{"id":107194,"date":"2018-09-18T06:25:11","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T11:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=107194"},"modified":"2018-09-18T06:25:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T11:25:11","slug":"random-thoughts-officials-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/09\/18\/random-thoughts-officials-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: officials and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around cross country, officials (or lack of them), volleyball, a nice award for Crestview and of course football.<\/p>\n

Cross country<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned in my short time here that cross country around here is a big deal, and with good reason. There are some outstanding teams in this area, starting with Van Wert and Lincolnview, with boys and girls squads from both schools turning in excellent individual and team performance thus far this season.<\/p>\n

Delphos St. John\u2019s and Columbus Grove have excellent teams as well, and Crestview is up and coming.<\/p>\n

All of this is due to hard work by the runners, along with great coaching.<\/p>\n

Lack of officials<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s happened in other areas of Ohio and it happened here last week. Van Wert\u2019s boys\u2019 soccer match against Spencerville was canceled, but not because of weather. It was canceled due to a lack of officials.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just a soccer thing. Numbers are down and officials are getting harder to find in other sports.<\/p>\n

What are the reasons? It\u2019s not the best paying gig, but it\u2019s not bad for 2-3 hours of work. I think the main reason is the way officials are treated by fans and some coaches. Think about it \u2013 how often do you hear something good about an official, compared to the number times people complain.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always said if fans in the stand think they can do a better job, take officiating classes and help out.<\/p>\n

Volleyball<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of people seemed to enjoy last week\u2019s Coaches Corner feature with Van Wert head coach Jeff Marbaugh, Lincolnview coach JaNahn Evans and Crestview coach Tammy Gregory. All three coaches and their teams are enjoying success this season. If you haven\u2019t seen any of them play, you should check them out.<\/p>\n

More good football matchups<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

At the top of this week\u2019s high school football list \u2013 air vs. ground. No. 12 Kenton (3-1, 3-0 WBL) at No. 1 at St. Marys in a key WBL matchup. The two teams were 1-2 in my Western Buckeye League preseason poll.<\/p>\n

Kenton\u2019s only loss is to Coldwater, and the Wildcats upset Wapakoneta last Friday. St. Marys has posted three impressive wins and squeaked by Shawnee 27-26 last Friday night.<\/p>\n

While they may not feature state ranked teams, Shawnee at Van Wert, Antwerp at Wayne Trace and Bluffton at Paulding should be entertaining games. I can\u2019t shake the feeling that the Panthers may win their first game of the season.<\/p>\n

Congrats to Crestview<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Crestview has been selected as a winner of the Fields of Excellence Award, presented by Cleveland based Pioneer Athletics.<\/p>\n

Since 1997, colleges, universities, high schools and parks and recreation departments from all over the U.S. have submitted pictures, letters of recommendation and applications describing in details their athletic field maintenance programs. A rigorous judging process yielded 91 winners from a large pool of applicants, with two winners chosen as scholarship winners.<\/p>\n

Crestview will receive a certificate of recognition and a banner to hang at the football field.<\/p>\n

Hats off to Crestview and the district\u2019s maintenance crew.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Browns<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s not easy being a Browns fan. Sunday\u2019s loss was like a punch in the gut. After missing two field goals and two extra points, kicker Zane Gonzalez is gone, but the signing of the team\u2019s new kicker is a bit baffling.<\/p>\n

Greg Joseph is an undrafted free agent out of Florida Atlantic University. My wife says it sounds like an online school, but they do indeed have a campus, with over 30,000 students.<\/p>\n

My problem with this signing is that Joseph made just 71 percent of his field goals in college, in Florida, in nice conditions. That\u2019s not exactly a steller number for kickers, and his NFL experience is limited to preseason games. Something tells me this isn\u2019t going to go well.<\/p>\n

As for wide receiver Josh Gordon \u2013 I think it\u2019s absolutely amazing that Cleveland was able to get a fifth round draft pick for him, given his history. If he can stay out of trouble, he should have a great season in New England.<\/p>\n

If you have any thoughts on the above topics or anything else, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around cross country, officials (or lack of them), volleyball, a nice award for Crestview and of course football. Cross country I\u2019ve learned in my short time here that cross country around here is a big deal, and with good reason. There are some outstanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 05:21:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}