{"id":211923,"date":"2026-11-02T21:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T02:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=211923"},"modified":"2026-11-02T21:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T02:29:21","slug":"random-thoughts-runners-court-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/11\/02\/random-thoughts-runners-court-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: runners, court, more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts includes good luck wishes and congratulations, plus thoughts about Glenville, the OHSAA, an old school offensive philosophy, and Ohio State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck to all the local runners who will compete at this weekend\u2019s OHSAA cross country state championships. Van Wert County is very well represented this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Congratulations to Van Wert High school alum Owen Scott, who has been named the Horizon League Men\u2019s Cross Country Freshman of the Year. Scott led all freshen and placed eighth in the 130-runner field at this past week\u2019s league championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott was a record-setting runner during his time at Van Wert. His younger brother Oliver is a top runner now for the Cougars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still waiting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be sometime this morning or perhaps this afternoon before a judge issues a ruling in the Glenville\/OHSAA situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Thursday, the OHSAA announced Glenville had been removed from the football playoffs due to student residency issues. In a nutshell, a number of football players attending the Ginn Academy, a magnet school, played football at Glenville should have been playing for other schools. Glenville sought and obtained a temporary injunction on Friday and a court hearing was scheduled for Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing began early in the afternoon and continued into the early evening hours and according to a friend of mine who covered it, the hearing took a number of detours. Closing statements and a decision are expected today. It may not be over though \u2013 an appeal seems likely from whichever side loses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OHSAA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m stating the obvious here when I say the OHSAA isn\u2019t exactly a fan favorite at times like this. Just look at social media comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t always agree with the OHSAA\u2019s decisions but I do wonder this \u2013 do at least some of the naysayers realize that the organization is enforcing rules that were approved by the majority of its more than 800 members?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One more thing and this is my opinion \u2013 you might agree with it and you might not \u2013 that\u2019s fine. Judges don\u2019t belong in this process. I\u2019ve said the same thing about disputes involving the NCAA. Membership in organizations like the OHSAA or NCAA is completely voluntary. When you sign on the dotted line, you agree to abide by the rules established by the majority of member schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The option<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve said this for years and I\u2019ll say it again. If I had to rebuild a high school football program, the triple option would be the staple of it. Otsego reinforced that last Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an old school offensive philosophy that not many teams run anymore and that\u2019s what makes it perfect. It takes a lot of repetition in practice and you have to totally commit to it. You don\u2019t dabble in that type of offense, you either run it or you don\u2019t but once you get the hang of it, it\u2019s a nightmare for opposing defenses. You do need a smart and tough (and preferably fast) quarterback and a tough fullback. You don\u2019t need huge offensive linemen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If nothing else, it makes a team competitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OSU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wow. If you\u2019re an Ohio State fan, Saturday\u2019s game against USC was frustrating. The defense was seemingly MIA and playcalling was questionable at times, especially a foot from the goal line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke Fahey had his ups and downs but all things considered he did okay. I know a lot of fans were calling for Tavien St. Clair to play but I\u2019m going to trust that the OSU coaches are in a better position to figure out which one gives the Buckeyes a better chance to win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will say that in my opinion, the offensive coordinator Arthur Smith experiment isn\u2019t working. I see what they did \u2013 former NFL coordinators on both sides of the ball but with all due respect, Smith seems out of place, kind of like a square peg in a round hole. Even at full strength, the offense seems very vanilla, sort of like an NFL offense. Look what Chip Kelly did with the offense during his time at Oregon, UCLA, Ohio State and now at Northwestern and with the exception of Oregon, he did more with less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio State\u2019s four remaining games are all winnable. I\u2019m not saying they\u2019ll be easy wins but the Buckeyes can win all four. If that happens, they\u2019ll be in line for a playoff spot, regardless if they make the Big Ten Championship Game or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above subjects, 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 good luck wishes and congratulations, plus thoughts about Glenville, the OHSAA, an old school offensive philosophy, and Ohio State. Good luck Good luck to all the local runners who will compete at this weekend\u2019s OHSAA cross country state championships. Van Wert County is very well […]<\/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-211923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-11-10 03:57:46","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\/211923","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=211923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211924,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211923\/revisions\/211924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}