7-0

Well, it certainly wasn't pretty. But, The Lady Railroaders defeated Prairie Heights tonight by a score of 56-38.  The lone highlight of the night was freshman Brandi Dawson scoring a career high 24 points.  She was amazing throughout the game. Heather House had a bad night but most people didn't know she was suffering from the flu. She struggled all night but really gave a gutsy effort to still help lead the team.  You can tell a lot about an athlete by how hard they play when they are sick. Good Job Heather!

The Railroaders had 17 turnovers for the night. Most of the time you will lose a game when you have that many turnovers. But, PH had 22. They helped us survive the night. Jordyn Knott was the only other GHS player in double figures (12 points). The Lady Railroaders dominated most of the other stats winning the rebounds, steals, and blocks.

A team really shows it's character when it has an off night and still wins the game.  Now we can move on to focus all our energy on the Leo Lady Lions. This is the biggest game of the young season to this point. If we want to win an ACAC title, we have to go through the tough Leo Girls Basketball team to do it.

Remember it's "Black Out" night! Saturday Night. C-team game begins at 5pm followed by the JV at about 6:15 and the Varsity at about 8 oclock.  GOOD LUCK LADY RAILROADERS!

This Week in sports!

The girls Varsity Basketball team travels to Prairie Heights tomorrow night to try to make it 7-0 for the season. The JV will tip-off at 6pm followed by the Varsity.

The Wrestlers travel to South Adams on Thursday to take on the very tough Starfire team. We have had a few injuries and illnesses to start the season but the Railroaders will be ready to give it everything they have to defeat the South Adams team in Berne.  Wrestling will begin at  6:30pm on Thursday.

On Friday Night the Boys Basketball team travels to Woodburn to take on the Woodlan Warriors and try to reverse the results of the Saturday game. We just need to remember the game is a full 32 minutes long and finish.  The JV game will start at 6pm.

On Saturday Night the Girls Basketball team will battle the Leo Lady Lions in the Paul Bateman Gymnasium.  Both teams are always strong in the ACAC and could be battling for a conference title.  In order to PUMP UP the fans and team on Saturday we are having a BLACK-OUT! All the Railroader Fans need to wear black to the game and support another girls victory.

Keep the big train rolling!

The Wisdom of Wolves Movie | Store Landing

This is a great lesson for our players, coaches, parents, and fans. Just click below to watch the movie.

The Wisdom of Wolves Movie Store Landing

Boys BBall 1-1, Wrestlers 2-3

The Boys Basketball team had a rough night tonight up at Prairie Heights. They struggled most of the night with turnovers but were able to stay close and were tied at halftime. The 3rd quarter was back and forth but the 4th quarter was a completely different story. The final score was 74-55. Garrett was again led by Drake Landis.  Drake got in foul trouble in the first half and again in the second half. We needed him to be on the floor. Brandon Porter was the second leading scorer.  The entire team struggled with turnovers and fouls. Coach Bodey knew this would be a much tougher opponent than game #1. He was right. We lost our composure in the middle of the  4th quarter and then let that adversity get the best of us.  I think our fans lost their composure as well.  The game exposed some physical and mental weaknesses of this young team and I am sure Coach Bodey and his staff will get to work to improve in those areas.  You win as a team and lose as a team. Since Athletics are Educational Experiences, I hope we ALL learn from this game. As Kim Lobsiger used to say, "We are one!" and as another famous American said "United We Stand, Divided we Fall". I think this game proves those two sayings are true! Next Up the boys will travel to Woodlan High School to take on the Warriors at Woodburn.

The Basketball team was not the only team competing today. Our Wrestlers traveled to Peru High School to compete with some very good State Wrestling Powerhouses. We went 2-3 with this young team and were defeated by Yorktown, Bellmont, and Huntington North. We defeated Lakeland and LaPorte. Undefeated wrestlers for the day were Hayden Lee and Brayden Moreau. Just like the Boys Basketball team, every one of these early season contests will tell important things about our team. I am sure Coach Fielden learned something about each of his wrestlers and knows what we need to work on.  This team travels to South Adams on Thursday to take on another very tough conference opponent.

6-0 and more!

I know it's a bit repetitive but another dominating performance by the Lady Railroaders defeating the Lady Warriors of Woodlan High School 75-46. Heather House had 23 points, Jordyn Knott had 20 points and Megan Getts had 10 points.  It could have been a lot more but Coach Feagler did not press at all in the 2nd half and the JV girls played much of the 4th quarter.  Heather and Jordyn were unstoppable and lso dominated the Boards. Garrett had just too much for Woodlan who has a girls that's 6'1" and going to play division 1 Basketball at Toledo. Between Jordyn and Megan Getts, she couldn't guard both of them. Jordyn was all over every board and did an amazing job putting the ball through the hoop. They had absolutely no one with Heathers speed and they just couldn't defend her at all.

Next up for the Girls, on the road to Prairie Heights this Tuesday Night. The Boys travel to Brushy Prairie tomorrow night also to take on the Prairie Heights Panthers. They will try to make it 2-0.

The wrestling team travels to Peru for the first Varsity contests of the new season and the competition is really tough.

Good Luck to all the Railroader Winter Athletic Teams!

No Cheerleaders!

I have often gotten questions about why the Cheerleaders do not Cheer at all the Basketball games. SO I thought I could share this information with all of you.

Every winter our Basketball teams play over 50 basketball games between the Boys and Girls teams and tournaments. We would love to have the cheerleaders cheer at every single one of these games. But, this really isn't appropriate to require the cheerleaders to cheer at every game. There is not a single other athletic team which requires it's team members to have a season consisting of 50 games. It's not even close. During the Basketball season both the Boys and Girls teams average 2 games per week. We never play games on Sundays, so  that means that the cheerleaders would have to cheer, on average 4 nights per week and only have 2 nights off. Of course, on those nights they would probably practice. Yes, they practice at least 2 nights a week during all of the fall season and the winter season. Again, no other team has to have this level of commitment.

So with all of those thoughts in mind, we do not require the cheerleaders to cheer at all the basketball games. Since we don't require them to cheer at every game, we have to come up with a way where they cheer equally at Boys and Girls games. Area schools do this differently. Our conference schools also handle this situation differently. Some schools have their cheerleaders cheer at all conference games. Some have them cheer all home games and not any road games. Still other schools just give them a number of games to cheer at and it is a combination of home and away games.  At Garrett High School, I sit down with the cheer coach and we decide which games we will cheer at treating the boys and girls teams equally. Generally the agreement is to cheer at all conference games and tournament games. This year, we have decided to increase the number of games they cheer at (over last year) by having them cheer at all weekend games and tournament games. This will mean our Cheerleaders will cheer at more than 30 games this season. (Depending on our success in the Conference Tournament and the IHSAA tournament it could be more or less)  That's a lot of games for one coach and a volunteer assistant.

As I said before, we love to have our cheerleaders at the games to get our fans excited and support our teams. But, there is a limit to what is a reasonable expectation.  When the cheerleaders aren't cheering, it is up to the students and the adult fans to step up their support and yell even louder. I have been very impressed with our students this year and the way they have cheered for our teams. Tonight was no exception!

Great Start!

Wow! What an impressive start to the Boys Basketball season in the Paul Bateman Gym tonight! I haven't been sent the stats but the Railroaders dominated the Blazers of Eastside High School in nearly every part of the game. It was easy to spot the leading scorer. Drake Landis had at least 28 points. (Like I said, I haven't been sent the stats yet.) But more impressive than that was the way we played. Coach Bodey has been pushing teamwork since the very first practice and it showed in the game tonight. I heard we had 24 assists and that would not surprise me at all. We got contributions from many different players and the unselfishness of this team was very obvious throughout the game.

I can't wait to see us do the same thing on the road at Prairie Heights on Saturday Night. All three high school teams will play. The JV and C-team will play at 6pm followed by the varsity at about 7:30pm.

Don't forget that the Girls also play over Thanksgiving break when the Lady Railroaders travel to Woodlan High School on Friday Night. Let's keep the Big Train rolling with another couple wins!