There's no time to get settled for the Ohio women's track and field team. The Bobcats open up the indoor season this weekend at the Buckeye Classic hosted by Ohio State, less than a week after most of them returned to campus.
Coach Clay Calkins said budget restraints prevented him from keeping the team in Athens during Winter Intercession, so he had to rely on his athletes to keep themselves fit during the holidays.
There's a training regimen that details information for basically six-day a week training throughout the entire winter break
Calkins said. We hope they get that accomplished on their own.
But now that they're back in Athens, Calkins has little time, and fewer opportunities, to get them ready to compete. Without an indoor training facility, the Bobcats have to practice outdoors, where they are subject to Mother Nature's whim.
A lot of times the events that we're competing at in the meets - the day we're doing the event - is the only practice we're getting that week Calkins said. It's somewhat limiting what we can accomplish with the facility we have at this time.
This week's an exception. The weather was somewhat forgiving. We've been outside the last couple days. We were able to get some work in - the long jumps hits, the triple jump hits and we've been able to get some high jump.
Calkins lost one of the strongest groups of seniors in memory to graduation last spring which included Jenielle Hunt
who qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 3
000-meter steeplechase. He added that he is confident with his group of returning athletes.
One of those runners is redshirt senior Annie Beecham
whom he is counting on to help fill Hunt's shoes.
(Beecham) is someone we're looking at. She's someone who's been to the national stage before as an athlete, so she's well aware of how to get there, Calkins said. She's a very talented runner for us, so hopefully that can happen.
@ThePostSports,",2,Sports,Bart Logan,",",",",",","
33143,2011-01-04 22:55:00,High School Basketball: Local teams strive to improve after early-season games,Alternating wins and losses has been the story of Athens early this season.,Alternating wins and losses has been the story of Athens early this season.
After losing two of the last three games
the Bulldogs will look for a win in their next game against Meigs.
The games against Marietta and Dublin Scioto were very competitive, coach Jeff Skinner said. They created some matchup problems for us.
The upcoming game against Meigs will present similar problems. Skinner highlighted the Marauders' heights and how they could cause problems for the Bulldogs.
We just have to do a better job at utilizing quickness and playing up tempo defense, Skinner said.
Six of the next eight games for Athens will be on the road
but Skinner thinks his team can handle it.
There are some places that we play pretty darn good at on the road, Skinner said. Sure, it's nice to play in the friendly confines of McAfee Gymnasium, but other than the Chesapeake game, the road trips are short, so we usually get a good following.
Searching for Consistency
Nelsonville-York is having a streaky season thus far with a three-game losing streak followed by a four-game winning streak.
The up and down results have left coach Jay Kline and his team searching for consistency.
We haven't shot the ball well in games and that leads to inconsistent results, Kline said.
Kline is hoping his team will find improvement on offense
especially settling into its offensive flow.
We are searching for where our offense is going to come from, Kline said. Sometimes the offense just shows up and you wonder where it has been all season long.
Team Effort
Alexander got off to a rough start early in the year
but now the Spartans have won two of their last three games. Guard Michael Chapman is a big reason why.
Coach Blaine Gabriel was high on Chapman's performance against Federal Hocking. The senior was one rebound shy of a triple double against Wellston and scored 25 points.
He dictates everything we do, coach Gabriel said.
However
Chapman is not the only thing that has been keying the success of the Spartans in the past few games.
We keep working on basic things and getting better as the season goes along, Gabriel said.
@ThePostSports,",2,Sports,Nick Robbe,",",",",",","
33142,2011-01-04 22:00:00,Kick-starting the Bucket: Columnist ignites vigor for life with 'list',Well
