{"id":181871,"date":"2024-07-30T21:00:22","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T02:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=181871"},"modified":"2024-07-30T21:00:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T02:00:22","slug":"random-thoughts-fall-sports-and-more-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/07\/30\/random-thoughts-fall-sports-and-more-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: fall sports and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

The latest installment of Random Thoughts (a day late) centers around fall sports and fall sports favorites, predictions, a transition period for an out of the area team, 8-man football, Michigan sanctions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fall sports<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to believe, but fall sports practices begin on Thursday. Golf will be the first sport to get underway, with Van Wert and Lincolnview scheduled to hit the links on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fall sports favorites<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with stories and recaps of local fall sports events, the Sports page will once again feature preseason football predictions for the NWC and WBL, weekly game previews for Van Wert and Crestview, the always popular Pigskin Pick\u2019Em, Monday Mailbag, Coaches Corner and various feature stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

While I\u2019m still gathering information from NWC and WBL football coaches, I can tell you I already have a preseason favorite in the new-look NWC. I have one for the WBL as well but that could be a very interesting race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not a school around here but New London High School, in north central Ohio, was forced to drop 11-man football two years ago due to a lack of numbers. The Wildcats played a limited 8-man schedule last season and the season before but now, the school is transitioning back to 11-man football this year. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how that goes, if at all. Once a school moves to 8-man football, it\u2019s usually pretty difficult to go back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8-man football<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another call for 8-man football to become a full-fledged sport in Ohio. I can\u2019t help but think it would benefit a number of current Division VII schools and perhaps even some Division VI schools that want to offer football but just don\u2019t have an ideal number of players. Other states have it and it works very nicely for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Michigan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple sources have reported that the NCAA could levy a one or two year postseason ban against Michigan in connection with the sign-stealing scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a bit skeptical that will actually happen but it could. Michigan, of course, would fight any postseason ban. I\u2019m trying to think back to the last time a school was kept out of bowl games for two seasons. There\u2019s SMU back in the 1980s. That was the NCAA only \u201cdeath penalty\u201d punishment and the football program was shut down for two seasons \u2013 one by the NCAA and the second by the school. Outside of that, I\u2019m thinking maybe Oklahoma in the 1970s. In any case, it\u2019s pretty rare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleveland Guardians<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a fan of the Cleveland Guardians, I\u2019d just like to point out that the team currently has the best record in the American League and the second best record in all of baseball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, there\u2019s still a long way to go and no, it doesn\u2019t guarantee any postseason success. But I\u2019m enjoying the ride and I know many other fans are as well.<\/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 editor The latest installment of Random Thoughts (a day late) centers around fall sports and fall sports favorites, predictions, a transition period for an out of the area team, 8-man football, Michigan sanctions Fall sports It\u2019s hard to believe, but fall sports practices begin on Thursday. Golf will be the first sport to […]<\/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-181871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 03:03:21","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\/181871","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=181871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181872,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181871\/revisions\/181872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}