It’s a bit like a comic book for Shannon Nord — mild-mannered elementary school teacher by day, professional softball superstar by night.
The New Albany Police Department stopped charging for incident reports this week.
Herman’s 100th birthday is Tuesday; Indiana’s First Lady remembers late grandfather
CLARKSVILLE — Highlander Youth Recreation’s 13-14 baseball team took advantage of Clarksville’s six errors, eight walks and four hit batters to improve to 2-0 in pool play with an 18-5 victory on Thursday.
CLARKSVILLE — Highlander Youth Recreation’s 11-12-year-old All Stars may very well be considered the favorite in their division. In their opener, it took exactly three pitches to understand why.
CLARKSVILLE — After watching a title that it had owned for most of the decade slip away last season, New Albany began its quest at reclaiming the 11-12-year-old baseball title at the Indiana District V Tournament on Tuesday.
Kegan Clark, a 6-foot-4 forward from Jeffersonville, said today he has verbally committed to Wright State.
Recent Charlestown High School graduates Damon Vest and Cameron Metzger have both been selected to the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Class 3A All-State first team for the 2009 season.
CLARKSVILLE — Highlander Youth Recreation’s 11-12 softball All-Stars opened District V play with an easy 16-0 win over Clarksville on Monday.
HYR scored two runs in the first inning and three in the third, then exploded for 12 in the fourth to put the game away.
Last Wednesday was important for United States soccer.
Beating Spain — the No. 1-ranked team in the world — in the FIFA Confederations Cup by a 2-0 scoreline brought with it publicity not normally associated with the sport in this country.
Spain had not lost a game in its last 35, so it was a big deal. Really.
And it became water cooler talk. Or toilet talk, depending on where you like to have your work conversations.
When you do something once-in-a-lifetime, you have to be prepared for exactly that.
New Albany star Donnie Hale’s recent oral commitment to Purdue has been the talk of the area basketball scene. But with this weekend marking the end of IHSAA-allowed high school team play until later next month, the attention again returns to AAU for the July circuit of camps and tournament.
Fans still clamoring for their recommended daily allowance of basketball are in for a treat this weekend.
For the first time in its 15 years of existence, the Kentuckiana Pro-Am basketball tournament is making itself a home at Nolan Fieldhouse.
The New Albany star will stay in-state after his senior year of high school to play for Matt Painter’s Purdue program.
Hale, a 6-foot-8 forward, is relieved the recruiting process is behind him.
The Floyds Knobs American Legion Post 42 baseball team saw its roster get even deeper on Tuesday. Shelbyville, on the other hand, decided to simply go deep.
Children in Kenya are replacing soccer balls made out of garbage bags for the real deal thanks to local generosity.
The basketball camp that he began years ago will probably always bear his name. But Robbie Valentine can envision a day where just maybe his name is all that he needs to give to keep the family business humming along.
Well, it’s time for old Kev to take a little break from the trials and tribulations associated with community journalism.
For an entire week, I plan on enjoying some country living in my native east central Indiana.
FRANKLIN — In a season in which both sides battled head-to-head from week to week, it only seemed fitting to see both Floyd Central and Providence once again standing side-by-side in the pairings at the IHSAA boys’ golf state finals.
FRANKLIN — Last Friday, the Floyd Central and Providence boys’ golf teams made history at the Seymour Regional. For the first time in 16 years, two Clark-Floyd area squads qualified for the IHSAA State Finals when the Highlanders placed second and the Pioneers were third at regional.
A year ago, Trey Pfund found himself contending near the top of the standings at the IHSAA State Finals in Franklin.
After the first day of last year’s state finals, Pfund was positioned for a run at the state title. He was within five shots of the leader, but could not carry over that momentum. Pfund shot 5-over par on the second day of competition at The Legends of Indiana Golf Course and finishing tied for 16th.
This year, Pfund is back at it again.
Last week, I touched on the issue of how the standard of soccer in southern Indiana could be improved if the will was there.
In the spring of 2001, Floyd Central High School hired a new coach to take over its already solid boys’ golf program.
That man was Floyds Knobs resident Mike Cason.
Since then, all he has done is make the program even stronger.
Recent Borden graduate Chris Beam will sign a partial scholarship today with Olney Central College, a junior college located in Olney, Ill.
The 6-foot-1 point guard expects to redshirt his first season.
It goes without saying that both Floyd Central and Providence expect nothing but the best competition this week when each team travels to play in the IHSAA boys’ golf state finals.
I hope you realize that this is not your father’s NASCAR anymore.
Heck, it isn’t even your older brother’s NASCAR with all the changes to the sport this decade.
INDIANAPOLIS — It took until the bottom of the sixth inning for the scoreboard to light up the evening at Ben Davis High School.
For the Floyd Central softball team, it would have been better to have left it off.
Heading down the final stretch of holes at the Seymour Regional, Floyd Central coach Mike Cason knew it would be close.
The Highlanders were part of the groups that would be the last off the course, and Cason had a pretty good idea of what they would need to shoot to advance to the State Finals.
NEW ALBANY — Both New Albany’s Donnie Hale and Jeffersonville’s Kegan Clark had their share of moments on Thursday. But ultimately, it was the Indiana All-Stars proving why they are considered the best in the state.
They’ve been splintered for years. A few of them here, a few of them there. But by the time whatever act of fate or timing conspired to keep them apart finally relented, it became pretty obvious that they were destined to be together.
The results have been nothing short of magical.
Geographically, Lafayette Harrison isn’t exactly close to Floyd Central, but the Highlanders shouldn’t have to look far to size up the team that will be their first-ever state finals opponent.
It’s as easy as looking into the mirror.
Area boys’ golf teams have put together an impressive run the past five years.
In each of those seasons, one squad has represented the Clark-Floyd region at the IHSAA State Finals.
But this year, the area has a great chance to do something that has occurred only once — get two teams to state.
Floyd Central graduate and University of Louisville junior Steven Hnat begins his participation in his first NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships today in Fayetteville, Ark.
FLOYDS KNOBS — The Providence boys’ golf team had the best individual at Monday’s Floyd Central Sectional at Valley View Golf Club.
But the host Highlanders grabbed the honor for having the No. 1 team again.
The difficulties that soccer clubs from southern Indiana have competing against the best in the state was plain for all to see in recent weeks.
With the Floyd Central softball team playing for its first berth in the state finals, sophomores Samantha McClure and Jordan Batliner carried the day in a 3-1 victory over Plainfield in the Floyd Central regional final.
EVANSVILLE — Graham Saiko has been hounding local teams for years, but he may have saved his most crushing blow for last.
AUSTIN — It was experience over youth in a big way on Saturday as Evansville Mater Dei ended the season for Providence with an 11-1, six-inning victory in the opening round of the Class 2A regional at Austin.
FERDINAND — Clarksville softball coach Tim Hauber said he watched his team take one of its best batting practices of the season early on Saturday morning.
This time, the Henryville softball team gave two-time defending state runner-up Tecumseh a hard-earned run for its money.
LOOGOOTEE — Christian Academy of Indiana baseball coach Ryan Wheeler has said all season that his team has made a habit of proving to people that the Warriors are better than opponents like to give them credit for.
FLOYDS KNOBS — It’s the question that haunts us, drives us. It can make us fight wars, spill blood, pick sides. The specter of the end exerts control on the beginning and middle.
Nine area athletes and two relay teams completed their seasons in the IHSAA boys’ track state finals on Friday at Indiana University’s Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex in Bloomington.
Earlier this season, the New Albany baseball team made a trip to play a doubleheader at historic Bosse Field. The Bulldogs enjoyed playing at the 94-year-old stadium so much that they dreamed about making a return trip in June for the Class 4A Evansville North Regional.
Providence’s last postseason visit to Austin ended in questions.
The Pioneers dropped a lopsided sectional loss in last season’s Class 2A Austin Sectional and then were faced with who would fill the holes vacated from a 10-man senior class that departed after the 2008 season.
Christian Academy of Indiana won’t be looking in the mirror on Saturday when it faces Tecumseh in the opening round of the Class A Loogootee Regional.
It’s been quite a postseason for area baseball teams, with two sectional champions each from Floyd (New Albany, Christian Academy of Indiana) and Clark County (Providence, Charlestown).
The Floyd Central softball team has conquered the Hoosier Hills Conference, dominated the sectional and earned the respect of observers around the region as the most consistent and successful of local programs.
To take the next step, the Highlanders don’t just have to win the regional. They have to beat Cassie Loweth.
Tim Hauber doesn’t believe that pressure enters into the equation this time of year.
“This is the fun time to be playing,” said the veteran Clarksville High School softball coach. “I don’t think anybody is worried about too much right about now.”
In the past two years, the Henryville softball team has been on the brink of winning a Class A regional championship.
However, the Hornets have fallen short of that goal each time.
CLARKSVILLE — Providence baseball coach Scott Hornung thought his team was capable of winning a sectional title, but neither he — nor even the Pioneer faithful — could have expected this.
ELIZABETH — Ryan Wheeler has lost three sectional games as baseball coach at Christian Academy of Indiana, two of which came in the opposing team’s final at-bat of the game.
So you had to forgive the Warrior boss for getting a little nervous on Tuesday night in the last inning of the final at the Class A South Central Sectional.
SELLERSBURG — Wins required of Charlestown to win its first sectional title since 1999 — three.
Wins recorded by Pirates ace Bryan Williams — three.
SEYMOUR — The New Albany Bulldogs know how it feels to get their hearts broken in the Class 4A sectional.
In each of the past three sectionals, New Albany’s season has come to an end on a walk-off hit.
But on Monday night at Owls Field, the Bulldogs decided that enough was enough.
SELLERSBURG — Charlestown looked every bit the superior team on Monday night, hitting the ball all over the diamond and taking advantage of Silver Creek errors to roll over the Dragons 14-2 and advance to the final of the Class 3A Silver Creek Sectional.
CLARKSVILLE — Nothing so far has been able to derail Providence’s progress in the Class 2A baseball sectional, but one more test seperates the Pioneers from the title.
New Albany High School's Kaitlin Robinett headed her Mockingbird U17 team to a fourth straight Kentucky State Cup title in Lexington on Sunday.
SEYMOUR — Last year, the Jeffersonville baseball team defeated New Albany in a dramatic Class 4A sectional final in eight innings, 1-0.
All the talk before the Class A South Central baseball sectional was of defending champions Henryville’s bid to go back-to-back this season.
NORTH VERNON — Samantha McClure had just won her first sectional as a member of the Floyd Central softball team, but she had already learned one of the universal rules of championship-caliber play — act like you’ve been there before.
Floyd Central’s tennis season wrapped up on Saturday as the Highlanders fell to Terre Haute South in the semifinal of the Jasper Semistate.
I thank the IHSAA for a lot of things in life. I really do.
Obviously, something had to be done.
On Thursday, the moment most of Junior Nation had been waiting for happened, as Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick relinquished Tony Eury Jr. from his duties as crew chief for the No. 88 car, driven by NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
CLARKSVILLE — Last month, the Providence baseball team played its worst game of the season, suffering a 15-5 loss to Austin
CLARKSVILLE — If you had taken a quick exit poll of every Clarksville softball player on Thursday after the Class 2A softball sectional final, the result would have been a landslide.
NORTH VERNON — Fate wasn’t exactly kind to New Albany, but at least it made a decision.
SEYMOUR — If you wanted a description of Jeffersonville starter Hunter Tipton’s performance Thursday night, all you had to do was listen to four words coming from Red Devil head baseball coach Al Rabe’s mouth — “He was on today.”
Without a doubt.
CORYDON — While there were tears in the eyes of both Dave Harvey and each of his Silver Creek players on Thursday night the mood was surprisingly upbeat inside the Dragons huddle.
Silver Creek junior Jack Eckert earned top honors on Thursday as he won the pole vault competition at the Bloomington North Track Regional.
Charlestown combined a solid pitching performance from junior Bryan Williams with consistent hitting throughout the lineup to post a 5-1 win over Mitchell in the first round of the Silver Creek Class 3A Sectional.
STARLIGHT — Tom Crean’s first goal Wednesday night was purely a selfish one.
“Tonight’s about getting more people on my Twitter page,” joked the Indiana University men’s basketball coach to a group of reporters before speaking at the Indiana University Coaches’ Tailgate Tour stop at Huber’s Orchard and Winery. “I’ve got competition with other coaches about followers. I’ve got some catching up to do.”
FLOYDS KNOBS — One day after Floyd Central coach Rick Miller found a four-leaf clover to help his team pull out a 3-2 win over Silver Creek, the Highlanders’ girls’ tennis team proved it needed no such luck to get past New Albany by winning the Floyd Central Regional, 5-0.
Two softball sectionals had their schedules rearranged due to rain on Wednesday.
FLOYDS KNOBS — With his Highlanders’ postseason fate resting on a two doubles match against Silver Creek, Floyd Central coach Rick Miller found a good luck charm midway through the third set to help his girls advance in the Floyd Central Regional.
CLARKSVILLE — It was a day for Clarksville’s seniors to shine at the Class 2A Clarksville Sectional semifinals.
The senior trio of Kelsey Becker, Taylor Carta and Kelly Betz each provided key hits for the Generals on Tuesday, helping lift the Generals to a 2-1 victory over Brownstown at Tim Hauber Field.
Junior Shanice Gholson qualified for the IHSAA State Finals in four events to lead the Jeffersonville girls’ track team to a third-place finish in Tuesday’s Bedford North Lawrence Regional.
CORYDON — Two pitchers and two distinct styles meant one big victory for Silver Creek.
NORTH VERNON — In their two prior meetings this season, the New Albany and Bedford North Lawrence softball teams played a pair of close affairs, resulting in a split.
Henryville claimed both the Southern Athletic Conference and Class A Invitational titles on Tuesday at Champion’s Pointe Golf Club in Memphis.
CLARKSVILLE — Five runs was the magic number, but just how magical it was depended on what color jersey you were wearing.
HENRYVILLE — The Henryville softball team began its three-peat sectional quest in fine fashion on Monday afternoon.
The Class A No. 5 Hornets downed Southern Athletic Conference rival New Washington in the Class A Henryville Sectional semifinals, 3-0.
The Silver Creek softball team survived Round 1 of the Class 3A Corydon Central Sectional, scoring five times in the bottom of the fourth inning to post a 6-3 win over Salem.
JEFFERSONVILLE — Providence’s drive for five netted another Jeffersonville Sectional title on Saturday.
The Pioneers overcame a sterling effort by Clarksville’s Deahna Welcher at No. 1 singles and posted a 4-1 victory over their town rivals in the final of the Jeffersonville Sectional.
NEW ALBANY — Not even a legendary coach like Stan Sajko would have changed much about this one.
The New Albany baseball team once again honored the memory of Sajko, the longtime former athletic director and baseball coach at the school and an Indiana Baseball Hall of Famer, by winning the tournament that bears his name.
Henryville closed in on the postseason by sweeping two games against host South Central on Saturday.
The Hornets won a slugfest in the opener, scoring five times in the second inning of an 11-6 win. In the second game, junior hurler Taylor Stone held the Rebels to four hits as South Central prevailed, 1-0.
To you, today is probably just a typical Sunday before Memorial Day.
You might be cleaning up that old Weber grill for tomorrow’s cookout or getting the pool ready for your kids and their friends.
JEFFERSONVILLE — Even though Charlestown briefly took the lead heading toward the final lap of the 1600-meter relay, the night’s final event, no one seemed very surprised when the Pirates were overtaken quickly by a red-clad blur.
After all, it was a pretty common sight.
CORYDON — For good measure, Floyd Central’s 1,600-meter relay team put on a performance that served as a final exclamation point.
The Floyd Central girls’ tennis team began its quest for a ninth consecutive sectional title on a high note Thursday afternoon at home.
The New Albany baseball team tuned up for this weekend’s Stan Sajko Invitational at Mt. Tabor Field by sweeping a split home doubleheader Wednesday.
Amanda Embry tossed a two-hit shutout and blasted a home run to lead the Henryville softball team past visiting Charlestown in five innings on Wednesday, 10-0.
JEFFERSONVILLE — The girls’ track teams from Silver Creek and Jeffersonville found a little common ground.
As a result, they both found themselves trailing Madison.
The New Albany girls’ track team edged Floyd Central by three points to repeat as Corydon Sectional champions on Tuesday night.
FLOYDS KNOBS — This season, the Floyd Central softball team has made life miserable for the entire Hoosier Hills Conference.
On Monday, it was archrival New Albany’s turn to struggle against the Highlanders.
The Christian Academy of Indiana baseball team won its third straight contest and for the fourth time in five games on Monday as it topped Class A sectional foe South Central, 9-7.
The Floyd Central girls’ tennis team repeated as Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament champions on Monday, defeating host Bedford North Lawrence in the tournament final 3-2.
Teams from Southern Indiana United and Net-Surfers found the going tough at the Indiana State Cup at the weekend.
SIU has three boys’ teams playing in the preliminary stages of the premier level tournament, held at Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, while Net-Surfers’ girls had two.
Southern Indiana basketball never sleeps. The high school season concluded in late March, but now many area prep players are showcasing their talent against top-notch competition at various AAU tournaments throughout the Midwest.
Twice each month, I plan to use this space as an outlet to keep area basketball junkies informed of offseason happenings, such as the world of AAU — or travel — basketball and the college recruiting process.
