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May 5, 2011
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Boys Tennis
Jerome captures first Worthington Cup title
Spring Football FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE RETURNS In the fifth week of a spring football series looking at central Ohio high school programs, ThisWeek is featuring the City-North Division. To read full offseason stories on each team, as well as others throughout central Ohio during the coming weeks, go to Friday Night Live at ThisWeekSPORTS.com. Next week: City-South
By PAUL BATTERSON ThisWeek Community Newspapers
Top stories Spring Football: In this installment of the Friday Night Live: Spring Edition, we’ll look at what Northland is doing to build on its breakthrough season last fall. Will the City League-North Division be another tight battle among Beechcroft, Brookhaven and Northland? Or will one of the other teams step forward? Admirable Assistant: ThisWeek’s Jarrod Ulrey profiles Ian Burkhart, who serves as a volunteer goalkeeper and defense coach for the Dublin Jerome boys lacrosse team. On June 13, 2010, the 2009 Jerome graduate was left paralyzed after an accident at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Next stop, South Beach: Larry Larson, Mr. High School Sports, profiles New Albany senior Taneisha Cordell, who currently holds the area’s fastest time in the 400 meters and 800 and will run track at the University of Miami (Fla.) next season.
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By Eric George/ThisWeek
Photo of the week MUDDERS DAY — Pickerington North’s Abbey Paulus (left) and Big Walnut’s Christa Ford vie for the ball on a muddy field during a game April 26 at Big Walnut. North won 15-3.
my perspective is that I don’t want to waste my time. You just have to deal with it and make the best of life.” — Ian Burkhart, volunteer assistant coach for Dublin Jerome, who is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
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Under first-year assistant Log onto Facebook.com and coach Leah Fickell-Howard, search "ThisWeekSports" to the Dublin Coffman softball become a fan. team was batting .315 Quotable through 16 games. That’s a Follow us “You just have to work with significant improvement from what you have. It’s a little bit last season when the ShamFollow us on Twitter @TWSof a struggle sometimes, but rocks batted .251. portsFan today.
Sports briefs Youth football sign-ups under way
GCSTO instructor Erin Harris at harriserin@ymail.com or (614) 582-2597.
Registration for Gahanna Youth Football League mini, junior and senior teams is under way at www.gahannayouthfootball.com. In addition, sign-ups are scheduled at McCorkle Park from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 14 and 21, 6 to 8 p.m. May 26, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 28 and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 4 and 11. The league also is looking for coaches. Those interested should contact Londale Rowell at (614) 432-3380 or gahannayouthfootball@yahoo.com. Applicants will undergo background checks.
Middle school state track meet is May 29
Sheets sets Capital record in discus Capital University sophomore Emily Sheets, a Gahanna Lincoln graduate, threw the discus a school-record 134 feet, 5 inches in the Kenyon Spring Invitational on April 23. She won the javelin with a personal-best throw of 114-6 and finished third in the high jump with an effort of 5-1 3/4.
GCSTO offering free swim lessons The Greater Columbus Swim Team of Ohio (GCSTO) is offering free swimming lessons to underprivileged children on June 4 and 9 and July 2 at the Gahanna swimming pool. GCSTO also will award scholarships to participants based on their financial need and family status. For more information or to sign up, contact
The sixth annual middle school state track and field meet is scheduled for May 29 at Groveport High School. More than 950 student-athletes and 80 teams from across the state will compete. For more information, visit www.ohioyouthrunner.org.
Soccer tournament coming to Dublin The Dublin Soccer League will play host to the U.S. Youth Soccer Kohl’s American Cup recreational tournament on June 11-12. It’s one of 30 stops on the tournament’s 2011 circuit. Registration is open to U8 through U15 recreational teams. The entry deadline is May 14. Visit www.dublinsoccerleague.com/KohlsCup.html for tournament rules and entry forms.
The champions of the Worthington Cup tennis tournament usually are the players who are strongest in all facets of their games that particular day. For Dublin Jerome High School’s Sean Stein, who won the doubles title with teammate Kent Seitz, that meant his kick serve was on target in the final on April 30 at Worthington Kilbourne. For Thomas Worthington’s Casey Cempre, who won the singles title, that meant the rediscovery of his backhand. “I’ve been really getting my kick serve in,” Stein said. “I’ve been working on that serve for the last 10 years and it’s probably the best part of my game. I can always rely on my serve.” Stein and Seitz used strong serving to defeat Gahanna’s Canyon Teague and Jesse Shivener 6-4, 6-3 to capture the doubles championship. Their title, coupled with Jerome’s Frank Kuo placing third in singles with an 8-1 win over Olentangy Liberty’s Vick Chhabria, gave the Celtics their first Worthington Cup championship. Jerome scored 15 points to finish ahead of Thomas (12), Liberty (11), Upper Arlington (11), Gahanna (8), St. Charles (7), Kilbourne (6) and Hilliard Davidson (4). Seitz and Stein hope to follow the path of UA’s Stu Little and Billy Weldon, who won the Worthington Cup last year and went on to win Division I sectional, district and state titles. The past two years, three of the top four finishers in the Division I state doubles tournament played in the Worthington Cup. “This means a lot,” Stein said. “People were talking about whomever wins this tournament
At a glance
Below are the recent results and coming schedule for the Gahanna Lincoln boys tennis teams: *April 25 — Defeated Pickerington Central 4-1 April 29 — Def. St. Charles 4-1 April 30 — Finished fifth (8) in eightteam Worthington Cup behind champion Dublin Jerome (15) *May 2 — Def. Reynoldsburg 5-0 *May 4 — Played Groveport *May 5 — At Grove City May 7 — OCC-Ohio tournament at Pickerington Central Of note: The Lions were 10-3 overall and 5-0 in the OCC-Ohio before May 4. *OCC-Ohio match
usually goes on to win state.” “It’s just good preparation all around,” Seitz said. “We know we can beat a lot of teams. We’ve gotten our confidence back.” To win the Worthington Cup title, Seitz and Stein had to hold off Teague and Shivener, who defeated UA’s Weldon and Eric Vannatta 10-6 in the first round. “It’s definitely a big step. We’ve never been invited to the Worthington Cup in my four years,” Shivener said. “For us to come in and place second in the event definitely makes a statement.” “I just think we came ready to play,” Teague said. “We’ve been talking about the Cup for a while now. It’s my first time here and my first time playing with Jesse, and beating UA was pretty big for us. We just had fun and everything went well.” Also in doubles, Liberty’s Mitchell Lothes and Alexander Hathaway defeated St. Charles’ Grant Dolven and Weston Nier- pbatterson@thisweeknews.com meyer 9-7 to place third. Wel- www.ThisWeekSPORTS.com
Schools announce coaching vacancies The following schools are seeking coaches: DeSales — Boys and girls swimming. Send résumé to athletics director Tom Neubert at tneubert@cdeducation.org. Dublin Jerome — Girls tennis, assistant girls basketball. For girls tennis, send résumé by May 31 to Nick Magistrale, athletics director, Dublin Jerome High School, 8300 Hyland Croy Road, Dublin, Ohio 43016. For assistant girls basketball, send résumé by May 31 to girls basketball coach Matt Martin, c/o Nick Magistrale, athletics director, Dublin Jerome High School, 8300 Hyland Croy Road, Dublin, Ohio 43016.
Dublin Scioto — Junior varsity girls basketball. Email cover letter and résumé by May 6 to girls basketball coach Matt Fisher at bballcoachfisher@aol.com. Granville — Boys basketball. Send résumé by May 9 to athletics director Kevin Jarrett at kjarrett@laca.org. Jonathan Alder — Boys basketball. Send résumé by May 6 to athletics director Tom Vargo at vargoto@alder.k12.oh.us. Watterson — Softball. Send résumé to Mike Roark, athletics director, Bishop Watterson High School, 99 E. Cooke Road, Columbus, Ohio 43214, or email mroark@cdeducation.org. Westerville North — Assis-
Capital to hold softball camps Capital University softball coach Nan Payne will direct camps this summer for girls entering grades 5-12. The schedule includes a day camp June 13-16, hitting and bunting camps June 13, 21 and 22, a residential camp July 47 and a mini-camp Aug. 8-9. For more information, contact Payne at (614) 236-6487 or npayne@capital.edu. Camp brochures are available at www.capitalcrusaders.net.
don and Vannatta defeated Thomas’ Mark Evans and Harrison Chang 8-5 to place fifth, and Kilbourne’s Sam Lazaroff and Roger Juang defeated Davidson’s Zach Page and Greg Tiffan 8-0 to place seventh. Cempre maintained Worthington’s four-year tradition of winning the singles title of the Worthington Cup, as he defeated Little 4-6, 6-4, 10-6 in the final. Cempre said he had struggled with his backhand the week leading up to the event, particularly in a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Weldon during the Cardinals’ 4-1 loss to the Golden Bears on April 27. “The biggest thing was I could make my backhand,” Cempre said. “Usually my backhand is a pretty good, but the last week I have struggled with keeping my backhand in court. I think just because it’s the Worthington Cup, I played better.” Considering how well he and Weldon played together last year, Little was sort of a surprise entrant in singles. However, Little and Weldon plan on playing doubles in the postseason. Little said the Worthington Cup was a good tuneup for the OCC-Central Division tournament on Saturday, May 7, at Davidson and the postseason. “OCCs are big,” Little said. “We have a great tradition of winning the league and a lot of the top teams in our conference were here. It’s good to get a feel on how everyone is playing.” Also in singles, Kilbourne’s Brian Aguirre defeated Davidson’s Spencer Walter 9-7 for fifth and St. Charles’ Dennis Gleason defeated Gahanna’s Stephen Cheng 8-1 for seventh.
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tant football (wide receivers/defensive backs). Contact coach Mike Owens by May 13 at owensmi@wcsoh.org. •To add to this list, contact ThisWeek at (740) 888-6069 or sports@thisweeknews.com.
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