In this report, The Euclid Observer staff salutes athletes in three winter sports—basketball, wrestling, and swimming—who deserve special recognition for their achievements, their hard work, and the dedication they’ve exhibited in striving to reach higher levels of performance.
Five Panther Wrestlers Earn District Berths
Panther Girls Qualify
Euclid Y Swimmer Advances to League Meet at Cleveland State
Salvion Neal, one of the top swimmers on the newly resurrected Euclid YMCA swim team, will be competing in the Northeast Ohio YMCA League swim meet March 5 at Cleveland State University.
Salvion, age 9, qualified for the meet by anchoring a 200-yard medley relay team that also included three swimmers from the Hillcrest Y. For competitive meets, the Euclid and Hillcrest squads are combined since neither has enough swimmers to make up a full team. The youngsters compete under the banner of the “Hillcrest Hurricanes.”
Euclid Panthers
Fri. Dec. 10 ……… Mentor (H)
Fri. Dec. 17 ……… at Shaker Hts.
Dec. 28-29 ……… Brush Tournament
Fri. Jan. 7 ……….. Cleveland Height (H)
Tues. Jan. 11 ……. at Lake Catholic
Sat. Jan. 15 ……... East Tech (H)
Tues. Jan. 18 ……. Willoughby South (H)
Fri. Jan. 21 …...... at Warren Harding
Tues. Jan. 25 …… Madison (H)
Fri. Feb. 4 ……… at Mentor
Continued...
While most Northeast Ohio sports fans—and sportswriters—were focused on the big high school state football championship game down in Canton in early December, two area basketball teams staged an “instant classic” that went practically unnoticed.
In front of a large crowd in the Euclid High gym on Dec. 4, the host Panthers survived a see-saw battle against neighborhood rival Villa Angela-St. Joseph, eking out a 55-54 victory in a game with a story book finish.
As the seasons have changed, weather-wise, so have the sports seasons for our local schools. And the Euclid High School girls’ swimming team started off the season with a bang, breaking four school records in its opening meet with Magnificat High.
Although it has been a while since the Euclid Panthers and the VASJ Vikings have faced each other in football, the neighborhood rivalry is alive and well on the basketball court. In fact, Euclid will be hosting the Vikings in its home opener Dec. 4. This year, both squads will feature players who were standouts on their school’s respective football teams—Euclid’s Chuck Bradford and the Vikings’ Clinton James.
The staff of the Euclid Observer is pleased to introduce its local football Players of the Year for 2010 — one outstanding athlete from the Euclid Panther squad and one from the Villa Angela-St. Joseph Vikings’ team. The selections were made in consultation with the schools’ head coaches, Tom Gibbons at Euclid and John Storey at VASJ.
In addition, we are honoring the top offensive and defensive standouts on each team, as well as other local players deserving of All-Star recognition. Finally, our 2010 list includes a special salute to Jim Grinstead, who has been tracking football statistics for the Panthers for the past 48 years. Now, that’s real dedication!
Our Euclid Panther Player of the Year is Chuck Bradford, who handled quarterback and running back duties, as well as playing wide receiver in some formations.
“Chuck did a lot of things for us,” says third-year Euclid Coach Tom Gibbons. “He is a very versatile athlete who did just about everything but drive the bus. And he met almost every challenge that he faced.”
Editor’s Note: The excerpts included in this report are published in the Observer with the permission of Dan Coughlin, who has been making many appearances—including a recent stop at Muldoon’s Saloon on East 185th Street, to promote his book, “Crazy, With the Papers to Prove It.” He has also scheduled a book-signing event at Jack Murphy’s Tradewinds Lounge on East 200th Street for Nov. 23, at 7:30 p.m. Accompanying Dan will be Plain Dealer writer Michael Heaton who also has a new book out.
For the last 23 years, Dr. Steve Szabo has been competing each year with the top golf pros in the PGA’s season-ending Disney tournament in Orlando, FL. The former Euclid resident, who starred on the St. Joseph High golf team in the late 1950s, is now a psychiatrist with a Tampa Bay area practice.
He was planning to tee it up with the big boys again this year in the Disney pro-am, in which the amateur competitors play alongside the pros for the first two days of the event, scheduled for Nov. 11-14. It is one of the few PGA events in which the amateurs are permitted to play with their professional “partners” during the actual tournament—rather than in a Wednesday “warm-up” pro-am that doesn’t affect the final results.
Young ladies out there – pay attention. Of the 75 players registered in the Euclid Youth Hockey program, 12 are girls. That's one player out of seven. How do all those girls impact the program? You be the judge; Euclid teams had the best win-loss record in the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League for the 2009-2010 regular season.
Things were starting to look pretty grim for the Euclid Panther football team—and also for the VASJ Vikings’ chances of earning a playoff spot this year. Both squads were mired in losing streaks with the season more than half gone.
But last weekend, both teams buckled down and rewarded their loyal fans with sorely needed victories on the road.
The Panther gridders, who had lost five straight after beating a solid Strongsville team in the season opener, edged host Shaker Heights, 20-14, on the strength of quarterback Chuck Bradford’s three touchdowns, including the winning score in overtime.
After making headlines in late September for their stunning victory over Mentor, the Euclid Panther girls’ volleyball team kept its winning momentum going with a lopsided 25-16, 25-13, 25-11 triumph over Garfield Heights last weekend.
This fall, Emily Sweet has clearly been the brightest star on the Euclid Panther cross-country team. She’s hit the finish line in first place in four major invitational meets--and she’s placed second in two other prestigious events, including the recent “Legends Meet” in Trumbull County.
Sports fans and sports icons alike filled the Manor Party Center in Euclid on the evening of Sept. 30 to celebrate the latest additions to the Euclid High Schools’ Sports Hall of Fame.
The gathering at the 24th annual Hall of Fame dinner included such celebrities and sports figures as Bob Addis, who coached the Euclid Panthers to a state baseball title in the early 1960s; former head basketball Coach Hal “Doc” Daugherty, for whom the high school gym is now named; former track coaches Bob Ramlow and Ted Theodore; Hall of Fame chairman Chuck Hill, one of the most loyal supporters of Euclid sports teams; and Euclid Alumni Director Joe Mayer, who was an assistant to the late legendary wrestling coach Clarence Eckert during the golden years of the 1950s when the Panther matmen brought home two state championships.
The Euclid Youth Soccer Organization’s co-ed mini-travel team won the U-14 division at the West Geauga Soccer Tournament Oct. 2. The West Geauga Recreational Council hosted the tournament at the West Geauga Commons in Novelty, Ohio. The Euclid team, which had to play without some of its older players, swept all three of their games to reach the championship match. In their first match Euclid beat the Twinsburg 2 team with a score of 4 to 0. In their second game they outscored Middlefield 6 to 1, and in their third game they beat the Twinsburg 4 team by a score of 6 to 1.
No, that’s not a misspelling in the headline. We’re not talking about the internationally acclaimed Ryder Cup matches here, but rather the Rider Cup challenge, which has become an annual three-day golf showdown between teams from Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania. A number of the Ohio linksmen are low-handicap players with ties to the Euclid area—including Steve Blackburn Sr., a former grounds superintendent at Briardale Greens Golf Course, and his son, Steve.
The voice on the other end of the phone Sunday night belonged to John Storey, the veteran Villa Angela-St. Joseph football and wrestling coach, now in his second tour of duty as the Vikings’ gridiron boss. Even without seeing his face, you could sense that he was smiling and had a twinkle in his eye.
And why not? Only a day earlier, his football squad had recorded a lopsided 45-13 victory over Tuscarawas Central Catholic on the road, boosting the Vikings’ record to 2-1.
PHOTO CAPTIONS FOR VASJ FOOTBALL STORIES….
During a recent practice session of the Villa Angela-St. Joseph football team, Phil Wellington was sitting in his car in the parking lot listening to music. He’d much rather have been out on the practice field with his teammates, but the senior running back and linebacker was nursing a knee injury.
An honors student and also a star wrestler for the Viking mat squad, he sustained the injury during a summer “open mat” wrestling practice session.
Euclid Youth Hockey Association invites any boy or girl age 4 - 14 to come play hockey for free from 2:45 - 4:15 on Saturday, September 25, 2010. EYHA will loan all of the gear for participants to use during the event including helmet with full face mask, padding, skates and stick. The event will take place at C. E. Orr Ice Arena which is the big gray building across from the YMCA on Babbit Rd between downtown Euclid and Route 90.
Euclid Youth Hockey Association invites any boy or girl age 4 - 15 to come play hockey for free from 2:45 - 4:15 p.m. Sept. 25. EYHA will loan all of the gear for participants to use during the event, including helmet with full face mask, padding, skates and stick. The event will take place at C. E. Orr Ice Arena which is the big gray building across from the YMCA on Babbitt Road.
Once upon a time, the Euclid YMCA boasted one of the largest swim teams in the Northeast Ohio Swim League. But apparently because the Euclid pool is undersized – 20 yards long, rather than the regulation 25 yards required these days – that all came to an end.
So the local Y had a very nice pool, but no competitive swim team. Then the program was revived a year or so ago – but, for some reason, the effort was abandoned. However, the Euclid YMCA once again has a swim team—well, about half of one, anyway. Because its numbers are small, the Euclid Y had to team up with the Hillcrest Y to field a full swim team. “Right now there are nine kids on the Euclid team,” reports Jacqueline (Jacque) Vogt, a John Carroll University graduate who is now the YMCA’s aquatics director. “But we are looking for more.”
The Euclid Recreation Department held its first ever kick-ball tournament on Aug. 21 as a fundraiser to raise money for Pediatric Cancer Research. Kick*It, a non-profit sister organization of Flashes of Hope, assisted the rec department with this event, where four teams helped raise over $500. Teams included youth football players, a coed softball team from the Euclid Friday night league and a team of Euclid residents who wanted to have fun on a Saturday morning and help raise money for a great cause.
The Euclid Recreation Department is looking forward to progressing with Kick*It and holding the tournament every year, making it bigger and better to raise as much money as possible. Donations can still be made by going to http://www.kick-it.org/events/support and scrolling down to Euclid Rec Kicks Cancer game tab. If you have any questions or suggestions for next year, please contact Ben Perpar at (216) 289-8114 (Opt 8).
Euclid resident Samantha Lisy, 14, was selected to be a member of the Lake Erie Zone Team that competed in the 2010 USA Central Zone Championship Meet in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Zone Meet showcases top swimmers who qualified with AAA National times. This event invites qualifying swimmers from nine states representing 10 local swim committees throughout USA Swimming’s Central Zone region. Participating teams include Lake Erie (Ohio), Midwestern (Nebraska), Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri Valley, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ozark, and South Dakota. This year’s event took place Aug. 6 through 8.
Euclid played host to the Suburban Swim League (SSL) Championships, Aug. 8, as 995 swimmers and their families took over Memorial Pool and the surrounding park for the annual event. The culmination of a summer of swimming for 10 local city teams with swimmers competing in events up to age 15, the SSL Championships was a two day event split between two local community pools. The event started Saturday in Willoughby and continued Sunday at Memorial Pool. Euclid last hosted the event in 2006 as part of its rotation within the league.
When was the last time you were excited about sharing some good news with someone regarding an unfamiliar thing or place? Maybe it was a new vacation spot or a new restaurant you stumbled upon. Maybe it was educational, cultural or even spiritual. But it was unique and refreshing. Three years ago our family had the experience of discovering some good news in Euclid. This is when we discovered two programs sponsored by the city of Euclid Recreation Department.
After starting off with a bang in the C.A.B.A. High School World Series, the Euclid squad representing American Legion Post 343 failed to survive the six-game round-robin stage and, thus, did not qualify for the double-elimination championship playoffs.
Anyone staging a major baseball tournament – like the Continental Amateur Baseball Association’s High School World Series recently hosted by Euclid – has to be prepared for an occasional glitch or two. For example, the monsoon-like downpour that forced suspension of the Euclid team’s first night game after just one inning.
The lights come on for another season of Euclid Panther football August 26, as the Strongsville Mustangs invade Euclid. This season’s opener will be a Thursday evening game, in order to be televised. Coach Tom Gibbons and his staff have worked extremely hard once again to continue the great Euclid Panther football tradition. It promises to be another exciting season, as the Panthers vie for the Lake Erie League honors, and spot in the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) playoffs.
RTA will offer extra rail service for all 10 Browns home games this year. It’s easy to get to the game.
When Ed Carpenter led the campaign to bring the Continental Amateur Baseball Association’s High School World Series to Euclid in the mid-1980s, he may not have realized that he was getting himself involved in a long-term commitment. Yet that’s the way things turned out – and 24 years later, he’s still the driving force that keeps the baseball classic returning to this city.
For the 24th year in a row, Euclid will be the primary host city for the Continental Amateur Baseball Association’s (C.A.B.A.) annual classic – the High School “World Series” -- beginning July 23 at Euclid’s Memorial Park
The tournament, which in the past has showcased dozens of talented young players who later went on to fame and fortune with major league teams, will feature about 50 teams from 12 different states across the eastern and mid-west United States. Each team will play six games in a round-robin format over the first three days, with the top 16 advancing to a double-elimination playoff that will determine the overall champion.
Round-robin action will include games at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., and “under the lights” at 8 p.m. at Paul Serra Field, behind Euclid City Hall. The tournament will follow a similar schedule for games played at Kurt Stanic Field, next to Euclid High School, except there will be no 8 p.m. games since the field isn’t lighted. Memorial Park Diamond No. 4 will also host round-robin games, as will ballparks at Richmond Heights, Eastlake North, Willoughby South, Mentor, Lake Catholic, Ravenna, Kenston and Kent State University.
The Memorial Day weekend marked the highlight of Euclid Youth Soccer Organization’s (EYSO) season as the group hosted its annual Memorial Classic soccer tournament. This was the 17th year for the tournament, and with more than 40 teams from throughout Northeast Ohio and from areas up to two-hour drive time from Euclid, the EYSO tournament is the showcase event for the volunteer run soccer group that organizes a local league for children ages 5-17.
The Euclid High Panther girls’ track team captured the Lake Division crown at the Lake Erie League championship meet at Bedford Stadium May 11 - 13. Emily Sweet, Jennifer Brown, Kamari Jackson and Kayla Whitlow helped get things started with a victory in the 4x800 meter relay on the first day of the event, crossing the finish line in 9:47.48 — three seconds ahead of second-place Shaker Heights.
From John Sheridan…..CAPTIONS FOR TRACK MEET PHOTOS
Following an April 28 home dual meet against arch-rival Mentor, the Panther athletes will be hosting their biggest home event of the season—the 58th annual Euclid Relays—on Friday May 7. The long-running and highly regarded track spectacle will feature seven boys teams and seven girls teams. Action will get under way with field events at 3:30 p.m., followed by the running events at 6 p.m.