Fish Report's year in review...

While some people like to recall world events and national news as what they remember most about 2012, I choose to focus on the local events and small town news that defined my year.  Here's a toast to those listed below on an awesome and amusing year in my eyes.

THE BEST OF THE BEST
St. Henry won the title of best tap water in the U.S. back in February. It was just another honor for the village that's home to numerous state championships, professional athletes and even a Miss Ohio. Minster repeated as D-IV state baseball champs in June even after losing OSU bound pitcher Adam Niemeyer earlier in the season. While I doubted the Wildcats could pull it off, seniors Doug Huber and Austin Knapke teamed up on the mound and all they did was win. Russia runners Lauren Francis, Emily Borchers and Lauren Heaton dominated the girls cross country scene for most of the season. They were one of the best running triple-threats this area has ever seen and I'm glad I got to witness it.  In November Marion Local volleyball captured their fourth state title in six years under coach Amy Steininger and seemed to be absolutely unbeatable after Josie Winner returned from injury. The Flyers proved it by winning the last 15 sets in a row close out their season.

These three Running Raiders stuck together and were hard to beat in 2012

SOME GREAT PERFORMANCES I SAW IN PERSON

The pitching gem from Russia and Ft. Loramie to decide the SCL championship back in May. I typically enjoy baseball offense more than defense, but the 12-inning 1-0 Russia win started by Treg Francis for the Raiders and Jared Albers for the Redskins was a masterpiece. Girls softball pitchers Katelyn Herron from Russia and Paige Ordean from Ft. Loramie also battled to a 1-0 Redskins victory in May. These two aces own too many school records to count and seeing them work was a pleasure. Watching Tammy Berger of Versailles win the 800 meter run at the Troy regionals the end of May.  It was a great race that came down to the end and the last individual victory for the OSU bound star. Country Concert in Ft. Loramie back in July was another amazing spectacle with some of the best country music talent in the world. I've been attending Country Concert for many years and I always go home thinking that was a great time. Sidney's Konner Harris scoring 49 points against Russia back in November. I never witnessed a high school girl or boy score that many points in a game, and although she did it against my team, it was remarkable to watch someone that was truly "in the zone".

We brought along our own talented group to Country Concert this past summer

SOME PERSONAL FAVORITES I ENJOYED

Attending the Russia ceremony honoring State Track Meet champions Luke Pohlman & Katie Borchers back in early January. Realizing they were the first state champs in the lifetime of the current Russia students was pretty cool.  Russia coach Rick Gold's baseball camp in February was a star studded event.  As I watched professional baseball players Craig Stammen of Versailles and Jared Hoying of Ft. Loramie giving instructions to the boys, I got the impression the pros were the ones enjoying it most. Interviewing Jackson Center boys basketball coach Scott Elchert back in March in the midst of a tournament run with his undefeated Tigers for Fish Report LIVE! was one I'll always remember. I'm positive Coach had more important things to do than talk to us, but I'll never forget how friendly and thankful he was about the interview. The Bohman Tractor Pull & Family Picnic in August was as much fun as any of the other area festivals I attended all summer.  The Bohman's are great people and they sure know how to entertain.  

The Powder Puff division at the annual Bohman Tractor Pull is sports and entertainment

FEEL GOOD STORIES 

Unless you were visiting another planet in June you heard all about Meghan Vogel of West Liberty-Salem at the state track meet. She helped someone in need, just like she always does, only this time the spotlight captured it...and it went viral. Alexis Sharp made Minster school history in the fall becoming the first girl to play football for the Wildcats. The gridiron girl decided after a mission trip to Haiti that no one could make football happen but her, and she was right. In October New Bremen's Ralph Boerger was honored with some World War II medals that were long overdue. After six decades we're positive Ralph waited long enough.  In the middle of chasing another state football title the Coldwater Cavaliers sported yellow to support a player’s father battling cancer. Football teaches a lot of life lessons and this was certainly a big one.

Hanging out with Meghan Vogel before she helped the Reds throw out the first pitch

AND PEOPLE THAT WILL BE MISSED

Harry Brown, who established the Versailles Sweet Shop in 1939. Virgil Arkenberg of Ft. Loramie, a lover of VW Beetles and my grandpa. Donny Yingst, a sports guy who gave his service to the Covington community. Joann Gariety Shipley, just a Russia gal living in Virginia and a huge Fish Report contributor. Don Meyer from Newport who seemed to be everyone’s friend, including ours.  And Linie Hausfeld from Minster who founded Hausfeld Motor Sales and was a Firefighter of the Year.

Blogging about Russia history and posting old pics like this was a passion of Joann Gariety Shipley

Farewell 2012,

Fish

First place and first class...

Liberty Center head coach Tim Atkinson (left) and 

his daughter Brittany (second from top) were guests 

on Fish Report LIVE! back in early October

The Liberty Center Tigers girls cross country program came into the 2012 season as last year's Division III state champions.  Their top runner is last year's individual state champion, sophomore Brittany Atkinson, and their head coach is Brittany's father, Tim Atkinson.  Before this past Saturday's OHSAA State Cross Country Meet, I had never personally met Coach Atkinson or Brittany.  My only previous contact with them was three weeks ago when both were kind enough to do a short telephone interview for my Fish Report LIVE! webcast.  At the time, Coach Atkinson suggested that perhaps we could meet if both Liberty Center and  Russia were fortunate enough to make it to the state meet.  Fortunately, both teams did make it to the state meet and on Saturday Liberty Center managed to defend their title, beating a very good Coldwater team that had just beaten them at the regional meet the week before.  Brittany ran another great race and individually finished second behind super sophomore Sarah Kanney of Coldwater. Since I was doing some reporting work for Fish Report at the state meet, I wanted to get a few post-race comments from Brittany and her coach about their performance.

I found Brittany at the finish chute shortly after the race was over.  She was busy talking to a newspaper reporter and seemed to have a serious demeanor as she answered his questions.  As I waited a couple minutes for her to finish up, I wondered what the chances were she would recall our telephone interview from several weeks ago.  Who? Fish Report?  After Brittany was done with the reporter I approached her and introduced myself.  When I said I was with Fish Report she gave me a big smile and said she remembered our conversation.  The interview went great and I was impressed with her well spoken answers.  I also asked Brittany where I could find her dad and she pointed me in his direction.  Just as she turned to leave I called her attention to a young boy outside the fence that was waiting patiently for her to autograph his souvenir program.  Brittany came over to sign the program as her high school friends behind her shouted "awww" and snapped a picture.

By the time I located Coach Atkinson he was up around the awards podium.  He was getting ready for his top three runners to be honored as All-Ohio, which included his daughter Brittany, senior Kelly Haubert and junior Paige Chamberlain.  Assuming there would be a couple minutes before the awards ceremony started, I thought I might as well take a quick second and just say hello.  I didn't want to take up his time with an interview because after the All-Ohio awards, his team would then be presented with the state champions trophy.  I walked over to Coach Atkinson and extended my hand to offer congratulations.  I told him who I was and mentioned that I interviewed him a few weeks ago for Fish Report.  Coach Atkinson immediately got a smile on his face that reminded me of his daughter's smile a short time ago.  He told me how glad he was to meet me as we talked about the race and another dream season for his team.  Coach Atkinson then told me he had someone he wanted me to meet.  He yelled over to the podium area where his runner Paige Chamberlain was getting ready to be announced All-Ohio.  He told her to come over and introduced me as the guy from Fish Report.  Paige had just ran a time of 19:00, which was 1:28 faster than her regional time the week before.  I asked Paige how in the world someone can improve that much in one week.  Paige had the biggest smile on her face and said she felt like she let her teammates down the week before and didn't want that to happen again today.

Liberty Center's Paige Chamberlain cut 1:28 off her

regional meet time the week before to help the Tigers 

past the 4th-place Russia Raiders

As Paige returned to the podium area Coach Atkinson told me one more thing.  Liberty Center Schools received some sad news a few weeks ago when one of their math teachers was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.  He's a teacher that is very well liked by the team and before the girls left for the state meet, they decided to visit him this past Thursday.  As terrible as his situation is, all he wanted to talk about was the success of the cross country team.  Coach Atkinson said his girls rallied around that and perhaps that's who they ran for on Saturday.

As much as I am a Russia Raiders fan, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with happiness for the Liberty Center Tigers.  I've learned how they went from a program that almost didn't have a team several years ago due to lack of participation, to a two-time state champion.  Coach Atkinson, Brittany and Paige gained at least one fan from Russia this past Saturday and I look forward to hopefully another meeting with my Raiders at next November's state meet.  Until then, congratulations Liberty Center, you're first place and first class!

2012 Russia cross country preview...

2011 was the 6th consecutive year the Russia boys have qualified for state 

If you happen to be a fan of Russia boys or girls cross country, this is going to be a fun year.  If you're not a fan, now would be a good time.  The bandwagon takes off tonight in Russia at the Shelby County Preview and ends, with a little luck, on November 3rd in Hebron at the state meet.  Raider fans have more reasons than ever to be excited this season and here's why.

The Russia boys return practically their whole nucleus from last year, having graduated only one senior from their top five scorers.  Back from 2011's state qualifying team are Bryan Drees, Steven Stickel, Jordan Gariety, Brandon Barlage, Alex Herron and John Heuing.  Those boys, combined with some strong returners from the junior varsity, will push one another to win their fair share of meets throughout season.  The Raiders also have a group of fast freshman coming in that you'll be hearing about in the future.  There's really not one particular standout among these boys which means you can expect 3-4 different Raiders to cross the finish line first for the team on any given Saturday.  The Raiders biggest challenge in the Shelby County Athletic League won't be for a team championship, rather for individual honors.  Although Lehman's Joe Fuller will be the favorite in tonight's SCAL preview, the league's top runners include Ft. Loramie senior Jacob Siegel, Anna junior Adam Larger, Botkins junior Roger Miller and any one of the top Raiders.  Looking across Ohio however, there are plenty of other D3 teams with better preseason times than Russia - on paper.  Locally, Minster and St. Henry will be tough.  Last year's state champ McDonald is still loaded, as are familiar names like Seneca East and Columbus Grove.  The Russia boys program has made going to the state meet somewhat of a tradition recently.  Having run there the last six consecutive years, it's safe to say none of the current runners remember the last time Russia didn't make it to state.  Qualifying hasn't been an issue, placing high among the elites has been the bigger challenge. During that six year stretch the Raiders finished a very respectable 3rd in 2007 and 4th in 2008, but the last couple of years have ended with finishes of 12th & 13th.  None of those trips or prior appearances have earned a banner on the wall in Clair C Naveau Gymnasium, and that's really the only thing missing from all their success.  Is this the season?  Time will tell, but the talent is there, and as the season wears on the boys will gain motivation - motivation from the success of their girls team which should be outstanding.

The 2012 Russia girls team has the depth and talent to perform well

The 2012 Russia girls team may have more depth and talent than any Raider teams in recent history.  Like the boys, the girls program lost only one graduating senior from last season. Back this year are senior veterans Lauren Francis and Becca Meyer.  Lauren has established herself as one of Ohio's best runners and will be looked upon to lead a lot of young talent for the Raiders.  Becca and returning junior teammate Kirsten Voisard regularly battled for the 2nd and 3rd positions last season and, along with Lauren, are the only runners remaining from a memorable 2010 team that finished 5th at the state meet.  Sophomores Claudia Monnin, Hannah Bornhorst and Emily Borchers also return from last year's varsity team and will provide some great competition, as well as some new talent that's bound to make a splash.  As good as Russia can be, one thing is for sure - this area is loaded.  The Raiders don't have to travel far to find another good team in Ft. Loramie.  Expect these two schools to duel for the county championship and watch for a fun individual battle between Lauren Francis and Meg Westerheide for the Redskins.  Looking at Russia's schedule, they will be tested almost weekly against powerhouses like Minster, Coldwater and West Liberty-Salem, as well as Ft. Loramie.  Our bet is that one of those five teams mentioned will be hoisting a state championship trophy in November.  Will it be the Raiders?  If Russia remains healthy they could be right in it.  Minster has already been bit by the injury bug and it's rare for any team to go injury free, but cross country is unique because the regular season doesn't really matter that much - peaking for the post season is what counts.  Get ready for a fun season Raider fans.

Note: As we mentioned above, it all starts tonight with the SCAL Preview in Russia Park at 5:00pm.  Expect a fan-friendly course that allows spectators to see much of the race, including a challenging hill that high school runners will climb twice!  There's also an Elementary Mile fun run taking place after the high school races at approximately 7:00pm.  Don't miss this opportunity to see some of the best cross county runners in the state!