Poll Result - First poll for 2008 was to predict the CCC champ in football. Fans determined that this was a dead heat between Miami East and Covington with each getting a little over 30% of the votes. So September 12th will be a big night when the Vikings journey to Covington.

Game of the Week - This season I will be doing a game of the week. First feature is the Dixie - TVS football game. Dixie has a wealth of seniors and an experienced quarterback in Nick Worley. South will need to maintain ball control on offense and sustain clock eating drives to keep a potent Dixie offense that scored over 25 points per game last season off the field. The South defense will need to be of a bend but do not break variety - Dixie will generate yardage, but can South keep them out of the endzone. Will Dixie put 8 in the box and dare South to pass? Game time is 7:30 on Friday at Dixie.

Will try to mix in some volleyball and CC as time permits this season.

Final Tune up for South - Shawnee

J. C. Tilton

Twin Valley South and Preble Shawnee scrimmaged this past Friday – both teams final tune up before the regular season. First impression was the sea of black on the Shawnee sideline and the sparse number of red jerseys on the South sideline. Shawnee has over 50 players out this season, the most in a long time – maybe the most ever. South does have 29 players on the roster, but due to injury and other factors they were only able to dress 22.

Shawnee’s first year coach Stacy is featuring a spread offense and running it with no huddle. While South featured the double wing and wishbone sets on offense. The teams exchanged scores in the early going. But Shawnee was able to pull ahead and outscore South 35-21. Penalties were an Achilles heel for Shawnee; while South passed sparingly and although they completed some long passes, there were three interceptions.

Shawnee’s quarterback Begley was a bright spot – showing versatility with the pass and run. South’s running attack looked pretty solid. There are several backs that can break a long run at any time. I also thought that the team got fatigued later in the scrimmage which may have been a factor in Shawnee’s ability to score late and put some distance between them and TVS. Lots of guys going both ways and a younger team – not as much stamina and size with just 3 seniors.

One positive for TVS, they did make adjustments on defense. But Shawnee had a lot of arrows in their arsenal. South finds a way to stop the bubble screen, they go to a quarterback keeper, stop that by crowding the line and the Arrows start throwing deep.

TVS first year Head Coach Shondlemeyer had this to say about his team, “Offensively we have speed and can score points this year. Defensively, we are not as strong as we need to be. On defense you have to get off blocks and that boils down to the weight room. And we are not as strong as we need to be, that will be focus for the off season and right now – we will still continue to work on getting stronger. We will be outstrengthed and outsized defensively. And we saw a little bit of lack of effort in the second part of the second quarter and I was not pleased with that. We have to get over that, we have to learn that you have to give it everything.”

“We do return a lot of our linemen. Jesse Koeller at offensive guard. AJ Bantz at center. Skylar Reckers returns from last year, he will be an excellent player, but he didn’t start playing until the end of the season. Tyler Leach played a lot of defense, but now he is an option fullback and will be taking a lot of hits. Steve Balthis has a tremendous amount of speed and again is making the transition from defense to offense. Roy Wysong did not play last year, but I am impressed with him at split end. All those guys have to grow up fast and get better fast.”

Shawnee Head Coach Stacy was asked for his thoughts, “ One positive is that on offense we moved the ball up and down the field very well. We were our own worst enemy when we put the ball on the ground and gave up the turnover. We played very hard as a team. We made some mistakes on defense – but we knew that would happen. Most of our focus has been on offense. We got burned a few times, but that let us know what we need to work on.”

“We have nice wide outs, slot backs, running backs and a couple of nice quarterbacks – so we are equipped with some nice skilled players. Begley and Kyle Lettner are two key returning starters. Danny Dillon can fill in at quarterback. Willie Barnhill is another receiver that we are looking for big things from. I think that we will become more and more explosive as we come together as a team.”

Finally Coach Stacy was asked to look ahead to opening day, “We need to be perfect – don’t jump offsides, don’t put the ball on the ground, catch the ball, run all 11 guys to the all on defense. I’m looking for hustle and fundamentals – knowing what you are supposed to do. “

Next Friday Shawnee hosts National Trail while South journeys to Dixie and will be the game of the week.

Dixie and North Prepare for Kickoff

J. C. Tilton

Had the opportunity this past weekend to watch the Dixie – North scrimmage and get an idea of the prospects for each team this fall. After the scrimmage I was able to speak with both head coaches and get their take on the upcoming season.

The two teams exchanged a series of 10 plays, then played for down and distance. That was when the scoring began. North found the end zone first. They had a decent running game and got the ball to midfield where they scored on a 42 yard pass. But from there Dixie made adjustments on defense and got their offense in gear and took control of the scrimmage.

Their defense was of the bend but do not break variety. They were also opportunistic, generating several turnovers off of North fumbles and interceptions. Which set up a short field for the offense. The Greyhounds had balanced scoring, Nick Worley connecting on two pass plays for TD’s. One of these about a 20 yard TD pass to Eddie Bingham. Woody Earls found paydirt twice on runs of 62 and 6 yards.

Coach Tarpley of Dixie was asked about the scrimmage. “The offense line looked a lot better this year than they did last year. The senior leadership seems to be making a difference. We had a good situation with the running backs and we are going to run a little more this year. Our defense does need to improve as far as giving away third down conversions. We averaged about 25 points a game last year and were still getting beat.”

Top returning starters for Dixie, “Nick Worley at quarterback, 24 TD passes with 13 picks. Eddie Bellman at wide out with about 25 catches. Woody Earls at running back; there are about 8 starters back in all. Copeland and the Hayes brothers are back on the line. The quarterbacks brother, Aaron Worley, is playing center. “

Coach Tarpley continued, “We have 42 kids out this year, a big jump up from last season when we finished with a little over 20. It makes our practices better and makes it more competitive for positions. “

North’s coach Hart was asked to comment on his team, “Our first positive was effort, effort, effort. Our kids played hard today and they played hard even when things went bad. Our running backs played well today, hit their holes hard. Defensively we covered them well even they spread 4 and 5 wide across the field.”

“We do need to improve on our pass blocking; too many times our quarterback was running for his life. We also need to do the little things correctly – footwork and fundamentals. Once we do that, we will be a better team.”

Top returning starters for North, “Matt Green at fullback and middle linebacker. Kyle Booth at corner and now quarterback. Dakota at running back. Todd Delong on offensive and defensive lines. A couple of new faces on the team, seniors Matt Robinson and Cody Burnside decided to come out and play this year. Both are athletic and should contribute.

Coach Tarpley does ask that fans attending the next scrimmage, Friday, August 15^th 5:30pm at Dixie, to please bring canned goods to donate to local food pantries. With the slowed economy many local charities are low on food. Comments: chrisaukcam@gmail.com

Bengals First Impressions

First string defense seems to have a little spark. Opened with a couple of quarterback sacks - hopefully a sign that more will be coming. Got a pick on their second series. I do see where they need to hit and wrapwhen they tackle. There were several plays that could have been stopped for little or no gain and sprang for big yardage when the runner slipped out of a tackle.

I didn't realize that Brett Favre had only one losing season during his stay at Green Bay -
pretty impressive. Aaron Rogers has his hands full stepping into the shoes of a legend.
But at least he was able to move the ball, so credit is due. Carson Palmer seemed a little
cold in the first quarter. The offense was lethargic to say the least. Overthrew deep once and dinked some short passes. It looked like Carson Palmer was the quarterback that had only thrown 59 passes in the NFL and Aaron Rogers looked like the seasoned pro.

Running game was nothing to write home in the first quarter. Ominously, Rudy Johnson is having leg problems. But in the second quarter the running game took off under Watson and Perry. Maybe they made some adjustments on their blocking assignments. But the running game finally got the Bengals a first down, and more. Their first TD was a Palmer pass to a tight end, Utecht. Palmer finally got into a groove. And that will really spread defenses thin if the Bengals can continue using the tightend. Most times a tight end will draw coverage from a linebacker which will generally be a mismatch either in height or speed. In the past, the Bengals haven't been able to field tight ends with decent hands.

The new linebacker, Rivers, played in the second quarter, albeit when the Packers started to put in their backups. But he played well from what I could see. Palmers backup, Fitzpatrick, did a decent job while he was in the game. Connected with his recievers as well as tucking the ball and running for first down when everyone was covered. Not bad for a guy from Harvard - not exactly known as a football school.

Not going to make any projections here, too early to tell. One positive that can be taken from this is that Perry seems to have that eye of the Tiger this year. He was running like a guy that needed to prove himself. Rudy is getting to the end of his career and if he continues to ail, then Perry may be the answer for the running game. So long as he stays healthy. Another positive was the pass pressure from the defense. Not in there every time, but often enough to disrupt the offense.

Ohio State could have one of their better teams this upcoming season. Lots of starters returning, particularly on defense. And as we have seen, that is what wins championships. I did see where a safety was suspended for two games, but the Buckeyes do begin the season with patsies. He does play against his old team - Youngstown State. The true test will be USC - and Carson Palmer has provided some material for the bulletin board. Doesn't he know Ohio well enough by now to know that 90% of the state are rabid Ohio State fans? So the Buckeyes will have a chip on their shoulder going into this game.

Boeckman will have to prove that he can win big games. Thought that he got rattled in the championship game. Now they do have an incoming freshman that is a Vince Young type of quarterback. So if Boeckman stumbles, look for him to get some reps.

One factor for Ohio State is last season's performance in the Championship game. It was their second lackluster performance. Now last season was more of a rebuilding season, lots of new faces in the roster. The way that the season went down, I think that they were as surprised as anyone that they ended up in the Championship. But based on their last two Championship games, they will have to greatly exceed expectations to make it back again. And I know there are some who criticized OSU for their performance. But during Tressels tenure, I would like to know how many times he has been ranked in the top 10 as opposed to other coaches during this time frame. I wonder how his peers compare, off the top of my head I don't think that any match up. So he gets kudos for consistency in producing a nationally ranked program.

I certainly think that they have the talent to make to the top again. The question will be can they win big enough to convince skeptics to vote their way for the poll portion of the BCS rankings.

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Bengals - Everyone is a contender in August. Hearing good things out of summer camp. But it's the Bengals. And based on past history, it is hard to get overly enthusiastic. One of the biggest concerns I have is running back. Without a threat to run, we can have a good quarterback and all the draft picks at wide out - but not be effective as defenses can lay back and wait on the pass.

If I were a running back, I would not want to be picked by the Bengals - it's the kiss of death. Witness Kijana Carter and Kenny Irons. Both were good college backs, get drafted by the Bengals, and are injured early in their careers. This season the Bengals didn't really do anything to address running back. Perry is supposed to be back. But he has always been a promise. He hasn't played an injury free year yet. Watson is a change of pace back for third downs. So I think the biggest question mark is running back.

The defense - pretty much no where to go but up. Justin Smith is gone. So the front line will be revamped. The linebacking corp was decimated last season, but the newly drafted linebacker is still unsigned. So getting him into camp and getting some reps will be a priority.

There is plenty of depth at wide receiver - so that shouldn't be a problem. Some shuffling of the offensive line is taking place. But I think that they will be effective. At quarterback, Palmer will carry the load. So they should be able to put points on the board.

But overall I don't see the night and day changes needed to get the franchise going in the right direction. Fortunately they are in a weak division and so that is help. Get some momentum and they have a chance at playoffs. But I am not sure that this is the year.

From the radio this morning, it sounds like Ken Griffey Junior's tenure at Cincinnati is coming to an end. Rumor is that the White Sox are making a deal for him. Griffey's glory days were at Seattle. He just never was the impact player that the Reds were expecting. Injuries were a factor and now his age. When he came on board, fans were expecting him to put the team on his shoulders and carry them to the promised land. He never had that kind of leadership either on the field or in the clubhouse. A lot of fans resented him - but the Reds have been losing forever and Griffey is just a small part of that. The Reds have had a merry go round at General Manager, which is another problem.

On the plus side, his leaving will free up some salary that the Reds can use to acquire some younger talent.

I keep up with girls basketball and was reading in one of the newsgroups about an 8u AAU team. Thats not a misprint - it's 8 and under. I like AAU, but I think that folks are pushing this too far. At one time 10 years and under was the lowest age group. Then 9u became the lowest age group. If this trend continues, then are we going to have kindergarten teams? Toddler teams? I wonder if the kids get any value out of this at that young of an age? It has been my experience with the younger age groups that early developing kids will dominate. More from athleticism than from basketball skill.

So as you can tell, I am against this. In my opinion, AAU should make 10u the youngest age group for basketball. Personally, I think that 12u is probably the best age to start players at AAU. At that level, basketball skills can start to make a difference. And the kids are old enough to start to decide for themselves if basketball is something that they want to focus on.

Eaton - Champs of Shawnee Summer League.

CCC - How does the the Cross County Conference stack up in 2008?

Covington - Still the team to beat in the CCC. Should be a more experienced unit with talent. Their conference to lose.

Miami East - Had a fantastic season last year. Lost some good talent, but their excellent running back - Smallwood is back. Probably the team with the best chance at knocking off the Bucc's.

Everyone else - Lots of coaching changes in the CCC this season. About half of the league has had a coaching change this season. New systems, new coaches - who can get their team to adapt faster?

Ansonia - Should have a winning record. One of the smaller schools in the CCC, but they still play good ball. Graduated a good running back in Beisner, so someone will need to fill his shoes.

Arcanum - Also a program with a new coach. Have some solid returning players. They just have to gel.

Bethel - Mayes is gone, who will take his place? Have some returning linemen, should be in the mix this season.

Tri-County North - Return a lot of players. This is their second year under their new coach. So the team will know what to expect on July 31 when they report in. Should have the talent to be around .500 and if things break right, a winning record.

Twin Valley South - Lost a lot of talent at the skill positions. But almost all of their line is back. New coach here as well, Shondlemeyer who has a proven record at Arcanum. Struggled at Versailles, but he was trying to fill the shoes of a legend. If history holds true, look for South to run, run, run.

Mississinnewa Valley - Graher has left and he is the glue that held everything together. The Blackhawks have been respectable under his tenure. Will the new coach be able to continue the success, or will the program backslide and become doormats again?

Bradford - Low numbers last season. Another new coach. Program needs to right itself. Can the coach reenergize the community and get the numbers and enthusiasm back up?

National Trail - Another program plagued by apathy. Low numbers, not much help at the skill positions. This season will be another struggle.

Tony Augsperger is the new Athletic Director at TVS. Dan Bassler decided to step down. With South's financial woes, maybe he decided that now may be a good time to get out before budget cut backs get worse. Tony will have his hands full with pay to play. That will effect numbers at all sports. Also it may make parents more anxious. If a parent is paying X amount of money and my kid is on the bench then that may be something to gripe about. I do know that Tony will be stretched thin, wearing multiple hats this school year.


Shawnee Summer League for Junior High Girls.
Congrats to the champs - Eaton! Runners up was Twin Valley South. Third was Valley View, then Trail, last was Shawnee. South did have a little upset over Valley View in the opening round. In their first meeting South got thumped. But in the tournament, South played well enough to beat the Spartans and advance to the finals.

For next season, I think that a weekend shoot out might work out better. Maybe the weekend before the 4th of July. Everyone plays three games over a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We can work with scheduling to a degree. If a bunch of your girls have a Sunday softball game, then we can schedule your three games for Friday and Saturday.

I see the value in a league in that you can work with and develop players. But I also know that in the summer the girls are doing so much that it is difficult to get a team together every week for the games.

It's about that time of year again. Practices are starting up, games are only a month or so away.

Eaton - Lost a lot, but have some good returning talent. Will probably have the best record of any Preble County team. Playoffs? I think that they have a shot.

TVS - New coach, but a coach that has had success in the CCC at Arcanum. Lost a lot of talent at the skill positions. But should be returning almost all of their line. I can have average running backs and a good line will make them look good. The team will be thin on seniors. So Juniors and Sophomores will have to step up. Also pay to play may keep some players away. So depth could be a problem. There has been a lot of coaching changes at several of the other teams in the CCC so if the team gels and learns the new system quickly then they have a good shot at a winning record.

TCN - Second year for their head coach. Another team relying on young talent. They should be improved over last years team. Should be around .500.

Preble Shawnee - Another team with a first year coach. They are in the small school division of the SWBL, but I see them sub .500.

National Trail - A program desperately needing a turnaround. Some young talent. The CCC has replaced like 6 or 7 coaches. So they might be able to surprise some of the teams that are learning new systems under their new coaches. Still I see them sub .500.

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.

Well the latest rumor is that Coach Cottingim is stepping down at TVS. But his replacement is Shondlemyer(sp) - formerly of Versailles and Arcanum. Very successful at Arcanum, but not so good at Versailles. He was stepping into a legends shoes in Tiger land, and that can be tough to do. He tried to install his system and his offense and it just didn't click. He runs the double wing, and doesn't like to pass a lot. The contract has to approved by the school board but it should be a done deal shortly.

News from TVS - Head Football Coach Cottingim is stepping down. So that will make the 2008 campaign that much tougher. A very thin senior class, pay to play, and a new coach/new system. It will take a monumental effort to overcome all of this. I also understand that at least one of the assistants may be leaving as well.

Girls Summer Basketball. Had a rep from TVS get with me about restarting a basketball league that I had going when Chelsea was still in school. It will be good for local girls to get this going again. Lots of youngsters are doing JO volleyball, but not many are doing any basketball in the offseason. Right now 6 schools have expressed an interest. http://christ77.tripod.com/SummBB.html

The North Girls ended their season with a hard fought game in the state tournament. They got off to a slow start, but closed the gap and even lead in the 3rd quarter. But West Liberty Salem had a nice run at the start of the 4th quarter and North had to foul towards the end. The Tigers hit their shots and North dropped out.

Kevin Schaefer, the head coach for the Preble Shawnee girls was the first casualty of the offseason. he will not be renewed for next season. Usually the first season is a bye, too bad that things turned out the way that they did. Kevin did seem to have good knowledge about basketball. By next season the varsity team will have had 3 coaches in 3 years. And although the team only loses one senior, the returning starters have a lot of work to do to get back in the win column.

South's girls team was beaten soundly by Franklin Monroe. Katie McCoy was out with a badly injured knee and Lindsey Vogue was ill. So they were down 2 varsity players. The team never did get in sync on offense. Kate Ervin was the only beam of light on an otherwise dreary day. Lead the team in scoring, rebounded, and played solid defense. The team did have a good season, a winning record, next year they should reload.

South boys did win the league, got the Versailles bug off their back with a win over the Tigers in the first round of the tournament. But ended up losing a hard fought game in the next round. They graduate a lot, but some strong players are coming up so they shouldn't lose much.

Dixie boys played too many come from behind games and in the tournament against Arcanum, they couldn't muster up a rally and fell to the Trojans. A great season for the Hounds and they were state ranked for the first time in a long time.

My team finished just under .500 with an overall record of 7-9. That includes going 1-1 in the tournament at the end of the season. They ended the regular season with a 3 game winning streak and made it 4 in a row with a win over Dixie. After an 0-5 start, we turned things around. We finished the season with a tournament game against a tough Bellbrook team. We were definitely overmatched - they were like a head taller at every position. But we scrapped all the way to the end. The team went down, but we went down with full sails, cannons blazing, and flags snapping in the breeze. They fought all four quarters, they gave it all that they had. What more can a coach ask for.

South girls varsity had two injuries to post players at the end of the season. So they will have to retool the team going into the tournament.

Shawnee girls varsity have had a rough season, going winless in their season. Now to compound the situation, the team played 21 games due to a scheduling error. The AD was alerted a month ago about the situation, but they played it out. Several girls can't play in the post season and they go against a number one seed in the first round of the tournament. So that could be a real ugly game.

If the South boys don't choke, they are in the drivers seat for an outright league championship. They have tough brackets in the tournament, but they are capable of winning a district title as well.

My team is back in the win column. But only after a couple of losses. We had a disappointing game against Carlisle, scored only 5 points in the first half, then came back in the second half and just fell short. I don't know if we were over confident after our lopsided victory or what, but the team was just flat in the first half. We played the second best team in the lead toe to toe for about 3 and a half quarters. After being close we found ourselves down 10 with a little over a minute and a half to go. I thought about fouling, but we had only accumulated 3 fouls. Plus they were hitting their foul shots and were like 0 for 7 from the 3 point line. So a very very slim chance of pulling off the upset. I pulled the starters and gave the bench a little playing time. It's a fine line between balancing playing time and playing to win at the 7th grade level.

But the team rebounded after that performance and has had one sided victories over Milton and Northridge. They seem to be peaking at the right time with the tournament coming up this weekend. One concern is that we have been lucky with illness and injuries. Last night both occured. My center felt ill after the game and her backup injured her knee - took a hard fall on the floor. It looked like it would bruise. They have a day to recover, then our last regular season game, then the tournament.

At the high school level South boys have posted a big victory with a win over Miami East. It gives them a real good shot at winning the league outright. They have a tough tournament bracket. So getting a district title will be a dog fight. The South girls are out of the hunt for the ccc crown, but could do something in the districts. They are D4 this year and so they have a chance of getting a sectional and even a district title if they play the way that they are capable.

My team: A roller coaster week. We had a close game on Tuesday. We were up by two at one point in the second half. But we gave up a turnover, had a mixup on the called defense, and had another miscue. It added up to a 4 point loss - 24-20. Still the team played hard. Another coach told me that he arrived at halftime and saw the halftime score (5-5), then saw the other team take the court. He wondered how my scrawny little team held them to just 5 points. Like all the other teams they outsized us, we just play scrappy basketball. Still it was an emotional loss.

We did manage another win. We crushed Franklin 38-8. Almost everyone got at least one basket. I was worried about how the team would rebound coming off of that loss and they did surprisely well.