Four Thousand Weeks

"Four Thousand Weeks:

Time Management for 

Mortals" is a popular book 

by Oliver Burkeman

4,000 weeks. That’s about the average life span. 4,000 weeks will put you at almost 77 years old. If it’s accurate I only have 1,150 weeks left! That doesn’t sound like very much time “to get everything done.” Or so I thought... 

I regularly meet with a group in Sidney each Wednesday for a discussion called "Coffee with Champions". Our topic is different every meeting and several months ago, one particular meeting, the topic was 4,000 weeks. We discussed just how valuable and limited our time truly is. We talked about choices, priorities, and relationships. Our work lives occupy a lot of those 4,000 weeks, so I chose to focus on my personal life here are some takeaways I found useful for me.

• A full schedule doesn’t equal a full life
• Choose activities that light you up, not ones that simply fill your calendar
• You don’t need more hours, you need more awareness
• Focusing on fewer things makes each one more impactful
• When you slow down, you notice what actually deserves your attention
• Your best moments happen when you’re fully in them, not rushing past them
• Productivity isn’t about doing more, it’s about being fully engaged in what you’re doing

How do I make that work for me? Recently, I traveled to Indianapolis with my wife for a concert. After reviewing those takeaways above, here are my BLUNDERS and BRIGHT SPOTS with how I handled one of my 4,000 weeks.

BLUNDER: Doing house chores in the morning before we departed. The chores could have waited. I now realize I was distracted with believing I was being productive. In reality, I was instead disengaged from the purpose of the day.

BLUNDER & BRIGHT SPOT: I considered scheduling additional activities for the afternoon. Fortunately I didn’t and we decided to simply walk the city. By focusing on fewer things, it made the concert much more impactful.

BRIGHT SPOT: We visited friends. My wife discovered friends were on the other side of downtown. Instead of making excuses about a mile-long walk, one of our best moments was seeing them for 45 minutes.

What did I learn? When we quit trying to cram more tasks into our day, we discover a better way to live! 

-Craig

One of our 4,000 weeks and it was a good one!

Russia boys on course for big season

The Raiders return their entire state roster from 2025

It's not about how you start, it's how you finish. That cliché may be true, but for the 2026 Russia varsity boys cross country team, they will likely have success at both. Shelby County fans will find out soon enough. The season opening Shelby County Preview takes place this Tuesday, August 25th, at Russia Community Park. All seven SCAL schools, as well as Sidney and Lehman, will compete in both high school boys and girls and junior high. As has been the trend in recent years, the preview races have been shortened to just two miles for high school and one mile for junior high. Below is the schedule of events.

5:00 Junior High Girls

5:30 Junior High Boys

6:00 High School Girls

6:30 High School Boys

7:00 Youth Fun Run (Half Mile)

*Awards for the fastest runner in each high school and junior high grade level. Trophies for team champions and runner-up.

The preview course will cover all of Russia Community Park

The Division IV Raiders and head coach Zach Bell return their top seven runners from 2025. After winning the Shelby County Preview to start the season, the team later won both the SCAL and district championship for the first time in 11 years. They were also regional runner-up for the first time in 13 years. The boys capped 2025 with a 5th-place finish at the state meet, marking the third highest finish in 10 appearances throughout program history.

Paxson Bixler (left) and Samuel Phlipot are ones to watch this fall

Leading the way last season and most certainly this year is senior Samuel Phlipot. He was the 2025 SCAL Runner of the Year and a First Team All-Ohio honoree for his 8th-place individual finish at state. Last September, Samuel set a Russia school record when he blazed a 15:54 at Piqua to pass former record holder Luke Pohlman's 15:58 from 2010. On Samuel's heels this season will be sophomore Paxson Bixler who made quite a splash as a freshman. Paxson was a Second Team All-Ohio honoree at the state meet. His personal record time of 16:22 at last years regional meet ranks 6th all-time on the Russia record board. Paxson pushed Samuel the entirety of last season, making the duo one of the better 1-2 punches in Ohio.

The rest of Russia's roster includes guys that would lead other programs in the area. Senior classmates Owen Sargent, Eli Schmitmeyer, and Keagan Baldridge were all regulars in Russia's top seven last year. And junior Evan Smith was the Raider's #3 runner most of the season. Then there's junior Abe Hoehne and sophomore Lucas Borchers that battled for the final spot of the varsity roster much of last year.

Russia isn't the only SCAL boys team expected to do big things this season. For starters, Botkins will challenge the Raiders at the Preview and throughout the season. On the girls side, Ft. Loramie has won the last nine league titles and will positively dominate at the Preview on Tuesday. Enjoy the races cross country fans. 

The last time Russia hosted the SCAL Preview was 2020. Spectators were supposed to wear masks, but not everyone did.

Fish Report to air Russia Volleyball again

Russia's new mantra in 2026 is #BuiltForMore

Postgame with Jocelyn Wysocki

The 2026 Russia Volleyball regular season opens this week and Fish Report is once again along for the ride. We'll be airing all home varsity matches from press row with our experienced broadcast team. It starts when the Lady Raiders host their backyard rivals from Versailles for a rare Friday night showdown on August 21st. Matches begin with the JV-B at 4:30, followed by the JV around 5:30, and the Varsity finale for the nightcap. Fish Report will be live with play-by-play announcer Brandon Koverman and color commentator Craig Fiessinger for pre-game around 6:30. Listeners can check for live updates on the varsity start time inside the blue box located in the top-right corner of this website. Tune in for all the exciting game action and stick around for our postgame wrap up and interview.

Russia is coming off arguably their most successful season in program history. Their final 2025 record was 21-7, including 10-2 in the Shelby County Athletic League. That league mark tied with Anna and Ft. Loramie for the county championship. In the postseason tournament, the Raiders won their 12th district title and followed that with their first-ever regional title. Russia bowed out in the state semifinals at Vandalia Butler falling to Monroeville 26-24, 25-23, 25-20. Graduating from that team were three seniors in Claudia Hoehne, Izzy Chapman, and Kourtney Phlipot, who ended her career with 1,041 digs.

Raider fans will be very familiar with the 2026 team and it begins with head coach Aaron Watkins, now in his 11th season with a career record of 178-91. Assistant coaches include David Strunk is his eighth season and newcomer Lonnie Cain. Coach Cain might be a beginner at Russia, but he's also an OHSVCA Hall of Famer, long-time head coach at Covington, and won two state championships as an assistant coach at Lehman in 2010 and 2005. Russia's staff will get added help from JV coaches Allie Hafer in her fifth season and Morgan Albers in her first.

Coaches David Strunk, Morgan Albers, Aaron Watkins, Allie Hafer, and Lonnie Cain

Heading to state in 2025

Along with the veteran coaches, there will be experience on the court as well. It starts with senior hitters Hazel Francis and Celeste Borchers, both First Team All-SCAL honorees last year. Hazel was the team MVP and Russia's top scorer with 365 kills last season. In a game against Ft. Loramie, she also tallied 10 blocks for a new school record. Hazel's first cousin, Celeste, has been just as effective. She racked up 288 kills in her junior campaign to bring her career total to 533. She also led Russia's team in that 2025 state semifinal match with a team high 11 kills. Three more classmates complete Russia's roster of seniors in returnees Violet Armstrong, Lily Francis, and Ava Gibson. Violet and Lily are versatile enough to play a couple of important roles for Coach Watkins this year. Ava's top priority will be setter, where she's recorded 1,057 assists coming into her final season.

The junior class includes Therese Gibson, Macy Smith, Alysha Phlipot, Jocelyn Wysocki, and All-SCAL Honorable Mention honoree Aryana Cordonnier. In Russia's preseason scrimmages Aryana has switched from her position last year as an outside hitter to the libero position this year. From Fish Report's point of view it looks like Ary has adjusted well. We also like the move for Russia's team considering some of the younger talent the Raiders have coming up.

Fans got a glimpse of that talent last year when freshman outside hitter Ruby Francis made her debut. Ruby split playing time with the JV team then, but could anchor the right side of the net this season as a sophomore. A couple tall classmates in Desiree Borchers and Gianna Poling are on the roster also. Finally, there's one freshman to keep your eye on and that's Jewel Cordonnier, the younger sister of Aryana. Time will tell what impact Jewel might have, but sources tell Fish Report she's off to a good start!

Russia fans will be excited on Friday for the start of another season