Congrats to Joe Maleski and J. T. Stone from South. Both made it to state in track - Maleski finished second in 100m, 7th in 200m while Stone finished 4th in the shotput. So a great way to cap off successful senior years. J. T. Stone is going to play football at Moorehead State in KY. Haven't heard what position they recruited him to play.

For myself, I have been working on Summer basket ball with Shawnee. The camp went OK, took a shot gun approach and showed them a little bit of everything. We had our first game on Sunday and got clobbered. Partially because we were short players and had to play some 6th graders on the Junior High team. So that made it tough. Also for many of the players it was their first time going against another school. But I saw some signs of progress. They were real ragged the first part of the game, but started to settle down and play better after that.

At the high school level participation has been low at the open gyms. Same problem that there has been in the past. Everyone plays soccer or volleyball in the off season. But no one wants to focus on basketball. Even the 7th grade team that I coached last year - only one signed up to play this summer. So that is very discouraging, it will be tough to be competive next season if no one does any work this summer. I spoke with a few of the other JH coaches and they have kids doing AAU, etc. So it may be another tough winter. I don't know that the team will equal last years wins or not. Other teams are improving and we are pretty much treading water. I made it known that I would rather coach next years 7th grade squad, a good many of them attended camp and also are in the summer league. So I can see enthusiasm for the sport in that group, they want to get better - those are the players I want to work with. But I think the school is leaning for the JH coaches to stay with a team both years of JH. We'll see what happens this winter, if I lose my job, I may not be able to coach at all.

Spoke with Joe Webster, the Varsity coach and he is frustrated at the inablity to build enthusism for the program at almost all levels. His last open gym only 5 players showed up. Out of 28 who said that they would be there. We need a youth group to play in the Dayton Metro, Kingdom Sports, or some other league. But haven't seen any parents willing to step up an organize this. Now there are kids that are playing with other programs, but it would be great for a Shawnee team to get organized instead. But I think that will be the key for future, getting the girls turned on to the sport at an early age and getting them to buy into the program. Well that and of course winning doesn't hurt either. A winning season will help, but if things continue as they are now, that may still be on the horizon.