Winning season should be goal

The readers came through in a big way this month.
There were enough questions submitted that I do not have space to answer them all in depth this week. But I’ll be holding on to questions about the Major League Baseball playoff picture, Jay County High School’s outlook in the Allen County Athletic Conference and the NFL season to be answered in future columns.
Two of the questions I chose to answer this week are focused on the upcoming fall sports season. The other is more immediate, regarding some thoughts on tonight’s NBA Draft.

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How big of a sport is soccer in Indiana? Is Jay County High School being left behind in this sport?
—Cain Bilbrey, Dunkirk

As with most sports, soccer’s popularity depends on location.
It’s bigger at the high school level near urban areas where there are more opportunities to play club soccer and to have the facilities to play year-round.
In general, it’s an incredibly popular youth sport. It’s also especially strong at Indiana University, where the men’s soccer team won its eighth national title in 2012.
As for Jay County, I do not believe the school is getting left behind in the sport.
The Patriots are not a state championship contender, but they’ve had a solid program for years. They’ve played for the sectional championship in each of the last two seasons and won three straight sectional titles before that.
That run included a tremendous 2008 season in which JCHS was undefeated before falling to Warsaw in the semi-state semifinal game.

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Who do you see the Indiana Pacers drafting in the first and second rounds of tonight’s NBA Draft, and do you think it’s a good move to bring back Larry Bird into the front office?
—Nathan Miller, Wannamaker

First, I won’t even pretend to know who the Indiana Pacers will pick. It’s possible to project what might happen in the first 10 to 15 picks, but beyond that it is next to impossible.
Most mock drafts I’ve seen have the Pacers going for a scoring guard (Isaiah Canaan, Allen Crabbe, Ricky Ledo), but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they took a big man just in case David West decides to leave in free agency.
As for Larry Bird, yes, I think it’s a great move to bring him back to the front office. Bird played a key role in rebuilding the Pacers after the infamous brawl in Detroit and it is good to see him back with the organization.

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How good do you think Jay County football will be this year?
—Brentt Lewis, Portland

Predicting wins and losses is not the easiest thing, but the team has potential.
The Patriots went 3-7 last season, but lost three games by five or fewer points. One of those came in a 42-40 tournament heartbreaker against Bishop Dwenger, which went on to win the sectional title.
It will be tough to replace a strong two-way player like Cade Price, but JCHS returns a lot of players at key positions. Among them are running back J.D. Mangas, who got better and better as the season went along and racked up 210 yards and four touchdowns against Bishop Dwenger.
Another important note for the upcoming season is that while Tim Millspaugh is a new coach, he’s not really new.
He’s been the defensive coordinator for the Patriots for most of the last decade. And he’s committed to running the Wing-T offense installed by Steve Boozier last season.
Usually when a new coach comes in, it means the players must learn an entirely new system. That won’t be the case this season.
Jay County has not had a winning season since going 9-4 and winning its only sectional championship in school history in 2007. Looking at the Patriots’ schedule, I’d say they have a good chance to get back above .500.[[In-content Ad]]