other team’s best of-fensive mid. Lauren hasthree years experience atthe position and plays
very hard. I’m hoping toget her to step up thisseason and be an offen-sive threat for us,” Gof-fena said.
Our defensive seniorswill be led by Anderson.“McKenzie has the mostvarsity experience of allmy defenders. While asickness sidelined herfor half of last season,she has had a great sum-
mer and will have to bea vocal leader in theback,” said the coach.
She is also joined bySnavely on the oppositeside, and she saw some
varsity playing time lastseason. Taylor Youngwill be playing the stop-per position.
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 3
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SIDNEY HAS reason for optimism in girls soccer thanks to the presence ofeight seniors on the team, including (front, l-r) Cydney Park, Lauren Elmore,Clare Snavley and Tina Echemann, and back, McKenzie Anderson, MoniqueHanayik, Konner Harris and Taylor Young.
Eight seniors dominateroster for girls soccer
See VOLLEYBALL/Page 4
(From page 3)She has also been
plagued by injuries inthe past, so Goffena ishoping she can completea whole season.The returning juniors
are Morgan Knasel andLindsey Sturwold.Knasel leads the way uptop in the striker posi-tion. Last season shehad 14 goals and fourassists and was namedto first team all leagueand second team allDayton area as a sopho-more. “She is lightningquick up top and playsout every ball,” said Gof-fena. “I love coachingplayers like Morgan be-cause she never quits.She plays out every-thing and makes a lot ofthings happen out ofnothing. Lindsey will beour starting goalkeeper.She did play in a fewvarsity games last sea-son while our starterwas out, so she is com-ing in with some experi-ence. She will have tobe very consistent in thegoal and make good de-cisions for us to wingames.”Sophomores joining
the varsity team thisseason are LaurenSpaugy, Lauren Boydand Kara Burns.“Lauren Spaugy has
probably been thebiggest surprise to methis summer,” said thecoach. “She was out al-most all of last seasonwith an injury, so seeingher return this seasonand her level of play, I’mvery impressed. She willbe playing some outsidemidfield and center mid.Lauren Boyd is a verygood defender for us.She plays the stopper po-sition and does an excel-
lent job of starting ouroffense out of the back.She has great ball skillsfor a defender and thiswill help us offensively.Kara will be playing out-side midfield for us. Shehas great crosses andworks very hard in avery tough position toplay. She has workedhard over the summerand earned herself thatspot. She has goodcrosses from the outsideand will need to be an of-fensive threat for us.”Kaitlyn Davis and
Adrianne Miller are twofreshmen that will be onthe team this season.Davis has some majorshoes to fill as she stepsinto the sweeper positionvacated by GWOC northplayer of the year Abi-gail Eppley. “She hasdone very well this sum-mer and is adjusting tothe physicality thatcomes with playing var-sity soccer against someof the top goal scorers inthe area,” said Goffena.“She doesn’t make fresh-man mistakes backthere and has great deci-sion making skills. Adri-anne will be my utilityplayer, she can literallyplay anywhere on thefield. I’ve used hermostly as a center-midsub, but she has alsoseen minutes on defenseand other spots on ouroffense. She is verycoachable and plays any-where I ask her to.“I have also been
using the summer to tryto complete my roster,”she continued. “Withonly a few returningplayers, there were a lotof vacated spots. Manyare still competing forthe last few spots. I’mhoping with our two
weeks of practices andfour scrimmages beforeour first game, we can fi-nally get a roster of 16that can tackle theGWOC North. Thingsare very different for usthis season. With losingso many last year, wearen’t expected to winlike in years past, but Ifeel this team has thecompetitiveness andability to surprise someteams. I’m confident inthem, we just have tolearn to play togetherand once that happens, Ifeel they will also be-come confident in them-selves which will showduring the games.”Joining the coaching
staff this year as juniorvarsity coach will be Gof-fena’s sister MeganMummey. “She knowsthe girls and the game,but most importantly,she’s a great coach andwill bring a lot of experi-ence to that position,”Goffena said.
Boys soccerEric Harlamert re-
turns for another seasonas the head coach of theSidney High boys soccerteam, and he’s lookingfor improvement overlast year’s 6-9-2 record.The Jackets lost eight
players to graduationfrom that team, but re-turn 10 lettermen from a
year ago, leading to a lotof optimism from thecoach.Returning are six sen-
iors in Dustin Lorenzo,Joel Fannon, JacobDavis, Preston Heath,Trevor Thompson andZach Austin, juniorsBlake Steenrod andBrady Gaylor and soph-omores Eric Beigel andJordan Perkins.“This team will be led
by our captains, Dustin,Jacob and Blake,” saidHarlamert. “The teamincludes a great group offreshmen too.”The newcomers to the
varsity include a pair ofseniors in David Youngand T.J. Lindsey, and sixfreshmen in ChaseLorenzo, QuentinMcKenzie, Ben Snavley,Ben McClain, BradleyBurden and Nick Kindle.Harlamert pegged the
starters as Gaylor andBeigel at forward,Heath, McKenzie andthe two Lorenzos at mid-field, Davis, Fannon,Perkins and Steenrod atdefender and Sam Clen-denin at goalkeeper.“We start with a real
tough schedule, includ-ing teams like Beaver-creek, Wayne, Alter,Hilliard Davidson andSpringboro,” said Har-lamert. “While all gamesare tough and contain
unknowns,Vandalia andTroy will be tough tobeat in our league.”And they will be gun-
ning for the Jackets —Sidney has won orshared the GWOCNorthtitle five years in a row.
VolleyballSidney High hit the
double-figure mark invictories last season, fin-ishing 10-13 under coachAshleigh Ratermann.And with seven playersreturning for this sea-son, the coach is opti-mistic.“I’ve been looking for-
ward to this season eversince we ended tourna-ment play last year,” saidRatermann. “Having sixseniors who each bringsomething different tothe team is going tomake our upcoming sea-son a huge success. Theteam meshes well to-gether in all aspects andeveryone helps out oneanother to accomplishthe task at hand.”Returning are set-
ter/hitter Kristin Beigel,defensive specialistsAshley Doak, ChristinaColon and Michelle Ab-bott (also right side hit-ter), outside hitterAllison Neu and middlehitter Shelbie Anderson,all seniors, and junioroutside hitter MadisonBarker.
Beigel was second-team All-GWOC Northand Neu made the Northspecial mention list.Ratermann is also
looking for contributionsfrom newcomers likejunior setter Cady Hol-lerich and sophomoremiddle hitter BrieWells.“Throughout the
course of the summer, allof the girls in the pro-gram worked hard anddedicated themselves toopen gyms and condi-tioning. Sidney volley-ball has continued toimprove each year andhopefully that continuesthis year,” the coach said.
Cross countryKen Kellner is the
new head coach of thecross country teams atSidney this season, andhe inherits teams thatboth finished fourth inthe GWOC North Divi-sion last season.Back for the boys are
six lettermen, includingsome all-GWOC Northrunners. SophomoreJared Tangeman andsenior Alex Bowmanboth ran their way tosecond-team honors.Also returning are
senior Austin Oder, jun-ior Matt Schwarzman,and sophomores TristanMoore and Dean Fannon.
4 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
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Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 5
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NEW BREMEN
Former Sidney HighSchool assistant coachJason Mc-Gah a r a ntakes overas headcoach ofthe NewB r e m e nCardinals,trying toresurrect ap r o g r amthat haswon just two games overthe last two seasons.The Cardinals were 0-
10 last season and lostsome key players tograduation in quarter-back Elliot Westerbeckand wide receiver Ben
Chaney, who combinedto set school records.Tight end Troy Williamsand lineman NevenFrazee anchored theline.Returning are senior
wideout/ defensive backParker Manger, seniordefensive end/tight endJustin Heitkamp, seniorrunning back/defensivelineman Alex Speelman,junior lineman Ty Over-man and senior linemanCraig Broerman. Line-backer Nick Ahlers isalso expected to have agood season.Manger is 6-foot-2,
176 pounds, Heitkamp isa big target at 6-6, 205,
Speelman is 6-3, 224,Overman is 6-2, 221,Broerman is 6-1, 204,andAhlers is 6-1, 205. Sothe Cards will have thesize to stack up with justabout anybody on theirschedule.McGarahan said it’s a
hard-working group andwell-conditioned. He alsocalled them good teamplayers who take coach-ing well, and are hungryto be part of a winningfootball program. Butthey will need to over-come youth and inexpe-rience.The Cardinals will
run a variation of theWing-T on offense and a
4-2 on defense.There are 11 seniors
on this year’s squad.Volleyball
New Bremen went 8-16 in volleyball last sea-son with a young team,and with nearly all ofthose players returning,this should be a strongseason for the Lady Car-dinals.There are nine letter-
winners returning in all,including senior outsidehitter/defensive special-ist Haley Moeller, seniordefensive specialist Mea-gan Brandt, senior rightside hitter EmilyNiekamp, senior defen-sive specialist Amber
Paul, senior middle Han-nah Holdren, juniorright side/setter KarliJones, junior middleJulie Brown, junior out-side hitter VictoriaWente and junior defen-sive specialist TarynnClune.Sophomore Steph
Brandt, an outside hit-ter/defensive specialist,is also in the mix thisseason.“I’m excited for the
season,” said coachTheresa Jenkins. “Wehave some experienceunder our belt and theyhave really been pushingto be a better team thisyear in terms of ball con-
trol, movement and com-munication. We knowthe league is tough everyyear, but if we stay fo-cused and work hard,hopefully we’ll give thetypical powerhouses agood fight.”
Boys golfCoach Cindy Newman
has five lettermen re-turning this season froma team that was 5-4 inthe conference last year.Those returnees in-
clude seniors DarinBergman and Alex Feltz,juniors Travis Bertelsenand Zach Hegemier andsophomore Alex Britton.
McGaharan takes over as Cardinal coach
McGaharan
See COACHES/Page 6
Also back are seniorsJeff Trego, AaronHegemier, Eric Francis,Tyler Hagen and AveryRhinehart and sopho-more Jacob O’Neill.Two freshmen are
also looking for varsitytime in Taite McKinneyand Max Travis“We have three or four
individuals who haveplayed in competitivetournaments throughoutthe summer. This shouldhelp them to be moreconsistent in league play.The boys have beenpracticing hard duringthe summer and areready to play, and weshould be competitive inthe MAC.”Girls cross countryCoach Laurissa Dal-
rymple has a youngteam but she says it’s en-thusiastic and she’s ex-cited about theupcoming season.The Lady Cardinals
were second in two regu-lar-season meets, one athome and one at St.Marys, and went on tofinish eighth in theMAC.She has three re-
turnees and they arealso sophomores in Ash-ley Berning, Shelby Pauland Veronica Hirschfeld.She looks for contri-
butions from sophomoreMarissa Frazee and alsosenior Elizabeth Alt.“I expect to see great
improvement as the girlsstep up their level of in-tensity in training andraces,” she said.Boys cross countyCoach Molly Watcke
also has three experi-enced runners back froma team that was fifth inthe MAC last season.The returnees include
sophomore Eric Smart,junior Drew McClurgand senior JacobRutschilling.The top newcomers
will be sophomoresNathan Herriott andBrad Rammel and fresh-men Cort Suchland andJason Zircher.“We have a young
squad but I expect out-standing results fromour boys,” said the coach.“The combination of tal-ent and intensity will el-evate them to the nextlevel quickly.”She expects Ver-
sailles, Coldwater, Min-ster and St. Henry toreturn strong squadsthis season.
Girls golfNew Bremen’s girls
are coached again byMike Holdren, in histhird year, and he hasfour letter-winners re-turning from a team that
was 3-8 overall.The returning players
are juniors RachelParker and MackenzieHowell, and sophomoresSydney Holdren andSara Lafleur.“Our top three players
are very solid,” Holdrensaid. “We are looking forothers to step up and fillour varsity lineup. Oursix player lineup will notbe set in stone. We willhave competition weeklyfor the last positions.”The other golfers
looking to break into thetop six are senior ErikaSmith, junior HeatherBensman, sophomoresMikayla Schott and Pay-ton Doherty, and fresh-man Amy Schmitmeyer.He said Coldwater
will be favored becauseof returning player ofthe year KelseyKoesters, and he also ex-pects Versailles and St.
Henry to be strong.SchedulesFootball
All games at 7:30Aug. 24................at CovingtonAug. 31 ...............Fort LoramieSept. 7.....................at MinsterSept. 14......................ParkwaySept. 21.................at St.HenrySept. 28 .............Fort RecoveryOct. 5 ...................at VersaillesOct. 12 .............................AnnaOct. 19 ...at Delphos St. John’sOct. 26 ................Marion Local
——Cross country
August25.....................at Delphos Inv.
September8................at Spencerville Inv.15 ........................at Eaton Inv.22...................at Van Wert Inv.27.................New Bremen Inv.
October4 ...................at Coldwater Inv.6 ............................at Thill Inv.11 .......................at MAC meet
——Boys golf
Home matchesat Arrowhead
August23..............................St. Henry27...........................at Parkway30 ................................Minster31........................Fort Loramie
September1 ....................at Versailles Inv.4 .......................at Waynesfield6 ...........................at Versailles10........................Marion Local13.......................Fort Recovery17.....................................Anna20 .....................New Knoxville
——Girls golf
Home matchesat Arrowhead
August23 ..........................at St.Henry27 ...............................Parkway30 ................................Minster31........................Fort Loramie
September6 ...............................Versailles10 ...................at Marion Local11.....................at Wapakoneta13...................................Celina18 ..............................at Russia
——Volleyball
August25 ..............................at Russia27.................................Botkins30........................Marion Local
September1.................JC, Troy Christian4................................St. Marys6.........................Fort Recovery13.................at New Knoxville15 ...........................at Anna tri17........................Fort Loramie18 ........................at Coldwater20..............................St. Henry25 ................at Lima Shawnee27.......................at Delphos SJ29...................at Van Wert Inv.
October2..................................Lehman4.............................at Parkway9...................................Minster11 .........................at Versailles
6 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
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NEW BREMEN returns most of its volleyball team from last season, includingthese five seniors (l-r) Amber Paul, Meagan Brandt, Emily Niekamp, HaleyMoeller and Hammah Holdren.
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Coach Nate Moore be-gins his third season asthe head coach of theMinster Wildcats, andwill be looking to leadthe squad to the postsea-son playoffs for the thirdtime in a row.Two years ago, the
Wildcats became a trueCinderella story. Theyfinished the regular sea-son 5-5, upset Spring-field Catholic in the firstround of the playoffs,then shocked the entirearea with an upset ofMarion Local in the re-gional semifinal game.That momentum car-
ried over to last season,when the Wildcats fin-ished with a 7-3 regular-season mark to againqualify for the postsea-son. And again, theymade a nice run, beat-ing Springfield Catholicand Fort Loramie beforelosing in the regionalfinal.This year’s edition of
the Wildcats has someholes to fill, but some topathletes returning fromlast season.There are 12lettermen back, includ-ing six returningstarters on both sides ofthe ball.Last year’s team had
a solid one-two punch atrunning back, with TroyKauffman rushing for677 yards and KoreySchultz 658 during theregular season. Both areback this season, Kauff-man being a 5-foot-10,175-pound senior andSchultz a 5-11, 165-pound senior.In addition, the Wild-
cats have their quarter-back returning in
ultra-talented AdamNiemeyer. He has out-standing size for a sig-nal-caller at 6-2, 195,and throws a good ball,as evidenced by his 53percent completion ratelast season. He was 112for 213 for 1,152 yardsand 11 touchdowns lastfall.He lost his No. 1 re-
ceiver to graduation in
Daniel Gusching, buthas his No. 2 back inDevon Poeppelman, whohad 17 catches for 132yards in a an injury-plagued regular season.Tight end EthanWolf,
the No. 3 receiver lastyear with 13 catches for174 yards during theregular season, is alsoback, and quite a targetat 6-5, 225.There are five other
returning starters backfrom last season, includ-ing senior defensiveback/wide receiver JayEilerman, linebacker/TEJames Borges, DB/run-ning back Paul Dues,and linemen Wes Hege-mann and Mason Haney.Eilerman is a 6-0,
165-pound senior, Borgesis 6-1, 180 and a senior,Dues is 6-3, 170 and ajunior, Hegemann is 6-2,240 and a junior andHaney is 6-1, 220 and asenior.There are two other
returning lettermen in6-1, 195-pound seniorlinebacker/offensive line-manAlan Tebbe and 6-0,170-pound DB and wide-out Kurtis Thobe.Niemeyer, Poeppel-
man, Kauffman andBorges are all three-year
lettermen for the Wild-cats, and Hegemann is atwo-year letterman.
Girls golfCoach Deb Ahrns and
the Lady Wildcats hadan outstanding seasonlast year, finishing 17-1,taking first in the MAC,second in the sectionalsand fifth at district.But many of the girls
who accomplished thathave graduated, leavingonly three letter-winnersand the term “rebuild-ing” being used.“We will see this as a
rebuilding year,” saidAhrns. “We said good-bye to four letter-win-ners from last year and
have just three back.Wehave strong talent at thetop and with more playin tournament formatsthey will take advantageof the exposure andtheir skills and confi-dence will improve. Welook to challenge in theleague again with St.Henry also being a topteam.”Minster has won five
of the seven league ti-tles.Returning are juniors
Claire Fischer andMarissa Conrad andsophomore Abby Haus-feld.The top newcomers
are junior Amelia
Slonkosky, sophomoreTaylor Trego and fresh-man Brooke Monnin.Fischer will be No. 1,
Conrad No. 2 and Haus-feld No. 3. “They returnto common grounds asthey played in all of theMAC matches,” said thecoach. “And Claire andMarissa participated aspart of the districtsquad.”
VolleyballlThere are six letter-
winners returning forcoach Cami Lefeld froma team that was 12-11last season.
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 7
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See SIX RETURN/Page 8
8 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
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“With this being mysecond year as headcoach, the girls alreadyknow what is expected ofthem,” said the coach.“And they are reallystarting to fill into thesystem that I am tryingto integrate. All of thesegirls have worked ex-tremely hard in the off-season.”Returning are senior
middle back MadeleineEiting, senior outsidehitter/setter AllisonJutte, senior defensivespecialist Alisha Monninand senior outside hitterClaire McGowan, junioroutside hitter/setterSarah Hosey and sopho-more setter Regan Hahn.Junior hitter Megan
Kaiser and sophomoredefensive specialistCassie Jutte will also seea lot of playing time.“I look for Madeleine
and Megan to be forcesat the net as my middleswith their ability toblock and put the ballaway,” she said. “Allisonwill be looking to spendmost of her time as aright side attacker anddefender and Regan ismy returning setter.Claire is looking to havea breakout year and bal-ancing her out on theother side will be Sara,who has really focusedon her hitting this off-
season. Alisha will betaking on the primaryrole of libero this year,and I look for Cassie tohelp distribute the ballon defense as well.”Boys cross countryLarry Topp returns
for his 26th season asthe head boys coach atMinster and welcomesback seven lettermenfrom last season.They include seniors
Eric Dahlinghaus andTed Trzaska, juniors An-drewAlbers and DominicSlonksoky, and sopho-mores Andrew Fausey,Jonathan Fausey andNathan Riethman.Dahlinghaus, who
was Minster’s No. 2 run-
ner last year, is a three-year letterman. Albersand Slonkosky have bothlettered twice.Also expected to make
an impact this season isfreshman Ben Butler,who was fifth in the jun-ior high league meet lastseason.“We will come in
ready to run again thisyear, with the guys work-ing hard again over thesummer,” said Topp. “Ourguys need to work on theconfidence it takes to bewinners. The fifth placefinish at regionals lastyear has the guys work-ing even harder thisyear. We are workinghard to overcome the
feelings that we were leftwith at the end of lastyear. I’m starting to seethe signs of the new lead-ers setting team goals toget the team ready. Cap-tains Eric Dahlinghaus,Nick Kemper and TedTrzaska will have theteam ready.“We’re looking for-
ward to a good season,”he added. “The team is14 athletes strong andwe are hoping that inthese numbers we canfind the athletes and theleaders to replace theloss of our top runner,Francis Slonkosky, fromlast year. We have sevenreturning lettermenwhich should bode wellfor the search for newleadership. We have agood nucleus of youngand veteran runners toget the job done. Al-though we are far fromthe level we need to getto, we are working to-ward getting the chem-istry and team strengthto vie for the leaguechampionship.”He says it will be the
“usual suspects” con-tending for the MACtitle, including St. Henryand Coldwater as the fa-vorites and Versaillesbeing strong too.
Boys golfThe Wildcats finished
second in the conference
last year with a 10-1record, and should con-tend againwith the returnof four golfers this year.They include Josh
Tumbusch, a seniorteam captain, juniorsJohn Burke and FreddiePurdy and sophomoreXavier Francis.The top newcomers
will be Austin Brack-man, Sam Schutte andMatt Trushaw, all sopho-mores.“Experience and de-
sire should allow us tocontend for anotherMAC title,” said coachJay Purdy. “The league isgoing to be competitive.”Minster has won the
league title six of the lastseven years.
SchedulesFootball
All games at 7:30Aug. 24 ..........at Fort LoramieAug. 31 .......................LehmanSept. 7 ................New BremenSept. 14 ...............at St. HenrySept. 21...................ColdwaterSept. 28.......................at AnnaOct. 5.....................at ParkwayOct. 12...............Fort RecoveryOct. 19 .................at VersaillesOct. 26 .......Delphos St. John’s
——Boys golf
Homematches atArrowheadAugust
23...........at Delphos St. John’s27 .......................Marion Local30 ...................at New Bremen
September1....................at Versailles Inv.6 ..............................Coldwater10.....................New Knoxville11.................Anna, Van Buren13.........................at St. Henry
15 Moeller Mem., Mercer Elks17...............................Parkway18...................at Mississinawa20.........................at Versailles22 .............MAC at Arrowhead
——Cross country
August25..............at West Milton Inv.
September1 ...............at Columbus Grove8...........................at Tiffin Inv.15........................at Eaton Inv.18 .........................Minster Inv.22 ..................at Van Wert Inv.29.....................at Botkins Inv.
October4...................at Coldwater Inv.11 ..............MAC at Coldwater
——Girls golf
August27...................at Marion Local30........................New Bremen
September4 ...................at Lima Catholic6..........................at Coldwater10.....................at Lincolnview13 .............................St. Henry17 ..........................at Parkway20 .............................Versailles22............................MAC meet
——Volleyball
August25...........at Sidney w/Graham30.....................New Knoxville
September1 ......................at Lehman Inv.6...........................at St. Henry8 ................................at Celina10 .......................Fort Loramie11.........................at St. Marys13.........................at Versailles18 ......................Fort Recovery20............at Dephos St. John’s22 .........................Minster Inv.27...............................Parkway
October1 .................................Houston4 .........................Marion Local9 .....................at New Bremen11 ............................Coldwater13 ....................at Spencerville
Six return in volleyball, seven in boys CC
SDN Photo/NAME
FIVE SENIORS return for girls cross country at Min-ster, including (l-r) Hannah Butler, Taylor Arnold,Amanda Sherman, Natalie Fausey and MorganRichard.
(From page 4)He also has five fresh-
men to bolster the squadin Elliott Godwin, ChrisMusser, Jonathan Perin,Keiyu Sakarai andJamie Wallis.For the girls, there are
eight runners returning,including junior StevieShepherd, who was hon-orable mention all-league last season.She is joined by sen-
iors Danielle Cooper,Taylor Heffner andMikell Stephens, juniorsIvy Barker, Jenifer Davisand Kyrie Kellner, andsophomore MirandaRoark.He also looks for help
from senior ShannonDeal, and freshmen ToriHeffner, Malia Kellnerand Caitlin Wright.“The teams are
packed with dedicatedkids who are working toput up new personalbest times,” said Kell-ner. “I’m proud of theirefforts so far and anx-ious to get the seasonstarted. If our girlscome out strong in thebeginning of the season
and continue to peak,they may have one ofthe most competitiveseasons they’ve had inthe last few years. Weneed those ‘end of theseason’ times to happenmuch earlier and bringthem down from there.The boys favorites inthe league will be Van-dalia and Troy, and weneed our top five tochallenge them.”
GolfCoach Doug Barhorst
has just one returningletterman from last sea-son, so it’s a rebuildingyear for the Jacketgolfers.The returnee is junior
Tom Dunn, with the topnewcomers this yearbeing junior Jalen Blockand freshman ColeCartwright.“It was obvious from
the GWOC previewthat this is going to be arebuilding year,” saidBarhorst of the 17thplace finish. “With onlyone returning letter-man who was only part-time varsity, we are
very inexperienced. Ionly have three guyswho really have golfedbefore, so the main goalfor this year is to getbetter and have somefun doing it.”Girls tennis
The Sidney High girlstennis team has at-tracted a large numberof participants this sea-son, with 28 girls out forthe team.“We’re excited, one,
because there is somuch interest, and two,because we have apretty good cast return-ing,” said coach TonyBrown.“Returning are Jaclyn
Covington, Kennedy Lee,Marilyn Kies, DeidraDrees, Ardy Li and AnnImke.“I’m not saying we’re
going to win everymatch, I’m not sayingwe’re going to take theGWOC, but I will saywe’re young and eagerto learn, with only fourseniors on the team.Wehave a host of under-classmen that may
make an impact thisyear. We always hope toimprove every year onwins and also gainsome experience, butwe would trade wins forgaining knowledge andtechnique any time. Myhope is to get this pro-gram back to that win-ning atmosphere and Iknow the girls and theschool are ready tostart turning the cor-ner.”
SchedulesFootball
All games at 7:30Aug. 24.................at St. MarysAug. 31 ...............BellefontaineSept. 7........at West CarrolltonSept. 14..................SpringboroSept. 22 ......................BelmontSept. 28 ........................at TroyOct. 5 ..............................PiquaOct. 12 .......................VandaliaOct. 19 ..................at TrotwoodOct. 26.....................Greenville
————Cross country
August25 .............At West Milton Inv.
September5......................at Fairborn Inv.8 .........................at Mason Inv.11 ............at Fort Loramie Inv.15 ....................at Graham Inv.22 ...........................Sidney Inv.29 .....................at Botkins Inv.
——Boys soccer
August
23 ...........at Hilliard Davidson28...................................Wayne30 ...................West Carrollton
September6...................................at Alter11 ..............................Trotwood13 ...............................Fairborn18 ....................................Piqua22..................at Lima Catholic27 .........................Wapakoneta29 .........................Miamisburg
October2....................................at Troy9 ..............................Greenville13 ....................................Xenia
——Girls soccer
August29 ..............................at Wayne
September1.................at West Carrollton5 .............................Springboro8 .........................Bellefontaine10........................at Greenville11 ..............................Trotwood15 ..............................at Celina19................................at Piqua26...............................Vandalia29 .........................Miamisburg
October1.............................at Fairborn3 ........................................Troy8 ................................Fairmont13 ....................................Xenia
——Boys golf
August28.................................Botkins29 ....................................Piqua
September4............................at Fairmont
5.............................at Vandalia6..................................Lehman10...................................Wayne18 ...................at Troy w/Xenia19 ............................Greenville24................at Piqua w/Wayne
——Girls tennis
August23 ...........................Springboro27 ...........................Northmont28..........................at Trotwood29 ...........................at Lehman
September11...............................Vandalia13 ...............................Fairborn18 ......................................Troy19 ..........................at Shawnee20.....................at Wapakoneta24 ................................at Elida26 ...............................Stebbins
——Volleyball
August25...............................Home tri27.....................at Wapakoneta28 .........................Beavercreek30 ..............................at Wayne
September1...................................Botkins4 .................at West Carrollton6 .............................Springboro11..........................at Trotwood13................................at Piqua15...............................Home tri17.......................At Lima Bath18...............................Vandalia20........................................Try24 ...................at Bellefontaine25........................at Greenville27...............................Fairlawn
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 9
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10 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
Coach Todd Wion istalking in glowing termsabout his Lady Raidersquad this season, say-ing he expects it to be acontender for the Countychampionship.It’s hard to blame
him. After all, he haseight letter-winners, ba-sically his whole team,back from last yearwhen the Lady Raiderswere 18-6 overall and 9-3 in the County, goodenough for runner-upspot.“We will be a con-
tender this year,” Wionsaid. “Combined withstrong senior leadershipand young talent, wewill be very competitiveand look to go far inpostseason play. Thecounty will be verystrong again this yearand I believe we will beone of the top con-tenders.”The list of returnees
is led by a pair of first-team All-County per-formers in seniorsetter/outside hitterAshley Borchers andsenior left outside hitterOlivia Monnin. Monninwas also second teamall-district and Borchersfirst-team all-districtand honorable mentionall-Ohio.Monnin was second in
the area in kills last sea-son and led the area inace serves. Borchers wassixth in the area in as-sists.Also back are senior
libero Abbie Goubeaux,senior defensive special-ist Kayli Dues, seniorsetter Emily Francis,
senior middle hitterBethany York, junioroutside hitter MaggieKearns and sophomoreoutside hitter Kylie Wil-son. Goubeaux was sec-ond in the area in digslast season and MonninfifthAmong the players
looking for a spot arejunior outside hitterCamille Puthoff, sopho-more setter/hitter TaylorDaniel and sophomoremiddle hitter ClaireSherman.
Boys golfCoach Paul Bremigan
is back for his 14th yearas head coach of theRaider boys, and is com-ing off an outstandingseason that saw theRaiders finish 11-1 in theCounty and 86-18 overall.And despite losing
two golfers, the Raidersare off to an excellentstart this season, win-ning the County Previewand placing second inthe Dan Kendig Memo-rial.Returning are seniors
Treg Francis and BryceDues, junior AustinTebbe and sophomoreLuke Dapore.“We have 18 boys out
for golf and only two areseniors,” said Bremigan.“With these large num-bers, we hope to create acompetitive atmosphereamong ourselves tomake us better. We willrely on Treg Francis andBryce Dues for leader-ship and consistency.Austin and Luke had alot of success and gainedvaluable experience lastyear. He said numerous
underclassmen will bat-tle for the remaining twospots, and pointed tofreshmen Connor Mon-nin and Zach Shermanwith the inside track.Bremigan said the
Raiders have a target ontheir back after winningthe County champi-onship four of the lastfive years.“We’re especially ex-
cited to be hosting thecounty championship atStillwater for the firsttime in seven years.”He said the ultimate
goal for the Raiders is togo where no Russia teamhas ever gone — thestate tournament.
Girls golfBack for the Lady
Raider golf team areseniors Gina Barlage,Alexa Counts and AngieMuhlenkamp, and jun-iors Taylor Borchers andMorgan Daugherty.Junior Kayla Pleiman
and freshman AliciaGeorge are also in themix.“Our girls are looking
forward to the seasonand I saw great improve-ment out of Morgan’sgame the first week ofpractice,” said coachDoug Borchers. “Wegraduated district quali-fier Tori Borchers so we’llbe looking for some girlsto step up and take aleadership role. Our sen-iors are capable of it andI think they will. Ournewcomers are showingdedication to the gameand picking up the fun-damentals quickly. Theywill be factors in ourteam scores before it’s all
said and done.”Cross countryDoug Foster returns
for his seventh season ascoach.The Raiders were 149-
47 last year,won the SCLtitle, were district run-nerups and a state quali-fier for the sixth straightyear, finishing 13th.Returning letterwin-
ners include senior Bran-don Barlage, juniorsSteven Stickel, BryanDrees and John Heung;and sophomores JordanGariety andAlex Herron.“With six of our top
seven runners back fromlast year's squad and atalented freshman classcoming in, expectationswill be quite high for theRussia boys,” Fostersaid. “Junior StevenStickel led our team lastseason and he was fol-lowed closely by seniorBrandon Barlage, jun-iors Bryan Drees andJohn Heuing and sopho-mores Jordan Garietyand Alex Herron.“All of the above had
outstanding campaignslast year and we are ex-pecting greater accom-
plishments from these sixthis upcoming season.”Other runners vying
for varsity spots includseniors Josh Meyer,Trevor Sherman andAustin Gariety; juniorsJacob Epperson, RandyMcCarty,Kyle Poling and Nick
Paulus; sophomore NickColby and freshman An-drew Ball, Bryant Mc-Carty, Caleb Ball,Weston Lavy, TrevorMonnin and JoesephStickel.
RUSSIA
SDN Photo/Luke Gronneberg
RUSSIA IS pinning its volleyball hopes on a big senior group, including (frontrow, l-r) Emily Francis, Kayli Dues, Abbie Goubeaux and Casey Albers, and(back row) Ashley Borchers, Olivia Monnin and Bethany York.
BBiigg yyeeaarr eexxppeecctteedd ffoorr LLaaddyy RRaaiiddeerr ssppiikkeerrss
See RUSSIA/Page 13
FORT LORAMIE –Head coach Matt Burg-bacher says his team isout to prove peoplewrong this year.After another playoff
season a year ago, theRedskins come back thisyear with a long list ofholes to fill, with the lossof nine starters on of-fense and eight on de-fense.“Everybody thinks
we’re going to have adown year,” he said. “Butthese kids want to provepeople wrong.”And he says if heart
matters for anything,they will do just that.“We’re not blessed
with size this year, andwe don’t have a lot ofspeed, and that’s fine,”he says. “We’re stillgoing to be the sameteam with what we run.This is a hard-nosedgroup with a lot ofheart. They’re not thebiggest guys, but they’llcome up and smack you,and not back down fromanybody. We played In-dian Lake in our firstscrimmage and theywere a lot bigger thanus. But our kids didn’tback down. They have a
lot of pride in what theydo.”The Redskins went
into last season with athree-year starter re-turning at quarterback
in Ryan Humphreys.But he was injured in aloss to Minster in theopener.The silver lining to
that is that backup SethGuillozet took a lot ofsnaps and performedwell, throwing for over1,000 yards during theregular season and 15touchdowns, with onlyfour interceptions. Andhe’s back to build on thatthis season.“Seth has been very
consistent for us,” saidBurgbacher. “We’ll uti-lize his arm, his legsand his brain. Thirtysix is the highest youcan get on the ACT andhe’s got a 35. We cameinto the season with anopen competition atquarterback betweenSeth and Tyler Kaz-maier, and we knowboth those guys aregoing to play for us.”Kazmeier is coming
back from a torn ACLlast season.Most of the experi-
ence the Redskins haveback this year is in thebackfield as in additionto Guillozet, DelaunteThornton and LoganMcGee both return.
Thornton rushed for 623yards during the regularseason last year, secondon the team. And McGeeadded 286 on 37 carries,or 7.7 per carry.“Delaunte will carry
the ball a lot more, andLogan will get a lot ofcarries. And we haveother kids, so we’re notgoing to be dependenton one guy. We’ll try toget the ball to every-body.”Which is nothing new
_ last year three playersrushed for over 600yards.Up on the front line,
there is one big change.Zach Brandewie, 6-1,194, has moved to cen-ter this season afterstarting at guard all oflast season. The otherlinemen will come froma group that includes 5-11, 175-pound AndyMeyer, 5-10, 187-poundTristan Stripling, 5-10,168-pound Daniel Zim-merman, 5-11, 249-pound David Ahrns,6-0, 236-pound DylanAselage, 5-11, 177-pound Garrett Eiler-man, 5-11, 179-poundDavid Holthaus, and 6-3, 181-pound Grant Ol-
berding.The right end is Clay
Hoying, a big target at 6-4, 204. “We think he’llhave a big year for us,”the coach said.The wideouts will be
Jason Streib, Frank Ri-ethman, Blake Gaierand Trey Rittenhouse.“We’ve never asked
our quarterback to be arunner, but this yearwe’ll want Seth to carrythe ball for us,” saidBurgbacher. “He’s oneof the faster guys andhe can make thingshappen. We lost our toptwo receivers to gradu-ation so that’s a wholenew crew. But theyhave come a long way.We’re going to throwwhen we want to throwand that will be a big
part of our offense. Weworked hard on it overthe summer.On the defensive side,
Eilerman is back at noseguard after startingevery game last year.“He battles and he’squick,” said the coach.Ahrns,Aselage, Justin
Puthoff, Craig Poeppel-man and Olberding giveBurgbacher depth upfront.The linebackers will
be Streib, Benanzerand McGee, and in thedefensive backfieldwill be Craig Ful-lenkamp, Gillozet,Kazmaier, and Thorn-ton. They will bepushed by Cole Cor-donnier, Andy Greweand Rittenhouse.
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 11
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QUARTERBACK SethGuillozet returns for FortLoramie this year, andwill find himselfrunnning the ball morethis season.
See LOTS/Page 12
(From page 11)The Redskins will
compete in the North-west Central Conferencethis year, with the MetroBuckeye Conference,which they won last sea-son, having folded.“It’s uncharted terri-
tory,” he said. “The onlyteam we’re familiar withis Waynesfield, who weplayed last year. It’s ex-citing because we’re play-ing new teams and it’s anew challenge. I thinkour kids are up to it.”
VolleyballCoach John Rodgers
is excited about thisyear’s squad and hasevery right to be, with along list of returningplayers from a team thatwas 19-7 last season andwon the County title, de-spite huge graduationlosses from the previousyear’s team that was un-beaten in County playand won 23 matchesoverall.“I am really excited
about this team,” hesaid. “We have great po-tential. But we have atough schedule and ourleague will be competi-tive, as usual.“I think we have a
shot at the (league) title,but the old saying ap-plies: ‘on any givennight.’We have to be pre-pared mentally eachtime we step on thecourt.”The returnees include
four seniors in outsideand right side hitterLindsey Hilgefort, defen-sive specialist MeghanBruns, middle hitterReggi Brandewie and
libero DanielleWehrman.Also back are three
juniors in setter JulieHoying, middle hitterRenee Meyer and out-side hitter Darian Rose.They are joined by twogirls who lettered lastyear as freshmen in de-fensive specialist JanelleHoying and outside hit-ter Kelly Turner.He also looks for big
things from newcomerslike junior outside hitterAmy Holthaus, andsophomores Hallie Be-nanzer, a setter; AshleyPleiman, a middle hitter,and Colleen Poeppel-man, an outside hitter.
Cross countryDennis Prenger is
back as the Fort Loramiecross country coach andis excited about the sea-son.“The kids have been
working hard this sum-mer to accomplish ourseason goals,” he said.“They have really pre-pared themselves for agreat fall by accumulat-ing a lot of summermiles.”There are 27 girls out
this season, andPrenger thinks that willprovide the depth andcompetition that he willneed to get back towhere he wants theteam to be.Leading the way is
Meg Westerheide, a two-time qualifier to thestate meet in both crosscountry and track. “Ithink that experiencewill translate into aneven better junior sea-son,” Prenger said.
“Selene Waters had abreakout season last falland I expect her seniorseason to be a great one,”he continued. “AlainaSchulze and KristenChaney are our othertwo seniors that will becounted on to providecompetition.”Tara Luebke, Hannah
Meyer, DanielleHolthaus and SaraPuthoff all ran at statelast year and are return-ing this season.“In addition to our re-
turning lettermen, weare adding a lot of capa-ble freshmen and someother kids that are com-ing out for the first time,”Prenger said. “When weadd those different partstogether, I am excitedabout our prospects. Theleague is shaping up tobe very competitive, andthe Southwest Regionalis setting up to be a greatpreview of the statemeet.”The Loramie boys
number eight runnersthis season, and will beled by Jacob Siegel, asenior who qualified forthe state meet last fall,and is looking for a re-turn trip.Juniors Evan Rieth-
man and Doug Gigandet,as well as sophomoresTy Frilling and CalebHoelscher return fromlast year’s team thatqualified to the regional.“We’ve established
our team goals and theboys know it will take aconcerted effort by allrunners to achievethem,” Prenger said.“The top programs in the
County are Anna, Russiaand Jackson Center, butI expect to be in the mixthis year, too.”
Boys golfCoach Brad Turner is
back as the head boysgolf coach after twoyears away, and he hashis work cut out for him.The programhas fallen
off recently. Last year’steam did not win a matchall year and finished lastin the County meet.
“After last season,there really is only onedirection for us to goand that is up,” saidTurner. “It’s not likelyto happen all this year,but we are going tostart getting thingsturned around. I likewhat I’ve seen so farout of the younger play-ers, and Brandon Eiler-man (senior) will be agood leader for thisgroup. We will look to
gain a lot of experiencethroughout the seasonand try to learn a littlebit and get better eachand every day. Maybeby the time the season’sover, we will have fig-ured some things outand be able to mix it upa little bit come timefor the league tourna-ment and the postsea-son.”
12 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
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Best to all AreaTeams!
SDN Photo/Eric Castle
FORT LORAMIE returns four seniors in volleyball this season in (l-r) MeghanBruns, Danielle Wehrman, Reggi Brandewie and Lindsey Hilgefort.
Lots of returneesfor Loramie spikers
See 3 of top 6/Page 13
“Our goals for the up-coming season are toplace as high as we canat the big invitationals,to win the Shelby CountyPreview, the ShelbyCounty League meet, theDayton districts, theSouthwest regional andto qualify for the statemeet in Columbus.“From there, we will
see what happens. If wecan stay healthy and in-jury free, our goals thisseason are very attain-able.”Foster sees his team
as the SCL favorite.“At the present time, I
see us as the team tobeat in the ShelbyCounty League,” Fostersaid. “I say this becauseof the experience wehave coming back andbeing the defendingchampions. Our stiffestcompetition will comefrom Anna and JacksonCenter.”• Foster also coaches
the girls team.The Lady Raiders
were 137-35, 2011 SCLrunnerups, district run-nerups and regionalqualifiers.Graduating off that
team was Macy Monnin.Returning letterwin-
ners include seniorsLauren Francis andBecca Meyer; juniorKirsten Voisard; andsophomores ClaudiaMonnin, Emily Borchersand Hannah Bornhorst.“This year’s team pos-
sesses a mixture ofyouth and experiencegoing into the upcomingseason,” Foster said. “Sixof the top seven runnersare back from last year’ssquad and expectationsfor the team are also ex-tremely high. We wil be
led by first team All-Ohio senior LaurenFrancis.“Lauren had a
tremendous junior yearand we feel she is primedto be even better thisseason. Senior BeccaMeyer, junior KirstenVoisard and sophomoresEmily Borchers, ClaudiaMonnin and HannahBornhorst all gainedvast experience last year.We feel they all will havebreak-out performancesthis cross country sea-son.”Juniors Rachel Pin-
chot and Emily Frazierreturn, along with new-somers in freshmanLauren Heaton,AmandaFrazier, Molly Kerns,Erin Gaerke and
Karissa Voisard.SchedulesVolleyball
August25 ........................New Bremen27.............................at Newton28.............................at Botkins30 ....................Jackson Center
September4...................................at Anna6 ..........................Fort Loramie10.........................at Covington11...........................at Fairlawn13 ................................Houston15........................Mississinawa20 .................................Botkins22 .....................at Minster Inv.24..............................Versailles25 ................at Jackson Center27 .....................................Anna29...........................at Bradford
October2......................at Fort Loramie4 .................................Fairlawn6 ...........................Wapakoneta8..............................at Houston
——Cross country
August25 ..............at West Milton Inv.
September
8 ................at Spencerville Inv.11.............at Fort Loramie Inv.15.........................at Eaton Inv.29......................at Botkins Inv.
also, at Midwest Meet ofChampions
October6............................at Anna Inv.13.........................County meet
——Boys golf
Homematches at StillwaterAugust
23.............................at Botkins27 ................................Lehman30.................................at Anna
September1.........................Versailles Inv.4 ..........................Fort Loramie6.............................at Fairlawn8....................at Middleton Inv.17 ...............................Home tri20.........................County meet
——Girls golf
August28 ......................at Miami East
September11..........................at St. Henry17.........................at Covington18 ........................New Bremen
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 13
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Fall Athletes
(From page 12)In addition to Eiler-
man, also back are seniorBlake Ransdell, juniorKyle Pleiman and sopho-more Jordan Meyer.The top newcomers
will be sophomore JoshKoppin and freshmenTanner Rosengarten andAaron Schwartz.
Girls golfMike Anthony is back
as the head girls golfcoach again and hasthree players returningfrom last year, when theLady Redskins finishedwith a 15-7 record.They include junior
Ashley Ordean, juniorHope Ruhenkamp andsophomore KristenBarhorst.Only one girl is listed
as a newcomer in sopho-more Amanda Seger, andthere will be no seniorson the team.“We will be young
without any seniors onthe roster,” said Anthony.“We do have three of ourtop six golfers back fromlast year and look tothem to lead the team.By the end of the year,we should be very com-petitive.”
SchedulesFootball
Games at 7 p.m. unlessnoted
Aug. 24 ...............Minster, 7:30Aug. 31 ..at New Bremen, 7:30Sept. 7 ......at Toledo Chr., 7:30Sept. 14 ......................LehmanSept. 21 ................WaynesfieldSept. 28...............at FairbanksOct. 5 ....Muncie Southside, 7:30Oct. 12..................at RiversideOct. 19 ...............at RidgemontOct. 26 ................Upper Scioto
——Cross county
August25 .......................at Celina Inv.
September8...........................at Tiffin Inv.11.................Fort Loramie Inv.15.....................at Alliance Inv.29 .....................at Botkins Inv.
October4...................at Coldwater Inv.13........County meet at Russia
——Volleyball
August25 ...........at Coldwater Classic28 .............................Versailles30 ..........................at Fairlawn
September4..................................Houston6 ................................at Russia10 ............................at Minster11.................................Botkins13................at Jackson Center15..................at Northmont tri17 ...................at New Bremen18.....................................Anna20 ...........................at Lehman25...............................Fairlawn27 ...........................at Houston
October1 .....................at Marion Local2 ....................................Russia4 ..............................at Botkins8......................Jackson Center9 ..................................at Anna
——Boys golf
Home matchesat Arrowhead
August28 ..........................at Fairlawn30................................Houston
September4 ................................at Russia6...................................Botkins11................at Jackson Center13.....................................Anna17.................at New Knoxville18 .............................Versailles20 ..County meet at Stillwater
——Girls golf
August23 ............................at Minster27............................Tri-Village28.............................Covington30 .......................at Ben Logan31 ...................at New Bremen
September4............................at Arcanum6................................at Russia10 ..............................St.Henry11 ...............................Parkway13 .........................at Riverside17 ..............................at Russia18 .........................at Versailles
3 of top 6golfers back
FORT LORAMIE
Russia runners have same goals
JACKSON CENTER— Longtime volleyballcoach Kim Metz hassome players to replace,but a good core of re-turnees this season.The golf team also re-
turns a lot of experience.Volleyball
The Lady Tigers hadanother excellent seasonunder longtime coachKim Metz last year, fin-ishing with an 18-9record and challengingfor the County title.This year, the coach
returns five players, butthere are still lossesfrom graduation to con-tend with.“We’re returning a
good core of girls fromour team last year,” saidMetz. “We do have thechallenge of bringing ina new crop of talent.Our focus is to preparethe younger players forthe challenges ahead,both mentally andphysically. I like thepossibilities that thisteam is creating inpractice. We need to beable to transfer that toour matches.”Returning for the
Lady Tigers are seniormiddle hitter BrittanyFoster, senior outsidehitter Kerstin Gasson,
junior outside hitterCourtney Gates, sopho-more middle/outsideHaley Elchert and soph-omore outside hitterCourtney Zimpher.She has a long list of
newcomers that she willbe counting on, too.They include senior
defensive specialistsBrooke Gates and Madi-lyn Himmeger, junior de-fensive specialist KanetaSchaub, sophomore set-ter Kayla Gates, fresh-man setter Jayel Frye,freshman middle hitterErin Metz, and fresh-man outside hitterPauline Meyer.Metz hopes to make
another run at a Countytitle, but knows it will betough.“Once again, I think
the league will be anightly contest for eachteam to be up and readyfor the match,” she said.
GolfThe Jackson Center
boys return five golfersfrom last year’s teamthat was fifth in theCounty meet and 4-9 indual matches.Returning are senors
Trey Elchert and NathanHensley, junior BrandonWare and sophomoresLevi Schmitmeyer and
GavinWildermuth.Freshman Drew
Sosby is also expected tocontribute.“We’re always looking
to improve and be con-sistent. It’s a good groupto coach,” said coachDave King.
Cross countryThe Tiger boys sus-
tained heavy graduationlosses that will forcethem to rely on someyoungsters this season,according to longtimecoach S.J. Hoover.Back are seniors Trey
Elchert and Alex Meyerand sophomore GavinWildermuth.Tyler Lett and Drew
Sosby are a couple offreshmen looking to con-tribute.“We graduated a good
group of runners lastyear, so we’ll be depend-ing heavily on our fresh-men,” said Hoover. “Wewill have good leaderswith Trey and Alex andour goal will be to becompetitive in theCounty.• On the girls side,
there are just two run-ners returning and notmany numbers this year.Senior HannahMeyer
and sophomore AlisonBurt are the lone re-
turnees, and seniorTabatha Meyer and jun-ior Tiffany Bayhanround out the team.“We continue to have
fewer than five girls onthe roster, which meansour main focus this yearwill be on individual per-formance,” said Hoover.“Hannah will be our leadrunner.”
SchedulesVolleyball
August28 ................................Houston30 ..............................at Russia
September4 ...................................Botkins8 ..................................Lehman
11.................................at Anna13 ........................Fort Loramie15 ......................Lima Catholic18...........................at Fairlawn20............................at Houston24......................New Knoxville25...................................Russia27.............................at Botkins29.........................at Covington
October1........................at Waynesfield2......................at Marion Local4 .......................................Anna6 ...............................Tri-match8......................at Fort Loramie9 .................................Fairlawn
——Cross countryBoys and girls
September8 .........................at Mason Inv.11.............at Fort Loramie Inv.15.....................at Graham Inv.
18............at Ohio Caverns Inv.22 ..................at Versailles Inv.29......................at Botkins Inv.
October4 ...................at Coldwater Inv.6............................at Anna Inv.13 ........County meet at Russia
——Golf
Home matches atShelby Oaks
August23 ................................Houston30 .................................Botkins
September1 ....................at Versailles Inv.6 .......................................Anna7........................New Knoxville11 ........................Fort Loramie13 ...............................Fairlawn17 ..............................Riverside20...County meet at Stillwater
14 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
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Five players return for Lady Tiger spikers
SDN Photo/Luke Gronneberg
RETURNING FOR the Jackson Center volleyball team are senior players (l-r)Brittany Foster, Brooke Gates, Madilyn Himmeger and Kerstin Gasson.
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 15
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HOUSTON
Scott Bayless is look-ing for better things outof his Houston golf teamthis fall after last year’steam was 2-10 in Countyplay.He has four lettermen
returning in seniorsKyle Patterson andDrew Roberts and jun-iors Jaron Howard andAnton Wehrman.He also looks for
sophomores QuintenPence and freshmanDeion Booher to con-tribute.“We are young in
terms of experience butwe’re learning and re-specting the game,” saidBayless.
SchedulesCross countryBoys and girls
September8................at Spencerville Inv.11 ............at Fort Loramie Inv.22 ..................at Versailles Inv.25 ................at Tri-Village Inv.29 .....................at Botkins Inv.
October6 ...........................at Anna Inv.
13....... County meet at Russia——Golf
Home matches at ShelbyOaks
August23 ....................Jackson Center27 ................................Ansonia28.....................................Anna30 ...................at Fort Loramie
September4.................................Fairlawn8 ..................at Tri-Village Inv.11 ..............................at Russia13.................................Botkins20........County meet at Russia
——Volleyball
August27 ..............................Arcanum28................at Jackson Center30.....................................Anna
September4 .....................at Fort Loramie6.................................Fairlawn11 .....................New Knoxville13 ..............................at Russia15 ..at Sidney tri (middle school)17 ..........................at Bradford18.................................Botkins20 ....................Jackson Center25.................................at Anna27........................Fort Loramie
October1 ..............................at Minster2 ............................at Fairlawn8.....................................Russia9 ..............................at Botkins
Golf team hasfour returning
SDN Photo/Luke Gronneberg
TAYLOR WILLOUGHBY (left) and Kortney Phippsare senior returnees in volleyball at Houston.
CHRISTIAN ACADEMY
Coach RonmdaInman has five playersback in volleyball atChristian Academy, in-cluding seniorsetter/outside hitterNaomi Wildermuth, jun-ior setter ChastityInman, junior SeanaFrew, and sophomoreoutside hitters KaylaCurtis and MakaleyBraun.Also in the mix are
sophomores MakenzieMilks and Betsi Ford,and freshmen KatieLyons and Alexia Kid-well.“We are definitely a
young team,” said thecoach. “I have two sopho-mores who are first-yearplayers. Besides beingyoung, we are also short.But we are a scrappygroup and plan to utilizeour talents, perfect theskills, and finish with agreat season.”
Boys soccerNathanial Baumgard-
ner heads up the boyssoccer program.The team is trying to
build the program backup, and part of thatprocess is playing a verylimited schedule thisseason, with only fivematches on tap.“This year is a re-
building year for us.” he
said. “We are not in-volved with OHSAA thisyear so we are using 7-thru-12 grades to fieldour team. We will beplaying a short scheduleand will be working hardget back to winningways from years ago.”
SchedulesBoys soccer
Aug. 24 ...................Tri-VillageSept. 14 .....................FairlawnSept. 21..............at Tri-VillageSept. 22 .....at Xenia ChristianSept. 25.................at Fairlawn
VolleyballAugust
21...................Xenia Christian24.........................East Dayton
September4 .........................Spring Valley22 ..............at Xenia Christian25.........Grand Lake Christian28 .......................Miami Valley
October11 ...............Calvary Christian
Lady Eagle spikers return five
SDN Photo/Luke Groonneberg
SENIOR NAOMI Wildermuth leads Christian Acad-emy’s volleyball hopes this season.
Call 937-498-5939 or1-800-688-4820 to subscribe
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16 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
FAIRLAWN
Fairlawn is lookingfor good things in volley-ball, with the return ofseven girls from last sea-son. And the boys soccerteam has a new headcoach for the third timein three years.
VolleyballDanielle Cathcart is
back as the head coach ofthe Lady Jet volleyballprogram again.She has seven players
returning from a teamthat was 12-12 and fin-ished fifth in the Countylast season.They include senior
middle blocker OliviaCummings, senior setterAbby Stemen, seniorlibero Haley Slonkosky,senior outside hitterSamantha Morris, juniormiddle blocker KaraShort and junior outsidehitter Emry Bernardi.Players looking to
contribute and earnplaying time are junioroutside hitters KelseyOates and Alisa Fogt,sophomore setter/defen-sive specialist AllisonWatkins, sophomore de-fensive specialist AbbyRoe and sophomore out-side hitter/defensive spe-cialist Katie Nuss.“We have a lot of expe-
rienced players back thisyear, and I will definitelybe expecting the seniorsto step up and be lead-ers,” said Boyer. “We re-ally came together thissummer as a team andwe are looking forward tostarting the season. Theleague is always compet-itive, but if we can stayhealthy and mentally
strong, I think we cancompete for a top spot.”
SoccerThe Fairlawn soccer
team is under coachDexter Tobie and he hassome excellent playersreturning from a 5-10team of a year ago. He’sthe third head coach inthe last three seasons.They include senior
forward Trey Everett,senior goalie AnthonyGillem, senior mid RyanLessing, senior sweeperJessie Hughes, juniorgoalie Wesley Bolton,junior center-mid Bri-anna Hayden, sopho-more stopper MadisonGuinter, junior defenderLuke Brautigam andsophomore defendersAustin Doak and Han-nah Gold.Top newcomers will
be senior goalie GrantCovault, sophomore mid-fielder Abbie Roe, andfreshmen mids EthanShnipke and MasonHuelskamp.“It’s an exciting year
to take over the pro-gram,” said Tobie. “I getto work with a greatgroup of seniors. Trey,Anthony and Ryan willbe our attacking force.Jessie, Luke, Madisonand Wesley in goal willhold our defense. Thereare many incomingfreshmen who will de-velop with time to begreat soccer players. Isee a lot of potential forthis program.”
GolfFairlawn was 6-6 last
season and placed fourthin the County meet, and
with five lettermen re-turning this season, in-cluding two all-leagueperformers, it should beanother good year forthe Jets.Back is senior An-
thony Gillem, first-teamAll-County, and seniorTrey Everett, secondteam All-County and adistrict qualifier lastyear. Those two, alongwith another senior,Zach Rogers, are all four-year lettermen.Ryan Lessing is a sen-
ior three-year lettermanand Cody McDonald is asenior two-year letter-man.Zane Shipman is a
junior expected to con-tribute.“We return five letter-
men from last year’steam and look to be verycompetitive in theleague,” said Heckman.“The kids have beenworking very hard ontheir games this sum-mer and the improve-ment is very evident.“I think the league
will be very competitiveup top this year,” headded. “Russia andBotkins, a well as us, re-turn the majority of theirkids from last year.”
Cross countryCoach Dennis Davis
returns two lettermenthis year in junior TreyFletcher and sophomoreJoey Cockroft.He’s also looking for
contributions from soph-omore Jared Brautigamand freshmen JarrettCromes and Ross Cov-ault.
SchedulesSoccer
August21............................Ben Logan25.................................Botkins
September1 .......................New Knoxville7..............................Tri-Village10 ................................at Triad14 .........at Christian Academy17 ...................at Southeastern22.....................at Spencerville25..............Christian Academy28 ..........................Miami East
October2...................at Troy Christian4.......................................Triad9 ..............................at Botkins
——Volleyball
August25 ................................Lehman27.............................Covington28.................................at Anna30........................Fort Loramie
September1 ................................Riverside6 .............................at Houston10 ..............................at Bethel11...................................Russia13 ............................at Botkins15 .....................at Waynesfield18 ....................Jackson Center20.....................................Anna25 ...................at Fort Loramie27 ..............................at Sidney29 ................at Mechanicsburg
October2..................................Houston4 ................................at Russia6 ...................Newton, Ansonia8...................................Botkins9..................at Jackson Center
——Boys golf
Home matches atShelby Oaks
August23.....................................Anna28........................Fort Loramie30..........................at Riverside
September4..................................Houston6.....................................Russia11.................................Botkins13 ....................Jackson Center20............County at Stillwater
——Cross country
August25 ..............at West Milton Inv.
September11 ....................at Loramie Inv.15 ....................at Graham Inv.18............at Ohio Caverns Inv.22.........................at Clark Inv.25 .........................at Triad Inv.29 .....................at Botkins Inv.
October6 ...........................at Anna Inv.13........County meet at Russia
New soccer coach again for Jets
SDN Photos/Todd B. Acker
FAIRLAWN HAS good experience back for thisseason, including these senior girls, HaleySlonkosky (3), Marie Rose (6), Olivia Cummings(17), Samantha Morris (2) and Abby Stemen (20).
READY TO run for the Fairlawn cross countryteams are (l-r) Trey Fletcher, Kaileigh Poe, JoeyCockroft and Troy Fletcher.
Coach Bryan Tregobegins his eighth seasonas the head volleyballcoach at Botkins, and hehas reason to be opti-mistic heading into theseason.
Logan Pitts, a two-year starter, is back afterhaving to sit out wellover half the season lastyear because of a brokenarm. “She brings a lot ofoffense for us and hasworked really hard inthe offseason to start theyear in great shape,”Trego said.
Jessica Dietz also re-turns after starting atmiddle hitter last yearand leading the team inblocks with 57 duringthe regular season. “Shehas come into her ownoffensively and will be abig asset,” Trego said.
Abby Russell playedright side last seasonand Trego said she doesa good job of setting upthe block, and ColleenGreve played middle hit-ter last season whenPitts was out and filledin nicely. She is playingright side this seasonand is putting last year’sexperience to good use.
Colleen Maurer andJill Schneider are both
experienced setters, withSchneider leading theteam in assists last year,and Denise Schwartzand Rachelle Maurerplayed outside hitterand played all the wayaround. “They are a bigpart of our passinggame, especially servereceive,” said Trego.“They both have mademajor improvementssince last season.
Allison Guckes will bethe libero and Trego saidshe’s one of the quickestathletes he’s evercoached. “She movesvery well in the back rowand is working on read-ing the hitters.When shegets comfortable doingthat, I think she will beone of the best liberos inthe area.”
Those players arebeing pushed by new-comers like Malia Prout,Vicki Grillot and BeccaKnoop. “All good playerswho I see getting signifi-cant playing time on va-sity,” Trego said.
“We have a great re-turning group of playersthis year and most havesignificant varsity expe-rience, which should be abig asset for us this sea-son,” Trego added.
Boys soccerKevin Lynch returns
for another season as thehead boys soccer coachat Botkins, where he hasbuilt an outstanding pro-gram that is averaging11 wins per season.
In the seven years theprogram has been in ex-istence, the overallrecord is an impressive77-27-17.
“If we want to con-tinue the success, we areonce again going to haveto avoid injuries,“ Lynchsaid.
He said seniors AndyEgbert, Logan Russelland Even Dietz will leadthe way.
“Andy will be organiz-ing the defense alongwith seeing some time inthe midfield, Logan willbe the one handling theattacking midfield role,and Evan gives us a solidgoalkeeper between thepipes while also seeingsome time in the field,”said Lynch. “These threeseniors will be joined byfellow seniors Austin
Frey and Derek Snider.Austin will be a vitalpart of the backline aswell as seeing some timeas a defensive midfielder,and Derek is looking tolock down the startingleft back postion.
“The seniors will bejoined by three juniors,Austin McGowan, AaronShipper, and newcomerCaleb Will,” he went on.“Austin will be runningthe wide channels onceagain this year trying toput some dangerouscrosses into the box.Aaron Schipper is look-ing to crack the startinglineup this year aftertwo years of coming offthe sidelines. And Calebwill provide us withsome key depth.
“The sophomore classincludes Eric Egbert,Taylor VanGundy, CalebOren, Christian Hoskins,and Trent Henry,” hecontinued. “Eric andCaleb are looking to holddown the center defen-sive midfielders for theteam this year while
Taylor is going to beplaying up top looking toput the ball in the backof the net. Christian isworking on getting moreexperience between thepipes so we are able toget Evan on the field ifwe need him. And Trentwill be holding down ourother center back posi-tion in our backline.
“The freshman classis led by Nolan Grevewho is looking to breakinto the varsity startinglineup as a freshman,”Lynch said. “His fellowfreshman on the teamare Jacob Will and KyleMaurer. Both will beworking on their skillsas they get used to thespeed of the game at thevarsity level.”
Cross countryBotkins lost seven
seniors off its girls cross
country team, but hassome outstanding run-ners back, leading coachRyan Gutman to bequite optimistic.
“Even though we lostseven seniors, this year’sversion is talented andrunning some impres-sive times this summer,”he said. “They are look-ing forward to surprisingsome people this season.Loramie and Russia willfield quality teams, andwe know that runningagainst them will onlymake us better.”
Shelbie Bailey is backafter an excellent seasonlast year that saw herearn first-team All-County honors. Alsoback are BethanyChristman and CorinneWoodruff.
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 17
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18 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
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(From page 17)The newcomers that
have Gutman excitedare juniors Erin Placeand Courtney Kohler,sophomore Lakota Run-ning Hawk, and fresh-men Chloe Flora andKayla Heuker.• Likewise, the
Botkins boys cross coun-try team has Gutmanexcited.“This is an exciting
time for Botkins crosscountry,” he said. “Wehave a strong returningcore and a talentedfreshman group thatwent 13-6 last year as8th graders. The entireteam is really lookingforward to competing ata high level this year.This group knows theirpotential and is workinghard to reach it.”Back are seniors Seth
Hoying and JoshSchwartz, junior RogerMiller and sophomoresAustin Jones and LucasBuehler.Miller was first-team
All-County last season.The freshmen in the
mix this season includeJared Goubeaux, AaronFullenkamp, CameronFlora, Jacob Roberts,Jacob Cooper and NolanGreve.Senior Heath Geyer
will also contribute.
Girls soccerThe Lady Trojans
were 8-9 last season, andappear to have a goodchance at upping thatmark, with the return of11 players off that squadfor coach Joe Welker.“This season will rely
heavily on the seniorclass and what kind ofleadership they bring,”he said. “We do well onour corner kicks and at-tacking set plays.”The returnees include
senior midfielders Han-nah Koch, Claire McCul-lough and Caitlin Lane,senior defenders HeatherBrown and Riley Luth-man, juniors Emily Bown,Carly Harshbarger,Gavrielle Woodruff,Shelby Boyd andMichaela Kramer, andsophomoreWhitneyBorn-horst, another midfielder.There is a good group
of young players ready tostop in, including sopho-mores KaitlynSchmerge, Brooke Born-horst and Hannah Wag-ner, and freshmenKeirstyn Rogers, NatalieAmbos, Sierra Butcher,Tiffanie Daniels andKassidy Esser.
GolfCoach Brett Meyer re-
turns five players fromlast year’s team whichwas 74-43 overall along
with 10-2 in the league,good enough for runner-up. The Trojans thenwent on to qualify for thedistrict tournament.The returnees include
seniors Connor Born-horst, Cory Kies and-Nate Cisco, and juniorsSeth Hannah and NickOkuley.The top newcomer
will be junior RogerMiller.“We have a lot of re-
turning lettermen andour JV team shot well,”said coach Meyer. “Weare looking to get consis-tency from our 4-through-6 golfers. Wehave younger guys thatare looking to contributeso we should have somedepth this year.“I think the league
will be very competitive,”he added. “Every teamwill have to golf welleach night in order towin.”
SchedulesVolleyball
August25..........................Waynesfield27....................at New Bremen28...................................Russia
September1 ................................at Sidney4..................at Jackson Center6 .......................................Anna8........................New Knoxville10 .....................at Indian Lake11....................at Fort Loramie13...............................Fairlawn15 ..............................Riverside18 ...........................at Houston
20 ..............................at Russia22......................at Minster.Inv.25 ........................Lima Temple27 ....................Jackson Center
October2...................................at Anna4 ..........................Fort Loramie8.............................at Fairlawn9..................................Houston
——Boys soccer
August25...........................at Fairlawn28 .........................Spencerville30 ............................WL-Salem
September4 ............................Miami East6 ...................at New Knoxville8 ............................at St.Marys11........................Miami Valley13............................at Lehman15....................at Lima Temple18 ........................Cory Rawson22.............at Franklin-Monroe27..................at Lima Catholic
October2 ...................................Newton6........................New Knoxville9 .................................Fairlawn
——Girls soccer
August27 .................Franklin-Monroe
September1 ...........................at Riverdale4 ..........................at Allen East6 ..................................Lehman8 ..................at Mechanicsburg11.............................at Newton13 ......................Lima Catholic18....................at Cory Rawson20.................................at Anna22.............................Coldwater25 ..............................Van Wert27 .......................................Ada
October2.................................at Bethel4 .......................................Anna6 .......................at Lincolnview
——Cross countryBoys and girls
August25..................at Bob Schul Inv.
September1................at Columbus Grove8................at Spencerville Inv.15 ........................at Eaton Inv.22 ..................at Versailles Inv.29..........................Botkins Inv.
October6............................at Anna Inv.13 .......................at Russia Inv.
——Golf
Home matchesat Shelby Oaks
August23...................................Russia25 ........................at Allen East27..........................at Riverside28...................................Sidney30 ....................Jackson Center31......................New Knoxville
September1 ....................at Versailles Inv.4 .......................................Anna6......................at Fort Loramie11...............................Fairlawn13................................Houston20.........................County meet
SDN File Photo
HANNAH KOCH battles for the ball in a matchagainst Anna last season. She is one of 11 return-ing players in girls soccer this season.
11 players back in girls soccer
NEW KNOXVILLE— It’s shaping up to be agood fall season at NewKnoxville. There is agood number of letter-winners back in four ofthe five sports, and theother, girls cross country,has two returning re-gional qualifiers back,one of whom ran atstate.
VolleyballCoach Jill Roode had
a solid core of playersback from a team thatfinished 13-10 last sea-son, so she’s looking forgood things, especially ifthe young talent ma-tures.“If our young talent
matures, we should be areal factor at tourna-ment time,” she said.She has six letter-win-
ners back, and only oneis a senior, so the LadyRangers will be quiteyoung this season.That senior is outside
hitter Taylor Niemeyer.Also back are junior
outside hitters HaleyHorstman and PaigeLehman, with Horstmanalso doing some setting,and sophomores KalynSchroer, a defensive spe-cialist, Meg Reineke, asetter/outside hitter, andAbby Rohrbach, a defen-sive specialist.The top newcomers
are both freshmen inRechel Leffel and Madi-son Lammers, both out-side hitters.Roode looks for Mar-
ion Local and St. Henryto be the MAC favorites,and hopes her team canimprove upon last year’sfifth-place finish.
SoccerCoach Tony Hunt has
seven players returningoff a 6-11 squad from ayear ago.“We return a lot of ex-
perience, so we hope toimprove on last year’srecord,” Hunt said. “Wedo not have a lot ofdepth, so we must avoidinjuries.”The returnees include
senior mid ChaseNaviello, senior strikersIsaiah Oeding and An-drew Mackie, juniorstriker Caleb Yeatts, jun-ior fullback Ryan Lage-man, junior keeper DeanFrankenburg and juniorfullback K.V. Mooney.Hunt is also looking
for big things from a cou-ple of freshmen, midAlex Lehman and full-
back/keeper Jace Kuck.Cross countryNick Wirwille returns
to coach the school’s dis-tance runners, and hasreason for optimism.Though the girls may
not have the numbers tocompete as a team, thereare two regional quali-fiers returning in CassieBoyle and Clara Shroyer,both juniors. And Boylewent on to qualify for thestate meet.For the boys, there are
six returnees from ateam that placed eighthin the MAC.They include senior
Spencer Wolf, juniorsIsaac Kuntz and CodyShaw, and sophomoresRyan Allen, Andrew Ar-nett and Daniel Boyle.Freshmen Jacob
Shaw and MarcusNitschke will give theRangers depth.Kuntz was also a
state qualifier last yearand broke the schoolrecord.
GolfCoach Terry Halko
has five lettermen in sen-iors Tyler Shreve, JustinSlaven, Michael Porterand Ryan Schott, andjunior David Boesche.Logan Leffell is a
freshman who will seevarsity action.“With a senior laden
lineup, we should bemuch more competitivethis year,” said Halko.Tyler was an all-leagueplayer last year.”
SchedulesGolf
Home matchesat Arrowhead
August23 .............................Coldwater24....................at Marion Local30..........................at St. Henry31.............................at Botkins
September6 .............................Delphos SJ10 .................................Minster13................................Parkway14 ................................Lehman17 ...............................Home tri20 ........................New Bremen
——Boys soccer
August23 ..............................St. Marys27..........................Indian Lake
September1.............................at Fairlawn
6 ...................................Botkins8 ....................................Kenton11 ..........................at Riverside13 ...................................Celina15 .............at Franklin-Monroe18 ....................at Lima Temple22...................at Fort Jennings27 ............................at Lehman29 ..........................Continental
October1 .......................at Spencerville6...............................at Botkins9 ..........................Cory Rawson12................................Ottoville
——Volleyball
August25............at Coldwater Classic28 ..............................St. Marys30.............................at Minster
September4............................Spencerville6..................................Parkway8...............................at Botkins111..........................at Houston13 ........................New Bremen
17 .....................................Anna18..........................at Versailles20 .................at New Knoxville24 ................at Jackson Center27....................at Marion Local29 ...................at Van Wert Inv.
October4 .........................Fort Recovery8........................at Lincolnview9............................at St. Henry11 ...........................Delphos SJ
——Cross country
September1 ............at Wapak Night Meet4 ........at St. Henry w/Parkway8 ................at Spencerville Inv.11.............at Fort Loramie Inv.15 ......at Ottawa-Glandorf Inv.22 .......................at Sidney Inv.27.............at New Bremen Inv.29......................at Botkins Inv.
October4....................at Coldwater Inv.6............................at Anna Inv.11 ...............MAC at Coldwater
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 19
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SDN Photo/Luke Gronneberg
SENIOR TAYLORNiemeyer leads theLady Ranger volleyballsquad
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20 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
ANNA
ANNA—Anna was 6-4 last season, and hasjust three starters backthis season.For some, that might
signal a time to panic.But when longtimecoach Bryan Rioch sayshis front seven might bethe best Anna has everhad, it certainly doesn’tsound like a rebuildingyear.The Rockets planned
to go into the seasonwith three starters backon offense and two on de-fense, but that numbershrunk by one on bothsides of the ball whenChandon Williams suf-fered a broken foot play-ing basketball over thesummer.Rioch had planned to
move Williams fromwide receiver to runningback this season.Even with him play-
ing, Anna still wouldhave had an entirelynew backfield this sea-son. The Rockets lostquarterback Jay Meyer,who threw for over 1,500yards last season, butRioch says there arethree quality signal-callers looking for play-ing time.“It’s the deepest we’ve
been at quarterback,” hesaid. “Two are gettingthe most snaps in NateBollheimer and JoshRobinson.”Both have good size to
be under center, Boll-heimer at 6-foot-1, 195and Robinson at 6-3,180.“Both are going to
play as we try to get ourbest 11 out there,” saidRioch. “Nate will have
some running back du-ties, too.”The third QB is a
sophomore in 5-11, 170-pound Nate Counts.In the backfield, the
featured back may beWilliams’ youngerbrother Christian, who is5-9, 210. “He always fallsforward, and every timehe touches the ball, hecan run for a while,”Rioch said.Also in the backfield
will be Matt Lindsey atfullback. “He’s anotherkid who played behind asenior last year. He’s anice, hard runner,” Riochsaid.Senior Ben Kettler, 5-
8, 165, will get some car-ries, as will CarterBensman and NickDoseck.“In the past, we’ve
been pretty versatile,”said Rioch. “But we’re
not as much this year.Some run well, someblock well and somecatch the ball.”Up front, the line is
anchored by returningstarter Luke Cummingsat guard. He’s 6-0, 230.And Stewart Watkins, 6-3, 225, was a part-timestarter at guard last sea-son.The center will be
Nick Bertke, 6-1, 200,and the tackles are whathas Rioch particularlyexcited. One is 6-7, 255-pound Ryan Spicer andon the other side isChandler Cotterman, 6-4, 270. “Ryan had atremendous summer,”said Rioch. “He’s alwaysbeen a big kid, and we’vebeen waiting for him toblossom.And Chandler’smotor is always going.”At tight end will be
Brandon Maurer and
Wes Showalter and atwideout will be Nick Ihleand Travis Grieves.“It will be different
this year,” said Rioch. “Idon’t know that we’ll beas explosive, but we’llmove the chains. We’regoing to control thetempo. We’ll take 242/3seconds to snap it, thenget up off the ball reallyslow.We’re going to haveto pound it, and we thinkwe’re pretty good upfront.”Same on defense —
inexperience mainly inthe backfield but “we’llbe pretty good up front.”The same players
listed on the offensiveline will see time on theD-line. The linebackerswill be Showalter,Watkins and Maurerand Rioch said he’s look-ing at about eight play-ers to play in thedefensive backfield, ledby Ihle, Counts, Boll-heimer and Robinson.“I’m well aware that
of the eight MAC teamswe play, all but one havetheir quarterback re-turning,” Rioch said inreference to his inexperi-enced secondary. “Butour biggest strength is ifyou don’t have the ball,you can’t throw it. Andwe plan on holding ontothe ball.”
Girls soccerLast season was an-
other in a long list ofgood ones for the AnnaLady Rocket soccerteam, which finishedwith a 14-4 record.Highlighting last sea-
son was longtime headcoach Jim Hague reach-ing a milestone, his
100th coaching victory.He now has a 10-year ca-reer record of 105-60-10at the school.Nine letter-winners
return from last season,including midfielderKayla Blankenship,striker Rachel Christ-man and defender EricaHuber, all seniors. Jun-ior defender KristaBlankenship and sopho-more midfielder CaylaBensman also return.“We have a very good
group of senior playersthis year in Kayla,Rachel, Erica, Leah Bet-tinger (midfielder), KelliEhemann (midfielder),and Katie Niekamp (de-fender),” said Hague.“Kayla has been theteam’s leading scorer forthe last two years andwas the team’s OffensiveAward winner the lasttwo years as well. She isa very good leader for usand is a good mentor forthe younger players.“Erica is our leading
defender and was the2011 team’s MVP awardwinner.” he continued.“Erica brings a realtoughness to the teamand is also a good leaderand mentor. Rachel is asteady player for us andshe will play wherevershe can to help the team.She filled many roles forus last year due to someinjuries. We are lookingat utilizing her skills atthe striker position thisyear. Leah and Kelli willbe our midfielders thisyear and both have im-proved and we are look-ing for some good thingsfrom them this year.Katie came into her own
last year toward the endof the season due to someinjuries in the defensiveend of the field. Shestepped up and earned adefensive position.”Freshman Kristin
Grimes steps into thegoalkeeper position. An-other freshman, HollyBoyd, is her backup.Helping Huber,
Niekamp and KristaBlankenship on the defen-sive end will be freshmenBoyd, Hannah Aufder-haar, Jenna Harshbarger,Megan Heitmeyer andBrianna Gillem.At midfield will be
Kayla Blankenship, Ehe-mann, Bettinger, Bens-man, and alsosophomores BrittneeAxe and Mary Buehler,and freshmen RaquelBollheimer, AlexisPhillips, Rachel Gehret,Jennifer Robinson andNicole Smith.At striker will be
Christman, sophomoresEmily Cavinder andAxe,and freshmen Sara Ket-tler, Buehler and Court-ney Doeseck.There are 13 fresh-
men on the squad thisseason, with three orfour possibly starting.
VolleyballAfter an amazing ca-
reer at Anna, duringwhich she took her placeamong the best playersever in Shelby County,Kelli Barhorst went onto star in volleyball forOhio State.Well, now she’s back,
and ready to lead heralma mater to more suc-cess in the sport.
Few starters return for Rocket football
SDN Photo/file photo
CHANDLER COTTERMAN (right) returns on the linefor the Anna Rockets this season.
See KELLI/Page 21
(From page 20)Barhorst takes over
for Amy Cobb, whostepped down after a sec-ond straight outstandingseason last year. In hertwo years as head coach,she won 36 matches.“We have had a really
great summer and agreat start to our presea-son practice,” saidBarhorst. “We attendedseveral camps through-out the summer to get afeel of what ourstrengths were, alongwith areas that need im-provement. We havebeen working a lot onthe fundamentals of thegame since with Michele(McMahaon) and I beingnew additions to thecoaching staff we havedifferent expectationsand different techniquesthan those from the past.So it is important I thinkthat we start from thebottom up.“We have definitely
made strides since thebeginning of summerand are continuing tobuild upon those strides,”she continued. “Most ofthose strides have beenmade in our defense. Ourgirls are becoming morecomfortable with the de-fense we are runningand are starting to buildtrust with one anotheron the court. We are re-
ally excited to start theseason but there is still alot of room for improve-ment and more fine-tun-ing that needs to bemade before our firstgame on Saturday.”She has a strong
group of returning play-ers from the team thatwas 16-11 last year.Theyinclude senior defensivespecialist/right sideSummer McCracken,senior setter SydneyRioch, senior outside hit-ter Natalie Billing, juniormiddle blockers RachelNoffsinger and MeganFogt, junior defensivespecialist/outside ChloeEgbert and junior setterHayley Steinbrunner.Noffsinger, Fogt and
Billing were the team’stop three hitters lastseason, with Noffsingerleading in kills. And theperson who set them upwas Steinbrunner. Fogtalso led the team inblocks and Billing wassecond in digs.Barhorst is also looking
for good things from soph-omore defensive special-ists Chandler Bensmanand Bridget Hoehne, andfreshmen defensive spe-cialists Mackenzie WellsandAvery Bensman.Boys cross countryDean Stewart is in his
28th year as head boyscross country coach at
Anna, and he welcomesback six runners from ateam that placed fourthin the County meet lastseason.They include seniors
Ryan Smith and Do-minic Altstaetter, jun-iors Corey Abbot andAdam Larger, and soph-omores Jonathan Bern-ing and Luke Gaier.The top newcomers
will be senior KeavashAssani, junior DerekSteinke, and freshmenKorash Assani and TylerMcKee.“We return a large
group from last year’steam that qualified for theregionals, and we returnone of the area’s top run-ners inAdamLarger,whowas a state qualifier lastyear,” said Stewart. “Wehad a very young teamlast year and they learneda lot. We also did well onthe track in the distanceevents and that will havea positive impact.Many ofthem put in a good sum-mer of running and it hasalready shown.”Girls cross countryStewart is also in his
28th year as the girlscross country coach, andthere are five letter-win-ners returning from lastyear’s fifth-place team inthe County meet.The returnees are jun-
iors Jodie Schmitmeyer
and Amy Albers, andsophomores Bonnie Alt-staetter, Jennifer Largerand Ashley Littlefield.They will be joined by
four freshmen in TierraGanger, Hunter Knouff,Kayla Moore and MindySchmitmeyer.“We only lost one run-
ner from last year’s teamand will have only onesenior, so we will still beyoung,” Stewart said. “Ihave seen a lot of positivethings in our early-sea-son practice and look forindividual runners andthe team to improve asthe season progresses.“The County has al-
ways been strong withFort Loramie being one ofthe top teams in the statefor as long as I can re-member,” Stewart added.“Russia has also becomeone of the state’s top pro-grams over the last fiveyears and with Botkinsimproving so much, thetop three teamswill all beteams that can qualify forthe state meet.”
GolfThe Anna boys golf
team has seen plenty ofsuccess the past few sea-sons under coach TomKremer, and he expectsto compete again, eventhough it will be a youngand inexperienced squad.Returning for the
Rockets are senior Andy
Linkmeyer, junior ZachZimpfer and sophomoreMike Omlor.Filling in this season
will be senior Brad Boyd,and three freshmen inRyan Smelewski, AlexBrinkman and RossPulfer.“A new year with a
young and inexperiencedteam,” said Kremer. “Butwe will compete.”
SchedulesFootball
Games at 7:30 unless notedAug. 24 .at Lehman (S), 7 p.m.Aug. 31 ....................BrookvilleSept. 7 ...........at Fort RecoverySept. 14 ....................VersaillesSept. 21 .............at Delphos SJSept. 28 .......................MinsterOct. 5 .......................ColdwaterOct. 12 ............at New BremenOct. 19............at Marion LocalOct. 26........................Parkway
——Cross country
August25.....................at Delphos Inv.
September1.........at Columbus Grove Inv.8................at Spencerville Inv.15 ........................at Eaton Inv.22...........................at Troy Inv.25.......................at Patriot Inv.29 .....................at Botkins Inv.
October6................................Anna Inv.13........County meet at Russia
——Girls soccer
August25 ...................Preble Shawnee
September4...............................at Newton6 ..........................at WL-Salem8 ...............................BenLogan
11...............................at Bethel15............................at Lehman18 ......................at Miami East20 .................................Botkins22........................Miami Valley25.............at Franklin-Monroe27.............................Greenville
October2 .......................Troy Christian4...............................at Botkins9 ..........................at Coldwater11 ................................Lehman
——Golf
Home meets at ShelbyOaks
August23...............................Fairlawn28................................Houston30...................................Russia
September1 ....................at Versailles Inv.4 ...................................Botkins6 ......................Jackson Center8 ...................at Middleton Inv.11 ............................at Minster13....................at Fort Loramie17....................at New Bremen20........County meet at Russia
——Volleyball
August25 ..................at Fort Recovery28...............................Fairlawn30 ...........................at Houston
September1.......................at Lehman Inv.4.....................................Russia6...............................at Botkins11 ....................Jackson Center13 ................................Lehman15 ...............................Home tri17 .................at New Knoxville18....................at Fort Loramie20...........................at Fairlawn25................................Houston27 ..............................at Russia
October1 .......................at Wapakoneta2 ...................................Botkins4..................at Jackson Center8..........................Marion Local9 ..........................Fort Loramie
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 21
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22 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News
LEHMAN
Last year was anatypical one for LehmanCatholic football coachDick Roll.For the first time
since arriving atLehman in 2005, Rolland his team foundthemselves watching, in-stead of participating inthe D-VI playoffs.That was not com-
pletely unexpected con-sidering the youth of theteam — but, Roll doesnot expect another 3-7season this time around.“My expectations are
high,” Roll said. “I am notsure we worked as hard(in the off-season) lastyear as the previousyears. Last year, it justwasn’t in the cards for us.”The Cavaliers haven’t
forgotten the strugglesof a year ago as theyhead into a new cam-paign.“I think it was a moti-
vator for us in the off-season,” he said. “Thekids have worked hard.We lost some good kidsoff last year’s team thatwere part of a lot of suc-cess. But, this is a newyear.”The Cavaliers have
already suffered a blowin the preseason, withreturning starter GregSpearman lost of theseason.“What it did was take
away our depth,” Rollsaid. “We felt like we haddepth — but he was atwo-way starter — so itkilled our depth.”The quarterback spot
will look much like it dida year ago, with seniorDan Davis (5-8, 155) andsophomore Nick Rourke
(5-11, 150) sharingsnaps.“They will split time
until one of them justmoves ahead (of theother),” Roll said. “In away you would (like tosee one quarterback),but we have made itwork before.”It will be a more wide-
open offense than in pastyears.“You will see a lot
more spread formations,”Roll said. “We are tryingto utilize our talent —and what it comes downto is we don’t have thatbig back. We will runsome option and I thinkwe will throw the ballmore.”Seeing action at full-
back will be junior JohnHusa (5-11, 185) andsenior Dan Davis (5-8,155); while Husa willalso see time at halfbackwith sophomore LaneMonnin (5-8, 150).The receivers will be
juniors Kristopher Lee(6-1, 175) and AndrewWesterheide (5-11, 160)and sophomore Clay Sel-sor (6-3, 170).When they use a tight
end, it will be Lee.The offensive line is
one of the strong points.Seeing action at cen-
ter will be BradleyMontgomery (5-11, 215)and sophomore JosephSkelton (5-6, 195).Senior Nick Cum-
mons (5-11, 180) will beat one guard spot, whileBradley Montgomery orjunior Quinn Monnin (5-11, 200) will be at theother guard spot.Seeing action at
tackle will be seniors
Michael Jacob (6-5, 200)and Quinton Malone (6-2, 210) and sophomoreBen Montgomery (5-8,217).“We have four starters
back on the line,” Rollsaid. “So, we feel likethat is a strong point.”The defensive line
will have Malone, BradMontgomery and juniorJames Rego (6-2, 217) atthe tackle spots, with Gi-lardi, Jacob and QuinnMonnin seeing action atdefensive end.“It is (just like the of-
fensive line),” Roll said.“We feel like we arepretty strong up front.”The outside lineback-
ers will be Husa andsenior Andrew Adams(5-8, 145), while the in-side linebackers will beCummons and sopho-more Skylar Brown (5-10, 160).The secondary will in-
clude Lane Monnin,Davis, Westerheide andRourke.“We have guys out
there who played lastyear,” Roll said. “Theyhave a year's experi-ence.”Gilardi will handle
the punting duties, whilesenior Zachary Taylor (5-11, 168) will be thekicker.This be Lehman’s first
year competing in theNorth Central AthleticConference, whichmeans some new compe-tition.“I think the kids will
come to realize (get ex-cited about it) as we getinto the season,” Rollsaid. “What I see is FortLoramie, Fairbanks,
Waynesfield-Goshen andLehman, in no particularorder, at the top of theconference. I think FortLoramie is going to haveanother strong team.”Roll knows Lehman is
an improved team.“We are a year older,”
he said. “But, I don’tknow how many moregames we are going towin because we are play-ing a tougher schedule.”
Girls soccerIt’s definitely a chang-
ing of the guard in girlssoccer at Lehman thisfall — for the first timesince the programbegan, Bill Ramey andMark Vondenheuvel willnot be on the sidelinescoaching the Lady Cava-lier booters.The new coach is Tony
Schroeder, a familiarname since he washighly successful as theschool’s boys coach a fewseasons back.“Lehman soccer owes
a great deal to coachRamey and coach Von-denheuvel for theirmany years of dedicatedservice,” said Schroeder.“Beginning with the es-tablishment of the pro-gram and continuing tothe competitiveness thatdefines it today.”Schroeder inherits a
team that returns 10 let-ter-winners and sevenstarters from an 11-4-3season of a year ago, sooptimism is runninghigh.There are just two
senior letter-winners indefender StephanyMcEldowney and for-ward Sarah Tittering-ton.
The juniors are de-fenders Karly Baird,Jordi Emrick and Made-line Franklin, goalieGrace Frantz, forwardTaylor Lachey and mid-fielders Marla Schroederand Jenna Kronen-berger.There is one sopho-
more who lettered lastyear as a freshman inmidfielder Elizabeth Ed-wards.Schroeder expects
sophomore McKennaGuillozet and freshmanSara Fuller to both be inthe starting lineup,while off the bench willcome junior mids Kro-nenberger and LaurenGoettemoeller, juniorforward Olivia
Sehlhorst, junior goalieAllie Hall, freshman de-fender Kassie Lee andfreshman mid EmilyReinhart.“With experienced
seniors and juniors, welook forward to havinggreat leadership on andoff the field,” saidSchroeder. “We have 15strong players vying forthe 11 starting positions,and the competition forthose positions providesa challenge these girlsneed to take their skillsto the next level.We lookwell-balanced andstrong in all areas, andspeed should be a defi-nite asset.”
Cavs looking to get back to postseason
SDN Photo/Eric Castle
SENIORS SARAH Titterington (left) and StephanyMcEldowney lead the Lady Cavs soccer team thisseason.
See FOUR/Page 23
(From page 22)Boys soccerThe Cavalier boys soc-
cer team has a newcoach this season in TomThornton, and he takesover a team that has alot of lettermen backfrom a 4-8-4 season.Returning are senior
defender Mitchell Bosse,senior mid Zac Taylor,senior defender LouieGaier, junior defenderSeth Bensman, junior de-fenders Robby Heckmanand Peter Comer, juniorforwards Joseph Simpsonand Noah Dunn, sopho-more mid Travis Thortonand sophomore goalieNick Earhart.The top newcomers
include sophomore de-fender Kyla Caulfield,sophomore forwardsDylan Sherman andRocco Catanzarite, andfreshman goalie IanSmith and freshman for-ward Jared Brandt.
VolleyballLehman’s girls put to-
gether another out-standing season lastyear on the heels of a Di-vision IV state champi-onship two seasons ago.And there are five letter-winners back from asquad that finished 24-4and was regional run-ner-up.Greg Snipes returns
as the head coach again
and welcomes back fourof the six starters fromlast season.The returnees include
senior setter/outside hit-ter Andrea Thobe, seniormiddle Ellie Waldsmith,junior outside hitterErica Paulus, junior set-ter/outside hitter EllieCain and sophomoremiddle Olivia Slagle.Waldsmith was
Lehman’s top hitter lastseason, finishing with166 kills during the reg-ular season. Thobe had390 assists and Cain 315,while Cain and Thobewere second and third inace serves for Lehman.Paulus led Lehman in
digs with 313, which wasthird in the area, andWaldsmith had 62 blocks,fourth-best in the area.“We return four of our
six starters from lastyear’s regional runner-up team,” said Snipes.“Andrea and Ellie will beback handling the settingduties along with beingoutside hitters. Ellie andOlivia will be the middleblockers. Erica will movefrom libero, where she’splayed the last two years,to outside hitter.”The newcomers this
year are being counted onheavily.Margo Baker is asophomore outside hit-ter/defensive specialist,Ellie Sergeant is a sopho-
more outside hitter andAva Schmitz a sophomoredefensive specialist.“Ellie and Margo will
be playing opposite hit-ter and back row, andAva will take over as de-fensive specialist,” saidSnipes. “We’re looking athaving another strongteam this year and hopeto be playing at our high-est level once tourna-ment starts. Our regularseason should have usplaying at that level andwe look forward to thecompetition.”
Girls tennisThe Lady Cavs have a
new coach this season inWill Harrelson, and hetakes over a program thatlost a lot of outstandingplayers to graduation.He’s left with just one
returning player, juniorJulia Harrelson, so he’llbe counting on newcom-ers to fill in, players likejuniors Sarah Gravunderand Meghan Burner, andfreshman Diana Gibson.“We have a young and
inexperienced varsitysquad after graduatingall but one varsity playerfrom last year,” said Har-relson. “It’s exciting as afirst-year coach to beable to start with ayoung team and watchthem develop. We lookforward to our large jun-ior class stepping up and
possibly a freshmanmaking a run at a var-sity singles spot. Wehope to representLehman well and lookforward to a competitiveregular season.”
GolfLehman has a new
golf coach for the firsttime in a long while asJoe Harrmann takesover for Elmer Schlater.Harrmann has six let-
termen returning in sen-ior John Copella, juniorsBryce Eck, Michael Rein-hart andMitchell Shroyerand sophomores SamDean and JakeWatkins.Sophomore Thomas
Covault will also look tocrack the top five andthere are also five fresh-men on the squad.“I’m very excited for
this season,” said Har-rmann. “Our lone senior,John Copella, will look tomake a state run and wehave a host of young tal-ent ready to make aname for themselves.”
SchedulesFootball
Games at 7 p.m. unlessnoted
Aug. 24 ......................Anna (S)Aug. 31...........at Minster, 7:30Sept. 7 ............Indian Lake (S)Sept. 14..........at Fort LoramieSept. 21...............Riverside (S)Sept. 28............at WaynesfieldOct. 5 .................Fairbanks (P)Oct. 12 ............at Upper SciotoOct. 19............Spencerville (S)Oct. 27 .............................Open(S) — At Sidney(P) — At Piqua
VolleyballAugust
25 ..........................at Fairlawn28 ...................at Marion Local29 ............................at Urbana
September1...........................Lehman Inv.4 ...............................Versailles5......................................Piqua8 .................at Jackson Center11 .........................at St. Henry13 ................................at Anna15...............................Home tri18...................................Celina20........................Fort Loramie22 ........................at Piqua Inv.24 ......................Fort Recovery27 ..........................Miami East
October2 .....................at New Bremen8.................................Parkway
——Boys golf
August23..............................Riverside27..............................at Russia28 .........................at Riverside
September1....................at Versailles Inv.4 ........................at Lima Perry6 ....................................Sidney10...............................Home tri14.................at New Knoxville15 ............at Jordan Memorial18 .......................Marion Local
——Girls tennis
August25 ...............at Schroeder’s Inv.27 .....................at West Milton28...................................Celina29 ..................................Sidney
September4....................at Lima Catholic5................................Bellbrook10 ...................at Miami Valley11 .............................St. Marys12 ........................at Brookville17..................................Carroll19 ...............................at Eaton22 ......................at Carroll Inv.24.....................at Wapakoneta25........at Springfield Catholic
Cross countryAugust
25.......................at Milton Inv.September
8................at Spencerville Inv.11 ....................at Loramie Inv.15 ....................at Graham Inv.18 ...........at Ohio Caverns Inv.22.......................at Sidney Inv.29 .....................at Botkins Inv.
October4...................at Coldwater Inv.6 ...........................at Anna Inv.
——Boys soccer
August25........................Miami Valley27 ...........................at Graham
September1 ..............at Dayton Christian6 ..............................Greenville8 .........................Bellefontaine13.................................Botkins15...........................at Ottoville18 ..............................at Bethel22 ............................at Newton27 .....................New Knoxville29.....................Yellow Springs
October2 ...................Franklin-Monroe6 .............................at Greenon11..................at Lima Catholic13 .........................West Milton
——Girls soccer
August25...................................Celina27................................Graham
September1 ..............at Dayton Christian6 ..............................at Botkins8 ..............Springfield Catholic15.....................................Anna18 ..............................at Bethel22 ............................at Newton25 ..........................Miami East29.....................Troy Christian
October1 ...................Franklin-Monroe6.............at Delphos St. John’s8 .....................at Bellefontaine11 ................................at Anna13 ...............................at Piqua
Sidney Daily News 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Thursday, August 23, 2012 • 23
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Four new head coaches this fall at Lehman
Whether you’re a competing athlete -- or just pursuing your own personal fitness challenge -- the UVMC Center for Sports Medicine can help you reach your goals. UVMC’s experienced team of professionals works together to help you with comprehensive injury care and conditioning aimed at safe, rapid return to activity. Please call 667-2614 or 440-7152 to learn more about the Center’s specialized programs.
Orthopedic & Sports Physical Therapy
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Sports Physicals
Physician Evaluation for Athletic Injury
ESP and ESP Jr. Sports Enhancement Programs
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Sportsmetrics™ Knee Injury Reduction Program
Bike Fit and Performance Program
Athletic Walk-In Clinic / Saturdays, 9-11 a.m. (Fall season only)
450 N. Hyatt St., Tipp City, Ohio 45371
UVMC.com
Center for Sports Medicine
Y o u r H o m e T o w n S p o r t s M e d i c i n e T e a m
UVMC Center for Sports Medicine
Serving the Needs of Your Active Lifestyle
UVMC sports medicine physicians and other sports medicine professionals are available for consultation, evaluation and treatment.
Jeff Rayborn, MD Primary Care Sports Medicine Physician
Mark Zunkiewicz, MD Sports Medicine
Orthopaedic Surgeon
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24 • Thursday, August 23, 2012 2012 FALL SPORTS PREVIEW Sidney Daily News