It’s that time of the year when high school senior athletes realize that their prep careers are rapidly coming to a close with winter sports tournament action in full swing. Let’s take a look at those teams still competing after the first week of interscholastic post-season play and offer sympathies to those squads and individuals who have seen their uniforms put away for the final time.
Girls basketball action has reached the regional semifinals stage around the state, with the Sweet Sixteen in each division set to vie for the right to advance to a regional championship contest. Around the area, D-IV finds Versailles matched up with Brookville in a 6:00 Wednesday game at Lakota East High School. D-VI play at Springfield High School Wednesday sees Anna and Newark Catholic tipping off at 6:00, followed by Arcanum and Minster at 7:30. Finally, in DVII at Butler High School Wednesday, the first game has Ft. Loramie taking on Delaware Christian at 6:00 with Mississinawa Valley squaring off with Xenia Legacy Christian at 7:30.
Boys tournament play is a week behind the girls and has completed the first round in most divisions with the exception of D-I and D-II. Several teams of local interest have already been eliminated, leaving many interesting second-round matchups in every division—there are too many to mention here, so it’s best to go to the OHSAA website for pairings, times, and places. Simply go to the website, click on tournaments, boys basketball, and the various divisions and districts to find the complete schedule for the entire state. It’s truly a basketball junkies favorite time of the year!!
Congratulations to wrestling teams and individuals who have advanced from the sectional tournaments to the districts this coming weekend. D-I saw Butler finishing second at the Centerville sectional, with Troy placing fifth. In D-II, Greenville advanced nine grapplers to the districts by placing second in the Northwestern sectional, with Tipp in third, Bethel in fourth, and Eaton in fifth. Host school Versailles finished second in D-III with nine wrestlers advancing, while Miami East and Covington were fourth and fifth, respectively. District tournaments will be held at Trent Arena in Kettering for D-I, Wilmington High School for D-II, and Troy’s Hobart Arena for D-III, with the top four finishers in each weight class moving on to the state tournament.
In D-II girls bowling Versailles and Ft. Recovery qualified for this weekend’s state meet in Columbus while Coldwater, St. Henry, and Ft. Recovery all will participate in the boys action. D-I schools start qualifying this week and hold their state meet the following weekend.
Well, that’s enough information to make your head spin so let’s give it a rest for a few minutes with this item of some interest—Kentucky Fried Chicken is leaving the Commonwealth! The 95-year-old fast food chain is moving its corporate headquarters from Kentucky to Texas to join its sister brand Pizza Hut, according to CNN. KFC has been struggling in recent years, recently reporting a 5 percent drop in U.S. sales. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said Colonel Sanders would be “disappointed” by the move. Think Raisin’ Cane, Chick-fil-A, and Popeye’s, among others, had something to do with it?
For you hockey fans, the recently concluded Four Nations tournament saw a hotly contested final won 3-2 in overtime by Canada over the US. An earlier first-round meeting of the two saw three fights take place in the FIRST nine seconds of the game! Evidently, there was some bad blood between the two, as witnessed by the booing of the Star Spangled Banner by the crowd in Montreal in response to the latest in the tariff wars.
Here’s today’s trivia question—what other two countries participated in the extravaganza?
For those of you who are starting to suffer from the lack of NFL football on television, fear not, the NFL draft is coming up starting April 24th from Green Bay, assuming the spring thaw has arrived! The Browns own the second overall pick in the draft after a 3-14 season with the Colts selecting 14th and the Bengals 17th.
The spring training schedule is in full swing in both the Cactus League in Arizona and the Grapefruit League in Florida. The regular season begins March 18-19 with a two-game series between the Cubs and Dodgers in Tokyo. All other teams throw first pitches on March 27th, with the exception of the Rockies at the Rays, which will be a day later on the 28th. Due to severe damage sustained by Tropicana Field in Tampa from Hurricane Milton, the Yankees’ spring training field will serve as the Rays home park in 2025. Also, the A’s will play for the next three seasons in West Sacramento at the Triple-A Sutter Health Park while awaiting construction of a new stadium in Las Vegas!
Finally, Sweden and Finland were the other two countries to participate in the Four Nations tournament. Wonder what the Czechs, Russians, Germans, and other hockey-loving countries had to say about that!! Stay active and healthy this week, enjoy the warmer weather!
