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Home > Blogs > Springfield, Ohio High School Sports > Archives > 2009 > March > 18
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Previewing the Division II regional tournaments
Zac Jackson of OhioHSsports.com touts Graham as “probably the pick at this point” among the 16 boys basketball teams remaining in the Division II tournament.
This is what he wrote about the No. 1 Falcons in his preview of the regional tournament, which begins Thursday, March 19:
Defending regional champs are perfect thus far and survived a stiff test from Cincinnati Indian Hills last week. Leadership and experience are huge at this point, and Graham has it from Josh Schuler, Austin Jones, Ethan Ward and Ben Rosenberger. Probably the pick at this point.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Boys Basketball, Graham High School
Longtime Wittenberg stats guru Joe Clayton dies
There was no bigger Wittenberg fan than Joe Clayton. The Catholic Central graduate and Springfield resident took stats at football and basketball games for almost three decades.
He never got paid. He was always a volunteer. He just loved the Tigers — maybe as much as his beloved Columbus Clippers.
Clayton, also a longtime member of the News-Sun sports staff, died Monday night, March 16, at 47.
“I always considered myself to be unbelievably lucky that somebody like Joe would want to be around,” Wittenberg sports information director Ryan Maurer said.
I have to point out that Joe is the 2008 Springfield News-Sun Fantasy Football League champion. He loved fantasy sports and played forever in the Paper League, the News-Sun’s baseball league for many years, and then our football league. He never won a championship until this past season.
This is the information the paper got from the funeral home this morning:
Clayton, Joseph M. 47, of Springfield died March 16, 2009. Visitation from 4-7 p.m.Friday in the Conroy Funeral Home. Mass 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Joseph Church.
This is an email from Wittenberg sports information director Ryan Maurer to the Wittenberg community on Tuesday:
Dear Wittenberg community members,
For most of you, the name Joe Clayton may not mean much - if you ever heard it at all. But without him and the more than 25 years of dedicated service he gave his hometown university, your experience following Wittenberg athletics might have been something a little less. I know mine would have been, which is why I was so sad to hear the news of his passing last night at the age of 47.
Joe was a Wittenberg Tiger to the core, and he earned his stripes with dedicated service as a statistician for a variety of the university’s athletics teams. As far as I know, he didn’t miss a home Wittenberg football game for nearly 30 years - not sitting in the stands as a fan, but sitting in the pressbox as the lead scorekeeper. In recent years, he volunteered to be our sports information representative at road games as well, tracking participation, pitching in to help with statistics and delivering stats to our coaches at halftime and the end of games. He was a walking encyclopedia of Wittenberg football knowledge, a memory bank I never could quite tap enough.
He was almost as consistent in his attendance of Wittenberg basketball games, both men and women. Despite missing three years while working in Dayton, I would estimate that Joe tracked statistics at about 600 home basketball games over the years. In recent years, he also helped with stats when we hosted NCAC and NCAA volleyball tournaments and had even offered his services at men’s and women’s soccer games. And there was a baseball season when we didn’t have anyone to keep the scorebook, so he pinch-hit at the last minute. Ably, I might add.
Finally, last year he joined the Athletics Hall of Honor committee. He saw it as an honor, and he took his responsibilities very seriously.
He did all of these things, outside of his full-time jobs and dedication to the local Catholic church…FOR FREE. I insisted that we arrange payment for a few things, like his help with the volleyball tournaments and the chilly nights in the baseball dugout. But it was never anything he asked for, or expected. He just loved sports, and he loved Wittenberg.
It’s people like Joe - unsung heroes - who make Wittenberg special. I just felt that he should be saluted.
Permalink | Comments (25) | Post your comment | Categories: Breaking News, Catholic Central High School, Wittenberg
Harris gets a shoutout on Club Tril
Springfield native Ivan Harris got a shout out from his former Ohio State men’s basketball teammate Mark Titus in the latest Club Trillion blog post.
During the Final Four two years ago, we had an entire two hours one day devoted to answering questions from the media. This was when I perfected the art of messing up the interview. A particular favorite from that media day is when I convinced Ivan Harris that he had a booger hanging out of his nose and he said “Yeah we’re just going to go out and play our…hold on, I gotta go take care of something” to the reporter before dashing off to the bathroom.
Harris, a member of the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA D-League, scored 14 points in the team’s 101-89 loss to the Iowa Energy on Sunday.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Ohio State Basketball
On this date in area sports history …
Three years ago on this date, March 18, 2006, the Wittenberg men’s basketball team lost to Virginia Wesleyan in the NCAA Division III championship game on a last-second 3-pointer.
This will be painful for Wittenberg fans to watch, but here’s the video of the winning shot made by Ton-Ton Balenga.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: College Basketball, College Men's Basketball, For your viewing pleasure..., On this date, Videos, Wittenberg
