Kudos to these sports people...

I blogged about a similar thing last Friday and it was so much fun, I figured I'd do it again. This Friday I thought I'd give kudos to a few people that impressed me in local sports this past week (kudos means praise for exceptional achievement, by the way)...

Stats Man
If you follow @Fish_Report on Twitter, you probably noticed I tweeted out some complete box scores on several girls and boys tournament games this past week. When I say complete, I mean play-by-play with every statistic imaginable. Don't give me the credit, it's all the hard work of Russia alum Matt Zircher, seated on press row with his laptop and printer. Matt has been a stats man his whole life. His full-time job is the Associate Director of Athletic Communications at Wright State University, but in his spare time he does things like write for the Sidney Daily News, he works part-time as official scorer for the Dayton Dragons, and he also donates his time every year at his hometown Russia Alumni Softball Tournament to take care of everything from the official book to running the scoreboard. Matt is a very generous person and was doing a service at the sectional tournaments last week that media people typically don't see until the state tournament. Kudos to Matt.

Matt produced seven pages of stats (yes, seven) after
each of five games he covered last Saturday in Sidney

Best in the MAC

Last week I gave my opinion on the All-MAC girls honorees. This week the All-MAC boys came out and what a decision Player of the Year had to be. I can just see the coaches of the Midwest Athletic Conference shaking their heads thinking, "do we give it to the kid that's heading to Michigan State to play for Tom Izzo or the other kid that's going to Dayton to play for Archie Miller?" In the end the coaches chose future Flyer Ryan Mikesell of St. Henry over future Spartan Kyle Ahrens of Versailles. I'm pretty positive it had nothing to do with one being more talented than the other since both are extremely gifted. Rather, St. Henry simply won the conference championship and the head-to-head matchup this year. I was also glad to see the coaches didn't take the easy way out and just announce Ryan and Kyle were co-winners. Kudos to Ryan Mikesell on probably the toughest vote in MAC history.

Ryan Mikesell ramming one home against Russia earlier this year

Luke in the Limelight

Ohio's Mr. Basketball, Luke Kennard, started down the tournament trail on the right foot so far (or maybe that should be left foot since the sharpshooter is lefthanded?). Franklin, a D-II #1-seed, easily beat a couple opponents in the early rounds of the sectional tournament. The Wildcats now face Ponitz from the Dayton City League in the sectional championship at UD Arena on Saturday night at 7:30 pm. Franklin has been beat at this exact point in tournament the last three consecutive years. The Wildcats lost to Thurgood Marshall last year, Dunbar in 2013 and Thurgood again in 2012. The only thing that's for sure is fans will be lined up outside UD Arena for perhaps one last chance to see Luke in a high school uniform. I really hope Franklin wins this game. For no other reason than I enjoy reading about the hysteria of Luke Kennard. Kudos to Luke for everything he's accomplished so far.

Some fans claim Ohio high school hoops hasn't seen 

demand for tickets like this since LeBron James played

Future Hall of Famers

Indoor collegiate track doesn't typically dominate the headlines of the sport pages, but a couple local track stars are dominating at the Division-I universities they represent. Former Tri-Village running star Clayton Murphy is just a sophomore for the University of Akron, but this past weekend he was awarded as the Outstanding Track Athlete of the Meet at the Mid-American Conference Championships. Clayton led Akron to a MAC title winning both the 800 and 1600. Afterward, he was just one of just 16 selected to compete in the 800 at the NCAA National Championships coming up next weekend in Arkansas. On the girls side, Russia alum Katie Borchers continues to carve out history as a senior at The Ohio State University. Katie's Buckeyes also won an indoor title last weekend in the Big Ten and Katie was a significant part of that, winning the 800 and breaking her own school record in the process. Katie, like Clayton, was also just one of 16 selected to compete in the 800 next weekend at Nationals. I'll say it now... both will be future Hall of Famers at their respective universities some day. Kudos to Clayton and Katie.

Clayton and Katie are two of the premier runners in all of the nation right now