Between the holidays, the Fort Loramie girls ventured to Columbus to take on Walnut Ridge. The Shelby Countians quickly fell behind 2-0 before dominating both ends of the court en route to a 69-9 win to remain unbeaten. CWR managed only a single field goal in each quarter, including a three pointer.

The new year brings some much tougher opponents, and the January results will largely determine their positioning for the OHSAA tournament draw.

Tri-Village

Last Saturday, the undefeated Tri-Village girls visited Sidney for a much anticipated contest with a strong Yellow Jacket squad. The game was tight throughout before the visitors emerged a winner.

While sitting courtside, I was asked about the TV school district. It is in southern Darke County and is a hybrid of the former New Madison and Westmont districts, now marking its 50th anniversary. Westmont served the Palestine and Hollansburg areas, with the consolidation resulting in Tri-Village.

In the late 1960’s Westmont boys basketball was coached by 1961 Sidney grad and future Anna Superintendent Charlie Rhyan. He handled both the reserve and varsity squads. Clayton Murphy (TV 2013) is the school’s most famous alumnus as bronze medalist in the 800 meters in the 2016 Olympics.

Isaiah Bowser

Sidney’s Isaiah Bowser tallied a pair of touchdowns in his college football finale as his Central Florida Knights dropped their bowl game to Duke, whose plays were called by offensive coordinator Kevin Johns from Piqua.

Bowser hopes to get a shot at the NFL and is viewed as a possible late choice in the seven round affair.

Referees

Two high school basketball referees who regularly work this area also do big time college football through the Big Ten Conference. Denny Morris (Lima) and Tom Riepenhoff (Van Wert) were on the crew that manned the Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Kansas State. I talked to Riepenhoff at a game in Minster in early December, and he was thrilled with the assignment to New Orleans.