Join Shayne Combs and John Bruce for our first live episode of Overtime, presented by Perfection One, as they discuss the high school boys and girls fall sports landscapes around the southeast district.
TIMESTAMPS:
Gallia Academy’s Gracyn Clark reaches 2,000 Career Assists — 3:25
Miami Trace’s Doug Race earns career win #400 — 5:34
South Webster’s Hunter Barnard scores his 100th career goal — 7:19
DISCUSSION: Underrated and Underappreciated athletes in the SOSA coverage area — 10:40
FOOTBALL
Wheelersburg @ Lucasville Valley (Review) — 16:25
Wheelersburg’s Rob Woodard becomes the Pirates’ all-time winningest coach — 21:35
Jackson @ Hillsboro (Preview) — 28:08
SOC 1 Dominance — 31:12
Unioto’s Matt Hoops breaks Shermans’ career wins record — 35:29
Westfall @ Zane Trace (Preview) — 37:28
Nelsonville-York’s hot start, heading toward a Week 10 clash with Athens — 42:43
DISCUSSION: Underrated and Underappreciated athletes on the gridiron (Ironton’s Mullens, Unioto’s Jarvis & Renner, Adena’s Schaaf, Wheelersburg’s Emnett, Zane Trace’s Oiler, Westfall’s Eberly, Eastern’s Tomlison, long snappers & holders featured) — 47:30
Chillicothe @ Miami Trace (Preview) — 56:40
Ironton @ Wheelersburg (Preview) — 1:02:50
SOCCER — 1:10:05
North Adams hot start — 1:12:10
McClain @ Jackson girls (Preview) — 1:17:00
Lynchburg-Clay @ Wheelersburg boys (Preview) — 1:19:47
DISCUSSION: Underrated and Underappreciated athletes on the pitch (Wheelersburg’s Weller, Lynchburg Clay’s Faust, Peebles’ Gross, South Webster’s Brayden Barnard, Fairfield’s Henninger, Minford’s Tieman, Alexander’s Allison) — 1:22:51
VOLLEYBALL — 1:27:40
Adena @ Unioto (Review) — 1:27:55
Hillsboro @ Waverly (Review) — 1:38:14
Wheelersburg’s Ella Chamberlin passes out her 2,000th career assist — 1:40:30
Wheelersburg @ Lucasville Valley — 1:44:10
Circleville @ Logan Elm (Preview) — 1:46:58
Underrated and Underappreciated athletes on the court (Gallia Academy’s Bennett, Chesapeake’s Lowe, Miami Trace’s Ackley & Carter, Piketon’s Vulgamore, Moore & Childers, Fairfield’s Moon, North Adams’ Ragan) — 1:50:35
CROSS COUNTRY — 2:02:30
Rio Grande Meet (Unioto boys, Rock Hill’s Nixon Snavely & Adena’s Vanessa Conley dominate)
GOLF
SVC results — 2:06:40
SHAC results — 2:08:45
Girls Division I results (Unioto team, Circleville’s Isabelle Perini win sectional)– 2:11:04
Girls Division II @ Buckeye Hills results (Zane Trace team, Rosella Lattavo win sectional) — 2:12:39
Girls Division II @ Franklin Valley results (Piketon team, Laila Kelley win sectional) — 2:13:38
Girls Division II @ Cliffside results (Wellston team, South Point’s Samiya Bradburn win sectional — 2:15:25
#SOSA #Football #Volleyball #Soccer #Golf #CrossCountry #highschoolfootball #SouthernOhio #SOSAOvertime #Underrated #live
Overtime presented by Perfection One. My name is John Bruce along with Shane Colmes. Welcoming you into episode 72 of Sosa’s Flagship Ship Podcast. Man, it’s been like I was trying to say it the other day, didn’t do it, but nobody could see it. So, it was like, oh, that’s no big deal. Uh because our our audio was not working the other night. But thank you to Jacob Wise for doing a lot of uh discussion tonight trying to make sure everything is working out well. So let’s hope that it is. So uh we did a little over two hours the other day, but we previewed several Tuesday events which already happened. So uh we’re not going to have to do that today, but we are going to talk about the same information as we did last week or last week two two days ago. Feels like last week. Yeah, feels like last week. It’s It’s been a long week. So, how are you doing today, Shane? Do doing real well. I uh I enjoyed the volleyball down at Valley High School last night, Wheelersburg, really really good team and got a chance to do that with Dwey and busy week as we’ll be right back at it with the Logan Elm Circleville Thursday night and then Chilikathy M Trace football Friday night. That that’s what’s exciting about Sosa. There’s something a little bit for everybody throughout the throughout the week. Uh I I enjoy being a part of the coverage. Yeah, it’s a little bit of everything throughout. And we’re going to try to uh honor a little bit of the golf and cross country this week as uh we have been the last couple weeks. More cross country. Uh Shane’s got some good information on that later on in the podcast, which means if it’s the same information as the other day, it was good stuff the other day. So, uh like I said, we we had some technical difficulties working through some stuff. Uh we’ve had some some very helpful uh people along the way that have made things a little bit easier for us here at Southern High Sports Authority and we appreciate each and every one of them for doing what they can to make this work. So, as we said, first live episode going to be talking about some of the stuff, most of the stuff that we talked about uh and what would have released yesterday. And if you have not been able to watch this live, which is completely fine because I think we’re on at 4:15. So, like I understand if you’re not watching this live, uh we will have timestamps later on in uh available. It’ll be in the same spot as always when we put this back out probably tonight around like 8 or so. Uh it’ll have full time stamps at that time. So, I know people really appreciate that. Again, I know you won’t say it, so I will. You know, John puts so much behind the scenes effort into this, which is awesome. And you know, we’ve always had that philosophy that, you know, we’ll talk as long as we have to to cover all the different kids and then we’ll, you know, you’ll put the timestamps out there and that gives people a chance to go and kind of find their favorite section if they’re not one to to listen to all of it. That that’s certainly fine. But it’s there’s there’s five different sports that we’re going to talk about tonight. So, that’s five different things or could be four different things you don’t have a care about, which is perfectly fine because, you know, not everyone cares about everything. So, uh, we we found that out in a big way throughout our, uh, modern world. So, we actually have a couple extra headlines that we’re going to talk about tonight. First up, uh, one of two players this past week who hit their 20,000th career assist. We’ll talk about another one later on in the episode. Uh, but, uh, Guy Academy junior, Grayson Clark, 2,000 career assists, only a junior. Like, what what can you say about her and her game? uh that we we probably have already said, but uh can go back over for those who have not been able to see her play. Yeah, I had a chance to throw out a congrats to her online today and uh just a terrific player. If you haven’t had a chance to see her play, she quarterbacks a 5-1 offense and and look, let’s not kid herself. She’s she’d be the first to tell you, I’m sure. She’s got a loaded list of of hitters that she can spread the ball up and down the net to, but she just does such a terrific job, John. She’s so athletic. So, you know, pass on target. She’s able to read the defense and and put it on time on target to her hitters, but she’s also able to come off the net, you know, run down some of the not so great passes, still get her team on the attack. She’s a good defender from that setter spot when she has to, you know, to defend there and and u just just a really good player and and as you said, just a junior. So, beyond the statistics, uh she’s just really really good. But man, that that number as a junior with with a you know, still quite a bit of the junior year left, tournament run and then into the senior year, it’s hard to be telling what that thing could end up at by the time we’re talking next year this time. So, congratulations to her. Just a lot of fun to follow. Well, and you mentioned only a junior, but there’s no seniors on the team either. So, you would think logically they’re going to progress and just get better and better. So, those numbers are going to elevate even more. So, she’s going to have a chance to push it possibly a 3,000 uh career assist, which no one in the Southeast has ever done. Well, and and that that’s an incredible number. And and I’ll talk a little bit more about her team later because I’m going to highlight one of her teammates in a in a segment that we have uh that I know you’ll touch on here shortly, but uh yeah, she she’s terrific and and that team, I look forward to talking about uh them as a whole a little bit later in the show. Yeah, that’s an outstanding team. But uh speaking of outstanding teams, our second uh headline for the week, Miami Trace has Doug Grace 400 career wins for the volleyball coach of the Panthers. Outstanding. Uh they’ve they’ve dominated the FAC for quite some time now. I I know Dwey is is is given some great numbers on that. Um tomorrow night when we have the Circleville Logan Elm rematch, I know that’ll be the Chilikathy Miami Trace rematch in the FAC. and and uh yeah, look, Miami Trace has set the standard in that conference and people are trying to chase him down. Coach has done an outstanding job. Uh outstanding setter play there from Yasel and then I know they graduate the big time hitter a year ago. They returned Jess and Fren who have been really really good onetw punch and um again that’s a team we’ll we’ll talk about a little bit later as well, but they really really good. Yeah, just outstanding program over at Miami Trace. Doug Grace does an outstanding job with them. And as as you mentioned, we we streamed them a couple weeks ago. any of our past streams at all. Uh as long as there is not some massive uh issue with them. We we’ve had a couple that uh we’ve just had issues with in in the past where they may not be available, but any of our past streams uh especially in the last year and a half are available here on YouTube, which uh Shane and Dewey called that Union or that Chilcathy in Miami Trace match a couple of weeks ago. It was a good one. four setter that you know Miami Trace ended up winning in four, but you could you could argue that Tilicopathy kind of outplayed him for a two and a half three set stretch there. But again, that’s even more credit to Miami Trace for finding a way. But I I look for that to be a competitive one again uh Thursday night there in Miami at Miami Trace High School. Yeah, it should be outstanding for sure. But, uh, our last headline, which was our only headline originally, uh, goes into kind of will segue into the rest of our show, rest of our script for tonight. Uh, 100 career goals for South Webster’s Hunter Bernard. Uh, just an outstanding player, a three sport athlete who does it at a high level at all three sports. uh he’s shortstop in baseball on their Elite 8 team uh from a year ago who returns practically everyone as well. And then on their basketball team, he was a starter uh one of their guards just an outstanding player. I know he had double figures in their state semi-final game there. And then soccer, they got to the uh regional semi-final a year ago, but 100 career goals. Uh just an outstanding player. Can you put that into context for us? you know, maybe someone, you know, who loves high school sports. I’m not as as familiar with soccer. You know, I I’ve tried to do this with volleyball and and baseball. I’ve tried to look. I think a thousand points in basketball seems to be the the milestone that people kind of have the best feel of, even though it’s changed a little bit. We’ll talk more about that in the winter, but what what’s a 100 goal? What’s that mean? Like like put in the com just how good that is. I’d say 1500 points, maybe more. Um because if you’re if you are comparing there’s a lot less obviously a lot less scoring in soccer um less games in the regular season and it just it’s 1500 points is a level that not a lot of people reach. It might be closer to the 2,000 point mark because it’s it’s an accomplishment that not a lot of guys have or girl guys or girls have. Uh, I know the state recognizes the athletes that have gotten 115 career goals or more and there’s not a whole lot from the Southeast and there’s not a whole lot from the state. So, uh, just by doing that, I I think it’s a it’s a big-time standout performance. I I’d probably put it closer to 1500 because like you have like the Nick Sylvia that had the two or 150 goals. Uh, yeah. So, I’d put that closer to 2,000 points. But so, so really if I follow you, I mean, we really need just cuz it’s not the round number or whatever, we probably need to start highlighting a little bit more of our of our young men and women that maybe hit the 70 mark, 80. Well, I I know for a long time there were some schools that their record was in the 70s or 80s and it was very impressive. Uh, so now if you’re scoring more, I feel like the level like the skill level of soccer is catching up here in the Southeast. Now, some teams are still bigger, faster, stronger, and that can make a difference for them later on. Uh, maybe help them get a little further along in the tournament. Uh, I I saw South Webster play last night. You can tell a size difference, uh, but also a very skilled difference, uh, or a very high skill level for South Webster. One of the reasons why I say what he’s done is going to tie into the rest of our show, it feels to me, I wouldn’t say underrated. Now, we our our show title is week five review and underrated stars, but it kind of is. So, you can think of there’s always discussion on if someone’s underrated. Sometimes it goes overrated. Um, but more times than not, if you’re talking about underrated, you can also talk about underappreciated. So, I feel like, you know, I I kind of mentioned it on last week’s show that I thought Hunter was one of the more underrated three sport athletes, but then he hits his 100 career goals. I’m like, he might just be extremely underappreciated as a whole because of what he does, but he’s not the only one. So, what do you think makes an athlete in our area either underrated or underappreciated? It it’s a great topic because like like any topic that I enjoy talking about, anytime you’re able to go through and just mention a bunch of different kids, I think that’s a good thing because that’s what we’re here for. But on on the topic, I think it has a lot to do with how kids impact winning. And and I think that there’s different levels of fans, you know, and there’s, you know, parents and there’s there’s family that follow their favorites, which they should do, and then there’s there’s coaches and then there’s, you know, there’s media and there’s different things. And I think it’s how they impact winning. I think it’s, you know, there there probably is a lot of things that are statistical that in today’s time that maybe there’s certain stats out there that do highlight more of what kids are doing compared to certain things kind of don’t show up on a stat sheet as we say sometimes in a cliche in sports. But but I will say this, John, and and tell me if you agree. I think this happens a lot less, which is good. This happens a lot less in terms of underappreciating undercovering kids because you of all the media that we have in today’s time. I think SOSA right there at the forefront of it. But like you know you go back I just wrapped up a 30-year career and I’d say my first 20 years that you know you might have some radio, might have some newspaper things like that where now there’s so many different types of media that kids are getting more and more coverage. You know, just like with what I was saying with was with with Sosa, you know, there’s podcasts and there’s the the the interviews and there’s the the game covers and there’s photo galleries. Back in the day, you might get a picture in the newspaper. Now, you have hundreds of pictures available for just one event that was covered. So, it’s it’s awesome. And I know from a coaching perspective, like when we won the district championship back to back in 14 and 15, maybe a little newspaper, little radio. Then when we won the district championship in 2021, it was like it took an hour just after the game to just be done. You know what I mean? Like which was good because kids were getting honored. But but I think because of that, do you agree that beyond just who scored the most points or the running back with the yards or whatever is now you might see a little bit more of an interview with the offensive lineman, you might see uh the the the kid get interviewed that got the sacrifice butt down in the last inning to set up the gamewinning RBI. You should have those intangible things. Do you do you agree with me that? Oh, I I agree completely because it it makes it to where a little bit of the whole team is celebrated and and really if and I feel like with where a lot of these interview the postgame interviews are going with the players like we edit them and I I’m I’m sure other places edit them as well. So you can ask as many questions as you want and you can cut it down to where it’s their answers. And by doing that, it can kind of celebrate different kids. Like when I I talked to Hunter Bernard last night and Bryce Mcclick, a couple of his teammates, we got to talk about their goalie. We got to talk about their midfield. Got to talk about their defense. And that way we can celebrate that entire team because I mean that’s a Southwestern team that is unbeaten in their first 12 matches. So you want to celebrate those things. But overall, I I think with that and not having maybe the time crunch that newspapers had, uh that that could make it to where we can celebrate a little more of the kids uh than possibly otherwise because you know back in the day and I’m sure still today newspapers have a deadline like they got to get out and get printed. So, uh, now that we’re in the digital age for us and and other, uh, companies, it makes it to where they can take a little more time, uh, they can wait, they can wait for a coach after. So, where a a team can have a little more time to celebrate as a team and then you can pull the players aside, uh, instead of doing it immediately, um, I think is is one of the aspects where it can help celebrate those other people. And honestly, it gives you more time to think of your questions and to prepare your line of thinking because uh we want to make sure we’re celebrating as many of these athletes as possible. It’s a it’s a great point and I think it’s really helped grow the game and in each and every sport because of of how it does highlight a lot of the details and and I think it kind of trains the sports fan to to watch the game a little differently. You know what I mean? like like I’ll talk about a particular group later in our volleyball segment where we talk about the importance of the block, you know, leading to outstanding back row play in terms of how it it helps them, how so how the one intangible that doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet might lead to the 1500 digs that we’re highlighting, so to speak. So, it is it’s it’s it’s a it’s a great topic that I’ve really enjoyed diving into and I think we’re going to get a chance throughout the the night to highlight a lot of kids because of it. Yeah. And that’s something that you said we’re going to highlight a lot of kids because we’re going to use it in every one of our segments uh throughout the show or at least our first three segments uh as we go on. But uh jumping into our first segment which is football. You know, people love their football especially here in the Southeast. Uh our game of the week last week was very impressive by Wheelersburg which you know a 52-7 win over Lucasville Valley. Uh there’s another record in this that we’re going to highlight in just a second but uh Shane you were there. I was there for a little bit. Uh you were there for throughout. What really stood out to you about that Wheelersburg team? Well, the fir well the let me let me kind of shift gears on you just a second if you’re if it’s okay because in order to talk about how impressed I was with Wheelersburg I want to make sure people understand valley is a good football team like like Lucasville Valley I I see them still as an 8 and2 seven and three football team I think I think you know they had Cunningham and Conway at the quarterback position doing some different things there and then you know obviously Bender and the special teams is a gamecher type of kicker and and Aaron and McNeel one-two punch. McNeel had the big play in the passing game. They used him in the slot quite a bit. But but I wanted to make sure I say that first so that we then could turn over and appreciate how good Wheelersburg is because it was just a different level of athlete. I mean, this wasn’t this wasn’t as much about what did Valley do wrong as much as like, hey, Wheelersburg’s really good. So, you know, the the Evans kid is next level. I mean, I know you’ll talk a little bit about that video here in a second, but um I was really really impressed with uh Rucker at the quarterback position, his ability to throw it and and run it and and do some of those things. I know he threw a touchdown to Miller. He also hit Elijah Brown. And then how many different kids were involved on the defensive side? I know Brown had a an interception. I think it was Hunter Henderson at 66. Um they had the young man, the sophomore, Brandan, real strong kid running on the short yardage. And then obviously Heimbach is also a game changer for them at kicker. Um and then I don’t have the name in front of me. I apologize. The young man, the kid that blocked the punt came off that right side and that that set up the the uh the Brandan short run for the score. if you have the roster there. In fact, I think it was number 20 or 27. Which one’s Hunter? Henderson. I’d love to get his name on here because again, it was such a big play. So, my point is you had so many different impactful plays from offense, from defense, from special teams. I was so impressed how they were prepared because I heard someone say going in, you I know we’ll talk a lot about the Whethersburg Iron game coming up here later. A lot of people were asking me, do you think they’ll be you peeking ahead a little bit? Well, they answered that question in about first five minutes of the game and the answer was no. They were focused on the on the business trip down to Lucasville. That was impressive. Yeah. So 21’s 100 or Austin Pedigrew. Yes. That’s it. That’s it. So that was a huge play. Well, thank you. Yes. I wanted to make sure I highlighted that. So part of the pregame was, you know, our Kenneth was not available that night. So went down to to try to help make sure everything got set up. Uh, you know, Carson Francis did a good job as as always, uh, on the call, but also, uh, on the setup. Uh, you were there. Uh, Dewey Daily helped, uh, making sure everything was going right. And then Carson Wickline did a really good job setting up with camera work, but without Kenneth there and like we got done setting up pretty quick, just talked to some different people about like kind of the game uh, because I wasn’t doing anything after that. And part of the talk was is Berg going to look ahead as you mentioned. And my thought was, man, you know, what Ironton did to him last year kind of might make it to where they don’t look ahead because it’s like, you know, that’s tough to deal with uh backto-back years, but at the same time, they’ve played big game after big game throughout their whole careers where they were going to be ready. Now, Valley kind of punched him in the mouth early after the big touchdown, but then Kenyan Evans with that run that what you can see on all of our socials. Uh it’s it’s just an outstanding run. He broke about seven tackles. You see, if you really watch it two or three times, you can just see different people throwing blocks downfield. I think uh Rucker caught up and threw a big block later. That’s the quarterback. Uh just going like these guys are playing hard for each other. And then you’ve got guys making unbelievable in individual plays like Kenyon Evans did. And then defensively they were outstanding throughout. And it was just uh like I said it it’s that play is all over our socials. It’s on other companies socials as well. It should probably be uh pretty well. It was going to be like, hey, that was a good 20 yard run. Oh, wait a minute. That was a good 40 yard run. Before you know, like, oh my goodness, he’s going to go with the disc. It was just it was just one of those types of runs where it’s just totally next level. Yeah, it is on our on our YouTube page. It is the biggest video that you can still see. And when I talked about technical difficulties, we had a technical difficulties where people were just logging in and out to where we had just a crazy amount of views on one of our videos, but it’s not available because it’s not very good. But that play was unreal by Kenyan Evans and great work by Wheelersburg all the way down. Part of the reason though, you see that from Wheelersburg, coach Rob Woodard won, that was win number 174 in his career. He becomes Wheelersburg’s all-time winning as coach, which says a lot about what he’s been able to do since he’s taken over uh at Ed Miller Stadium for the Pirates. Coach Robert Woodard, 174 career wins. Wheelersburg’s winning as coach. Well, you know, the coach in me is always first amazed by the longevity, you know. I mean, be beyond a a win loss record, I I have such a high level of respect for guys who have done it for for a while because I know the grind and I know what it does, you know, to family and to commitment and all that different stuff. So, first of all, just hats off to anyone who puts that much time and invest that much time into kids. But but yeah, I mean that the success and the consistency. It’s one thing to have a nice team. It’s a nice thing to have, hey, this these couple classes came through and they’re good. And then all of a sudden, you have the elite programs and it truly is the reload, right? It’s just that that cycle that just comes and and you kind of you kind of see that even into the second half when they’re playing some of the younger kids, you’re like, “Well, there’s the next one. There’s the next one.” You know, and it’s just it’s it’s it’s a real neat thing to watch. Yeah. It’s it’s one of the better programs in the Southeast. And I actually saw they are actively the most successful program in the state as far as wins and losses go. They have the highest win percentage of active schools. Now, the Cincinnati Academy for Physical Education, which is no more, um, which you as an educator would understand, uh, that it’s not a lot of PE out there anyway. And and me as a PE teacher, there’s not a lot of PE out there. So, I can’t imagine an academy for physical education being open still. They are the all-time leader and will probably remain that. But I just saw that stat today. Um, you know, the uh Drew Pastor for fantastic50.net shared out uh a page that has that. Uh very cool to to see and and be able to find out where some of the schools are. uh maybe a school that we may uh talk about a little bit later um where I I had gone back through their recent history and it’s not very good and then I saw their entire history. It’s it’s very not very good but um not in our area. So um are you old enough to remember Carlos Snow? I I remember the I I believe I believe he might have been Kate. Yeah. And I it was either it was either Williamsburg or Ironton beat him in the playoffs and it was Carlos Snow was there. And yeah, it’s that’s that’s really the main reason I know Carlos Snow’s name is because uh a lot of the locals remember him and remember one of our local uh outstanding football programs beating them. So, one of the things that we like to highlight on here and what we were going to do earlier this week was we’re going to try to put this in to the show. Well, and then the audio was gone, so we couldn’t even do that. I’m not very good at editing stuff anyway. So, you’re gonna see this hit later. It’ll be tied into a video probably on Friday uh on our main social YouTube page. But uh we have every week the Perfection One collision of the game, which is typically from our stream game. Now, I saw a a a U37 hit on TikTok earlier. I didn’t work today, so I didn’t have a lot to do. So, um, and it was the most vicious hit I’ve ever seen, and it was just old dudes just so maybe that could have been it. But, uh, this week’s Perfection One collision of the game goes to Wheelersburg’s Luke Coons as he blows up a play in the back field for the Pirates during their uh, dominating victory on Friday. And remember that you can find Perfection One in Pickway, Pike, and Ross counties. And when you visit them, you will know why they are highly wreck amended. So it was one of many hits throughout the game. Uh Coon’s one of the players that we’re going to talk about a little bit more later on uh when we highlight the Wheelersburg and Iron game, but just an outstanding performance by that defense because this is a Valley team that had been putting up a lot of points. Really, they had and they and again Valley has some nice skill kids and they just had a hard time getting going. Um they they had a couple plays where they were able to get in space. Obviously the big play for McNeel. Uh but but overall that was very very impressive defensively. Not not just getting a three and out. Not just they even got involved in turning the ball over and involved in scoring a little bit. Yeah. And they just missed another pick six. I think that was right before the McNeel play which would have completely turned the game even more so. So, um, now typically each week we do a team of the week. Also, last week was kind of a a rundown of some of the really good teams in the area. Uh, this week we are going it it for me it’s hard to go away from Wheelersburg. I I cannot argue that at all. you obviously the deeper you go into the year the the the group of the unbeaten will shrink and but um so again as we said it doesn’t it’s not a power ranking or it’s not you know obviously Withersburg would be toward the top in a power ranking but this isn’t always a power ranking or things like that it’s just kind of a team that we feel like is really playing at a high level or really starting to to find itself a little bit and when you look at Wheelersburg here in this undefeated start they’ve had some wins against some really quality opponents Yeah, some some very good opponents as uh you mentioned and you know they’ve got a quality opponent coming in this week to Ed Miller Stadium which we will talk about um coming up. Now, if you want power rankings, check out soohigh.com. Brock Netter does power rankings each week. And because of kind of how the season’s gone, hasn’t really had to change anything for the last couple weeks. And uh I think this week has a chance to shake up a couple things. Uh if things go a certain way, so we’ll see. He’s got Wheelersburg at two and Iron at one right now, which I think those of us that have seen them either in person or on film, it’s hard to argue because you got a state champion and a regional runner up last year, uh, who are off to outstanding starts. So, um, you know, it’s one of the most impressive wins of the season for Wheelersburg last week. Uh, Iron just really put it on Jackson. 49 to10 win there. Another very impressive game which coach Andy Hall called in to the Haynes total healthcare coaches callin show. And yeah, I I wouldn’t want to be Hillsboro this week. No, I I on the way home the other night from Valley, I I always turn you guys on wherever I’m on my way home from our our game of the week and it’s uh the coach and me the coach and me just kind of really enjoyed that. You know what I mean? It was one of those where it’s not meant to be funny, but kind of funny. You know what I mean? Like when when when it’s it’s always funny in coaching how when it’s you it’s not funny when you hear at other you just kind of because we’ve all been there, right? We’ve all been there where you know we just didn’t quite play to our standard and I was talking about the physicality and the different things and you know there’s no like you know more victories in the Jackson program. You know I mean it’s it’s Jackson. So, it’s one of those things where you could tell that he just wasn’t and and when I when I now I safely got home first. Yes. But as soon as I pulled the driveway, the first thing I looked at was, “Hey, wonder who Jackson plays next week.” So, I uh Yeah, that that I really enjoy that that show. I always enjoy hearing the coach’s comments. They talk about their kids. They talk about their program and and that one did jump out at me. Yeah, Hillsboro is 4-1 and you know that they are hungry to uh get at J or yeah at Jackson. They probably look at Jackson as you know maybe they’re a little hurt right now because they you know lose 17 to7 to Wheelersburg. They they I think it was like one first down in the second half of that game and then Iron really handles them. But this is a Jackson team that has a lot of winning experience and you know this tough week of practice is probably gonna pay off because they’re going to be hungry. Yeah. To repeat as FAC champions once again. But as you’ve seen, Hillsboro good team. Hillsboro is a good team and and I think you know Carson had some outstanding prep work when we did that Hillsboro Portsouth West game. This is this is becoming the best Hillsboro team probably in about seven years I believe it is. and and they might even be the last team to knock off Jackson outside of Chilikovy. So, I mean, um, you look, they’ll be a hungry group, but again, he he’s going to have his kids attention in practice this week. I’ll guarantee you that. Yeah. Now, Hillsboro’s gone through some adversity over the last couple weeks, but as you said, they’re it’s one of their better starts they’ve had in a long time. So, um, Jack Cornelli tied a program record with five rushing touchdowns the other day. So, I mean, they’re even though dealing with some adversity, still got some really talented players. Uh, but so does Jackson. So, that’ll be a game definitely to uh check in on throughout. I’m sure Highland County Press will be there. Uh, Steven Forcher does a really good job there. Um, so that one should be one of the bigger matchups in the Southeast, which you know, we’ll talk about more of those. But there is a league I kind of want to mention in this. The SOC, the SOC 1 has three teams that are currently undefeated. Sims Valley, Eastern Pike, and Notre Dame, all unbeaten. And then you have South Gaia, who’s 4- one. Then you have Eastern Green. But when four of your six teams in your conference are 4-1 or 5-0, that’s a great start to your conference season. It is. And what it does is it sets your conference up for a lot of success into the postseason because, you know, you’re carrying those points. Now, wins are going to carry great value. Um, and and you have a chance to beat up on each other, but then maybe go out and represent your conference in a different way come week 11. Yeah, it’s it’s definitely a conference that if things go well and you know some of the teams that maybe aren’t going to finish at the very top um if they can take care of some business and maybe get to a seven and three, they’re going to have a chance to get in the playoffs. Now, when it was 16 team playoff that these teams would pretty much all be at luck, but with it being 12 teams, it’s going to be a little more difficult to get in. But uh still it it looks like there’s going to be some uh week 11 football played coming out of the SOC 1. And two of the teams go to region 27 and two go to region 28 with Marian local and St. Henry. So not great there but you still have a chance to get in and keep playing and then building towards that. um you know Marian local 69game winning streak, the longest football winning streak in the country right now and they’re no joke obviously. So um them like Iron would definitely be competitive in the upper uh divisions as well uh despite being a smaller division school. So uh an outstanding program there. But these are four teams that have played really well throughout the year. Notre Dame has dealt with a ton of adversity. They they had to replace their coach uh late in camp or early in camp. um in about mid July. Had to switch coaches on that and then their quarterback gets hurt on the first quarter of the season. So they they’ve dealt with some adversity and they’re still 5-0. They got a big one this week when they host Southgalia uh who comes in at 4- one, but next week we’ll very likely be talking Eastern Pike against Sims Valley. That’s going to be a week seven game that you’re going to be able to see. Uh, that’s going to be one where like I’m not going to be here for week seven. I’ll be watching your guys’ stream at another game, but that’s going to be one where I may be like trying to get two windows open uh and watching both because um that’s going to be an outstanding high-flying out. Eastern’s obviously been a team that’s kind of been there and done that here in recent years, but there’s something about haven’t I had a chance to see him in person, just seen some video of them. There’s something about the Sims Valley group I really like. That’s just something I want to pay more attention to in the weeks to come and just see. But, you know, just u listening to some interviews, watching some highlights, doing some different things. U they just seem like a really hungry group that’s just, you know, starving for that success. And it seems like everybody’s kind of bought in. Yeah, that they’re very young. a lot of sophomores on that group, but if you’ve seen them in other sports, they’ve got guys that have here’s kind of the tying it together in the underrated, underappreciated, they win. You know, maybe they’re not making gigantic deep runs in the tournament, but they’re always playing for league titles. And by doing that, it gets you more ready uh throughout your run. Um, and that gets you to be to me, you learn different ways to win if you’re doing it in different sports. Um, it’s going to be a really good matchup. Just, you know, we’ll talk about it much more next week, but Eric Manley Jr. against Brocks Carpenter as two of the top quarterbacks in our area should be a really fun watch for week seven. Uh, also in week six, uh, or another week seven matchup actually that we’ll highlight coming up will be against St. Trace, which will be our streaming matchup next week in week seven. Right now, Uniota 5-0. Head coach Matt Hoops just uh achieved their uh career wins record at Uniota. 41 wins now for him. Only a sixth season. Has done a really good job with them. After his first year, which was the co year, uh seems like things have been just getting better and better for the Shermans throughout. and he’s got a lot of really talented kids on the offensive end, but man, he’s got a defense that just flies around. Yeah. Hoop Hoopsy and I go way back. I mean, we were high school teammates and you know, when when it had come time for him to be hired as the football coach at Uniota, I I was 100% behind that hire. I thought it was the perfect hire because for people that know the history of Uniota here in the last say 25 years especially maybe wasn’t quite like this in the 90s but certainly this way from the turn of you know right around 2005 to now it it was a matter of getting their enrollment and having it carry over to football in terms of numbers and athleticism right so that was the first thing coach hoops there this wasn’t a what offense are you going to run, we need to tackle better. We need to block better. No, no, no. This was we got to get athletes out. And then so once they established that, you know, I I always say like, you know, Uni should almost fall out of bed, went half their games, right? So then once they got the athletes out, then it became more of a let’s coach them up. Let’s do this. Now more people want to get involved in your program. More people want to coach and stay in the in the program. More people want to support it financially. You know, Uniota’s got about 60 70 band members. Yeah, I think they’re up to about a thousand cheerleaders on last count. And my my point is all of a sudden now Football Friday night there has become big deal and and you know they’re locked and loaded for what’s going to be four, five, six year run coming up here that’s going to be really really impressive. So no, he he’s done a he’s done a great job and and you’re right about the Zane Trace matchup. You know, Zayn Trace doesn’t want to peek ahead because people that have watched our show here know that I think Westfall is a dangerous opponent, but man, as a fan, it’s kind of hard not to peek ahead. Man, that match I thought you trace one looks pretty good out there in week seven. Yeah, that one definitely does. But as you mentioned, a big one this week for Zayn Trace as they have Westfall coming in. It’s homecoming. So, you’ve got some extra stuff going on. Both teams 4-1. Westfall is an overtime loss to a 4-1 Circleville from being undefeated. Uh good team. Yeah, good team. They they do a really good job. Uh Joey and Eli Wright are dynam dynamic backfield duo. Quinn Ely converted quarterback um you know due to injuries had to step in has done a really good job. So they are much more runheavy than I think what they were planning on being coming into the season. But Everly can still throw the ball on occasion. But speaking of runheavy, man, that’s a Zane Trace team that is very reliant on the run and they’ve got a big nasty offensive line that does a really good job and and you know, if you don’t when you’ve got Gunner Mala and Jaden Higgins with the ability to run the ball and then you’re like, well, we got Bryce Johnson, you got three awesome options there uh for Zayn Trace and then they have more guys that can do it as well like like Hudson Williams I know has broken a couple big runs. Uh Grady Stewart played some quarterback for them last year. Had a big touchdown catch on the stream against uh Pike in a big six. Yeah. And they’re a team that has been outstanding on both sides of the ball. They got uh you know they lost to an Amanda team that’s much better than their two and three record because they have played five really good teams and they they’ve gotten a couple wins in there. Uh but overall you mix that in Hudson Williams, Blake Brower on defense and then Mason Hartley who has four interceptions on the year and maybe I know he had a pick six in that game as well. Um and they they do it in a variety of different ways and they’ve made an adjustment this year to be a little more runheavy and ultimately it has panned out really well for them uh to a great start. Two points, one on each side. Again, I’ve been high on this Westfall group throughout and I think it’s a great measuring stick game. I mean, are they there yet? Well, this is how you find out. You I mean, when you come up on a Zane Trace and eventually a Uniota game, but so far, Westfall’s been able to separate themselves from the the rest of their schedule. And as a result, it hasn’t been a good four in one spot. and they’re they’re in they’re in a position to to play for a you know no worse than maybe a seven win season which would be outstanding on the Zayn Trey side. Pay attention to this in the next two weeks and and some of it is why go against the you know the run game if you’re just running down people’s throat. But this Jane Trace team they can throw it a little bit. Let’s not kid ourselves. They they have athletes all over the field in the skill position. So, it just it’s something to kind of pay attention to. Do do teams over these next couple weeks in some of these big games, they get so locked into the box where all the eyes are on the run game that we kind of watched it in the Pike game. They only threw it two times and it was for two touchdowns and like over 100 yards. So, they they have some home run hitters there that you have to make sure you account for in the passing game as well. Yeah, that it’s definitely a big aspect that that is there and they just haven’t had to really use it. I know they threw they’re a little more throwheavy against Huntington last week, but really in that game against Amanda when they got behind, but it it is something that’s there. Gunnar Mcculla, a two-year starter, started a little bit as a sophomore as well, an outstanding leader uh at the quarterback position. they’ve they’ve got some really good options, but man, Bryce Johnson is a heavy heavy hitter when he’s running the ball and the fact that they’ve been able to use him on defense this year as well, uh, where they did weren’t really able to last year, dealing with some injuries last year, but uh, now that he’s back healthy, that’s going to make these next two weeks for Zane Trace big- time matchups. And really after that, it should be get healthy time going into the playoffs for the Pioneers as as the schedule gets a little bit easier after this four-week stretch. Well, really fiveweek stretch going back to Amanda as well. Yeah, Johnson’s one of those kids that like, you know, he he can make you miss and he he’s got a little speed, too. But I think sometimes he like runs through the whole seeking. I mean, imagine if you’re if you’re a linebacker on the other side. I mean, you know, it’s your job. you’re gonna go try to, you know, hit him and tackle him and do whatever. But like, you know, you can’t be a fun Friday night saying, “Hey, I want to go tackle this guy 20 times a night.” Yeah, that’s that just does not sound like a a good time at all. And only a junior. A lot of those kids are only juniors. Um, but man, they are a very talented team and that’s a reason why they are at 4 and one right now. So, one more kind of a little bit of a game we want to hit on from last week. Nelsonville York had a uh 2928 win over a good Waterford team. Waterford was up at least 21 to7 in that matchup. Nelsonville takes a late lead to uh take the lead and stay unbeaten for a big-time win for the Buckeyes setting up. It would be a shocker if it didn’t get there. Uh a possible 9-0 versus 9-0 when they play Athens in week 10. Yeah, Athens. We had them back in what was it? Week two. who they were really really impressive. Uh really really good and you know now Nelsonville has has shown the ability there in the TVC Ohio to kind of play up of division three when it comes to Athens. But uh yeah that that was a terrific game. That was another one that I would I was watching some some updates come through and um just goes back to to knowing how to win. I know sometimes people think that’s a cliche or whatever but that stuff’s true. I mean, you get those moments where, you know, just one or two snaps going to determine the the game and teams that, you know, grow up winning, used to winning, they just kind of find a way, so to speak, and and that’s what Nelsonville did. Yeah, a really well coached team. Uh Austin Goer’s over 700 yards rushing for the Buckeyes. Uh Walker Stone averages just a a measly 21 yards a carry on 15 carries. So, it’s not like he’s barely had carries. Now, he broke an 80 yard uh for one of his five touchdowns, but he’s been really good for them when they’ve been able to get him the ball. Cam Sullivan does a really good job running the offense. Uh if you’ve seen him in basketball, too, he’s you wouldn’t have guessed that he was a quarterback just based off his size and strength. Um but he does a good job throwing the ball and he can run the ball as well. Uh they’ve also got Caleb Leighton, Noah Loge on defense, very active. They’ve done a really good job defensively this year. Um, yeah, it’s just a Nelsonville team that is one to really keep an eye on throughout the season because they’ve got an excellent chance to get to that 10-0 mark. Uh, and possibly a buy in the playoffs. Definitely a home game if they get to 10 and0. Yeah, that that week 10 if it does get to that with Athlet that’s that’s a lot of fun. That that that would be one to to watch for sure. There’d be a lot of athletes on the field that night. Yeah, would be outstanding for sure. So, uh, one more undefeated team we we kind of want to throw out was is Manchester. Currently 5-0. Schedule hasn’t been great, but you beat who’s on your schedule, and they’ve done a really good job of that. Uh, they got a tough one with Crest Line this Saturday. I believe it’s like a 400 p.m. start. Crest Line, probably the best team they’ve played so far. Uh, the team I was talking about was Vanloo. Vanloo, who over the last 20 years has really struggled. Manchester has a home and away with or home and home with them this year I guess. Um Vanloo in their 53 years of football. What do you guess how many wins they have? I don’t think. Yes. It’s not very It’s not great. So it’s not one per year. Three. Uh it’s at 55. So that’s that’s good. Price is right rules. Uh you’re you’re still in it because you’re under. But yeah, 55 wins in 53 years of football. But like it’s just kind of just goes to show like how important football can be for a community though is that they keep it and they they keep playing and I I think that’s honorable to go out. Uh and I’m sure at no point are they like, “Oh, we love this.” No, you just just go out, try to get better. and it’s it’s a great builder of young people to be able to play um football and uh kind of just a shout out from Van for Vanloo from us even though it’s it’s typically a struggle uh to just keep battling well especially that small school football I I think that’s something across the entire area to take a look at when you start getting down in the D67 even your good programs there’s so many kids playing both ways playing special teams and then you know it’s just you don’t have very many Um, sometimes we say next man up in sports. Well, when you have a roster of like 20, sometimes there’s not a next man up. You know what I mean? It’s it’s uh so it is it you’re you’re right about that when it comes to small school football and just trying to keep it because it is important to communities. I can tell you that. Yeah, it’s definitely a very important aspect of uh communities for sure. So, um, I kind of want to switch it up so where we can talk about our game of the week at the end, but I want to talk about some of our maybe underrated, underappreciated players here because like we mentioned with, you know, Hunter Bernard and different players around. Um, there’s a lot of underappreciated people in football. You have you have 22 uh playing now. You have some playing both ways, but then you have specialists and you have different people that are doing different aspects of the team. You have so many coaches as well that are specializing in certain things, maybe not as appreciated as others. Um, but I know you had a really good list on uh Monday when we went over this originally, but who do you have for some of your underappreciated players? Well, I think a lot of times we we tried to highlight some of the kickers and and in doing so in talking to a lot of coaches, they they talked to me about how at the high school level, people really do not understand how difficult it is to get good snap and a good hold down and do it all at a game speed that allows the kicker to even a chance to kick. So, like when when I was looking at that game the other night, we were doing, you know, Cooper Hebach there of uh Williamsburg. It was Bryson Longfellow is the holder and Gabe Campbell is the snapper and on the valley side, Aiden Spang was the snapper. I the holder, I apologize to the young man. I should have asked him at the volleyball game last night. We did not have him on the roster. Um but but uh it, you know, obviously those are two elite elite kickers. Um, so all all of that’s made possible by a good snap and hold. A Zane Trace, we had them a while back. Preston Lyn’s the kicker. Again, Grady Stewart and Blake Bower. Now, those are two guys that get a lot of credit for other things they do at a high level and rightfully so. Sometimes it’s these little tangible things though that maybe even goes underappreciated that they that they include in terms of what they give to the team. Athens, Griffin Porter, your kicker. Brier Thomas, the holder. Tommy Ninsky is snapper and then Yuniota. They have more special teams talent than they know what to do with. Liam Matthew was backed up by Tanner Beam. I know Landon Ruth does some nice line play for them. He’s he’s their snapper. Jackson Zikafuss is the holder. I know they also use Bryce Daringer sometimes the holder. So there there’s obviously so much more. But what I would encourage people to do is pay attention in the punt game and and the field goal unit. uh on on the clean snap, the clean hold, and how much that impacts because man, whenever you see one of the the miscues take place in special teams. If you’re in a close game come fourth quarter, that can really really impact strategy and and sometimes the final score can can be dictated just off of, you know, old old uh school backyard football, maybe we were three to three. Yeah. But, you know, you executed three times in the PAT game. finally executed two. We lose by one. Yeah, it can definitely make a big difference. You and you mentioned a little bit of old school backyard football. Uh Bryce Daringer for you had a little bit of that. It was a high snap, was able to control it, rolled out and uh hit Judah Zigglings for a two-point conversion the other day. So, it was like you you mentioned they have kind of more people in special teams they know what to do with and they’re athletes, too. So, it’s like it’s you got kids that are uh able to step out and make some big time plays. And uh while those are typically underappreciated spots, you see it on Sundays where those are very appreciated spots because it can make or break a team. Uh if you paid attention to Sunday in the NFL, there was what, like three block field goals in like a five minute real time span. Huge. Yeah. I mean, like I think four or five games literally came down to the last 30 seconds. If this team makes a field goal, they lose. They miss it, they lose. And that just kind of shows the the the impact of that. But, you know, special teams would certainly fall into that underappreciated u underrated type of part of the game. Yeah, I I completely agree. Now, there’s there’s a few other players that I wanted to highlight. Um maybe they they’ve made some move moves from position to position. Maybe they’re just playing a lot of positions. uh like a Bryson Mullins from Iron who is their leading receiver, has thrown I I think has thrown a touchdown, rushes the ball, is their punter, and is their second leading tackler on defense as well. So like guys like that where you’ve got a team of just absurd athletes that can do a little bit of everything and then Bryson Mullen just kind of stands out as the guy who does everything. Um, you know, it it definitely uh can make a difference for them throughout the season to have a guy like that. Uh, you mentioned Yuyota. I I look at their defensive line with Jacob Rener, Bryce Jarvis, who also plays on the offensive line. Uh, two players that make a a big impact for them defensively throughout the year. Uh, Adena’s Fisher Shaft was a player that led was tied for the SBC lead last year in interceptions with seven. uh a really good two-way athlete for them. Uh Isan Emnet for Wheelersburg. Uh another one of those guys that’s just nasty on on both sides of the line. Uh Lucas Oiler from Zayn Trace. He’s been uh someone who, you know, you saw him in baseball this year, had had a nice year. Absolutely. And you know, I I didn’t know how how big he was because I knew he was a defensive offensive lineman and then he’s playing third base and doesn’t look that big. So then you see him kind of bully people in football. It’s like, man, this this kid’s got to be strong because he’s not like huge like you would think on some of the linemen would be, but he does a really good job on both sides of the ball for them. Quinn Everly for West Falls, one of those kids that had to went from being a wide receiver to quarterback and they haven’t really missed a beat in the last couple weeks. So, uh, shout out to him as well. And then Brewer Tomlinson, Mason Pike. Uh yeah, you know, you you you hear about them. It like an Adam Guthrie, you know, they’re big- time uh Connor Ruford, another one of those kids. There’s big time recruits as linemen, but him being an at Eastern Pike where they’re putting up so many points each week. Uh just be able to point out the the standout lineman for them. Uh even though I know he is definitely appreciated, especially by his head coach because uh but yeah, it’s just an outstanding uh team down there in Beaver. So, just wanted to throw out some underrated, underappreciated kids. Also, if if you see more, you think we missed some, which I’m sure we did because we cover 66 schools in our area. Um, I I did that. Weston Dolls, Miami Trace. Um, he he uh leads the team in tackles. Portsouth West, Tilton Wrap, man, he plays with the motor. He’s good. Uh, he he’s up over 11 tackles per game. And then on another scale where Pay Valley is is kind of going through a year that’s not normal in that program. I know coach Penwell was talking to me after film work this week and the freshman Max Montgomery left in the tackles the other night. So again, that’s a program that’s going through some hard times that is getting a young kid that that’s going to start to be appreciated a little bit more. So I I agree with you. Special teams, defense, those are some of the things that still probably get overlooked a little bit. But even in offense, it’s it’s it’s it’s interesting to see uh different people in different roles and how that can impact winning. Yeah. It’s just it’s a game where you have to have so many different players play together at a high level to win that it it is important to celebrate as many as possible because I know uh coaching other sports like sometimes you can you can try to hide a player. Um I know I I coached a game where uh it was in basketball. were playing a team that had five players and they had a kid with four fouls like halfway through the third quarter and he just literally stood at midc court and we play five on four but I’m not going to say what the result of that game was but it was just one of those things where you know you got to have everybody and um it just that’s what makes football so special because if you have one person miss the block that can blow up the entire play and complet it can it can even because how violent football can be it can change your entire if someone misses a block, misses an assignment, and it leads to a big time hit, something along those lines. Uh, but if we missed anybody, please let us know um down below on any of our socials, anything like that. Um, for sure. So, we we want to make sure we uh appreciate show appreciation to everyone that deserves it uh throughout our area. So, we’ve got some some games of the week. We’re going to talk about one probably more in depth. Um that’ll probably finish our game of the week. Uh talk about because it’d be nice to to kind of do the the Berg as the as the bun on both sides and then everything else is is is the meat to go with a teaching analogy uh in that. So Southgate Notre Dame is a big one in the SOC. Uh Westfall at Zantry is big one in the SVC. big one. Uh couple big ones in the FAC because you’ve got uh Jackson at Hillsboro. I know that’s gonna be a big one. But also the game that we’re gonna have streaming game of the week brought to you by Ohio Health and a litany of other sponsors, Chilikothy at Miami Trace. That’s exciting. I mean, you you talk about two big time backs. So it with with Lian and and Julian Baker there and they just uh obviously the great offensive line play and in front of those two special backs and should be a great atmosphere. Hey John, I think the FAC has some some nice depth to it. I mean you know Jackson and Miami Trace still kind of come in the preseason is kind of being the the the top teams with but but if you look at the rest of that conference, every single one of those teams way better than they were a year ago. And I think what it’s what it’s allowed for is uh what should be some pretty competitive football over the second half of the season here inside conference block. Yeah, you you’ve got all five teams are three and two or better. Uh Chilikothy, Mlan, Jackson, Washington all three and two, Hillsboro 4-1, Miami Trace 5-0. So you’ve got some outstanding teams throughout. They’ve played a tough schedule. Washington with still what I would say probably the biggest upset of the year where they host Granville in week four and beat the Blue Aces pretty sizably. They came in on Fantastic 50 as a 42-point underdog. They win the game by 15 at home and that’s a Granville team that’s going to win a lot of games throughout the season. So they they’ve done a really good job. They lost their first two. who they lost to Mechanicsburg and Circleville, but coach Williamson has has done a really good job of settling them back in. That was one of those kind of underrated coaching changes um that maybe some people didn’t notice, especially in our area cuz that’s probably the westernmost that we’re going to get out of our area. Uh but he comes back to the school after a couple years away and immediately just changes things back to a little bit of what they were a couple years ago when he was there. but he’s done a great job. Um, Mlan, as as we’ve talked about, three and two, which is, uh, a really good start for them as they’ve had a, uh, you know, couple years ago to go, they got to the playoffs at six and four. Uh, but really it’s about four wins a year over the last few years. Um, and off to a three-2 start for them. So, good work for them. But, um, if if a team can beat Washington, they’re going to get some some healthy playoff points. And I think it’s going to get them a chance to have multiple teams in the playoffs. But this is a big one because both Chilikathy and Mayor Trace have FAC title aspirations. If you watch the coaches calling show two episodes ago, we had Tret Mcloone, Carte Lian, and uh Connor Ruford in here. And that was one of the things they talked about was their goals were all in front of them. They have won three games the last two years combined. They’ve now won three straight games, but their goal is to go one and0 each week. If they want to play for a league title in week 10, they have to go take care of themselves on the road this week at Miami Trace. And it’s not going to be an easy one at all because obviously Miami Trace is really good. And if you think back to a year ago, Miami Trace ends up falling. I think I was week nine at Jillathy. And so if you’re Miami Trace, that’s a group that’s done a lot of winning. They were obviously highly successful in basketball. They’ve been successful throughout their career in football, off to another successful start. I would imagine this one’s been highlighted uh on the schedule in the weight room in the offseason and so forth. Uh looking for a little bit of that revenge from a year ago. Yeah. And if if you want to see some really good line play, you got Guthrie and Rutherford, outstanding linemen there. Um, you you’ve got two division one I mean those are division one players on the line. Then you got division one athletes. Julian Baker is getting some nice u offers from Miami Trace. They’re running their star running back. Cooper Enix is another kid that’s probably going to be able to go play division one. Uh possibly a division two player but just outstanding player as well for Miami Trace. And then you look at what Carte Lian has done for Chilikathy over the last three weeks. Has rushed for over a thousand yards. We don’t know if if he’s gonna go offense, defense. Maybe they just find a way to to get him on the field at the next level, but he’s a division one player and he just has shown it in the last three weeks getting the ball and just running hard and doing a great job of carry helping carry his team offensively uh to the next level. Well, I I don’t know which episode it was. It seems like it was about three weeks ago. We did a segment right at the beginning where we I had a chance to talk about Carte a little bit and you know sometimes at his height people be like might be too tall to be a running back. I don’t even know what that mean. You know what I mean? I hand the guy the ball and block and let him run. You know what I mean? Like it it he’s just a special special athlete and and it is that that’s going to be a real treat Friday night to to get a chance to be on the call for that. Yeah. Should be an outstanding matchup. So make sure you check us out. Uh, as you mentioned, Shane Shane and Carson Francis will have the call. Kenneth Hay will be back on camera for that game to also troubleshoot anything as our road tech guy uh is. And also, it’s our K&B uh game of the week. So, Derek will be there and I’m sure he’ll have some road eats afterwards. Uh, make sure to check out this week’s episode uh or last week’s episode is out. That was at Hearnstein Field for week four, weeks five from Lucasville will be coming out in the next couple of days as well. So yeah, because I I was up there in the valley the other night and he brought good stuff up there. Evidently, he left mine down there. I didn’t Yeah, it happens, I guess. So, uh I feel like if they’re at the same location, I feel like you guys should should get fed as well. So, uh but that’s going to be our streaming game of the week. Now, a game that you can watch on the uh Wheelersburg Sports Network, also on YouTube. Uh man, it’s a big one. Uh Iron 5-0 at Wheelersburg 5-0. Ironon last year’s Division 5 state champions, graduated some outstanding players that are playing at the next level and they’re just reloading. Like it just it just feels like they just continue. Uh, Coach Pendleton’s done such a great job of building Iron into what Ironton expects Iron to be. So, for years, I believe they’re fourth in all-time win percentage in the state of Ohio. For years, they they were there. Then they took a step back probably 10 15 years ago. Took a step back. Weren’t very good for a while, but man, since coach Pennington’s been there, they’ve made multiple state championship games. They finally won it. uh their third state championship last year and and man it is an outstanding program, an outstanding team. They’ve like I’m just gonna list off some dude like some dudes right now. Kateton Edwards at quarterback, outstanding. Zayn Williams at running back. Uh you know, Kate Edwards is a pure dual threat runner because he or dual threat quarterback because he throws and passes or throws and rushes for about the same amount of yards per game. Um, they also have a variety of guys that can throw the ball uh out of the back field and that just, you know, provides them with a a lot of different options when attacking. They are a team, you know, Zayn Williams is an outstanding runner. Uh, as I mentioned, underrated guys. Bryson Mullins is one of those. Maddox Markle, Braden Baker, all guys that are big-time playmakers on offense uh for the Fighting Tigers. And then defensively, Mason Wheeler has like 11 hurries on the year, which is crazy. Through uh two weeks or five weeks, but Ethan Sutton, Braden Lynn, just a couple of the guys on that nasty, uh Iron defense as well. They’ve played one of the better schedules in the Southeast District, and it shows because each week, uh they are going out playing really good competition and and pretty much dominating throughout. They really have. I mean, what jumps out at me is is I study iron a little bit is they’re old, you physicality, it makes a lot of sense to you. You’re talking about a lot of guys who when you come through a program like that, you obviously the weight room and the culture is is second to none. So as you as you get kids in in that grade column starts to read junior and senior everywhere that that matters, you know, and and you’re right about Edwards, you know, he he he throws it and runs it for about a hundred a week. And um but it’s the variety that they do it with when he throws it around with Mullins and Mark Baker, you know, it kind of spread. You just can’t put all of your eyeballs or all of your your best athletes, so to speak, one place. Even on the on the the senior runners with with Williams and and Grace and and Carmen, they all have five touchdowns on the year. So like it then on the defensive side, they have seven interceptions, Baker with three, and I I thought I saw a stat today, 58 for a loss across their defense. I know Sutton I think led him with eight. So they’re just really really complete. And and what a test for Wheelersburg because Wheelersburg’s really really good as they come in. We highlighted a lot of their athletes early. Uh, it’s just going to make and I’ll say this, John, like I don’t want to make too much of out of this because it’s regular season or whatever, but like a a big time winner in this game is Southeast High because you and I have been doing this long enough to where I think we understand that the Southeast is trying and trying and trying to earn its keep, so to speak, statewide. A lot of our kids just get cheated over the years, especially in the sports where it’s not the AP prep or so forth. is, you know, you really get cheated. So when when you get two schools like this that can can play at such a high level that is respected way beyond Southern Ohio, that matters. Yes, I I completely agree. And and I feel like one of the positives to the additional divisions is it it’s given Southeast Ohio a chance to make a bigger impact at the state level. We saw it in different sports last year, but manuh this a Wheelersburg program that won a state title within the past decade and then an ironon team that you know has been playing for state titles uh much of the last five seasons and finally got one last year and I’d be surprised if they weren’t playing for one again this year. Harvest Prep really good in that uh region as well, but they might have scheduled up too much. They may not get in. Um but this is a big time matchup as you mentioned for Southeast Ohio. Uh the Withersburg Sports Network does a really good job. Now it’s going to get taken down like once the game’s over. Like you got to watch it when you you got to watch it when it’s live. Um but man, they do a really good job. That’s going to be a crazy environment. Uh two really proud programs. I mean Wheelersburg had a crazy crowd at Valley. Just imagine what they’re going to have at Ed Miller Stadium, especially the first time that cannon goes off uh for any of their scores. But just real quick, a couple things on Wheelersburg. you know, got Brillin Rucker, uh, Jack Dorf, he’s got to step in, does a really good job at, uh, you know, at the quarterback position. Uh, Kenny Neans, Brady Doss, David Miller on the outside. Elijah Brown, Brady Musk, if Steven Hall is healthy, that’s gonna that’s what was crazy about the other night is, you know, he hasn’t even played what, the last two weeks. Yeah. So, I mean, if he’s healthy and can go, that’s going to be a big time help. a lot of these guys on the defensive side as well. Luke Coons as we mentioned uh as our uh profession one collision of the week, but also Gabe Va is all over the place for them. They’ve only allowed 29 points so far this season through five games. They’ve been outstanding on both sides of the ball. They both did a really good job defensively against Arch Bishop McNicholas. uh Ironson was able to pull away a little bit more in their win at at McNicholas where Wheelersburg got a late touchdown uh when Rucker was out I believe uh I know he left with an injury in that game. I I I don’t remember if he was in at the end of the game because I was I’m on an airplane watching it uh with no sound on because I don’t have headphones at that point. But um yeah, that this is just athletes all over the field who have done a lot of winning. And I mean this this is an iron program. I I don’t know how many of these guys play baseball. Just an elite 8 team in baseball. Willisburg’s always outstanding in baseball basketball. These guys play a lot. I this is this is a game of kids that come from winning traditions that have won all throughout. Two great coaches, outstanding programs. As you mentioned, the real winner here is going to be Southeast Ohio and maybe the uh Wheelersburg boosters this week. Certainly going to sell a few hot dogs. Yeah, should be an outstanding atmosphere down at Ed Miller Stadium. Uh so moving on, this this is going to be a little shorter segment because I talked about a lot of uh big matches uh that were pretty much all yesterday. Well, yeah, when when I when I looked at soccer, you know, I think we looked at the schedule and and we want Fyville to know that we we recognize how well they’re playing early in the year. They’re doing some really cool things in their soccer programs down there. But because of the the the gap in their schedule, I think I’m going to have you move that to next week’s agenda if that’s okay. And then on the on the first stop here then I want to I want to go North Adams. It seems like they’re off to a good start. Talk talk to us a little bit about that. Yeah, North Adams 111 and0. Their only loss was to Fateville. A two nothing loss there. Uh which Fateville undefeated. Fateville is currently undefeated. So Fateville we will highlight next week because as you mentioned uh they have 12 days off in between games. So I don’t know if it’s like their county fair is going on because some some people just don’t play for a while but then they have like a a kind of strange you see soccer is no different than any other sport. That has to be a tough thing to do in the middle of the year. Yeah because it’s it’s kind of hard to to get some really quality practice work in anyway. But soccer is so much conditioning based that you you need to keep that up throughout the year. And man, those kids are going to hate that. If you’ve got to condition for 10 straight days without games, it’s it it’s it’s tough. But uh but that’s where, you know, good programs can make a difference. And it also could be a factor in like, hey, the tournament starts a little later than what we’re expecting. That’s got to get taken care of also. Like that’s where I know basketball uh I know your brother has rescheduled a game from was going to be Thanksgiving to like the middle of February now because like they have so long in between like the end of the regular season and when you can play in the tournament. Well and and the fact I know we’re getting off that but like football’s going to yeah you know play into whatever. So I I didn’t mean I just thought that was something that that might be interesting to give a soccer perspective of fans there. And again, that’s completely my Let’s Let’s go back here. Yeah. So, once again, North Adams 111 and0. Their only loss is to Fateville, a 200 loss. Uh, but they are still technically in the Shaq race. Now, Shaq, the Shaq goes from two divisions to one in soccer because not everyone has it. Um, I think it’s only Manchester doesn’t. Okay. and could be West Union also may not have it this year, but they go down to one division and because of that you play everybody once and Lynchburg still has Fateville. Now Fateville’s taking care of Eastern and North Adams. So they are really in a spot where they they tie, they win the league and so all they got to do is not lose. But for this North Adams team, they have been outstanding this past week. They had really good wins on the road at Yunota and at Alexander. Two really good programs that are expected to make some noise in the postseason. Uh a big match on Thursday uh at Lucasville Valley who’s 71 and two. And you they do it with a variety of guys. They got different guys that can score, but they’ve also just got a depth of athletes that they all also look identical. like hair hair color, you can tell a little difference, but like they’re all about the same size, same build, same like they’re all fast, they’re all physical, and they’re all talented. And it’s it’s a really impressive team for sure for North Adams. And I I think that’s what makes them so difficult to play against is the fact that they have that depth of their roster. I mean, just looking defensively, like I I saw Daltton Pence just go up and and save a ball off the goal post or off the crossbar in a match against Eastern Brown and then once it gets cleared out, he’s there to make another save right after. You don’t see that very often. Uh Jace Durban, Jackson Baldwin do a really good job defensively for them as well. Uh in front of Thad Moore, Thaad Moore, a junior goalkeeper, has been outstanding for them throughout. Uh, five shutouts, only 10 goals allowed in their 12 matches. Uh, in that game against Yuno, though, Thadmore was almost unbothered in that second half. That I was there for the second half of that. And Darth Adams completely dominated the first 20 minutes for a 4-1 win. It was 1-1 when I got there, and then after that, it was just completely all North Adams. Uh, Bo Hustler is outstanding for them. Eight goals, 10 assists on the season. Uh Tristan Young 14 goals. Preston Call the the three times or two and a half times I’ve seen them has been unbelievable. He’s got 14 goals, six assists. And then Jaden Reckers, only a junior, 12 goals, 17 assists on the year. uh has a chance um with a couple of those Fantville guys that we’ll talk about next week will have a chance uh possibly at uh Shaq player of the year as only a junior because he’s been outstanding doing a little bit of everything for them. North Adams and really South Webster are the two teams in division five. When I look at it, I’m like, man, that those are two teams that they’re to me on a collision course for a matchup in the regional semifinal. If seating goes how it should probably be in that regional semi-final with a chance to maybe make a similar run that Menford made last year. Now, North Adams lost in a shootout last year to Menford, which was Menford’s closest game until they got to the state championship game. So, I mean, this is a North Adams team. They’re hungry. Yes. And they’re talented. Uh, and they’re pretty good. Well, and I I love what you said on underappreciated appreciated type of top. You’re talking about the five shutouts, which jumps out about more. But I think what you’re saying too is, you know, the ability of all those people in front to possess the ball or or to not even let the the ball kind of enter the the area where teams can get legitimate shots on goal. That goes into that as well. So, you know, when I I look down through, I know you mentioned the one on Thursday. I was looking at some schedules and stuff. Seems like there’s some pretty big ones coming up. Thursday seems to be a pretty busy day. Maybe even Saturday a little bit. what’s coming up here. Yeah, so Thursday you got that big matchup with North Adams in in Valley. Uh big time seating implications in that one. A win by the Green Devils should should probably keep them I would say probably in the two range because I mean Southwestern has not lost. So it’s hard to drop Southwesterbster when they have not done anything to warrant being dropped. Uh but man, North Adams has upped their schedule. They’ve done a good job going on the road. This is another road matchup. Um, and it’s going to really challenge them. But man, they’ve been really talented so far this year. Uh, another big one on the girls side. Mlan is at Jackson. Mlan unbeaten in FAC play. However, they do have a tie. That tie was to Miami Trace. Miami Trace just put it on Jackson on Tuesday in a game that I think we all thought was going to be a little closer. End up being 5 nothing. Just a really impressive display from Miami Trace. um you know just that’s what you need to do at your home field if you’re Miami Trace. So they they have a loss in league play which was to Jackson also a tie. The tie being with Mlan. Mlan has not lost a match since their season opener. They are 91 and one pro more than likely 10-1 and1. I haven’t I haven’t glanced at that from last night. Um but this is a big time matchup. Mlan at Jackson. If Mlan wins, that gives them a chance to have no worse than a piece of the FAC title because now they would still play have to play Hillsbor who’s a solid team as well, but it would give them a chance to completely wrap it up with a win over Miami Trace or even a tie with Miami Trace. U putting Miami Trace into a must-win situation when they play in the coming weeks. But a couple of really outstanding athletes in that matchup. You got Sydney Carpenter will go against Paisley Prior. Um, two big-time goal scorers in that. Uh, I think this is going to be a chance for both teams to score, but at the same time, uh, the defenses are going to have to play really well to slow down Carpenter and Prior. Um, explain beat Washington 5 nothing. Yeah, about that game. Sounds about right. So, MLAN moves to 10-1 and one. uh winners of 10 of their last 11 starts with none of those being losses uh as well. So, uh that MLAN team very talented, very senior heavy, but man, they they do a lot of things really well. Um and you know, the season opening loss was was not a headscratcher because it was to a really good team, but it was I think they were a little disappointed in what they their performance in the match. And I think now if they were able to go back, uh, they would adjust a couple things. Laura Henson’s been really good for them. Uh, O Laker’s been really good as well. Uh, they’re a team that has a chance to make a little bit of a run. They got to the district semi-finals last year. We know that they want to make it at least a step further, possibly even another step beyond that as they have a good number of seniors as well with Love it and goal. She does a really good job for them. No question. Another shut out there last night. the uh anything else on Thursday, even Saturday? Uh Saturday uh big one on Saturday. Now I’ll be able to get out uh to this one. It’s an 11:00 a.m. start. It’s Lynchburg Clay at Wheelersburg. Lynchburg Clay will be or was 62 and one as of Monday at Wheelersburg who 70 and2 now 80 and2 after a big win last night for them. This is two teams that are are very talented teams that have done a lot of winning at different areas of the district. So Wheelersburg more towards the south, Lynchburg more towards the west. And man, it’s it’s two programs that are really good graduated really good players from a year ago. And you know, they are bringing some really talented kids back. Elen FA, Quinn Wells, Alexander Van Fleet lead that team offensively for Lynchberg, but also you got Tanner Roberts uh in between the pipes. Just some of their standouts for Lynchber. Really high expectations for them as they always have on the soccer pitch for Lynchber. Uh they’re a team that plays with a lot of physicality, a lot of speed, and a lot of talent as well. But Wheelersburg, we’ve talked about them the last three years here on overtime. They’ve been really talented. Nick Sylvia is going to be one of the all-time leading scorers and goals in the state by the time this season finishes. Uh he’s outstanding. Uh we got a Sosa soundbite on him. Check that out on YouTube. Uh yeah, really good. He’s he’s such a a humble really humble speaker. uh is Sylvia, one of those really good kids you like to talk to. Um also Carte Lian with a social sound bite as well. So got a couple of those out last week. Braden Bird in the goal, outstanding for them. Just really athletic, has really good mind. Uh reads the play really well. Evan Mitchell, uh outstanding midfielder for them. And then defensively, Clerk Weller, Case Wit, uh just a couple of their outstanding defenders. Uh Weller has been one of my favorite players to watch throughout his career. Plays the same position I did. He’s a lot better than I was, even though I I was I was all district. Uh we made it to a regional final. Uh but uh he is just a highlevel athlete. Does a really good job for them. And that’s a matchup I’m really excited to get out and watch on Saturday morning. Currently a 20game unbeaten streak in the regular season for Wheelersburg. Their last regular season loss was last September 10th. Oh, at Menford. Since then, they have won 20 or one or have been tied in 20 consecutive matches since. And that streak started last year on September 14th at Lynchburg. And you know Lynchber’s going to want to have a little bit of revenge set up for that match. No doubt about it. Awesome slate of of matches coming up. Before we move off of soccer, let’s go ahead and take care of our theme this week. Why don’t you run down uh maybe maybe some of the names of some of the underappreciated soccer players in our area. Yeah, and this comes from just, you know, seeing stats, but also trying to get out and watch some games. So, that for me as a as a defender, I always like to talk to defenders, uh goalies, I I have so much respect for those positions. and without seeing a lot of them this year. This is where I can probably hit on this again next week. Uh but I’m going to look at a lot of offensive players on this. Uh with one, uh you know, I I’ll start off Clark Weller. Uh one of those players where I I think when you’ve had a a player start at the same position for three plus years, uh coaching stuff has to be really happy with what Weller’s been able to do for their program at that left back spot. uh very active uh and outstanding defender uh that can really participate in the offense as well. Elim FA another one of those players we mentioned uh he’s got 15 goals. He’s tied with Connor Gross of Peebles for the Shaq lead and in goals and and I want to shout out Connor Gross as well. Peebles is a program that maybe they don’t get looked at as much but they’ve been really good over the last five or six years as well. uh just with what Eastern Lynchberg, Fateville, North Adams have been able to do this year. They they kind of uh are in that lower half of the Shack, but uh Connor Gross an outstanding goal scorer for them uh and player overall. And then sticking with my left back theme, I just watched him last night. Braden Bernard from South Webster is one of those super active defenders. Uh very physical at that left back. you can be a little more physical on the outside because you’re out of the box for the most part. Uh he just he’s very physical, has a big time throw. Um very good athlete and you know, you’re going to see and hear his name a lot, only a sophomore. Uh they start a lot of seniors, but he’s one of the key lynch pins for their defense. Um that’s on the boys side. On the girls side, uh the leading scorer out of the shack, Vivian Henneer, uh out of Fairfield, she has 19 goals on the season, 12 in her last four starts, going back to the Wheelersburg game from last Saturday, which she had a hat-tick in a uh kind of surprising 65 win for Fairfield. Fairfield’s had a nice season, but that was a game that I would have expected Wheelersburg to win, but they go uh and knock off Wheelersburg 6 to5. Inger’s been outstanding for three years, only a junior. She’s had um you know couple injuries the last couple of years. Uh but that’s a Fairfield team that’s definitely got some high as aspirations for the tournament. Uh Satie Teeman uh if you saw Brock’s interview with her last night, she scored with a little over two minutes left. I did see that. Yeah. So, uh a big time player for them. Only a sophomore. She has 30 career assists, which is insane. Uh as only a sophomore, she was a key for them last year. 21 assists on their state final four team. Uh and then Cara Allison from Alexander, 16 goals, six assists for the Spartans. Uh reg or a district semi or district finalist team from a year ago uh as they look to improve on that this year. That’s awesome stuff. Anything else before we move off of soccer? Uh just get out and watch these teams there. There’s some outstanding teams and programs in the area and uh getting out and supporting them. I saw a nice crowd Menfort and South Webster last night. Um last I guess last thing um Menford had like seven freshman on the field last night like just crazy um what they’ve been able to do um this year even just being 65 and two and replacing as many guys as they did it it felt like they had a lot of guys coming back and then it just didn’t happen like some of them moved over to football some went on to play other sports but Um they’ve they’ve got some some guys that that can really play. Uh look for them in the future. Ashton Reer, I thought did a really good job last night. He was kind of all over the field. Now they they lose 6 nothing. But Reer, a starter from last year in in basketball and soccer. Uh was is only a junior. You lose Max Lauder for the year. You’re you’re one senior. Uh an outstanding defender. So big time loss there for Menford. Um, I watched Trevor Bourne make 12 saves last night for Menford and was just outstanding. Only a freshman. Uh, watch for Minford on the boy side in the future. So, uh, that is my last thought on soccer. So, uh, going over to your specialty now, jumping over to volleyball. We had one of our matches of the year last year on stream. We had we’ve had two more three setters in the last uh, two uh, streams. But let’s start with that Adena at Yuniota match from last Tuesday. We’ll we’ll shrink it down a little bit because it’s over a week ago now. Uh Adena was on the ropes down two sets to one going into the fourth in a crazy atmosphere. What stood out for you in their five set win to stay undefeated? I just think it’s it’s the way they compose themselves and kind of play through adversity and that even leads into, you know, St. Trace on uh Tuesday night taking him to four and then I believe it was 24/19. St. Trace had all of those opportunities to get the thing to a fifth set and Adena comes all the way back and wins at 2624. So I think it’s just their it’s their it’s their composure in those moments to play the point in the present and and it’s just their their some of that. Look, I think this stuff’s real. I think sometimes you look across the net and the two shade blues over there and you’re used to losing to them and they’re used to beating you. And I think people have trouble getting over that hump. You know what I mean? It’s kind of like in baseball, you know, that the the last three outs in a close game are harder to get. That’s why they pay those guys so much more than the guy that pitches the seventh inning. You know what I mean? Like it’s it’s the So to to answer your question on on on the Uniota thing, what jumped out at me is Uniota’s got a nice team. Yoda really challenged Katie Burns from a standpoint of, you know, that you’re never going to stop her. What you’re trying to do is you’re trying to contain her. You’re just trying to get her under control a little bit. And I thought, you know, Stanley, who I think I saw in that game set a school record, the the the B8 48 digs. Yeah. Unless Stanley’s school record at Uda for uh digs in a match. That’s awesome. And you know with with Deploy and Pucket and Anderson, some of those kids in the back row, I thought, you know, even though they didn’t dig everything up, they they were trying to just, you know, be there and they they were able to to to to try to pop the ball up or just try to make the the the volley continue. And sometimes that can lead to a little bit of a of a frustration for a hitter. And they they’re able to put up a big time block. And you know, Charlotte Dennis and Zoe Deweiler, they were able to give a one-two punch as Kinsley Batson was spreading the ball around and even using White and Patterson. Grubs played some sets, Watson played some sets. So, they just they did a really nice job of just not backing down from Adena, trying to trying to challenge them and try to do the necessarily the necessary things. And Adena just answered the bell down two-1. They come all the way back and win in five. And like I said, they do the same thing on Tuesday. One thing I want to highlight here with Adena is on our theme of underappreciated. We talk so much about and rightfully so Katie Burns or we talk about uh Dalton or Smith in the back row. Addison Wisecup, Pton Lee Master, Caroline Blandon, you know, you get limited chances sometimes when you’re in those roles. And they do such a good job blocking and and uh I learned this a long time ago. Actually, I loved the conversation I had one time with Elena Light probably about defense pastor still to this day that I’ve that I’ve seen in my in my time covering volleyball. She played there at Huntington and went on to coach at Pikton. She she was talking to me one time about how when she had a chance to play with some really good blockers, it made life easier on because she said you could start to eliminate half the floor. she started to shift against different angles on and this really kind of started to come to my mind with this Adena group because I I said the other night talking to Dwey on the air about how Wise Cup and Lee Master and Glenn, they’re just always in the right spot. They’re so well coached and they’re so fundamentally sound. Rarely are they in the net. They’re always showing the hitter a block because even if you don’t, sometimes it’s just a touch or a block in play. Sometimes it slows it down a little bit. It just does so much for your back row. and you we highlight their defensive effort so much that I think we also need to give these kids credit at the net and offensively. They’re called upon at some clutch clutch situations. They don’t get as many swings, but the swings they do get, they need to be efficient at. You know, JC Jones is someone who we’ve highlighted come on about two and a half kills per set opposite of Burns, but they don’t play opposite of each other directly. So what happens is she’s up there for a couple of those rotations. Then they get caught a sixth rotation and and that’s a tough rotation for him because you got to think on the other side of the net no matter which way they line it up a Charlotte Dennis Dennis or a Zoe Dewaters up there and that’s a factor. So I think that’s something I really wanted to highlight with Adena with some of those kids that just play real real solid in their roles. Uh I I think that that’s really good. Yeah, Dena Dena ranked number one in the state. They had they had nearly all the first place votes. I think Willersburg had a couple there. Willisburg was second, who we’ll talk about here in a little bit. But u you know, just a really really good team and they continue to find a way. They they have a rotation or two that they got to continue to try to to find more offense, but um the they’re obviously really complete volleyball team. Yeah. just uh you know what I thought stood out was just how when they got into those tough spots because Kyla Bucket did a really good job of serving for Uniota. Um and I I thought she really kept them off balance but how they were able to compose themselves and get out of it and then carry that over even when it felt like maybe Burns didn’t have her best game. what she was able to do at the biggest moments in that first set. It seemed like she got woke up a little bit. Uh don’t don’t ever chant overrated at someone who’s very properly rated. Um that’s that’s something that years of watching sports typically that balances out because I you kind of like it. It’s really the ultimate compliment. I mean like some people it rubs in the wrong way or whatever. It’s really quite a compliment in terms of of that type of thing. But you’re you’re right. That was kind of poking the bear there a little bit in that opening set. Yeah. But she woke up in a big way in that first and then in the fifth when it got to 10-10 they get the they win the point and then she goes back to serve and they win at 15-10. So, I was I was really impressed with what she was able to do on a maybe on a night she didn’t play her best where her teammates did a really good job of helping her out and still setting her up into positive situations because like Courtney Sour Ali Bosert were outstanding serve or uh you know setting throughout the game. Uh but man, I I thought Burns showed why she’s such a highly thought of athlete when the game was on the line. What what I love about Burns the most is she’s such a great team. She never shies away from the moment. So even when I see her struggle a little bit, she just stays with it. She constantly she never shies away from, you know, wanting the ball. And I think the the biggest improvement that she’s made that’s that’s going to show up big time in postseason honors across the entire state is the all-around game. Yes. You know, everyone knows she go put it away at the net on those three rotations, but she’s an improved blocker defensively. She impacts it as she showed in in the in the crunch time the other night as a server. Um, and then even I mean look when you play in the back row with with Dalton and Smith and serve receiver and things like that, they’re going to come at you, right? They’re not going to serve it to them, you know? So, it’s one of those where they’re going to come at and she’s just constantly added that to her game and improve just just a great competitor. Just it’s it’s real treat to follow her to be honest. Yeah. In that match, she had 15 digs, eight blocks, and then also four aces, and was 100% serve percentage. So, she was outstanding all around. Even if the hitting didn’t feel like it was there all game, she did it be all around, which makes her such an outstanding player. Yeah. And, you know, the thing about the serving sometimes, it’s not like she’s just, you know, tossing it over right in the middle of the court. She’s she’s serving tough. She’s going Yeah. She’s going in her spot. So, again, that’s what I mean by not being afraid of the moment. A lot of times it’s easy. Oh, fifth set. I don’t want to mess up or whatever. You know, it it it was one of those where she would get one and you could almost see it in her eyes. She couldn’t wait to get the ball back so she could serve again. So, yeah, she’s just she’s uh great leader, great competitor, obviously super talented. Yeah, 19% of her uh serves in that match were aces uh with Kylie Pucket for Uniota. Hers was 18.2%. So, that was that six rotation that that Uniota dominated. I don’t know what I don’t have the numbers in front of me. I don’t need the numbers to know that they dominated them because I watched it. But like they that six rotation was a problem there. But to Adena’s credit again when the game was on the line and that fifth and sixth rotation, that’s when Batson was serving and when Pucket was serving to Adena’s credit, they found a way. I mean, they stepped up and made some plays. And again, that’s that underappreciated uh winning X factor that they that they have in that program. Yeah. And then uh just you mentioned Charlotte Dennis, Zoe Deweiler, uh Dennis with 23 kills in the match, Deweiler with 18 for Adena. Burns had 22 and JC Jones with 12, including the big one uh when it was 24-23 in the fourth to force a fifth. And you know, that’s a that’s a big-time confidence booster for that sophomore. And as she said in that interview after part of the value of Katie Burns, which you mentioned of her leadership was that she’s helping, you know, Jones get ready for that big role in the future. Uh as she’s like she talks to me every day. That was a really good interview uh with JC Smith, Kimmy Dalton, and JC Jones afterwards. That’s on our YouTube page as well. Uh you can see that on Facebook as well. Uh, but some outstanding players for the Warriors as they are now 16-0 after that four set win over Zayn Trace. How dangerous is that Zay Trace team? You that’s a team you do not want in your bracket there because you know they start getting into that district semifinal level or whatever. Man, they become really really deep. Yeah, they’re an outstanding uh program as well as they made it to the regionals a season ago. So going over to Saturday’s match, a little bit quicker of one. Hillsboro at Waverly. Waverly looked really good on Saturday morning. Yeah, Hillsboro coming off a tough loss on Thursday night to Miami trades. They come on Saturday, no JV match. It’s kind of a late start. I don’t know if it was a bus situation. Why? I’m not I’m not even sure, but it’s just, you know, we’ve all been there before. It’s just it had kind of a dead atmosphere and they just struggled to get going. Now, credit to Waverly. They jumped out six nothing in the first set, seven nothing in the second set, and they just never looked back. Waverly u 12 and three I think 13 and three now I think they just southwester beat them quick. Yeah. So so this Waverly team’s really really good now. Cindy Johnson’s the one that’s going to get a lot of headlines and rightfully so. She’s phenomenal on on both the offensive and defensive side of things. But Knight the freshman really good. Royster Gilllet Roberts you know they they still have a tough stretch of schedule coming up. They’ll have another South Webster match. They still have Bird. They’ll have Valley again who I think Valley’s one of their three losses and then a Cleafy in the non-League. So, who’s starting to come on? But, but no, this Waverly team, the word that jumped out at me was athletic. I I was real impressed with them just across the board, a little bit of their length and athleticism in the way they can play. Hillsboro will be fine. They just they they uh they have real nice one-two punch and Wagner and Davis uh as hitters and passers. Uh and sealing their setter does a really good job. I like her game. They just really really struggle in some serving efficiency and they struggle in the in the serve receive and it just really never did give them a chance because uh they they were fighting uphill it seemed like the entire match. Um they they stuck their nose in the third set a little bit then it got away. But uh I know Hillsborough’s been competitive in that FAC. It’s a tough matchup for Miami Trace who has has beaten them but it’s been tight. Uh and then like I said now it’ll be Chilikafi Miami trace but Hillsborough has been right there at the top over the last two years and uh they they too in the right matchup uh could be dangerous in the tournament because Wagner and Davis along with the setting of Silly does that does give them a change. Yeah, for sure. And uh like you know with the Union Adena matchup, the Hillsbor and Waverly matchup you can go back and rewatch. And then Tuesday before we get into that match, uh we had uh another, you know, amazing achievement as we mentioned earlier with Grayson Clark of Gaia Academy. Another 2000 career assist mark. Ella Chamberlain for Wheelersburg. Uh the senior has just been outstanding in her time as the Pirate Setter. It’s so steady. I mean, such a great leader. Um, she has great body language on the on the floor. You could tell she has great rapport with every hit. You I I think of it as like a catcher, John. Like if you are handling a pitching staff, right? Maybe this is a hard throw, this is a soft thrower, you know, this this person needs you to set the target up here because this is their tendency. The setter is the same way. She has such great rapport with every hitter. She she understands where Mollins on the outside where she can kind of give her different types of balls and then in the middle she has great rapport with with was with was with was with was with was with was with was with was with was with was with with some of the quicks. I thought Miller was really good last night in that valley win that we did. Um but but yeah, she she’s just the the quarterback of it all. And when you’re that rock solid at setter, that’s the person that’s touching it every time over the net on that second ball. Um and she she’s just uh she’s just really really good. you know, doesn’t doesn’t make a lot of mistakes and uh she she she mixes it up, but at the same time, she understands where the ball needs to go. For example, last night, I thought she did a great job. I always like to see a setter get their go-to hitter off quick. She got Mins going in the first set for like six or seven kills. Well, then she started to spread the ball up and down the net. Get a lot of different people involved. Her and her middles were on the same page last night. even used their opposite there a little bit uh with with Walker and Hall and and Mins and Woodward and you just really really good and and uh just just a special special achievement for her and she’s far from done. Yeah. And like you mentioned just she doesn’t make a lot of mistakes this year. She’s only had six ball handling errors in about half as many sets as last year. She had 25 last year and about double the game time. So, she’s not even remotely close to that. So, she’s really lowered the amount of errors that she’s made. Uh each year she’s lowered the amount of errors she’s made. Uh she’s averaging more assists per set this season than she has the last two over her career, averaging uh 9.3 assists per set for her career, but 10.5 a set this season. Uh she’s been outstanding for them and one of the big reasons why they hope to make another big run. Reached the regional final last year. I know they are wanting to make it at least a step further this year. Yeah. Ranked number two in the state behind Adine as I said earlier. Now now a lot of that on the ball handling you there’s been some rule changes and so forth, but nonetheless the the the assists have gone up though because of her of her chemistry with her hitters. I really believe that. Like they were good last year. They were. But I I just see a different level of rhythm now. Last night they were obviously in better rhythm because they passed on target a lot better. When I watched them against Gallalia, it was a little bit more of a struggle. Chamberlain was on the run a little bit more. Not a lot of do on the other side of the net. The uh but but even then what makes what makes a Chamberlain so special I mentioned with Clark earlier is their ability. It the pass doesn’t have to be perfect. their ability to come off the net to to run one down and still understand with with a certain type of set or a bump set or whatever to still give some of their hitters a chance to go on the attack. Yeah, she’s been outstanding. But, um, a little bit about that match last night, uh, Wheelersburg over Valley in three. Uh, pretty quick one for the Pirates. So, it was, but let me say this, Valley’s a year away now. D6 this year. I think they’re dangerous now, but but Valley is is a is about a year away from really really taking off. I wouldn’t compare it maybe quite to to GI Academy a year ago, but it’s the same type of thought like when you watch them play, here’s a team this year probably going to go on to win let’s say 16 game matches. Okay, by next year all of a sudden now winning 20 is certainly a goal that’s relisted. you know, they’re they’re really good at setter. Nice size with with Edwards there and then the uh uh I was real impressed with Williams out of the middle. Now, they had trouble getting their go-to Chrisman going last night, but they have they have youth across the roster. I think just the one senior uh really really good, but then last night Wheelersburg was just really really complete. Like they said, they got great play out of their middle. Uh Glean was really good leading the defensive attack. Yeah, I highlighted Woodward last night on the on the air. when when she’s all said and done, we’re going to look back. You talk about stuff in the stat sheet. We’re going to look back with the kills and the digs and the aces and and the winning. Yeah. Uh really really good. And so, uh you know, and then what was so funny like they they they started using some of their bench late in the night. They bring freshman off the bench. I think her last name is Scheme. She takes a couple swings and you’re like, “Oh, yeah.” So it’s like so when when Dewiey’s reading off that you know they they win like 20 games a year for a decade it makes a lot of sense on like okay there’s the next one you know what I mean like so it’s yeah there there’s a reason why and that’s uh because the pipeline is rarely not full of outstanding athletes but you mentioned Valley you mentioned Chrisman uh one of the really good athletes in our area across the board as well I got to watch her in softball really good softball pitcher as well. So, not surprised to hear that she saw it get going last night. You know, give credit to Wheelersburg there. And and the attention she was drawing probably had a lot to do with with some of the other girls that did get because they had about four or five other girls, probably up over their average, but they just couldn’t quite get her. Yeah, she seems like she is on pace for a thousand career kills, uh, which would be outstanding. But, uh, you mentioned Valley, they’re not done. they they’ve got a lot to play for, especially in division six. So, uh glad that we were able to get down there and uh get some eyes on them as they are now 12 and three on the season. A big one as you mentioned with Waverly coming up tomorrow night. So, uh, moving on. Speaking of tomorrow night, we’ve got a big one live stream sponsored by Ohio Health and as we mentioned earlier, a bevy of other sponsors that we appreciate every single one of them be there. Get to get to if if it’s bad camera work, blame me because I I’ll have the camera work for that one. But, uh, Circleville coming off of a huge win last night, uh, will be at Logan Elm. One of our better streams that we’ve had this year was Logan Elm at Circleville. Logan Elm, one of the better teams in the Southeast District. Circleville proving last night why they’re one of the better teams in Southeast District as well. Th this has the time. This has a chance to be an alltime. I mean, this really does. I mean obviously the five set thriller the first time and we’ve had some really good ones this this year as you’ve heard me say the the guy Wheelers Birds Uniodina we just talked about first the first round with Logan Elm Circleville you Logan Elm comes in I believe they’re number two in the recent poll they’re they’re they’re 13 and two led by the outstanding player uh player King and uh people who have listened to our overtime and listen to our volleyball coverage they know one of my real favorites when we talk about underappreciated on that theme Kennedy Gro, she she’s terrific. And I always think Adelyn Smith’s another one that’s underrated because I think they kind of go when she goes. I mean, obviously, you know, Claire King’s going to be there. She’s going to show up big time when Adlin uh gives them some offense. I think they go to another level. Nine seniors, I think it is on that roster. And that’s an old team and, you know, they lost to New Lex and they lost to Bloom Carroll and and that’s it. Speaking of Bloom Carroll, Circleville comes back and gets Bloom Carroll last night in five. And I think they’re they’re down 10, then they’re down 2-1 and they come back and went 2520, 1512. And you know, they they’ve played some high level volleyball here lately. They had the tournament over the weekend where they beat Wheelersburg and and then they come and they beat Bloom Camaro on on Tuesday night. and you know they’re they’re they’re at 12 and five which you look at that record but man they’ve played some really really good competition and they and they might just be finding it right at the right time. I watched them earlier in the year Ally Thornsley’s really really good and I’m anxious to see what they’re doing with their rotation now. She’s outstanding uh with her hands as said I know she’s hit a lot in the past. I don’t know if they’ve changed that up. I’m anxious to see it tomorrow night but she’s really really good. I know she was fighting a little bit of an injury playing through some discomfort earlier in the year, but she she’s outstanding. And then Addison Edgington, Drew Hoskins, Matty Blake, I thought was really good the first round with this there, but they they too have a pretty experienced group. So, uh, what a treat. I I think that that’s going to be a little bit of later start times. I think it’s triple header and usually the SOSA theme is wherever we go, we get a bunch of free set. Although we had straight set uh JV. Yeah, it was a early start last night. Yeah. So, but in all seriousness with the triple header, you you know, don’t give up on us tomorrow night because it’ll be worth the wait. Yeah. The the first one was uh a classic and I’m sure tomorrow nights will be as well. Big rivalry match and uh should be an outstanding crowd and atmosphere overall. Love, you know, for being a smaller gym out of the newer ones. uh really enjoy going to Logan Elm and I I feel like they treat us very well whenever we’re there as well. So, uh look forward to that. Um but sticking with our theme, you you mentioned Kennedy Gra as one of the underrated players in our area. Do you have any other thoughts on that? throw, you know, two or three out and then because I’ve already talked about some and then I know you have some and I’ll comment on those as well. But I wanted to go back to Gaia Academy because we we highlighted Grayson Clark earlier and and you know there she’s so so good and she spreads it out to some really talented hitters like Aspen Barnes and Abby Clark and Aubrey Frasier and and you their team ranking is kind of climbing. You could almost say that team’s been a little underappreciated with their their undefeated uh start and where they’re at in the rankings. I know they they have a busy week and if they could come out the other side of it, um they would get to 17 and0, they’d have four of their last five on the road, but I I believe that final home game there would be Chesapeake. So, I’ll get to that in a second. But first, I wanted to highlight Khloe Bennett. Khloe Bennett, I think, is really underappreciated because it’s so fun to watch Clark set up a Barnes or a Clark or a Frasier and and watch them go go to work or even Saunders and some other kids on that team. The it’s it’s a situation where Bennett to me is the biggest jump from last year to this year. They’re an 18-1 team last year, 18-6. They probably had one or two matches they’d like to have back and and that’s kind of their growth. If I was watching them a year ago, and obviously the talented Barnes as a freshman this year makes it a little bit of a name, but she’s pretty good, you know, but if I was still picking out something, it would be their ability to pass the volleyball. And and I just think Bennett’s gone next level. She’s been anywhere from five to six digs per set throughout the year. And uh I was just really really impressed with how hard she competed against Wheelersburg when I had a chance to watch them in person earlier this year. So I wanted I wanted to throw her name out there. is really underappreciated because in all that star power sometimes you get swallowed up. Uh but let’s let’s make sure we recognize the job she’s doing. And then I mentioned Chesapeake what could be one of the final hurdles there for them to chase an undefeated season. Chesapeake’s got a nice nice player named Aaron Low. Low has a chance to be one of those all-around players right around you know 500 kills, 1500 assists, a thousand dig, 200 ace type kids. I mean, you’re talking about again across the board, the ability to impact, but I know Chesapeake already up uh already clinched the winning season, I believe, and they’re they they’re second place there in the that conference. Uh I know Abby Isac’s their they’re one of their top hitters. L Ferguson’s another kid that jumped out at me on the stat page, but but I get the impression that low really makes them go, you know, from from start to finish. So, that’ll be one. And then on the Miami trace, I would throw out that, you know, we talk about Lauren Guest and Lauren Farren with the setter play of of Kylie Easel, but again, let’s go and and get another passer there, Kiana Ackley. She’s someone about five and a half digs and obviously Miami Trace has done a lot of winning and she helps them go. Allison Carter is another solid passer there. So, just kind of wanted to throw out some love to some of the defensive players because I I know sometimes the highlight reel is the big time set it up, get hammering. Yeah. Sometimes those kids that are that are keeping the play alive or or or serve receiving and passing on target makes that all possible. Yeah, it definitely does. Uh I I I’ve seen a few this year where I I haven’t got out to a ton of volleyball because I’m trying to get to as much soccer as possible. Uh, and then also I’m like all over the country at times. So that kind of eliminates some of the things I can do. But, um, one person, and this is going to go to one team that’s going to I’m going to talk about a couple different people. Uh, Larkin Voldemort from Pikton, she just reached her 10,000 career assists the other day. She’s at seven assists per set, which is good for second in the SEC behind Kinsley Batson of Yunota. Uh, she’s done a great job of guiding their offense. They are five- one outside of league play. They really compete at a high level once you get outside of the SVC. And part of the reason is because Vogmore does such a great job of leading that team offensively. So, she’s uh been one of the more underappreciated players because they haven’t had a lot of wins in league play. And because of that, you don’t hear a lot about what Pikton’s able to do. But they’ve got several players that can really make them a team that you don’t want to see in the postseason because they they’ve got a big hitter, which I’m going to talk about in a second. They’ve got uh you know, Sadi Childers has one of the best serves in the district. Um just a a really highlevel uh attack out of her on the serve. Um really impressed with what I was able to see out of her. But Vogmore does a great job of leading them offensively. But Ryan Moore, their big hitter, um 3.6 kills per set, fourth in the SBC behind Katie Burns, Carly Snavely of Zane Trace, Brayley Hosworth of Huntington. So there’s some big-time names that you hear and that means she’s in front of the Uniota girls as well. So, uh, Ryan Moore does an outstanding job and I I had mentioned something trying to get some help from Derek on getting some names on this because like, you know, we see what we see. He sees other games as well. So maybe, you know, he’s the one who he really pointed out Vulgore and then when I mentioned more, he was like, well, you know, it’s guess she’s getting set up like really well by Vulgore in kind of, you know, the joking way of like trying to sell his his choice, which was a very good choice anyway. But then I was like, “No, I watched it in warm-ups.” It’s like, I didn’t have to see it in the game. Then she was outstanding in the game that I saw, but in warm-ups, it was like, “Oh, I’m pretty sure this kid’s going to be able to play.” And then she did it in the game. But really good hang time, really good power uh from a middle hitter, really good timing as well, very athletic. Uh and you’re going to see it in a variety of sports coming up this year as well. only a junior, a really talented player for Pikton. Uh I think those two along with Childers makes them a a really tough matchup. I I like that from the standpoint of I think what happens with with say like a Python that’s been playing in the SNC, such a grind, 14 match grind, times miserable, right? And sometimes a hitter doesn’t get a chance to showcase their entire skill set because maybe their overall team’s just overwhelmed. Like last night I saw some pieces from Valley I was mentioning they couldn’t really go on their normal attack. I mean obviously they’re a good volleyball team. They’re going to go like 15 16 matches or what but like Wheelersburg overwhelmed. So a lot of times what happens with heighten maybe their overall serve receiver their defense just gets overwhelmed when they’re able to play a volume more and more start to show a little bit of like hey we can play a little bit in these areas and that’s why in a matchup when they’re able to clean up some of those other areas and those two are able to go now all of a sudden they can they can take over a match so to speak. So, I I think it’s a great pick from a standpoint of I I think we forget sometimes in the bottom half of the SBC how hard that is, but then how it always shows up in the postseason because even a Paint Valley going into the small division or Pike going it seems like the SBC the only way to get them out of the tournament some years is to have them be in the bracket beat up on one another. It it that that that’s a great pit. Yeah. And then uh for my last two I went into the into the Southern Hills League or Southern Hills Athletic Conference. It was Southern Hills League for a long time, but uh Southern Hills Athletic Conference. Uh Remy Moon from Fairfield. Uh all Ohio high jumper as a freshman, outstanding athlete, only a junior. She’s over 500 career kills at this point. on track to get it to a thousand, you know, if she completes this year uh at a high level. She’s leads the shack by almost 100 kills total. Like she’s just been absolutely outstanding. And then you look at her allaround game as well. She’s over 700 digs. So likely going to get to a thousand there as well. Um she’s at close to 80 aces on her career. She’s been just a really talented player for Fairfield. But they got off to a really hot start. They were 11-2 to start. They had 110 straight, which was a program record to start uh their season. And they’ve hit a little rough patch here, but behind Moon, I believe that the Lions can turn things uh on the upswing. But then, um you know, North Adams, uh you’ve got you’ve got the Pistols, uh Ava and Emma Pistol, two big time hitters for them. Paige Evans is another big-time hitter, but they’re getting they’re getting the ball from Natalie Reagan. Reagan uh over 2400 career assists for North Adams. Uh she’s got an outside chance to be the school’s all-time assist leader. Uh Sierra Kendall is their all-time assist leader. Um is about 350 assists ahead of her. um if she can reach that number or she can reach the same amount of assists that she had last season uh she will pass Kendall which will be you know it’ll be tight but if she’s able to then Jaden Mace from Alexander is in reach as well as she was like 20 to 25 assists more than Kendall those are the top two assist uh leaders in Southeast district history so that’s something to look for this year Natalie Reagan has been outstanding for four years for North Adams 11 and four now. The Green Devils are very likely to repeat once again as Shaq won champions and it’s a lot behind Natalie Reagan. But I also want to throw this out there. Uh when Natalie Reagan was in eighth grade, their setter was Sarah Kendall. So the last eight years, North Adams has just had an absolutely elite setter. uh which has made them into one of the big-time threats out of the Southern Hills. It’s a great pick. I I had highlighted Reagan there back at the beginning of the year when you asked me to do a little setter thing and and and she has been because again I always go back to consistency. It’s that it’s the consistency of the 5-1 offense where you get five hitters and uh you you you come and different types of attacks and and you get to know every hitter and where they like the ball and so forth and so so it’s really really big. Boon is someone that I’ I’ve started to pay more attention to really special athlete. Um so uh that is and again I use the term dangerous a lot of time in tournament. I think both of those teams in their respective brackets could certainly be just that. Yeah, just uh two programs that uh are looking to make some big-time noise when it comes tournament time. So, one of the things that we talked about um moving on, that’s probably going to be it for our underrated for this week. Uh we possibly can have some more in the future as well. We will not do an overrated segment as a as a counter to this. Uh just throwing that out there. So, if someone wants to like send us a DM like, “Oh, this person’s over it.” Like, yeah, we ain’t going to pay attention to that. Uh because these kids are either properly or underrated uh within our eyes because there are some outstanding athletes. So, one of the things that we talked about was like, hey, maybe we’ll shorten the episode. We are not shortening the episode as we are now at the same amount of time as we did the other day. We’ve actually lengthened it uh going into our final two segments. First, uh our first time really talking about it this season, cross country. Uh Shane, you had a nice rundown of the Rio Grand meet the other day. You want to talk about that a little bit more? Yeah, on the on the Rio Grand, the reason people are so interested in this one late in the year is because it’s it’s the uh district site. So, a lot of teams like to go, they’ll get 30 plus teams down there. And as my understanding, I’m anxious to get down there and maybe try to see something in the postseason because my mind pictures it the the way it always was with a little bit more of a hill and so forth. So I guess what’s happened now with the growth of football and things like that, it’s changed across country toward because the thing that jumped out at me were some of the times some of the times in the past that I was used to seeing I I was talking to some kids the other day and talked to a couple coaches. I was like, man, those times are faster and they were explaining to me that it’s become a little bit uh flat, a little bit more Bob Evans area, so forth. So um that that explains this. But on the boy side there the other day, Uniota just completely dominated. I mean they they they whooped the field by almost 100 points. Um so they they come in they go sixth seventh 11th 12th and 19 and when you start talking about a you know meet that has it was 200 runs that that that’s obviously really really impressive but when I look down through the list there Caleb Kaplinger William Lynch there they were the they were the seventh and eighth place and then you get into Ethan Perte and and Scott just the freshman. So, you know, that that was some of them. And then on the Rock Hill, they they I believe their team was third. Nixon Snaily was your winner. 1529. That’s that’s getting it, you know, but uh probably about 30ome seconds ahead of South Webster’s Brad Mantel. So, that that that was on the boys side. And as I go over to the girls side, pull that up. The uh you get an Ignite Athletics. I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what that is, but I don’t, you know, that’s not obviously in the OSA situation, but was the next team. 121 was two points better than than county. And then on on the girl sideo here, one of our uh uh locals from Adena, Vanessa Connley, the senior, 1853, almost a minute better than everyone else, about 198. Um, and then it was uh Kaylin Doss, I believe is the way you say it, from Logan. Uh, followed closely by Lena Macau from Iron and then Cameron Walker from Uniota there in the four spot. So again, when you talk about this level, uh, you start getting into Rio, you get that district level, you start getting to the Lancaster course, you get into the regional. Um and and that’s why you see late in the year when teams get a chance to get on those courses, that’s why they try to that’s that’s why you see the big fields is because everybody’s kind of interested, right? Yeah. So, uh you mentioned Cameron Walker. Good to see that she’s back out this year after taking a year off last year. Uh I would never blame a kid for taking a year off of running as much as kids. But Vanessa Connley went by almost a minute. It did you say 198 in the field? I believe it was. Yeah. Let’s see. I think it was a one 199 what 199. Um yeah, so she beats the field by a minute. That not bad. I mean that’s a that’s an Adena program. They they typically don’t have an entire team, but they’ve had some really elite runners over the last few years. Uh Connley being the latest. Ryan Richendler was outstanding on the boy side as well. So um you know, congrats to her. Uh, and you mentioned Snavely on the boy side from Rock Hill for winning those big-time meets. Uh, some outstanding performers uh, from top to bottom. So, we will have more cross country in the future. This is just kind of a a quick look at something. Um, and once we get closer to the tournament time or they they still have a little they still have a little bit because you you usually get more into about mid-occtober championship meets early October and then midocctober is when it starts to ramp up you because golf kind of beats them here in the season a little bit and then cross country kind of takes hold. Yeah. And then speaking of beating them with golf, uh, some league champions were decided this week in golf. So, uh, in the SVC, Westfall kind of had decided it at match one. Uh, they were outstanding throughout. They just completely dominated. They went all eight of the SVC matches uh to get a full 64 points, which doesn’t always happen. So, a gold ball in uh golf for Westfall. And they’ve got a lot of those guys back, including Brendan Bigler, who was underpar uh at the 18 hole. uh you know final two rounds down at the Elks in McDermott. I think they technically say Portsouth but it’s definitely McDermott. I mean that’s where it’s at. So uh but then Bigler was it’s not the Mcder else it’s Portsouth. I know but still it’s I’m going with where it’s at. Okay. Yeah. I was going to say just I’ll be I just bought the golf right. I mean, you you work at a school that’s not technically in Banebridge, and it’s sort of closer to Banebridge than Borville, I guess, whatever. Um, yes, it throws me off every time I go out there, which is often. Uh, so, uh, Westfall, you know, they they’ve got a loaded group of kids. Uh, really talented. They’ve got a chance to make a big time run in the postseason. I think they’ve got a chance at a top five finish at the state as long as they don’t trip up on their way. Uh the Zane Trace girls win the SBC a little closer on that. Roselle Lovado was the uh was the medalist. She won most of the meets on the girls side. She was outstanding throughout from Zane Trace. They had an outstanding performance uh which I’ll talk about when we get to the sectional results here in just a minute. Um but good it was a good league on the girls side which we’ll also see in tournament time. Uh we’re going to talk about that. six of the eight teams actually advanced in the SVC to uh the district round or or at least had someone representing them uh to advance. But uh in the shack they do it a little different. They do a four rounds and it’s purely on sher play which I really like. I I think that comes down to kind of a little more traditional of what what it is. I do like the SVC’s idea of playing each school host their own meet, but now we’re really low on golf courses, so ends up making it a little more difficult. But, uh, the Shaq, four matches, Lynchber with an eight-stroke win over West Union. I believe you said the other day it was like a one-stroke lead. It was a one-stroke difference going into that final day. Yeah. So, uh, outstanding work by Lynchburg to get a a nice win in the last day to pull ahead by eight strokes to to win a league title. Uh, North Adams Christopher Hall. And here’s one with a onestroke win over Manchester’s uh, Parker Hlip and a three stroke lead over Nolan Wilin for player of the year in the Shack. On the girls side, the West Union girls win it, led by Nina McCann, who had a two-stroke win for player of the year over North Adams Emmy Holtz. Um, I believe you mentioned uh Western as well. Yeah, Western boys. I think I read they won last year and then I I think I read they hit really hard by graduation. Well, they reload and they they win it again. And so, congratulations Western boys there in the D2 of the SOC. Oak Hills Colt Rainer was their player. Yeah. So, uh, outstanding work there by, uh, Western to reload as as opposed to, uh, rebuilding. So, a couple things on the tournament. So, the division 2 boys has been pushed back to Friday. It was pushed back to Thursday after today. And then like 45 minutes later, they’re like, we’re going to do Friday. It’s like, Friday is going to be decent. Like, I think Thursday still has a chance of rain. uh where this way they get a chance everyone will start at an even playing field as opposed to some of you having to go through uh some rain. So, we’ll have much more on the boys sectional next week uh which will probably be our normal episode time, but we’ll see on that. On the girls sectional, this is a lot more organized than it was when we first went through it the other day. So, u division one wins their second straight sectional. Uh, Circleville and Athens move on to the district round as well. I believe they beat Marietta by four strokes to move on. Miley Smith, Lee Shobelock each shooting 87 for the Shermans. Magna Magnolia Hullbert shoots a 91 and Payton Robinson a 97. Uh, if those scores can hold up, they finished one stroke behind Dover last year at the district for a chance to get to the state. Uh if those scores hold up, they’ll definitely have a chance to maybe unseat Dover for a district championship and get their first ever trip to the state tournament as a girls program. Uh Isabelle Perini from Circleville shoots a 68 uh for medalist honor. She was outstanding. Washington Courthouse’s Faith Win. Jackson’s Aubrey Arnold, Fairfield Union’s Kendall Mason, and Mlan’s Kalin Sterling also advanced to next week’s districts uh as individuals. So, uh should be an outstanding showing from the division one group. I’m excited to see if Pini can shoot that well uh at the district level as well. But Arnold of Jackson, the FAC player of the year, you know, win was right there behind. So, uh, Chilikathy, um, had had knocked Jackson off. I think that’s their home. Of course, at the end of the year, Jackson still wins that league. So, again, Arnold and, uh, win both have played some really tough courses throughout the year, and so be anxious, be anxious to follow their progress as well. Uh, and then moving on to division two, uh, at Buckeye Hills. They were at three different courses at Buckeye Hills. St. Trace dominated, uh, behind Lovado, um, or Lavo. I don’t I’m trying to say it right. I feel bad if I if I got it wrong, but uh she shoots a 67, wins it by seven strokes. Like outstanding. Um and then that that’s a phenomenal round on that golf course. If you’re not familiar with that golf course, it’s got a little length to it. Some of the par threes play really really hard there. Uh that that’s impressive. Yeah. So she’s been outstanding throughout the year. Only a sophomore. And then you know, say she wins by seven strokes. Oh, Anna Halper shot a 74. And then Mary Halbert, also her teammate, shoots a 75. So the Pioneers with three of the top four scorers on the day to to run away from the competition. West Union, Logan Elm, Adena also advanced as teams. Individually, Alyssa Smallley from Peebles, Fairfield’s Kelsey Crowder, Westfalls, Michelle Picket, and then North Adams, Emmy Holt also advance. Then moving on to Franklin Valley, Iikon wins with a four-stroke victory over Menford. Those are the only two remotely in the race. Uh as Pike and Menford were much better than the rest. A big reason why Piketon wins it. Medalist Leila Kelly paces the field by four strokes. So her four-stroke win gets them a four-stroke win. Elena Hitchcock was outstanding for them as well. Uh Payton Day, Brena Weaver also played very well for the Red Streaks as they move on to district play. I believe this is the second straight year for Leila Kelly to win it. Uh we know her obviously from basketball, but now stay in golf. Yeah. What’s interesting about the SBC there, again, if for those that aren’t familiar with it, there’s such a enrollment discrepancy. We’re going from like in the mid 90s at the bottom all the way up to like the two well like two 40s maybe on the girls side, 220s on the boy side. But what happens is come tournament time, especially now with more and more divisions, they start to go their separate ways. And it’s kind of interesting to see how it kind of plays out that uh they’ve been pretty battle tested against each other. Now they’re they’re they’re going their separate ways and doing pretty well. Yeah. And speaking of other teams from there, so we talked about qualifying, uh was Menford, Wheelersburg, and Huntington also qualified. Huntington um just keeps breaking their own team record for best team score. and I believe they finished sixth as a team this year in the SVC and they make it to the district level. So that just shows the depth of the SVC in the girls side. So uh individually Rock Hills La Gilmore, Iron’s Marin Walters and Sarah Murdoch both from Iron and then Colgro’s Presley Shop also advanced. And then the last one at Cliffside, Wilston picks up a a pretty sizable win for their sectional crown. That’s that of course played a much higher scores across uh but Wilson with a pretty easy win led by Casey Young, Lily Martin, and Piper Stevenson. Other qualifying teams there, Alexander Chesake and Fairland. Uh individually, S uh Somaya Bradburn earned a one-stroke win to bring home medalist honor. She edges out Trembles. Uh Brayley Richards. Also qualifying were Eastern Reedsville’s Gabby Lind and Posie Holland from Sims Valley. Yeah, again, Cliffside kind of a tough course. Kind of kind of has a little bit of a I don’t know that it’s kind of like two different golf courses in a way there. It’s got a little bit I guess of if you’re not familiar with it, maybe a little bit of a big beaver feel to part of it. U and and some of it stretches out a little bit more traditional layout, but no, it’s you you mentioned not having as many courses. So, it’s good to have the ones that we do have to stretch out and and not have teams getting on buses and driving forever. You’re always going to have some that have to travel, but for the most part, as you’re reading those off there, I thought the Southeast District did a pretty good job of utilizing the correct courses. Yeah, I I think they’ve done, as you mentioned, done a really good job of that as well. So, uh district play next week for girls. We will have a slight preview for the girls on that next week, but we will talk the boys sectional next week um as well as a little more cross country. And then as always, our our typical um coverage for football, volleyball, and soccer. Uh shout out Fville. We will be talking them in soccer. Uh that’s definitely one of our first things. Pay attention to weather in golf because you’re seeing it this week with the rain. Then what’ll happen is if you start to get a little bit more of those fall conditions by the time they get to the state, a lot of times the the state tournaments kind of a wet cold courses seem to play a little longer, a little harder. Uh so that’s something to pay attention to. Like I I think at JC’s today they played on the boy side and like that man that course had to be soggy. It had to be long. Yeah. Especially on that front side. So I think that’ll be interesting to dissect some of those scorecards. Yeah. Yeah, cuz like I walked out on the South Webster soccer field and it hadn’t rained for like six hours at that point last night and it it was just wet. Like it was still wet. And so I I can’t imagine what the course was like this morning playing on it when uh it was going to be as damp as it was today. It’s different. It’s a tough walk. You know, again, you you’re not out there with a kite, you know what I you’re managing your own clubs in your bag and trying to keep the grips dry and it’s it’s a different level, especially if you’re someone who doesn’t have a lot of competition golf experience. It’s tough. Yeah, definitely can be tough. Um, do you have any other any other thoughts? No, I I think it’s a great show. Like I said, I I I appreciate the effort that you give in the fall to kind of get all of it on the agenda. I I I I really enjoyed, you know, doing all of it because I think it’s just important to highlight those kids. I think you and I have been doing this long enough to where we really believe in sports. We believe what it does for the education of kids and it’s it’s fun to follow. So, u spoiled rotten right now on the volleyball side and I think we’re in for another treat there. Make sure you you you watch our Logan Elman Circleville match and then I think I think we’re in for one of our better football games of the year over the next two weeks. Really? Yeah, should be uh an outstanding week. Everything here on YouTube as always. Uh get out uh check out the games. I mean, we we love when you watch our our content, it’s going to be here after. So, if you go to a game and then you’re like, “Oh, man. I want to watch that Miami Trace Chilcata game.” You you’ve got it here. If you go to a game and you want to watch the Miami Trace Chili game, while you’re at that game, do it. We we appreciate any views uh that you get. But overall, uh, the atmospheres for the kids, uh, make it even more memorable. So, get out and, uh, support the kids in person. But if you can’t get there, we’ll have everything covered here on Southern Ohio Sports Authority. Um, yeah. So, um, check out our our page. We got a lot of videos. We got a lot of different content. Uh, social.com has a variety of stories throughout the week. We got a lot of pictures. We have some outstanding photographers as well as writers. Um, and since I haven’t written in like a week, I’m going to say read the other guys because yeah, whatever. So, um, as always, we we appreciate anyone sticking with us tonight. Um, typically the show goes out on Monday morning. We had some issues on Monday night when we were recording after we had to delay it because I was at a baseball game. And, um, so I appreciate you, Shane, for for trying. uh multiple nights. We could have just packed it in, had a lost episode, but uh well, hopefully we’ll be back on our Sunday night renation here this week. That way we can get it out in a more timely fashion. Yeah. So, even if we have to do this similar thing of going live on Sunday night, at least we know that we can do it now. So, um thank you to Dewey Daily for trying to help us out. Jacob Weiss for uh helping us out today. Uh Dewey was a little more on Monday. Jacob was a little more today. Um, yeah. So, we appreciate it. Uh, Coach’s Callin show Friday night. Make sure to check that out. After the football game, uh, me, Jeff Miller, and Christian Bradlin will have all the scores and updates, uh, along with several coaches calling in as well. So, uh, make sure you check out Shane the next two nights. Uh, volleyball circle at Logan Elm on Thursday and then chili. Yeah. football. Miami Trace uh host Chilikati a big one on Friday night. So for Shane Colmes, I’m John Bruce. Thanks for checking out Susso Overtime presented by Perfection One. Have a great rest of your week. Okay, it’s good. Sorry it took so long.
