This just in!

I just got my text from Coach Richardson. The girls volleyball team just moved to 16-6 by defeating the Lady Patriots at Heritage High School. The scores of this 5 game drama were 25-12, 22-25, 25-22, 23-25, and 15-8. That is a big conference win and it looks like it was done in an exciting match. That is the last tune-up to the ACAC tournament.  I also understand the JV won. Great night for VB at GHS!

Scores and Powder Puff Football!

The Volleyball  went north tonight to Hamilton to take on the Lady Marines.  They dominated the games winning the JV 25-22, 25-6 and the Varsity won 25-11, 25-12, and 25-6.  I would say that is complete domination.

The only other game on tap tonight was the Boys Soccer game at Columbia City.  The Eagles soundly defeated the Railroaders 10-nil.  Now the Boys can concentrate on a game plan to defeat Lakewood Park in the first round of Sectionals.

The Homecoming Powder Puff and Snake Dance were tonight. The Senior girls defeated the freshman girls. The Juniors defeated the sophomores and in the championship game the Seniors defeated the Juniors. I'm not going to say anything else about the games except THANKS Mrs. Maksimchuck and Mrs. Wright for all your hardwork and efforts to plan all of the Homecoming events. It is a lot of work and we appreciate your dedication to organizng fun activities for our students! WE ARE A CHARACTER COUNTS SCHOOL!

Down Syndrome Football Player Scores TD in Washington Game (The Ike Spec...

Senior Night Soccer and More!

Tonight was Senior Night for Girls Soccer.  We are so proud of the Lady Railroader Senior Soccer players and appreciate all the hard work and dedication over the past 4 years. The Lady Railroaders defeated a hard charging Elkhart Christian team by a  final score of 5-4.  Great Job Ladies!

Both Boys and Girls Cross Country teams split with Adams Central and South Adams in the final regular season dual meet of the year.  Both teams defeated Adams Central and were defeated by South Adams.  Great times were set by the runners on a perfect night for running!

The Volleyball team got another ACAC victory by defeating the Lady Raiders of Southern Wells in 3 straight games. The JV team also got another win in two straight games.

The IHSAA Soccer Sectional Draws were tonight. The Boys begin play at home next week and drew a tough Lakewood Park team in the first game of the tournament. The Railroaders will take on the Panthers next Thursday night at 5pm. The second game of the night will see the Noble County teams compete for a chance to make it to the Championship game.

In the girls sectional draw, the Lady Railroaders will take on the County rival Lady Barons of Dekalb High School. I do not have the specific game times for the girls tournament. The tournament will be held at Dekalb starting October 11th. When I get the schedule, i will publish it here first!

Hit the Road Railroaders!

Well, it's fair week and the Railroader Athletic Teams are going to hit the Road, for the most part!

The Boys Soccer team travels to Central Noble on Monday Night to try to tie the school record for Soccer Wins. They wrap up the regular season with another road trip to Columbia City.  The IHSAA Soccer Draw is on Tuesday Evening. Garrett will host the Boys Soccer Sectional on October 7th and 9th.

The Girls Soccer team wraps up their home schedule on Tuesday, Senior Night. They will face the Girls Soccer team from Elkhart Christian. The game will begin at 6pm! The Girls Soccer Sectional Draw is also on Tuesday night. But, their Sectional will not begin until the week after the Boys.

The Volleyball Team will host Southern Wells on Tuesday night (6pm JV start) and then will travel to Hamilton on Wednesday Night and to Heritage on Thursday Night. The Girls are in the final preparation for the ACAC tournament which starts next week at Heritage.

The Cross Country teams will travel to South Adams twice this week. The first trip is scheduled for Tuesday as the run the last ACAC meet of the year agains Adams Central and South Adams (5pm jh start). The second trip will be made this Saturday when both the Boys and Girls will participate in the South Adams Small School CC Invitational (Noon Start).  The ACAC meet is only one week away and then they will head into the IHSAA meets.

The Football teams only have two games this week. The JV team will travel to Woodlan on Monday (630pm kickoff) and the Varsity Team will host a good South Adams Starfire team at Homecoming on Friday Night.

Good Luck to all the teams as the Fall season heads to the home stretch. The cool weather hints at the all important IHSAA tournament and the transition to winter sports!

Great Day!

I got home too late last night to post about the Ball State --ACAC Saturday. What a great event and near perfect weather. I can't say enough about the ACAC Athletic Directors and schools.  It is so fun being a part of a conference where the Athletes are the priority. It is a lot of hard work by everyone to solicit sponsorships, sell tickets, and organize the day into a special event for the athletes and fans.
I also can't say enough about the Hospitality of the Ball State  Athletic Facility Department and Dan Byrnes.

We had 4 great games and great support from the communities! Through all that, we also got another Railroader win! Bring on Homecoming!

We are proud!

We might not have won the games tonight in the Championship of the ACAC, but we are proud of how hard our Soccer-athletes have worked to get where they are. We have high expectations. SO, we are all disappointed in the results. The Boys lost 4-1 and the girls lost 5-0 to Leo.  I can't say enough about where these two teams have been and where they are going.

Last year the girls had their first season with fewer wins than losses. Yet they are now poised to turn that around. The boys have been trapped with f 1 or 2 wins a year. Yet, this year we are one win away from matching the school record of 7 wins. The amazing thing about the Boys Soccer team, we are still very young and have absolutely no seniors.

Keep working hard. Keep improving your skills now and in the post season. Win, Lose, or Tie we are proud of you!

SCORES!!!

The Volleyball team continues to roll.  The Lady Railroaders defeated a tough Angola team in 5 games tonight at the Paul Bateman Gymnasium.  The team won the first two games, then Angola rallied to when the next 2. Garrett won the final game 15-13.  Great effort!

Both Soccer teams won in the first round of the ACAC Soccer tournament at the Fort Wayne Sports Club. The boys avenged a tough loss earlier in the season by defeating Heritage 2-1. They are now 1 win away from matching the school record for the most wins in a season. The girls dominated South Adams with an impressive 8-0 final.

 Both teams are now in the championship games and will face Leo. The girls will play in the 6pm game and the Boys team will play at approximately 8pm.  Go to the game tomorrow night and support the Railroader soccer program.   Directions: Take I-69 south to the Hwy 24 exit (Lutheran Hospital) Go east on Hwy 24 to Engle Road and turn right. Take Engle Road to Ardmore and turn North or Left onto Ardmore. The fields are on the left or West side of the road. Good Luck Railroaders!

Never a Dull moment at GHS!

No GHS Athletic Events tonight! But, we have a lot going on the next several days. Tomorrow the Girls Volleyball team hosts the Angola Lady Hornets.  The Boys and Girls Soccer Teams open the ACAC Soccer tournament. The Boys play Heritage at 6pm and the Girls follow with  8pm.  The games are played at a new location this year. It is located on Adrmore Ave. in Fort Wayne. This soccer club has great fields and we are looking for a great tournament.  If you need directions to the game, contact the athletic department tomorrow!

We still have tickets for the Ball State - ACAC football games. Tickets are $8 and will be $10 at the gate on Saturday. Also, if you buy tickets now the Athletic Department gets most of the money for those PRE-SALE tickets.  This is a big event for our conference. We try to do special things for all of our sports teams. The ACAC soccer tournament, Baseball at Parkview Field, Basketball Tournament at the Memorial Coliseum are all examples. We also sponsor the Semi-State wrestling Tournament at the Coliseum and were a driving force behind naming Fort Wayne as the host for the Girls State Basketball finals.  Regardless how much work it is for the conference, we try to do what is best for the student-athletes.

Next week we start Homecoming Festivities. The Powder Puff Football game is on Wednesday night at 6pm followed by the Bon Fire and Snake Dance. The Homecoming Football Parade is at 6pm on Friday. The game starts at 7pm. THe game will have al the great Halftime activities and floats. PLUS the fireworks show during the game and a great grand finale at the end. The Homecoming dance will finalize the great week.

Enjoy all the activities! Never a dull moment at GHS!

Busy Tuesday!

The Boys Soccer team got another win tonight 1-0 over Eastside. The Boys are at 5 wins on the season. They are only two wins away from matching the most wins in GHS Boys Soccer history. Good work Coach Klopfentstein and our very young team

The girls volleyball team continues to roll with another powerful victory in 3 games over South Adams. They are really starting to dominate the court!

All of the Cross Country teams  ran at Woodlan tonight against the Warriors and Southern Wells. THe Boys defeated both conference opponents but the girls lost.  The girls lost to Woodlan by 2 points and to Southern Wells by 1 point. Too close. Keep working Hard girls. Ariel McCoy led the girls and won the meet defeating all of the Lady Warriors and Raider runners.

More VB domination!

The Lady Railroader Volleyball team dominated Lakeland tonight. They won easily in 3 games with scores of 25-11, 25-9, and 25-19. I can't say enough about how proud I am of Coach Richardson and Coach Webb. (By the way, the jv team also won tonight!) Keep up the good work and I can't wait for the ACAC tournament. Even better yet, I can't wait for Sectionals and beyond. Garrett is hosting the VB sectional AND the winner of our sectional will host the one game regional! This year could be magical for our VB program!

Volleyball Hardware

Today the Varsity Volleyball team won the Wawasee Volleyball Tournament. I am not sure we've ever won this before.  The competition is good and mostly bigger schools.  We needed this win after a rough week battling the ACAC powerhouse volleyball teams.  We need to take this momentum and continue it through this week and then into the ACAC tournament.  Congrats Coach Richardson and the Lady Railroaders!

Girls Soccer Romp!

The girls soccer team dominated the Lady Panthers of Lakewood Park tonight at the "Pitch" in Garrett. The final score was 10-3? I think. It was an entertaining game. Thanks Heather for a good laugh in the Press Box. Even if we laugh we still love you! Several girls got there first goals. Congrats on a great evening of soccer!

Is Cross Country a TEAM sport?

The Boys and Girls Cross Country teams ran their only home meet of the year tonight vs New Haven and Columbia City. The boys team were defeated by both teams. The Girls team led by  Ariel McCoy were defeated by Columbia City.  However, the Lady Railroader Harriers defeated New Haven by a tie breaker.

Ok, most of you don't know how a Cross Country meet is scored any way.  Let me bring you up to speed.  A team consists of 7 runners. In a dual meet, like tonight, you have a total of 14 places.  Each place is worth points based on what place it is. 1st place is one point, 2nd place is two points, 3rd place is three points, etc.  The first five finishers on each team score points for your team.  The sixth and seventh runners are called "pushers". Even though their places don't count in the score, they are to push the top five of the other team as far back as they can.  The only time the sixth runner on a team is counted in the scoring is when there is a tie.  Below is the scoring of tonight's meet:

Garrett                                                         New Haven

2nd place - Ariel McCoy         - 2pts.         1st place - Brenda Diaz          - 1pt.

4th place  - Rachel Hood         - 4pts.         3rd place - Mikala Hiatt         - 3pts.

5th place  - Katlin Hinkle        - 5pts.         6th place - Angela Lahr          - 6pts.

8th place  - Shelby Hartman    - 8pts.        7th place - J. Lothamer            - 7pts.

9th place  - Siboney Martinez - 9pts.      11th place - Amanda Fendel      - 11 pts.

Total                                28 pts.                                                       28 pts.

10th place - Caitlyn Prem    - 10 pts.     13th place - Kayla Fendel - 13 pts.

12th place - Zujey Collins      - 12 pts.        

As you can see, after the scoring runners, the score was tied 28 - 28. Garrett's "pusher" Caitlyn Prem pushed the 5th place runner further back in the scoring.  If Prem doesn't do her job Garrett would lose 27 - 28.  Instead, she forces the tie and since she and Zujey Collins beat the 6th New Haven runner, GARRETT WINS!

Everyone thinks this is a sport of individuals, but it truly is a team sport where everyone on the team can have an impact on the scoring.  Congrats to Coach Rhoades and her team on a great meet!

This week in sports!

Busy week for the Railroaders mostly on the road:

Monday the Boys Soccer team gets the week started with a game at Leo at 5pm.

Then the Volleyball teams travel to Adams Central for a key ACAC matchup and they follow that up with another big ACAC match at Leo.  Both of those matches will start at 6pm.  They finish out the week with a big tournament at Wawasee.

The Cross Country teams have their FIRST and ONLY home Cross Country meet of the season Tuesday night.  This is a High School only meet.  The girls will start the night with a 5pm start.  Then the entire Cross Country Program runs a big meet at West Noble on Saturday.  For those of you who have never attended a Cross Country meet, give it a try. It is a great atmosphere and won't take up a lot of your evening.

The Girls Soccer team takes the first part of the week to prepare to face the Lakewood Park Girls Soccer team on Thursday night at 6pm.  They will then host Blackhawk Christian on Saturday with a 12noon start time.

Reminder:  The freshman football game scheduled for thursday has been changed to EAST NOBLE.  Adams Central does not have a freshman team this year.  The freshman team will travel to Kendallville to play on the "Carpet" at EN.  The JV will host Adams Central on Monday night with a 630 kickoff.

The Varsity Football team will travel to Bluffton on Friday night to try to break a 3 game losing streak. Kickoff is 7pm!

DON'T FORGET TO PURCHASE YOUR BALL STATE TICKETS! $8

Good Luck to all the Railroader teams.

Bad night -- Should we tell our kids "Good Job?"

Well, we didn't have a great night for our varsity teams tonight.  Volleyball was defeated in 3 straight games vs a tough Woodlan team.  Both Boys and Girls Soccer teams were defeated by Dekalb. I haven't seen the final scores but I think the Boys lost 5-0.

I was talking to Coach Richardson tonight after the game and one of the Woodlan Coaches came up and said our girls did a good job tonight. Good Job?  We got beat in 3 straight games! It fueled a discussion about whether we should say "Good Job" to our athletes and coaches when we clearly did not do a good job.  I am not being critical of our volleyball team.  They were down 3-11 in the first game and fought back to really make a game of it. In the last game they were down 13-21, came back and lost 24-26.  But Coach Richardson was not happy because of the inconsistent play by our team. She was frustrated because she believes are a better team than we played tonight. So, should we tell the girls they did a "Good Job" tonight?  Woodlan is a top ranked team in our conference and state in 2A.  But, we clearly had opportunities to win and did not play up to the potential Coach Richardson thinks we can achieve.

I don't pretend to have the answer to this question. But when a competitive athlete has someone tell them they did a good job, when they know they didn't, it's a hollow compliment. So what do you say? When you're on your way home from the game what do you say?'

One approach could be ask questions. "How do you think you did tonight? It could lead to other questions like, "What could you have done to play better? If they feel like they played their best and still lost, it might be helpful to find out why they think they lost.  If they start blaming other teammates, I think it is important to ask again"What can YOU do to help your teammates perform better?"

Sometimes you have a kid who doesn't want to talk about it.  Sometimes it takes a while for them to analyze the game in their own mind.  In that case, questions are not a good idea.

The most important thing is to let them know in some way that you love and support them no matter what. You aren't more proud of them because they played well and your not less proud of them for playing bad. Your love is not based on how well they perform. Their effort and their desire to continually work to improve their weaknesses should alway be the focus. What can they do to get better?!

Like I said, I don't claim to have all the answers, but just thought I would provide some ideas!

Important VB game tomorrow!

Tomorrow night at 6pm the Lady Railroader Volleyball team faces the Woodlan Lady Warrior Volleyball team in a very important ACAC matchup.  Woodlan has a great history of volleyball and will provide a challenge for our team. But, our volleyball team has done a great job this year and are up to the challenge.  It would be great to pack the gym tomorrow night to help support them in the first big ACAC match of the year.  The Varsity will play at about 7pm.

Finished!

Well another year at the "Auburn Auction Park" / Labor Day Auction is finished.  I am so thankful for all the great help these past 5 days.  Number 1 on that list is my great wife Stephanie! She was there with me every single day from Thursday at 6:30am - Sunday night at 6pm.  She was in charge of all the gate workers and accounting with RM Auctions.   She was so great in helping get all the workers where they needed to be.

Number 2 - Terry Yarde -- What would I do without him?  He is so dedicated to GHS and this athletic department. Besides being a great coach, he would sacrifice anything to help.  Like Stephanie, he was there every day -- all day from Thursday-Sunday. He doesn't have to do what he does, but he does it anyway.

There are so many others that put in many many hours helping out. Kasey Shultz, Scott Bishop, Mike Andrews, and Tracy Martin, are just a few names of people that go way beyond what is expected. I also can't say enough about Garrett State Bank for letting their staff help out during the work day to man our ticket booths on Thursday. Of course, every one of our high school coaches are key in helping make sure our kids get the job done SAFELY.

Do you realize that we staff nearly 2400 hours over this 5 day period.  If you estimate we have 300 high school athletes, that means each athlete averaged 8 hours throughout this 5 days.  Of course, their coaches, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends, help fill all the spots needed.  For a small school, we have a HUGE group of people dedicated to our success.

I can't say enough about our athletes and coaches.  We do a great job and the character of our kids is really amazing. Our great kids witness the under-belly of society.  We get yelled at, cussed at, flipped off, and treated with a great amount of disrespect.  Yet, our kids show true character and I am SO proud of them. I get a first hand appreciation of just how great they are when we work this weekend.

Thanks everyone for all your work. You are awesome! We couldn't do it without you!

Tough Loss

All I can say is Garrett suffered a  tough loss to Southern Wells tonight 30-13.  We got hurt by a great running game and by some self inflicted pain.  We'll get over it and move on to the Jets next week!