Ready to go

When the Columbia Crimson Tide football team takes the field tomorrow night against cross river rival Eastern, they might have a chip on their shoulders.
That’s because despite going 8-3 and qualifying for the District Three playoffs and losing 18 seniors, many think this will be a rebuilding year for the Tide.
Everyone but the players that is.
“We want to do our best in every game and not take any team lightly,” said junior captain Brandon Felus, who was one of Columbia’s representatives at the L-L League Media Day, two weeks ago.
Added speedy running back Jason Combs, “we want to try to do better than last year’s team and make it to the next round of districts.”
So, despite losing players such as quarterback Mike Seibert, running back Ben Guiles, wide receiver Colby Tuell and all-state performer Brian Groff and others, who were instrumental performers in last year’s team, the players are expecting big things in 2008.
“This team can be very good,” Felus said.
“It all depends on how hard work everyone puts into it,” Combs said.
The Crimson Tide lost a dozen starters from last year’s team. Returning starters are Felus, Rafael Mendez and Kevin McCarty in the trenches; Combs, Dakota Lightfoot, Yahya McIntyre and Derrick Smith in the skill areas.
Newcomers expected to play key roles are quarterback Matt Kreiser, fullback Joey Charles and lineman Bobby Schoelkopf and Brandon Aukamp.

Time to get ready

As a wondered what to talk about this week, a number of topics came to mind.
The end of the Olympics, the Phillies, the Eagles and of course the start of the 2008 high school sports’ season.
So like any good weatherman forecasting a foot of snow and we get less than an inch, I pulled out my trusty dart board.
My topic this week -- the start of the high school sports season for 2008.
One of the things I hear most from coaches, is a lack of numbers.
I feel for the coaches and often wonder why students don’t come out for sports, or get involved in school activities such as band, chorus or cheerleading.
I’ve been out of high school 32 years. I will tell anyone that asks, there are some things I would have gotten involved with in high school and didn’t. With that in mind, sports or school activities aren’t for some.
While I understand that, I will also make the comment for those who aren’t getting involved in their schools, they don’t know what they are missing.
I know there are athletes walking the hallways of our schools. I’m not the type of person anymore, maybe 10 years ago, who would make an issue out of it. When I was coaching early on, I thought it was important to get as many players on a team as possible. I was using the logic that there was nothing bad about getting involved.
The older I got, the more I understood. While I don’t agree with it, our kids today are spoiled. When as I kid, I spent the day at the local playground, going to the pool, playing whiffle ball or a pick up game, today, most, not all of our young people wouldn’t know a pick up game from a pee-gee ball. It’s more about IPods, text messaging, staying in the air conditioning and wanting to be talked into doing something.
That’s sad, but that’s the way I see things today. Again, most of our young people don’t know what they are missing.

Odds and ends...

• I am 2-0 wearing my Charlie Manuel t-shirt.
• I thought wearing a Manuel t-shirt or anything was odd. Sunday night at the Bank, there was a fan wearing a Steve Smith jersey.
He’s the Phillies’ third base coach. Don’t know if I’d be caught dead in that one.
• Larry Bowa doesn’t look right in Dodger Blue. Didn’t see it, but was told he received a long ovation on Friday night.
• Typical Charlie on Sunday.
He had a chance to make a double switch by taking starter Joe Blanton out of the game in the sixth and replacing Gregg Dobbs at third.
Instead, he left Blanton come out and warm up for the seventh, then removed him. He later made the double switch.
• My question is why go to a game, at any level, and not watch it. Sunday night, I think we were up and down 12 times just for two people.
• Looking forward to the fall sports’ season, on the field and food-wise. I’ll try to report each week on on the field actions as well as the Friday night food of choice.

Vandalism at HS

Columbia Superintendent of Schools Dr. Barry Clippinger said the opening of schools on Monday went well.
“We had a smooth opening of school today at all three buildings for students and staff,” Dr. Clippinger said.
But, there was one problem that didn’t have a thing to do with students or staff. For the second time in two weeks, school vehicles parked in the east parking lot on the high school campus had windows broken out by someone who shot a BB gun. Dr. Clippinger said the latest incident happened Sunday night after 11 p.m.
“ This happened about two weeks ago and again last night (Sunday),” Clippinger said.
The Columbia Police and the school district are investigating the incidents. Damage estimates are unavailable.
“Windshields were damaged and a side window on a van was shattered,” Clippinger said of the Sunday night incident.
Clippinger said the district’s new food service delivery truck was damaged by Sunday’s attack.
“Our new refrigerated food service truck was hit with damage to the windshield and small bb dents to the front body,” Dr. Clippinger said.
The damage was also reported to the district’s insurance carrier, Clippinger said.
Anyone who may have seen the damage is asked to call Columbia Police at 684-7735.

Cross country preview

There’s a change in the Columbia cross country program and it can only be for the good.
There’s a new coach and a new way to train. About the only thing that stayed the same was a lack of numbers for new coach Charles Leader and assistant Don Groom.
They take over for Frank Wagner, who resigned after one season as the Tide’s coach.
“We are looking for more runners. We need runners in grades seven through 12,” Leader said.
“We had some kids that got physicals, but they haven’t been at practice,” the new coach said.
Like all sports at the high school, prospective runners have until Tuesday to get their physicals and paperwork handed in.
Members of the team, both boys and girls, are Alan Foehlinger, Derek Zercher, Tony Barton, William Meyers, Cody Danks, Cody McAllister, Brittany Knighton, Rachael Knighton and Rebecca Kuhns.
McAllister, a senior, and Brittany Knighton are the only experienced runners for the Tide at the varsity level. Leader said recently that the Tide had a full boys’ team, while they were lacking numbers on the girls’ team. Columbia needs five runners on each team to compete as a team in meets.
“We had a few runners move up from the junior high,” Leader said.
Columbia opens its 2008 season Tuesday with a quad meet at McCaskey, also involving Warwick and Lebanon.

Tide drops opener

The Columbia girls’ tennis team opened its 2008 season Monday, losing to Solanco in a non-league match 7-0.
The starting singles’ line-up for the Tide against Solanco were Laura Gambler (a 6-0, 6-0 loser to Janelle Krentz); Adrienne Zercher (a 6-2, 6-1 loser to Julie Herr); Megan Murphy (a 6-0, 6-0 loser to Keri Swisher); Sara Burke (a 6-0, 6-0 loser to Laura Metzler) and Allison Michener (a 6-1, 6-0 loser to Gemma Brady).
In doubles, the duo of Gambler and Zercher lost to Krantz and Swisher, 8-0 and the team of Burke and Murphy lost to the team of Keeport and Metzler, 8-0.