High School Sports Blog
Early high school basketball thoughts
It’s still very early in the season, but some quick thoughts on what has happened so far in boys basketball.
Elyria’s 4-0 start is very impressive, considering three of their four wins have been on the road. Beating Medina on Saturday afternoon in Massillon was a very nice win for Brett Larrick’s Pioneer team. They are a very confident, experienced group right now. Lorain County’s other unbeaten team is Columbia, now 5-0, but the Raiders should get a good test Tuesday when they face Oberlin. The Phoenix have won two straight after opening the season with two straight losses. That could be a great early season battle in the PAC.
I love watching Wellington play under head coach Dan Gundert. His kids really get after it. The Dukes have won three straight, including their impressive come from behind victory on Friday, beating Clearview 51-37 in a game we had on WEOL. Quite a gritty, hard-working bunch.
We are looking forward to what could be a great game this Friday night on WEOL when Medina travels to Avon Lake. The Shoremen got a huge win last Friday night by knocking off previously unbeaten Westlake. That was a real eye opener.
Saturday night on WEOL, it will be Vermilion at Wellington. Then, following a welcome break for Christmas, it will be holiday tournament time! We’ll talk more about the Lorain County Holiday Tournament from Avon Lake and the DiFranco Tournament from Midview as the time draws near!
Hockey Is Back!
In case you missed it, WEOL broadcast its first high school hockey game in nine years this past Saturday. It featured the Amherst Comets against the North Olmsted Eagles. Amherst entered the 2012-13 season coming off the best season in school history, going 31-3 (10-0 in conference play) last year, and walking away with the Southwestern Conference Championship.
This year’s Comets squad has some inexperience factors they will need to get over, mainly at the Goaltending position. Coach Steve Morris (11th season) is putting his faith and belief in young freshman Kevin Kuhn. Part of the reason for this is Coach Morris knows what he has up front on offense and I don’t blame him after seeing the top line in action myself on Saturday. Paul Miller, Connor Morris and Kevin Burgett all contributed multiple point games in the Comets’ 5-2 victory in North Olmsted on Saturday. All three of them have outstanding chemistry and a knack for knowing where to be in the offensive zone, especially when they work their cycle passes to perfection, setting up three of the five goals as they did on Saturday.
Although the Comets have five seniors whom have not seen the ice at the high school level on this year’s roster, I believe they will contend once again for the Southwestern Conference title if Kuhn, along with Jordan Reynolds and Joe Masters on defense, continue to improve in the defensive zone. There’s no question they will score a lot of goals, but can they keep the puck out of their own net? That is the question that in my opinion will determine the level of success they achieve this season.
