Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Celina fans to be charged to attend non-varsity games

By William Kincaid
For the first time ever, Celina City School officials will charge fans to attend junior high, freshman and junior varsity football games this year, school board members learned this week.
Western Buckeye League (WBL) directors at a recent meeting passed a proposal to charge adults $2 and students $1 for each of the games in question.
The universal price requirement is intended to bring consistency throughout the league, Celina Athletic Director Bruce Boley wrote in a letter to board members.
"With other schools, its been pretty inconsistent across the league," Superintendent Matt Miller said about some WBL schools charging and others not. "Now it's standard with all schools."
Boley said the 10 athletic directors at the meeting unanimously approved the proposal.
"It's just to help offset the general athletic budget," Boley said, mentioning transportation and referee costs.
It cost Celina schools $8,000 each year just to recondition the junior high football equipment, Boley said.
"There's no way we'll recoup that much," he said.
Boley said the school has always charged for attendance to junior high volleyball and basketball games.
St. Marys City Schools Athletic Director Joe Bline said he doesn't know if his school district charged for the football games last year, as it's his first year with St. Marys.
"We're just trying to offset costs of the officials," he said.
Celina board member Matt Gilmore didn't like the idea of charging fans and asked if the school could choose not to charge.
"I don't think there's any fallout to it," Miller said about admittance fees. "It was a decision they (athletic directors) all made together."
"It just seems (we're) trying to make a buck off of it," Gilmore said.
Board member Cindy Piper said fans may grumble if they have to pay at some, but not all schools.
The price change will go into effect this season.
The Midwest Athletic Conference (MAC) will charge for junior high football, volleyball and basketball games for the third consecutive year, Coldwater Exempted Village Schools Athletic Director Eric Goodwin said.
All MAC schools charge $3 for adults and $2 for children, according to Goodwin.
Goodwin said the ticket revenue has brought in an additional $8,000 to $10,000 each year at Coldwater. Each junior high team costs around $5,000 each year, Goodwin said.
In other news this week, Celina board members approved the following:
• Sixty-day probationary contracts for cafeteria worker Vicki Goff, teacher assistant Sharon Knous and head start bust driver Ricky Muter.
• The immediate resignation of Kelly Maurer.
• The hiring of Bryant Miller as dean of students at the high school.
• A donation from WESCO for the purchase of a SMART Board and projector for $4,199.
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The Celina boys and Coldwater girls dominated the opening cross country race of the season as the two teams captured the titles at the Mercer County Cross Country Meet held at Wright State University-Lake Campus. [More]
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The Mercer County Recorder's office hopes to ease the strain when the county sheriff's office and jail move to their new site next year.
Recorder T
Nicole Clune was appointed to council by Minster village councilors on Tuesday night.
She fills the seat of Derrick Seaver, who recently resigned to relocate to California to work for a Republican consulting firm.
A meeting has been scheduled for Sept. 9 to allow the public to review and comment on proposed fee increases for dog control services at the county pound.
Coldwater Exempted Village Schools kicked off its 2008-2009 school year in fine fashion on Tuesday, says Superintendent Rich Seas.
Simply put, "today was a good day," Seas told school board members meeting on Tuesday evening.
The west side of Celina will continue to be a bustling area as work continues on a sewer system project and a new county jail.
The West Jefferson s
Auglaize Council on Aging is one of 85 state agencies in 41 Ohio counties to share in a $3.7 million Ohio Department of Transportation grant. The grants are awarded on an annual basis and the local agency has received a share for many years.
Off the Beaten Path opens in Celina at corner of Mill and Market streets
A store that sells products made by people with developmental disabilities, many of them from Mercer County, has opened in Celina.
Off the Beaten P
Store also carries all types of knives
A Celina man has opened a new firearms shop just in time for the start of the major hunting seasons.
Chatt Gun Shop, located at 8970 state Route 49
The Celina boys soccer defense got a late start, which came back to haunt the Bulldogs.
Findlay scored two goals in the first three minutes of the game, which held up in a 2-1 win over the Bulldogs in the season opener for both teams at Celina Soccer Stadium.
Compiled by Ryan Hines
and Gary R. Rasberry
The Celina girls tennis team opened play in the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association's State Team Tournament on Tuesday with a 5-0 shutout over Mansfield Senior at the High School Courts.
The Celina boys cross country team has their eyes on the top prize in the Western Buckeye League while the Lady Bulldogs are looking to remain in the top half of the league standings.
The Coldwater cross country program will look to stay a contender for the Midwest Athletic Conference titles this season.
The boys, who finished seventh at the MAC meet last season, return their top two runners and some key pack runners.
After a solid finish at the Midwest Athletic Conference meet last season, the Fort Recovery girls cross country team will look to improve its place in the conference and advance runners to the state meet.
Both Marion Local cross country teams have plenty of veteran depth to work with this year, but longtime coach Randy Jutte will have different expectations for each squad.
A season after winning the third Midwest Athletic Conference title in the past decade, Minster Wildcat head coach Larry Topp is forced to replenish his cupboard, which graduated many of his top performers from 2007.
New Bremen girls cross country coach Julie Ferguson is hoping that an infusion of young talent will help the program take another step forward in its rebuilding program.
The second year of the revived Parkway cross country team sees some leaps and bounds.
The boys team will have a full contingent with seven runners taking part on the team, the majority having experience from last season.
In 2007, the St. Henry cross country team advanced to the state level for the first time in school history.
Following back-to-back trips to regiona
Rob Cisco has his hands full this season in his move from assistant coach to the head honcho.
Both St. Marys cross country teams finished seventh in the Western Buckeye League a year ago but Cisco is optimistic that improving on 2007 is possible this year.
It should be an interesting year for the Celina golf teams this fall.
The boys will try to find a way to replace a four-year team leader and the girls will try to adjust to having a new coach in place.
While the Coldwater boys golf team will look to replace the experience lost from last season, the Cavaliers' girls team is expanding its horizons.
After a 10th-place finish at the Midwest Athletic Conference Golf Invitational last season, the Fort Recovery boys golf team will look to build up the team using the experience returning this season.
Interest in golf at Marion Local is at an all-time high, and both the girls and boys squads hope to benefit from depth this year.
The girls team ha
For the past three seasons, the Minster Wildcats have dominated the links as far as the Midwest Athletic Conference is concerned.
Last year, the
For veteran New Bremen girls golf coach Greg Maurer, the 2008 season brings a pleasant change from the past few years, a veteran team full of upperclassmen.
Experience is in abundance for both the Parkway boys and girls golf teams this season under the guidance of head coaches Mike Schumm (boys coach) and Eric Stachler (girls coach).
A popular buzzword preached around the St. Henry boys golf practices this year by head coach Charlie Maier, is "consistency."
As is the case with
A run of success and strong leadership has helped make St. Marys one of the programs on the rise in the Grand Lake area when it comes to golf.
Kurt Kuffner, now in his fourth season as head coach, guided the Roughriders to state for the first time in 2006 and interest in golf seems strong.
It's looking like a very strong fall sports season for the Celina soccer teams.
The Celina boys have 14 experienced seniors to build around and the Lady Bulldogs return several key cogs from their 2007 Western Buckeye League title team.
The St. Marys soccer teams appear to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.
St. Marys' boys program is under new leadership as former assistant coach Zach Hertenstein takes over as head coach just as 11 seniors walk out the door due to graduation.
The Celina girls tennis team won the Western Buckeye League championship last season for the second time in school history.
This season, the Bulldogs may have what it takes to repeat that feat for the first time in school history.
For the last two years, the St. Marys girls tennis team finished in fourth place in the Western Buckeye League behind league powers Celina, Elida and Shawnee.