August 19, 2014 at 6:14 p.m.
New season brings new opportunities
Rays of Insight
It’s time.
Usually by late July each year I’m ready.
By that point, it’s been too long since the tennis and golf matches were contested, the final track meets run and the final baseball and softball games played. I’m chomping at the bit for high school sports to begin again.
And that is as true this year as ever before, maybe even more so.
That’s because on top of the normal excitement of seeing each team in competition with a fresh chance at success, this year brings some new opportunities.
Chances to repeat
As always, when a new season comes along, we wonder if the defending champions can come through again.
The list of potential repeat winners for the fall includes the Jay County girls cross country and girls soccer teams.
No team has had a longer stretch of sustained tournament success than the Patriot runners, as the girls have won eight straight sectional championships.
The road to a ninth straight sectional will be no easy task as JCHS returns just two of its top five runners — juniors Megan Wellman and Kellie Fortkamp — from last season.
First-year coach Sarah Mescher will need the remainder of her group of just seven athletes to come through in a big way in order to keep the streak alive.
The Patriot girls soccer team is coming from a different position, hoping to start a streak after finally breaking through to win a title last season after losing its previous eight sectional championship games.
It also lost some key athletes, but first-year coach Giles Laux also has plenty of experience, including leading scorer Gabbie Mann, returning to lead the effort for another sectional crown.
Also vying for repeat sectional titles are the South Adams boys cross country team, which advanced all the way to the state finals, and the Starfire football team.
Patriots vs. Indians
For the first time this year, Jay County and Fort Recovery will meet on the gridiron.
It’s a game I thought I’d never see.
Because of the way the schedules lined up — the Indians played just one non-conference game and that week lined up with when the Patriots play Blackford — I never thought it would be feasible.
But a few years back the Midwest Athletic Conference made a change to allow two non-conference games, and this season the timing finally worked out.
So for Jay County’s third game and Fort Recovery’s second, the state-line rivals will meet at Harold E. Schutz Memorial Stadium.
It’s hard to compare teams across state lines, but the CalPreps.com “project a matchup” tool predicts the Patriots and Indians would have been separated by less than a touchdown in each of the last two seasons.
If the atmosphere over the years at boys and girls basketball games between the two schools is any indication, and especially if the game is close in the fourth quarter, the atmosphere that evening will be electric.
A new conference
For the last four years, Jay County had been an independent. And for the previous decade, the Olympic Athletic Conference included five teams or fewer.
So when the Patriot girls golf team traveled Aug. 12 to Cedar Creek Golf Club to take on new Allen County Athletic Conference foes Leo and Adams Central, it marked the first time JCHS has competed in a full-sized conference in nearly 15 years.
Having a conference affiliation is not a necessity — I attended a school that has always been an independent — but it can be a real positive.
Most obviously, it makes the regular-season meetings with conference opponents more meaningful.
And it offers the opportunity for conference tournaments, with Jay County hosting the first of the 2014-15 school year Sept. 6 at Portland Golf Club.
But in addition to building rivalries, competing against the same group of schools in every sport each year also provides the chances to create camaraderie and cooperation between communities.
It’ll be good to see Jay County taking on the Starfires, Raiders, Flying Jets, Tigers, Warriors, Lions and Patriots (the Heritage variety) all year, and even better when the school brings home its first Allen County Athletic Conference title.
Usually by late July each year I’m ready.
By that point, it’s been too long since the tennis and golf matches were contested, the final track meets run and the final baseball and softball games played. I’m chomping at the bit for high school sports to begin again.
And that is as true this year as ever before, maybe even more so.
That’s because on top of the normal excitement of seeing each team in competition with a fresh chance at success, this year brings some new opportunities.
Chances to repeat
As always, when a new season comes along, we wonder if the defending champions can come through again.
The list of potential repeat winners for the fall includes the Jay County girls cross country and girls soccer teams.
No team has had a longer stretch of sustained tournament success than the Patriot runners, as the girls have won eight straight sectional championships.
The road to a ninth straight sectional will be no easy task as JCHS returns just two of its top five runners — juniors Megan Wellman and Kellie Fortkamp — from last season.
First-year coach Sarah Mescher will need the remainder of her group of just seven athletes to come through in a big way in order to keep the streak alive.
The Patriot girls soccer team is coming from a different position, hoping to start a streak after finally breaking through to win a title last season after losing its previous eight sectional championship games.
It also lost some key athletes, but first-year coach Giles Laux also has plenty of experience, including leading scorer Gabbie Mann, returning to lead the effort for another sectional crown.
Also vying for repeat sectional titles are the South Adams boys cross country team, which advanced all the way to the state finals, and the Starfire football team.
Patriots vs. Indians
For the first time this year, Jay County and Fort Recovery will meet on the gridiron.
It’s a game I thought I’d never see.
Because of the way the schedules lined up — the Indians played just one non-conference game and that week lined up with when the Patriots play Blackford — I never thought it would be feasible.
But a few years back the Midwest Athletic Conference made a change to allow two non-conference games, and this season the timing finally worked out.
So for Jay County’s third game and Fort Recovery’s second, the state-line rivals will meet at Harold E. Schutz Memorial Stadium.
It’s hard to compare teams across state lines, but the CalPreps.com “project a matchup” tool predicts the Patriots and Indians would have been separated by less than a touchdown in each of the last two seasons.
If the atmosphere over the years at boys and girls basketball games between the two schools is any indication, and especially if the game is close in the fourth quarter, the atmosphere that evening will be electric.
A new conference
For the last four years, Jay County had been an independent. And for the previous decade, the Olympic Athletic Conference included five teams or fewer.
So when the Patriot girls golf team traveled Aug. 12 to Cedar Creek Golf Club to take on new Allen County Athletic Conference foes Leo and Adams Central, it marked the first time JCHS has competed in a full-sized conference in nearly 15 years.
Having a conference affiliation is not a necessity — I attended a school that has always been an independent — but it can be a real positive.
Most obviously, it makes the regular-season meetings with conference opponents more meaningful.
And it offers the opportunity for conference tournaments, with Jay County hosting the first of the 2014-15 school year Sept. 6 at Portland Golf Club.
But in addition to building rivalries, competing against the same group of schools in every sport each year also provides the chances to create camaraderie and cooperation between communities.
It’ll be good to see Jay County taking on the Starfires, Raiders, Flying Jets, Tigers, Warriors, Lions and Patriots (the Heritage variety) all year, and even better when the school brings home its first Allen County Athletic Conference title.
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD