Baseball coach is the school's leader in wins

Thank you.

Usually, as the end of the month approaches, I put a post up on Facebook and Twitter reminding readers that I am looking for sports questions to answer in my column. I often tag those who have asked questions before, in hopes of prompting them to do so again.

It’s effective, but not ideal. This monthly Q&A column was designed in hopes of creating greater engagement with readers.

Well, this month, maybe for the first time since the Q&A column debuted in October 2011, worked as planned. No social media prompts were necessary. By Sunday night, I had three solid questions.

For that, I thank you. (Let’s try to keep the trend going. Send questions to [email protected].)

Here are the answers:

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In the past few years, we have noticed that several junior high and even high schools don’t have the number of students to compete in games/events. Are young people losing interest?

—Jerry Sullivan, Portland



Interest levels have probably dropped a bit, but these things tend to be cyclical. Certain sports will see a surge of interest while others see a decline, and years later roles will be reversed.

High school students, like all of us, are just being pulled in more directions than ever before. Some have to choose between sports and a job, others between sports and other activities and clubs that draw their interest. In school districts the size of Jay County — 384 square miles — transportation can also be an issue.

Sports also become more serious in high school. Practices are longer and more strenuous than they were in eighth grade. More time is involved.

For all of those reasons, sometimes athletes just aren’t willing to make the commitment.

On the other hand, many are often in multiple sports and while still being involved in other activities and/or holding down a job. Those students should be commended for their dedication.

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What are your projections for the Big Ten awards — coach of the year, player of the year, freshman of the year and first team?

—Jenae Horn Blasdel, Bryant



Let’s start with coach of the year, given that the guy comes from just down the road. Purdue’s Matt Painter, a Delta High School graduate, deserves the honor as his squad leads the Big Ten by a game over Wisconsin heading into tonight’s contest against Indiana.

Keeping with the pattern of honoring the team with the conference’s best record, I’m going with Homestead High School graduate Caleb Swanigan of the Boilermakers for player of the year. His 12.6 rebounds per game are 3.5 more than anyone else in the conference and he ranks second in scoring at 18.6 points per game.

For freshman of the year, I’ll take Miles Bridges of Michigan State. He’s averaged nearly 32 minutes per game, scoring 16.3 points and grabbing 8.2 rebounds, and has scored at least 13 points in every game since Jan. 11.

Joining Swanigan on my All-Big Ten first team are Iowa’s Peter Jok (20.6 points, 6.0 rebounds), Nebraska’s Tai Webster (17.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists), Indiana’s James Blackmon (16.9 points, 4.6 assists, 77 3-pointers) and Michigan’s Derrick Walton Jr. (14.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists).

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Who is the the coach that has won the most games/matches/meets in Jay County High School history?

—Nick Leonhard, Portland



Lea Selvey.

This was an interesting one to research, given that record-keeping has been better in some sports than others. But it seems Selvey is the clear leader, whether for a single sport or overall wins.

Selvey took over the Patriot baseball program during the 1988-89 school year and has won 446 games in his nearly 30 seasons on the diamond. He coached girls basketball for seven seasons, accumulating 77 wins, bringing him to a total of 513. He has also coached cross country but does not have records from those years.

Next on the list are Barry Weaver and Fred Medler. The former has more total wins — 289 in boys swimming and 205 in boys tennis for a total of 494 — while the latter has more victories in a single sport — 337 in volleyball — and added another eight in one season heading the softball program.

Bev Arnold totaled 286 wins — 214 in girls swimming and 72 in varsity gymnastics — though the gymnastics number is a tough one to gauge because for a while the sport was contested at the “beginning,” “intermediate” and “optional” levels rather than varsity and JV. Craig Teagle totaled 250 wins in boys basketball before departing for Huntington North two seasons ago.

If there’s anyone else in the 200-plus range who I may have missed, let me know and they can be included in a future column.