NEW BREMEN - The Cardinals will have a new head football coach next year following Monday's special board of education meeting.
Board members hired
FORT RECOVERY - Jackie Bergman carefully winds baby soft yarn around her crochet hook.
A touch of black mingles with the yellow yarn and soon the pattern taking shape is recognizable: a smiley face.
A 19-year-old Celina man, who has been indicted on eight counts of misuse of a motor vehicle, has pleaded guilty to charges of theft after taking sound equipment from a car in Celina early Monday morning.
COLDWATER - Village Manager/Engineer Eric Thomas informed village councilors Monday night that Leona Hohman, with the Northwest District Division of
COLDWATER - Coldwater Police Chief Randy Waltmire has hired 21-year-old Kyle Silver, of St. Marys, as a part-time police officer.
The hiring comes in the wake of the resignation of two part-time officers, Tom Risch and Eric Siegrist.
St. Henry - The Celina Bulldog softball team opened their season successfully Monday night as they went on the road and used a balanced offensive attack and a stellar pitching performance from Laura Homan to defeat the St. Henry Redskins, 5-0, in nonleague action at the Wally Post Athletic Complex.
Compiled by Ryan Hines
and Gary R. Rasberry
Jon Clune's sacrfice fly in the top of the seventh allowed St. Henry to pick up its opening win of the season with a 4-3 triumph at Indian Lake on Monday.
The infield playing surface isn't the only thing that has changed when it comes to the Celina baseball program.
After 25 years under the guidance of Bruce Boley, Celina baseball is now under the direction of Drew Braun, who has been coaching the Bulldogs' freshman squad since 1996.
It was a successful debut as a head coach for Nicole Driggs with Celina softball last year.
The Bulldogs cruised through most of the regular season on the way to a 21-2 overall record which included a Western Buckeye League co-championship, with Wapakoneta.
COLDWATER - It sounds like a broken record, but expectations are high at Coldwater for baseball.
The team went to the district finals last season, losing to perennial power Patrick Henry again.
After a 14-10 season, Coldwater has gone through a facelift.
Coach Jack Mescher, just the second coach in the program's history, stepped down after compiling a 106-58 record in seven seasons with the team. However, Mescher remains in the program coaching one of the two junior varsity teams.
Things began to pick up for the Fort Recovery baseball team last season.
The Indians won their first sectional title since 2001 and finished the year above .500 for the first time in recent memory at 12-11.
After winning a Midwest Athletic Conference softball title two years ago, the 2006 season proved to be an up-and-down one for the Fort Recovery Indians.
MARIA STEIN - Coach Greg Bruns will begin his second year as head coach of the Marion Local baseball team with a youthful group that is short on experience but high on potential.
MARIA STEIN - After starting out 5-2 last year, the Marion Local Flyer softballers fell hard and ended with an 8-16 mark.
Marion head coach Gary Moeder returns for his fourth year and is hoping a youthful group of Flyers can turn things around this season.
MINSTER - This spring has finally arrived for Minster baseball fans, and it couldn't have come soon enough.
With a talented and experienced senior
MINSTER - With only three seniors and four returning letterwinners leading this spring's Minster Wildcat softball squad, second-year head coach Michelle Pleiman will seek answers to a lot of questions in the early going this season.
NEW BREMEN - At the beginning of the 2006 baseball season, New Bremen coach Justin Firks was looking at a long year as just two seniors returned and he had a roster full of freshmen and sophomores.
NEW BREMEN - Veteran New Bremen softball coach Craig Griesdorn is expecting big things out of his 2007 squad, and on paper his high expectations are justified.
ROCKFORD - If the Parkway Panthers can shake off the injury bug, good things are lining up for the baseball program.
After a 19-6 season last year
ROCKFORD - Changes abound this year for the Parkway softball team.
In addition to a new home for softball at Shane's Park after the school district
Last season was one of peaks and valleys for the St. Henry baseball program.
After starting out 10-1 and ranked number one in Division III by the state coaches' poll, the Redskins took a tumble, losing their opening game of tournament before ending the year at 14-11.
Last year was one of those unique years for St. Henry softball coach Josh Link.
The Redskins struggled early, losing their first seven games of the season.
A veteran of the coaching ranks will return to the dugout for the first time in 18 years as Denny Pfeffenberger will lead the St. Marys baseball program.
ST. MARYS - The Roughriders' softball program finished in the middle of the pack in the Western Buckeye League a season ago as St. Marys head coach Sue Grothause had a young team at her disposal, but that should pay off this year.
VERSAILLES - After a season that saw the team go to the regional finals, a lot of changes came for the Versailles baseball team leading up to this spring.
It's been a unique preseason for first-year Versailles softball coach Phil Cavin.
The former Graham mentor didn't get his full team until this week thanks to the tournament run by the Lady Tigers basketball team that ended at the state tournament in Columbus.
It looks like a potential return to glory for the Celina girls while the Bulldog boys may struggle to match last season's success.
GIRLS
The Lady
The Coldwater track teams each finished fourth at the Midwest Athletic Conference meet last season and head coach Dan Pohlman hopes that he has the right mix to make it another successful spring campaign.
New Fort Recovery track coach Chris Summers will have small group to work with this season as the Indians look to build on last year's season that saw several state qualifiers on the girls side.
MARIA STEIN - If there really is strength in numbers, the girls and boys Marion Local track teams will both have plenty of strength this spring.
Thanks to a huge numbers of freshmen going out, the boys team has 35 members and the girls will work with 32 tracksters.
MINSTER - With 17 returning seniors and 15 lettermen coming back for this spring, hopes are high in Minster as head coach Larry Topp enters his 19th season at the helm of the program which hovers near the top of the Midwest Athletic Conference on a yearly basis.
NEW BREMEN - To begin the 2007 season, veteran New Bremen track coaches, boys skipper Gary Jones and girls boss Sue Ritter, are looking from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the experience coming back.
ROCKFORD - While the Parkway boys track team is adding some numbers, the Panther ladies are still a small and mighty unit.
Both teams are anchored by state qualifiers and will look to improve on last season, when the boys played sixth and the girls took eighth in the Midwest Athletic Conference.
With a mix of postseason veterans and young runners, the St. Henry track program looks to take another step to match the Midwest Athletic Conference heavyweights.
ST. MARYS - The St. Marys track teams both finished in the bottom half of the Western Buckeye League a year ago, but head coach Dan Cook is expecting marked improvement this spring from his Roughriders.
The Versailles track program, winning both the boys and girls Midwest Athletic Conference titles last season, will have new coaches this year, each with differing outlooks.
Celina boys tennis coach Jan Morrison is hoping that the overall athleticism of her team this year is enough to help keep the Bulldogs in the upper-half of the Western Buckeye League.
ST. MARYS - It's going to be a tough season in the Western Buckeye League, like always, but St. Marys boys tennis coach Brice Brenneman likes the makeup of his team and thinks his Roughriders are among the top teams in the WBL.
