First few weeks full of learning

It’s about improvement.
Sure, every team wants to win every game, match and meet in which it is involved.
But any good coach will agree a season is not made in the first few weeks. Wins early in the year don’t mean as much if they’re not built upon.
For some teams, that will mean competing for sectional championships and more. For others, it’ll simply be about playing their best.
The first few weeks are a time of learning for players, coaches and fans. All the pre-season talk becomes meaningless as reality — sometimes good, sometimes bad, often somewhere in between — sets in.
So, what have we learned so far?

•Injuries are no fun.
Unfortunately, local squads have already dealt with plenty of them. Both the Jay County and Fort Recovery High School volleyball teams lost players — Emily Walter and Morgan Lennartz respectively — before the season began.
For the Patriots, the problems didn’t end there. Returning kills leader Abby Barcus has been out since Aug. 20 with a foot injury, Lizzy Schoenlein missed the Jay County Invitational with a concussion and Abby Wendel has been playing despite a back problem.
Other JCHS squads have had their issues as well. Gabbie Mann of the girls soccer team missing a couple of games with a deep knee bruise and several football players — Jacob Geesaman, Mario Rodriguez and Drew Huffman among them — are nursing injuries as well.
The key, though, for every team is to be as healthy as possible at the end of the season. If players have to miss time, it’s better to come now rather than in October.

•Bailey McIntire is a real contender for a state medal.
It’s way too early to predict what is going to happen on Halloween in Terre Haute. But McIntire has already proven he’s a runner to be reckoned with.
The South Adams junior has competed in two races this year, and he has won them both. His time at Saturday’s Celina Rotary Invitational was 16 minutes, 38 seconds.
What does that mean?
Well, he ran more than a minute faster — 1:06 to be exact — at that meet than he did on the same course last year. He went on to finish 21st in the state to close his sophomore season.
For McIntire, the sky is the limit.

•Fort Recovery football was not a fluke in 2014.
Whether or not the Indians could repeat the success of last season, which included their first playoff appearance, was a legitimate question. They lost some key players, including running back Cole Hull and twins Alex and Evan Schoen.
But the Indians made an early statement Friday with their shutout victory over Lehman Catholic, a team that won 10 games in each of the previous two seasons. The FRHS defense quieted the Cavaliers and forced turnovers in the 36-0 win, and the offense moved the ball effectively through the air and on the ground.
Yes, a spot in the Division VII playoffs, a wide-open field this year with four-time defending champion Marion Local bumped up to Division VI, is far from clinched. The Indians’ next game is against Fort Loramie, a team that will surely be looking for revenge after losing to FRHS in the 2014 tournament, and the Midwest Athletic Conference gauntlet follows.
But the Indians have already proven they weren’t a one-year wonder. They’ll be in the hunt this season for the long haul.

•Results in close games are going to make or break the JCHS football season.
Based on history, we can’t be surprised by the results of the first two games. The Patriots haven’t beaten Delta on the field since 1993, and they’ve now won seven in a row against Blackford.
But the coming weeks bring some games that should be tight.
It begins Friday when Jay County visits Southern Wells (2-0), which is coming off of a 42-point blowout of Fremont. Blackford defeated that same Fremont team 19-0 in its season opener before losing by 25 to the Patriots. Comparing scores doesn’t always work, but those numbers predict a down-to-the-wire contest.
Other games that look like they will be close include Sept. 18 against Bluffton (JCHS won 54-50 last year), Oct. 2 at South Adams (the Starfires are 0-2 but have traditionally surged late in the season), Oct. 9 at Indianapolis Marshall (a newcomer to the Patriots’ schedule) and the regular-season finale against Heritage.
Jay County’s results in those games will likely decide whether they can climb back above .500 after finishing 2-8 a year ago.