Here we go again as the annual Route 127 Yard Sale, the extravaganza known as “The World’s Longest Yard Sale”, kicks off this Thursday the 3rd. First begun in 1987, the brainchild of a former county executive in Jamestown, Tennessee has grown over the years to attract shoppers, collectors, and the merely curious to participate in a frenzy of bargain hunting over a period of four days that covers 690 miles and takes in six states, from Addison, Michigan all the way south to Gadsden, Alabama. The term “one person’s junk is another’s treasure” will once again be proven prophetic!! Be careful out there on the open road—watch for pedestrians stepping out in traffic, blissfully unaware as they take their purchases back to their cars, vans, trucks, and treasures!
Ohio high school fall sports practices begin in earnest July 31st (stay hydrated!) according to OHSAA guidelines with the boys and girls golf regular season teeing it up at the same time. Looking down the road, the first football games kick off Friday, the 18th (where did the summer go?!?), with the start of the post-season playoffs starting October 27th.
Let’s take a look at this fall’s football divisional alignments as several schools have changed divisions—
Of the 701 schools fielding teams, the 70 largest schools in enrollment (based on the number of boys in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades in the fall of 2022) comprise Division I—the three largest schools in Ohio you ask? St. Xavier in Cincinnati has a “competitive balance” enrollment of 1,509 while St. Ignatius of Cleveland with 1,445 and Mason’s 1,308 are the second and third largest. After the largest 70 are assigned to D-I, the remaining 631 schools are evenly divided into the other six divisions, again based on enrollment.
Some of the area schools and their assignments are—
D-II—Northmont (the state’s largest D-II), Troy, Fairborn, Stebbins, Piqua, Sidney, and Xenia
D-III—Greenville (with 290 is only 18 away from dropping to D-IV), Vandalia-Butler, Tipp City, West Carrollton, and Celina
D-V—Preble Shawnee, Brookville, Valley View, Milton-Union, Coldwater, and Miami East
D-VI—Dixie, Arcanum, Versailles, National Trail, Tri-Village, Troy Christian, and Twin Valley South
D-VII—Covington, Ft. Recovery, St. Henry, Tri-County North, Ansonia, Mississinawa Valley, and Bradford (if they are able to field a team this fall after not having one last year)
Greenville’s Green Wave, under the guidance of veteran coach Bart Schmitz, hold their first scrimmage this Friday the 4th at home against Celina with a second scheduled on the 11th at Versailles. The youthful Wave begin in earnest by hosting the Eaton Golden Eagles on the 18th.
A couple of quick hitters—how good are the Atlanta Braves? You can almost hear the Tomahawk Chop on a nightly basis as the team has a MLB best 67 wins already this season and have built an impressive 11.5 game lead over the Marlins in the NL East.
You could feel the anguish and anxiety of Bengals fans everywhere as Joe Burrow was carted off of the practice field a few days ago with a calf strain. The franchise QB will most likely be out at least two weeks but should be back in plenty of time and be prepared to open the regular season in Cleveland on September the 17th.
One last item of interest (at least it caught my eye) was an article on something called Sleep Divorce. According to a recent study by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (who knew?) of over 2,000 people across the country, over 35% sleep in a different room away from their partners! Men are more likely to sleep in another room (45%) than women (25%) while 43% of Millenials do so compared to Baby Boomers at 22%. The number one cause of separation? You guessed it, snoring!! Also, 18% of respondents reported wearing sleep masks and 15% make use of earplugs! Do you get the recommended seven hours of sleep daily? More and more people seem to be using CPAP machines—do you know what that stands for? Continuous positive airway pressure—if all of this information doesn’t put you to sleep something’s wrong!!
