Blanchard River Buzz

A blog for rabid sports fans in the Findlay Area. Maintained by Findlay Courier sports writer Jamie Baker. The opinions expressed are my own crazed ramblings and not those of my employer the Findlay Publishing Company and its subsidiaries.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Big & Small

The season is officially here.

It’s 6:23 a.m. on the first day area prep football teams are allowed to practice and I imagine within the next half hour or so many area teams will be officially kicking off their 2006 campaigns.
It’s a great time of year. There are very few injuries and optimism reigns supreme among coaches and players. That’s what’s terrific about the first day of practice, everyone thinks they can win a championship.

I lifted a couple of prep football forms from the folder and figured I’d give anyone looking at this blog a sneak preview of the area’s biggest and littlest schools Findlay High School and that Small School That’s Big on Learning -- Vanlue.

The Wildcats first.

A new coach is in charge. Todd Richards (who has spent a year at Vanlue after three years teaching and coaching at Lakota East near Cincinnati) takes over for George Tucker. George got the most out of the kids and I’m still not sure when and why he left or was non-renewed. I can’t quite get a straight answer out of anyone involved with the situation.

There are just 24 players on the Wildcats’ preseason roster but 21 of them are returning letterwinners including junior Nick Lee (5-9, 170), an honorable mention all-BVC selection and the team’s starting quarterback.

Other notable returnees for Vanlue include senior wideout and defensive back Chad Drown (6-0, 180), junior defensive end/tight end Josh Kloepfer (6-4, 225) and senior running back Quentin Holland (5-10, 160).

The Wildcat roster features seven seniors, 12 juniors, four sophomores and a single freshman. Those numbers in the sophomore and freshman class kind of worry me for the future of the program. But if anyone is sure to do everything possible to put a team on the football field, I know it’s Vanlue.

I’ll post this now and give an update on the Trojans later today.

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