Staff report
Four top Shelby County athletes recently signed letters-of-intent to continue their athletic careers in college.
They include Fort Loramie golfer Emily Knouff, Lehman volleyball standout Sidney Chapman, and basketball players Nathan Lessing of Fairlawn and Brady Wildermuth of Jackson Center.
Emily Knouff,
Ball State University
Knouff is one of the top female golfers ever in Shelby County, and she has signed to play at Division 1 Ball State in Muncie, Indiana next season.
Knouff is a two-time state qualifier. She played in the Division 2 state tournament as a freshman and tied for 11th place, and made a return trip as a junior and tied for 8th place overall.
Last season, she missed qualifying by just one place. She was fourth and only the top three from the district advanced.
Knouff has been rated as high as No. 1 in the Golfweek Midwest rankings. She won nine junior tournaments during her high school years, including victories on the Southern Ohio Junior Golf Association, Golfweek Junior Tour and Hurricane Junior Golf Association. She twice won the Hurricane event at Delaware Country Club in Muncie.
Knouff is a two-time Lima Junior Golf Association Player of the Year. She holds two course records, having fired a 65 at Echo Hills Golf Club in Piqua, and a 67 at Shelby Oaks in Sidney. The 67 at the Oaks broke a course record that had stood for 41 years and was set by former professional golfer and Hall of Famer JoAnne Carner.
She also won the last two Shelby County Ladies Open titles.
Sidney Chapman,
St. Joseph’s, Indiana
Chapman just completed her senior season and will leave Lehman as the single season and career record holder for kills, no small accomplishment at a school where volleyball has a rich tradition.
She will play next season for St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, a Division 2 program.
She set a single-season record as a junior with 513 kills and topped that this season with 554. She finishes her prep career with 1,694 kills, 1,008 digs, 209 aces and 142 blocks.
She was named All-Northwest Central Conference all four years, and was selected Player of the Year the past two seasons.
She is also a three-time District 9 selection and a first-team All-Ohio pick the past two years.
Nathan Lessing,
Northwestern Ohio
Lessing, a 6-foot-1 guard, is a senior at Fairlawn and recently signed to play for the University of Northwestern Ohio in Lima next season.
Lessing has been a prolific scorer during his high school career, and has a chance to become Shelby County’s all-time scoring king.
He enters this season with 1,531 points, and that is just 303 points off the record of 1,834 set by former Fort Loramie great Tom Brandewie. And last season, Lessing scored 665 points to average an area-leading 27.7 points per game, and set school records for most points in a sdeason and most made free throws in a season.
He was first-team All-County and All-Southwest District, and second team All-Ohio.
Brady Wildermuth,
University of Findlay
Wildermuth has been a key player for the Tigers throughout his high school days, and recently announced that he would be playing at the University of Findlay, next year. Findlay is Division 2.
He goes into this season with 1,136 points, and that is just 342 points shy of becoming Jackson Center’s all-time career scoring leader, a distinction currently held by Larry Hughes at 1,478. Hughes graduated in 1962, so that record has stood for a long time.
Last season, the 6-6 forward averaged 18.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots per game in helping the Tigers to a state semifinal berth. He also shot an amazing 64 percent from the field on 152 of 236 field goal attempts during the regular season last year.
He was first-team All-County last sdeason, and was also named to the All-Ohio team.
