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.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Foul weather

If you are a prep athlete or coach and are still competing this week, you’ve earned it.

That weather Friday night and Saturday was simply brutal. I’ve never seen weather conditions quite like I saw Saturday covering the regional cross country meet in Tiffin.

Rain, sleet, hail, sunshine, gusty and I mean really gusty winds. And of course mud throughout Hedges Boyer Park. It should have been renamed Hedges Boyer Swamp after it was all over. It was a real friggin’ mess out there.

Let’s see, I have been doing this sports writing thing for a dozen or so years now and Saturday’s weather ranks right up there will the all-time memorable weather weekends I can remember as far as covering events in.

I think today I’ll share some other memorable sporting events I’ve been to where I remember the weather.

-- I didn’t cover the game but I remember sitting and watching it. It was the 1983 football season and my cousin was playing for Fostoria and I went to Lorain’s George Daniel Stadium to watch the Redmen play Elyria Catholic in the first weekend of the playoffs. It was a brutally cold game and played in near blizzard conditions that I remember.

-- Don’t recall what year it was but I covered a Hardin Northern-St. Henry game at St. Marys sometime in the 1990s I think. It was a monsoon the entire contest. I don’t remember the cold but I remember that it poured, poured and poured some more the entire game.

-- One of the years the state track meet in Dayton, it was windy and bone-chilling cold. I’m thinking maybe the wind chills were in the 40s in June. In fact Mark Heiman and I packed summer clothes and were ill prepared for the chilly temperatures. I can remember having to go to a department store after the first day because he and I needed more layers of clothing to cover the meet on Saturday. OK chalk that one up to my own stupidity.

-- Went to an Indians game once in April. The temperature was about 45 probably and our seats were right on the front corner of the upper deck in left center. There were 30 mph winds that day and the gusts had to be in the 40s up where we were at. It was like sitting in a wind tunnel, I had a $5 bill blow outta my hand and I think it ended up in Connecticut.

Any other memorable weather stories out there from time spent as a player, fan or coach? I’d love to hear a few.

NOTEWORTHY:
SPORTSWRITER SUSPENSION: I almost got kicked out of the regional cross country meet believe it or not. I and some other media were off to the side of the tent near the finish line, in no one’s way and were harassed while we were interviewing Bockbrader by a meet worker. A woman named Lauren (she wouldn’t give me her last name so I could complain about her actions to the tournament manager) rudely interrupted the interview telling us we couldn’t be here, she was going to have us thrown out of the premesis yadda, yadda, yadda. That’s while we were asking Bockbrader questions.

They other guys finished their interview while I dealt with Lauren. I told her we are just doing our jobs, getting kids who normally don’t get much coverage some well-earned publicity. She wasn’t impressed or didn’t care. Give a person a title, and it goes straight to their heads. I just wonder what would have happened had I gotten kicked out. Would I have to serve a 10 percent suspension and be banned from the OHSAA state meet next week? All I know is the OHSAA does a great job most of the time with media access, they need to do a better job policing these people at the regional meet.

AMAZING EAGLES: Liberty-Benton’s girls cross country team won their fourth straight Division III regional title Saturday. L-B’s Kesha Brooks dominated the race beating returning regional champion Kaye Bockbrader of Elmwood by 39 seconds. It was a great effort by Boclbrader who has struggled with injuries all season long. L-B is the only team from our coverage area to make it to state although there will be several individuals participating.

GREAT WEEK TO BE A TITAN: Hey if you’re from Ottawa and enjoy watching your Titans you’re in luck. The football team will play in the regional quarterfinals at Milton Union Friday night and the boys and girls soccer teams will play in the regional semifinals Tuesday and Wednesday. Add Abbie Selhorst running at the state tournament Saturday and it will be a busy week.

WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON:
It’s a big week of sports at the Courier.
Tuesday -- I’m covering O-G boys soccer against Kidron Christian
Wednesday -- I’ll be covering O-G girls soccer against Akron Hoban; Dave will be at the Findlay girls soccer match in Westlake; Mark will cover the Division IV regional volleyball match between Hardin Northern and Kalida.
Thursday -- Playoff capsules and a cross country feature on L-B’s girls team the runners you don’t read about.
Friday -- Dave will be covering the McComb-Stritch game; Mark will be at Dola to report on the HN-Ada game; I’ll be heading to Marsh Field for Grove’s game at Monroeville; Greg Flores will be at Hopewell-Loudon for their playoff game.
Saturday -- I will be at state cross country; Dave will be covering L-B against Tinora; Mark will go to the Fairview-PH game.
Plus we have to get cracking on the basketball tab too.

NEWSWORTHY:
Coverage of the Browns win over the Jets
Ohio State to re-sod the shoe

Findlay Courier Monday sports

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