(Hillsboro) – Hillsboro High School has hired assistant coach Nathan Horne as their new had football coach, replacing Jack O’Rourke, who retired after last season.
Horne, who went to school at Hillsboro through his junior year, graduated from Wilmington High School in 1998. He later became Hillsboro High School’s wrestling coach and had served as the Indians’ football defensive coordinator last season as part of 9 seasons on the Indians football coaching staff.
Nathan’s dad, Jim, was football head coach for Hillsboro for 15 successful seasons. He won several conference titles and had multiple playoff appearances,
The Dublin Jerome Boys and the New Albany Girls were the District team champions at the 2022 D-I tournament at Ohio State University Saturday.
The Lancaster Girls placed 18th overall with the Boys placing 20th. Neither Teays Valley or Marietta swimmers placed as a team.
Meanwhile, the D-II State qualifiers have been announced for area swimmers in the tournament in Canton this Thursday through Saturday. Despite good performances, area swimmers had to wait for other District times from across the state to determine who qualified. Those placing in the top two of their events were guaranteed automatic qualification. The area D-II qualifiers are:
Bowl For Kids’ Sake is back!! It is officially on the calendar for May 1st at Shawnee Lanes in Chillicothe.
(Image from Big Brothers/Big Sisters of South Central Ohio)
The May 1st Bowl for Kids Sake in Chillicothe will be the only one held in the five county area covered by BBBS of South Central Ohio (Ross, Pike, Pickaway, Fayette, Highland), but Director Erin Alsop says the May 1st bowling event in Chillicothe will be open to all of the counties to participate. She added that they hope to get back to conducting the bowling fundraiser in each of the other counties next year.
Participtants wanting to bowl in the event can find donor forms on the BBBS website, which can be found here: http://www.bbbssco.org/bowl-for-kids-sake.html to see more information about this annual event, and how to get involved!
It’s been thirteen years since the boys from Latham, Ohio have celebrated back-to-back Sectional Championships. At that time, some of the current players were just taking their first steps.
Western’s 69-37 win over Miller Friday harkened emotions from 2008 when the Indians last reached the District Final.
Celebrating has been fresh in their minds on the heels of beating Symmes Valley a week ago for a share of the SOC I title.
Coach Doug Williams says his team knows the job’s not done. They’ll face Federal-Hocking in the D-IV District semi-finals at Wellston HS on February 26th at 3:30pm.
Western blistered the nets Friday against Miller, pouring in nine three- pointers in the first half.
The Indians complemented a 21-11 performance in the 1st Quarter with a 15-0 run to open the second. They outscored the Falcons 27-7 for a 48-18 lead at the break.
Western leads Miller thru 1stQ 21-11 on the strength of perimeter shots and inside play like this. pic.twitter.com/0KJSs3jrmf
The offensive attack was led by Noah Whitt’s 16-points. But there was plenty of action spread across the board for the Tribe’s starting five. Kolten Miller added 15-points, Reed Brewster dropped in 12, including three 3’s in the first period while Drew Haggy and Chase Carter had 8-points apiece.
Western opens 2Q on a 15-0 run. Leads Miller at the half 48-18. Noah Whitt nails one of 9 first half three pointers for the Indians. pic.twitter.com/WXsaxaBvbV
Western’s aggressive offensive approach has been their modus operandi in 2021-22. “We always want to go punch somebody in the mouth right off the bat” said Williams. “If that other team is supposed to beat us, it’s a surprise. If they’re not supposed to beat us, maybe they stop playin’. We always want to strike first.”
The moniker displayed on the back of the team’s warmup is “Attack” which is what Williams wants his team to be known for.
“We know we’re not gonna be the biggest team on the floor – we’re not always the most athletic team on the floor, but we talk everyday about being blue collar, workin’ hard, sitting down and guarding” all elements that will help a team win a game.
Equally impressive were the defensive efforts, which frustrated Miller into multiple one-and-out possessions.
The one bright spot for the Falcons came in the fourth when Kylan McClain hit a free throw to reach 1,000 points for his career. McClain was limited to just 6-points.
Western (21-2) heads to Wellston High School next Saturday to face Federal-Hocking, a 68-61 winner over Whiteoak Friday night. The winner advances to the District Final on March 4th.
The (17-5) Zane Trace Pioneers had a tough fight on their hands against (12-10) Meigs through the first three quarters, but the Pioneers outscored the Marauders 18-6 in the final stanza for a 57-40 Division 3 Sectional Championship at Zane Trace High School Friday night.
(Photo: Meigs’ Culter Cleland drives for a bucket at ZT- Litter Media/Mike Smith)
Meigs got out to a 6-2 start, before the Pioneers went on a 6-0 run for their first lead at 8-6. From there, it was nip-and-tuck for most of the next two quarters.
The Pioneers led at the end of each stop: 14-12, 19-18, 39-34 and 57-40.
Meigs’ Ethan Stewart hit a three-pointer to pull the Marauders within 32-31 with two minutes to play in the third quarter, only to see the Pioneers finish on a 7-3 run to close the third period went to 39-32.
The fourth quarter was total domination by the Pioneers in their 18-6 final quarter run.
Zane Trace will face Chesapeake on Saturday, February 26th in the District Semis at Waverly Downtown Gym, following the Panthers 72-53 win over Ironton.
ZANE TRACE SCORING: Kyle Stonerock 15 “McDonald’s Player of the Game” Nalin Robinson 14 Xzander Ream 9 Donavin Baker 8 Ben Nichols 5 Carter Hill 3 Austen Ison 2
MEIGS SCORING: Coulter Cleland 13 Brayden Stanley 11 Ethan Stewart 9 Chase Garcia 3 Braylon Harrison 3 Morgan Roberts 1
The powerhouse tradition of Miami Trace Wrestling continued Friday, as they won the Frontier Athletic Conference Championship, with Chillicothe as runner-up.
The Panthers won 8 of the 13 weight classes in the meet.
(Photo Courtesy of Miami Trace Athletics)
FAC Championship TeamScore Miami Trace 258.02. Chillicothe 145.53. Jackson 140.04. Washington 127.55. Hillsboro 61.06. McClain 25.0
Chillicothe’s Jacey Harding has been named FAC Girls Basketball “Player of the Year”. League champion Jackson placed four players on the all league squad.
Columbus School for Girls (314.5) and Columbus Academy Boys (300) were the team winners at the DII District Swimming Tournament at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion Thursday.
Southeast District teams found their way into the top ten. Athens (206) placed second and Chillicothe (83) 10th among the Boys teams. Fairfield Christian Academy (86) placed 9th in the Girls tournament.
Grace Barnhart (Sr.) from Fairfield Christian Academy won the Girls 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:57.38 as District Champion for the event. She also placed third in the 500 Freestyle and was part of the 200 Free Relay team that finished 6th and the 200 Medley Relay team that placed 8th. Logan Elm’s Lindsay Bright (Fr.) placed second in the Girls 500 Freestyle, which automatically qualified her for the State Tournament.
Chillicothe had swimmers reach the podium. Individually, Jake Byrd (Jr.) placed 5th in both the 200 and 500 Freestyle events while Ryan Blum (So.) paced 5th in the 100 Butterfly. Both teamed with Michael Lapurga (Sr.) and Andrew Fowler (Jr.) to place 6th in the 200 Medley Relay. The Athens 400 Freestyle Relay team of Kenny Fridrich (So.), Caleb Huebner (Sr.), Campbell Hauschild (Sr.) and Cole Huebner (Sr.) qualified for State with a second place finish. The same boys reached the podium with a fourth place finish in the 200 Free Relay.
Now the waiting is underway for qualifying for next week’s State Tournament at OSU for many of the swimmers. According to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, the top two in each event will advance to the State Tournament. The remaining field of state tournament qualifiers will be at-large qualifiers and advance based on time from all District Tournaments statewide.
Other Southeast District team finishers for the Boys results include Marietta (12th), Warren (18th) and Adena (28th). Among the Girls teams, Logan Elm (16th), Athens (21st), Wheelersburg (25th), Fairfield Union (27th), Portsmouth Notre Dame (31st).
The DI District will be held Saturday.
The State Tournament begins Thursday February 24th-Saturday February 26th in Canton.
(Indianapolis) – A new rules exception that allows a passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass for the purpose of conserving yardage, and the redefining of the term “chop block” – both of which are intended to minimize risk of injury – are the two most notable rules changes coming to high school football for the 2022 season.
These changes stand out among the seven total recommendations brought forth by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Football Rules Committee, which held its annual rules meeting January 23-25 at the Conrad Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. The NFHS Board of Directors subsequently approved all seven of the committee’s suggestions.
“With this year’s rules changes, the committee once again showed its focus on minimizing risk in high school football,” said Bob Colgate, NFHS Director of Sports and Sports Medicine and liaison to the NFHS Football Rules Committee. “By expanding the parameters for a legal forward pass and redefining the chop block so it can be more easily officiated by game officials, the committee has taken measures to mitigate two potentially risky situations within the game.”
Rule 7-5-2 EXCEPTION 2 now permits a player to purposefully throw an incomplete forward pass without warranting an intentional grounding penalty provided the passer is outside of “the pocket” (lateral boundary of the free-blocking zone) and the pass reaches the neutral zone or the extension of the neutral zone beyond the sideline.
“The question (with this rule) has always been, ‘if the defense makes a good play, are we bailing out the offense by letting the quarterback throw the ball away?’” said Richard McWhirter, Chair of the NFHS Football Rules Committee and Assistant Executive Director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. “This year, I think the committee felt the wellbeing of the passers and not subjecting them to extra hits was worth changing the rule.”
An alteration to Rule 2-3-8 addressed the new definition of a chop block, which is now described as “a combination block by two or more teammates against an opponent other than the runner, with or without delay, where one of the blocks is below the waist and one of the blocks is above the waist.” Previously, the defensive player’s knee was used to determine the high and low components of a chop block.
“This is going to strengthen the rule and it’s also going to help the game officials,” said McWhirter. “I think they’re going to be able to enforce this rule better than they have in the past because determining ‘below the knee’ and ‘above the knee’ is tough to do. I think it’s really going to improve the game.”
Players will be able to wear the number 0 as a jersey number starting in 2022, as the range of acceptable numbers listed in Rule 1-4-3 was expanded from 1-99 to 0-99. However, any number preceded by the digit zero will be illegal.
State associations now have the option to extend sideline team boxes beyond their traditional 50-yard expanse (between the 25-yard-lines) as long as both teams are allowed to use the same dimensions. This new NOTE attached to Rule 1-2-3g also gives state associations the freedom to decide which individuals can access the extended area.
Two minor changes involving game clock and play clock procedures were made to Rules 3-4-7 and 3-6-1a(1)e EXCEPTIONS, respectively.In Rule 3-4-7, any foul committed within the last two minutes of either half will automatically result in the offended team’s option to start the game clock on the snap. Prior to this change, the offended team was required to accept its opponent’s penalty in order to gain control of the game clock.
The committee edited the EXCEPTIONS to Rule 3-6-1a(1)e, which clarify the necessary conditions for an abbreviated 25-second play clock after a stoppage in play. This rule now includes an exception for Rule 3-5-7i, mandating that a 40-second play clock be employed following a foul committed only by the defensive team.
The final rule change for 2022 is an alteration to Rule 1-3-3 regarding game equipment. Any game official – not just the referee – may order the ball changed between downs.
A complete listing of the football rules changes will be available on the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org. Click on “Activities & Sports” at the top of the home page and select “Football.”
