{"id":193732,"date":"2025-06-09T21:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T02:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=193732"},"modified":"2025-06-09T21:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T02:02:15","slug":"random-thoughts-very-random-edition-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/06\/09\/random-thoughts-very-random-edition-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: very random edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts includes congratulations, spring sports, state softball, Richard Kortokrax, and the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to Van Wert\u2019s Owen Scott, who ended his high school career with a state championship in the 1600 meter run and an eighth place finish in the 3200 meter run. Both events featured top notch runners and winning a state title and getting on the podium was no easy feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations as well to Lincolnview\u2019s Cody Ricker for finishing fourth in the 300 meter hurdles and earning All-Ohio accolades for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more \u2013 congratulations to Drew Boggs of Delphos St. John\u2019s, who won the Division III high jump (6-10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The 2025 OHSAA spring sports season will officially come to an end with this weekend\u2019s baseball state tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tournament will be held at two different stadiums in northeast Ohio, Canal Park in Akron and Thurman Munson Stadium in Canton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the area teams that qualified for state: Wapakoneta (Division III), Coldwater (Division V), Fairview (Division VI) and Minster (Division VII). Best of luck to those teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State softball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the seven state championship softball games, four weren\u2019t close. There were two 10-0 games, a 9-1 game, and a 9-2 game. Another game was 6-0. The only two games that were close were in Division II (Riverside 8 Mt. Vernon 6) and in Division I (Lebanon 3 Centerville 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Kortokrax<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio\u2019s all-time winningest basketball coach passed away Saturday morning. Richard Kortokrax was 91. His storied coaching career included stops at Fort Jennings (1960-1961), Ottoville (1962-1974), and Kalida (1975-1989, 1991-2015).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was only able to cover a game that Richard Kortokrax coached just once, but I\u2019m grateful I had that opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It was a 2009 Division IV regional game against Plymouth at Bowling Green State University\u2019s Anderson Arena, back in my radio-only days. Plymouth had a very strong team. I had covered the Big Red multiple times that season and felt good about their changes. They had some great athletes and could really get out and move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it wasn\u2019t that long ago, information on opposing teams wasn\u2019t as readily available at the time. I\u2019ll just say Coach Kortokrax kept things very close to the vest in the days leading up to the game. I remember watching Kalida in pregame warm-ups and could see the Wildcats weren\u2019t at all flashy but were very fundamentally sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really thought Plymouth would win the game but it wasn\u2019t close. 64-46 Kalida. Plymouth had averaged 70 points per game during the regular season, yet the Wildcats harassed the Big Red into turnovers and missed shots all night, and many of those missed shots turned into Kalida points. It was a clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalida went on to qualify for the Division IV state championship game but lost to Norm Persin-coached Oak Hill, 48-43 in two overtimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kortokrax would go on to coach six more seasons and remains Ohio\u2019s all-time winningest basketball coach, with 890 victories. Persin is currently Ohio\u2019s third most winningest coach with 823 wins and took South Webster to the Final Four last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There may never be another coach like Kortokrax. They don\u2019t make them like that anymore. As I said earlier, I\u2019m happy I was able to see one of his teams play, even if it was just a one time thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rest in peace coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all knew Oklahoma City was a big favorite going into the NBA Finals, then the Pacers won the first game. I\u2019m sure I wasn\u2019t alone when I wondered if they could possibly pull off one of the bigger upsets in recent memory and somehow win the championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Game No. 2 happened, which kind of jarred me (and probably many others) back to reality. This may not be a popular opinion but after see Sunday night\u2019s results, I won\u2019t be at all shocked if the Thunder win the series 4-1.<\/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 This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts includes congratulations, spring sports, state softball, Richard Kortokrax, and the NBA Finals. Congratulations Congratulations to Van Wert\u2019s Owen Scott, who ended his high school career with a state championship in the 1600 meter run and an eighth place finish in the 3200 meter run. Both events […]<\/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-193732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 03:59:16","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\/193732","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=193732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193733,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193732\/revisions\/193733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}