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Optics of college basketball different

MY wife looked at me, put up one hand, telling me she didn’t believe what she had just seen. I watched a clip from CBS’ Sunday Morning show myself, then shared it with my bride. George Clooney was trending on Twitter for some hair-raising reason, stunning for most of the fans of the longtime Hollywood actor. Conversation between CBS correspondent Tracy Smith and Clooney on the network’s Sunday Morning show shifted from his post-apocalyptic thriller “The Midnight Sky,” toward the title of the interview called “Down to Earth.” Smith queried Clooney if he cuts his own ...

Brody Rupe carves his own path at state

Chris Rupe has made so many speeches the week of the state cross country meet, invigorating his teenage distance runners to stretch their talents to heights they never would imagine. McDonald High School’s boys cross country is synonymous with Division III state excellence, winning five in that classification, along with two more in Class A in the early 1980s. Today, at 9 a.m., at Fortress Obetz, south of Columbus, there’s no grouping of young runners. The Blue Devils do not have a team at this year’s state meet. Only one remains, senior Brody Rupe. Chris Rupe, the McDonald ...

Fishing University stars test Mosquito Lake this week

Bass anglers looking to pursue higher education about Mosquito Lake will have an opportunity to earn their master’s degree when they view the Fishing University TV show in 2021. Professional bass anglers Charlie Ingram and Ray Brazier traveled to Trumbull County on Thursday and prepared for their first day of filming their popular television show Friday morning. Their first stop was the popular Clubhouse Brewing on North River Road in Warren. There they greeted local media to explain their choice of venues for a 30-minute show that will air in 2021 on the Outdoor Channel, World ...

Lake Erie walleye count rated excellent

Judging by the mid-day parades of trucks towing boats southbound on Ohio 11 this summer, it is apparent that limiting on Lake Erie walleyes was not difficult. Based on news released earlier this week by Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, the outlook for easy limits will remain excellent for years to come. Many anglers will be going home early with their coolers loaded. ODNR reported preliminary results from surveys in the western basin of Lake Erie showing walleye and yellow perch hatches above average again this spring. The surveys were conducted by trawling ...

Weird start to 2020

It was weird. I guess I should be grateful for fall sports to be back, more so for a sport I’ve covered for almost two decades — cross country. Nothing has made sense in 2020. That includes the distance runners in this area. A 3.1-mile run starts. Normally, a word sparsely used nowadays, runners start on a line with their teammates and bottleneck toward the course on the noise of a starter’s gun. The gigantic wave of runners coming toward you is something to behold, like an enormous wave overtaking as you stand still. I had the pleasure to experience that years ago with the ...

Preparing for a football season unlike any other one

High school football in Ohio is set to begin in four days after the most difficult and convoluted preseason that followers of the sport have seen. Despite not knowing whether or not the governor’s office would even allow games to be played, players and coaches prepared as if the season would be held. The season itself, with the playoffs beginning in what would normally be Week 7, all teams eligible for the playoffs, and the possibility of a team playing regular-season games after being eliminated from the playoffs, promises to be a little different also — without even considering ...