Celina wins WBL's All-Sports Trophy

CELINA - Overall excellence in athletics is bringing the Western Buckeye League's All-Sports Trophy back to Celina.

The All-Sports Trophy is an honor given by the WBL to a member school that accumulates the most points from its 18 sanctioned sports and has done so for the past 41 years (started in 1971-72).

Celina edged Ottawa-Glandorf 131.5 to 128 to regain the trophy for the first time since the 2010-2011 school year. Celina has now won the trophy a WBL-best 15 times, including seven times in the last 12 years (finishing second the other five times during the same time span).

"It's an honor for our school to win this award and to be able to bring it back to Celina. We are very proud of our sports programs, teams and student athletes," said Celina athletic director Bruce Boley. "We had a good year. Any time you can win this, it means that all 18 of your programs are being competitive."

Schools earn points based on a system that awards 10 points for first place, nine points for second, eight for third, and so on down the line.

Celina's athletic programs won three WBL championships this year (girls soccer, girls tennis and girls track) while finishing second in four other sports (girls basketball, girls swimming, softball and boys tennis). Consistency was the winning formula as Celina never finished lower than seventh in any sport.

"We have been very consistent and consistency is what you like to see from your programs year in and year out," said Boley. "We had 10 of our 18 sports in top three of the league, so that is pretty darn good. I think our coaches and athletes look forward to competing for this trophy every year."

Celina's girls sports accounted for 70.5 points and finished no lower than fifth in any sport.

"We are blessed to have some really good female talent. They did more than their fair share this year," said Boley.

Ottawa-Glandorf (football, boys soccer, volleyball and boys track) and Shawnee (boys soccer, boys swimming, girls swimming and boys tennis) won the most championships with four apiece while St. Marys and Kenton were the only WBL schools to go without a championship this year.

Shawnee currently holds the All-Sports Trophy after edging Celina 130.5 to 129.5 last year. Celina will receive the trophy on June 4th when the WBL athletic directors convene for their final meeting of the year. There will also be a trophy presentation at a sporting event at some point during the next fall sports season.

Standings:
2012-2013 Western Buckeye League All-Sports Final Standings.
School  Points
1. Celina  131.5
2. Ottawa-Glandorf  128
3. Shawnee   119.5
4. Wapakoneta  112
5. Van Wert  100
6. Defiance   98
7. Bath   93
8. St. Marys   80
9. Elida   79
10. Kenton   49