Random Thoughts: CC and football

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

This week’s edition of Random Thoughts includes best wishes, football game sites, state semifinal matchups, a potentially dubious record and a heads up for Van Wert fans.

Good luck

Best of luck to Lincolnview’s Madison Langdon, who’s making her fourth cross country state appearance. That’s quite an impressive accomplishment.

Good luck to teammate Daegan Hatfield and the Lincolnview Lancers boys’ team as well, along with Van Wert’s boys’ cross country team.

Of course, good luck to the Van Wert Cougars in their quest for a Division VI Region 14 football championship.

In a normal year…

In a non-COVID-19 year, Van Wert and Shelby would play their regional championship game at a neutral site and I’m guessing it would have been at Tiffin or perhaps Findlay.

Instead, it’ll be played at Skiles Field in Shelby, a facility that won’t be in use much longer. A new stadium is being built at the high school.

Having broadcast a number of games at Skiles Field over the years, I can tell you there’s a lot of history there, but it’s definitely an older facility.

Semifinal matchups

We could find out as soon as today how football regional champions in Divisions II-VII will be matched up in the state semifinals.

It’ll be interesting to see which team the Region 14 winner will face in the semifinals and hopefully, the sites for those games will be announced as well. The Ohio High School Athletic Association was supposed to announce those last week but no work came down from Columbus.

Fortress Obetz

It was announced yesterday that Fortress Obetz on the southeast side of Columbus will be home to the 2020 OHSAA football championship games.

That’s also the site of this weekend’s state cross country championships.

I honestly thought the title games would be scattered around the state, and it never occurred to me that football title games would be played there.

1,500 fans will be able to attend each championship game.

0-11

I’m not going to name the school and it’s not around here, but the football team might set a new Ohio high school football record, and it’s not the kind of record they want.

With a loss this weekend, the school would apparently be the first in state history to finish the football season 0-11.

That’s 10 regular season games and one playoff game. The school they’re playing is 4-5, so it would appear there’s a fairly decent chance it’ll happen.

Radio show

If you’re a fan of Van Wert athletics, you’ll want to tune into 99.7FM WKSD at 7:05 Wednesday night.

Van Wert head football coach Keith Recker, girls basketball coach Hannah Phlipot and boys’ basketball coach Ben Laudick will be guests on The High School Huddle Live From Fricker’s, and if all goes according to plan, Shelby head football coach Robert Mahaney.

If you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.