You understand that well-funded public

all-state and Toledo City League Player of the Year, and with good cause: a 21-2 record with 256 strike outs in only 158 innings and a 0.17 ERA. All while playing her home games a mere one-and-ahalf miles from the UT campus.

Hey, Coach Gordon, Where’s the love for Wiemer?

There are myriad reasons the top-tier athletes choose to leave Northwest Ohio to continue playing their sport, yet Wiemer has debunked them all: She stayed close to home, choosing Bowling Green over some far superior schools (Before I get hate mail from Falcon alumni: Yes, Yale is 10 times the school BG is and twice that on Sunday). She also picked a MAC school, opting not

to go into a Big Ten program.

Pitching in a fast pitch softball game is an almost violent act, requiring the entire body to generate nearly 70 miles per hour of rising heat while launching towards home plate.

Wiemer is a gamer, her hat crusted with dirt and sweat and an on-field swagger that is partgunslinger, part-Top Gun pilot. Her fastball slams into the catcher’s mitt at such velocity that it’s more an explosion than pop. She not only throws fast (66 mph leaving her hand) but is smart (4.2 GPA) and can squat a small car (400 pounds). If that’s not enough, she helped St. Ursula with the state championships last season — in volleyball.

Gene Grabiec is regional manager for Premier Scouting Ser vice, a Sylvania-based scouting company that has placed more than 600 student-athletes into college programs nationally. He has seen “more than 50 softball games in the last two weeks, and no one has been within 6 milesper-hour of her. She could have gone anywhere she wanted.”

Grabiec states that his company “at least four times sent information to Toledo. They chose not to contact her.”

When asked why Toledo didn’t recruit Wiemer, Coach Gordon responded that is unusual and in most cases inappropriate to comment on players who have signed with other schools. She did say that she saw Hayley play but chose not to recruit her.

Regardless of where she was going to play, Grabiec says about Wiemer, “Her best is yet to come.”

Too bad, Toledo; you’ll have to drive to Bowling Green to see it.

Toledo Free Press photo by DM Stanfield

By Chris Kozak Toledo Free Press Staff Writer ckozak@toledofreepress.com

They’re all the rage in professional sports these days, and why not? They help you run faster, make your mus cles bigger, hit the ball farther, recover more quickly and most importantly, make more money.

Of course I’m talking about steroids.

So I guess it’s safe to presume that when the cream of the LPGA Tour rolls into Northwest Ohio for the 20th annual Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger’s, they all be ‘roided up monsters. Just to be sure, I took the tongue-in-cheek question to defending Jamie Farr champion Meg Mallon. “I don’t think it exists at all,” Mallon said, and she should know. An 18-year vet of the LPGA Tour, Meg is 4th on the all-time money list and has 18 career victories. “In golf, steroids aren’t necessarily the best thing in the world. You have to be calm, you have to be in control of your emotions,” she said. “As we saw from (Lyle) Alzado and those guys, they were literally monsters. In golf, you’re not going to be very successful that way.”

So, Meg, are you telling me you’ve never seen, say, Annika Sorenstam, injecting steroids in the locker room? “I don’t even see Annika Soren stam in the locker room,” Mallon said with a laugh.

Judd Silverman is the tournament director, the man who created the event back in 1984, and he has seen them all. Surely he’s seen steroid abuse grow over the course of his tenure. “None. I have no reason to believe anyone is doing any thing like that,” he said with a smile.

So it seems these athletes have enhanced their game the old-fash ioned way: Hard work and practice. “We’re hitting every club in the bag,” Mallon said. “We’re hitting every golf shot you could see.”

“These women are truly amaz ing,” Silverman said. “Their funda mentals are so sound. It’s amazing how straight and how far they hit.”

It’s nice to know the golfer who receives the $180,000 first prize of the Jamie Farr Tour nament won’t be sharing it with her chemist.

So when people come out to see the 144 golfers already registered for this year’s event, “They’ll see the greatest women golfers in the world,” Silverman said.

And that’s the truth. Mallon: Steroids are not a factor in the LPGA

One of the fastest-growing community colleges in Ohio is growing its athletic program as well. The Owens Community College Golf Team will tee it up this fall as a club sport before beginning NJCAA play in the spring of 2006. “We want to build this program into one of the best in the country,” said Jim Welling, director of student enrichment and athletics, who has added Golf Coach to his title.”

“The Golf Program is a welcome addition to student enrichment and athletics,” said Dr. Bill Ivoska, vice president of student services. It will “afford new opportunities for the College’s student-athletes to experience the benefits of teamwork, leadership, responsibility and achievement.”

The program will offer men’s and women’s teams, with eight scholarships available. The teams will play their home matches just a pitch shot away from the Perrysburg Campus at Belmont Country Club. “Arguably, Belmont Country Club will become the pinnacle of golf venues within the conference,” Welling said. “And enable Owens to contend for a national title very quickly.”

The Express Golf Program is the seventh intercollegiate athletic program offered at Owens. — Chris Kozak

By David Gatwood Special to Toledo Free Press prepsports@buckeye-express.com

For most of their years in the Northern Lakes League, the Springfield Blue Devils softball team has languished in the lower half of the league standings. They have found themselves continu ously looking up at teams from Perrysburg, Anthony Wayne, Southview and Northview while struggling for every victory. That is no longer the case. Barring a complete collapse, the Blue Devils will find themselves ending this season as the NLL champions.

A major reason for Springfield’s success is the talent and leadership provided by senior Gretchen Hubbard. Hubbard has been a member of the Springfield varsity team since walking onto the field for the first time as a freshman. Hubbard’s arrival at Springfield corresponded with the arrival of head coach, Rob Gwozdz, who Gretchen credits for the turnaround in the Springfield program.

Hubbard said Gwozdz “is a firey guy. He is so emotional about the game; he is the type of coach I like playing for.”

Like most seniors, Hubbard looks forward to the possibility her team will win the league title.

“It is something I want as a senior,” she said. Hubbard is mature enough to recognize that this success would not have been possible without the contribution of others.

“This year’s team had a great incoming freshmen class,” she said. “They added the last pieces

Photo by David Gatwood

to the puzzle; we now have speed; we have people who can hit it out.”

Last year, Hubbard was the team’s pitching ace. She pitched the majority of the innings and did so with success but this year Gwozdz has switched to a two-man system in which Hubbard shares pitching responsibilities with soph omore Alison Phillips. Commenting on this situation, Hubbard again demonstrates the full breadth of her value to the team.

“She is a good pitcher and she has done a lot for us this year,” she said. “I do not mind at all. I love playing the infield, doing whatever is good for the team.”

For the next few weeks Hub bard’s thoughts will be on the success of her Blue Devils team, but once it is over, win or lose, her career will continue. Last week Hubbard signed a national letter of intent to continue her softball career at the University of Findlay.

“I am so pumped up about it, so excited,” she said. “I cannot wait. When it came up to it I really liked the campus. I really liked the coach. He is a great guy.”

With Hubbard’s departure, the Hubbard era at Springfield will not end. This season Gwozdz had the advantage of having two Hubbards playing for his Lady Blue Devils.

At first, Gretchen found this experience to “be a little weird but she (Mara) is a huge asset for the team. She has great speed; she is like a polar opposite to me; she is quick with her bat; she is an exceptional athlete.”

Although the presence of Hubbard and fellow senior Abbie Culbertson will be missed next year, the foundation has been laid for the Lady Blue Devils to move into the upper echelon of the tough Northern Lakes League.

Includes golf and cart, foursome required for special rate. Good Mon-Thurs, no holidays, not valid w/ other offers.

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