{"id":144866,"date":"2021-08-17T03:54:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T08:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=144866"},"modified":"2021-08-17T03:55:07","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T08:55:07","slug":"random-thoughts-wiffleball-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/08\/17\/random-thoughts-wiffleball-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: wiffleball, football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around the return of wiffleball in Wren, the start of the 2021 high school football season, intriguing matchups, Pigskin Pick\u2019E and the life of an independent team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome back<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being called off last year due to COVID-19, the Wren Wiffleball tournament and festival returns this week in the official Wiffleball Capital of Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year will mark the 29th annual event and it\u2019s a welcome site to see, and it\u2019s nice to see the finishing touches being put on Wrenway Park for this year\u2019s games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck to each of the teams participating in this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Football<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020 high school football season begins this week, a week earlier than previous years due to the expanded OHSAA playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things will get underway Thursday night with an intriguing matchup between Shawnee and Lima Central Catholic. The bulk of games will be played on Friday night, then Delphos St. John\u2019s and Delphos Jefferson will meet on the new turf at Stadium Park on Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of luck to all area teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Week No. 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some other new area matchups that caught my eye: Marion Local at Wapakoneta, Spencerville at Elida and Columbus Grove at Pandora-Gilboa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m all for tradition but it\u2019s also nice to see some different matchups dot the Week No. 1 non-conference schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Predictions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Pigskin Pick\u2019Em feature of the 2021 season will appear on Thursday\u2019s Sports page. Check back to see which area teams are predicted to win, then compare them with your own thoughts and selections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

More predictions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of predictions, there was good response to last week\u2019s preseason football picks for the Northwest Conference and Western Buckeye League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans are passionate about their teams which is nice to see. Some agreed with the picks and some disagreed, which is fine. They\u2019re educated guesses, but so many things can happen to alter the course of events during any season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always fun to make predictions, then go back and compare them to the actual final standings at the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the early start and the fact that Labor Day seems to be late this year, 30 percent of the high school football regular season will be played before Labor Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The life of an independent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With no conference or league affiliation, this is Lima Central Catholic\u2019s varsity football schedule this year: home games against Spencerville, Worthington Christian and Fort Loramie, plus a game against Beverly Fort Frye at a neutral site, London High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other road trips for the Thunderbirds this season will be to Delphos St. John\u2019s, Willard, Licking Valley and Galion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s safe to say it\u2019s a wide and varied schedule and it\u2019s difficult to find games once conference and league games are underway. Plus, some schools shy away from successful programs like Lima Central Catholic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above topics, 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 the return of wiffleball in Wren, the start of the 2021 high school football season, intriguing matchups, Pigskin Pick\u2019E and the life of an independent team. Welcome back After being called off last year due to COVID-19, the Wren Wiffleball tournament and festival […]<\/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-144866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 02:35:25","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\/144866","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=144866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}