After a crazy, working-six-days-a-week spring sports season, I was ready to see what summer had in store.

At first, I figured there couldn’t be as much going on, and then maybe I could get down to the normal five-day workweek. Well, I am working five days a week, but there’s actually been a good amount of local stuff to cover this summer. But I’m not complaining. That’s a good thing. I’m sure our local reader would much rather read as much local stuff in our paper, given we are a local hometown paper. I know the wire stuff (meaning the national sports) is something people may want to see, too, but I feel we’ve had a pretty good mix this summer.

The summer camps have worked out really well this summer for local sports stories. I figured I would go to all of them between several of the local county high schools. There were several in one week, but that provided a lot of good local stories, and we were able to include two pictures from each camp, which put more kids in the paper (that makes them and their parents happy, I’m sure). I think it’s great to see so many kids involved in these summer camps. That tells the coaches and those helping with camp that athletics at the respective schools have a bright future ahead. It also shows that kids are keeping busy with something fun in the summer, while learning a lot at the same time. Some of these kids do multiple camps in the summer, and that helps them learn the various sports and maybe gives them an idea of what they want to pursue at the elementary, middle or high school level.

One thing I’ve found with the camps is that some of the stories feel like the same thing, but then again, I’ve found a twist to a couple of them. For instance, at the Seymour girls basketball camp, I discovered the high school varsity players are helping with the camp in hopes of obtaining a grant to help them with team expenses. They coordinated the camp and after the week was over they had to get together and answer some questions. I think they also had to include pictures and maybe even video of what they’ve done. I think that’s great.

Another example of a twist to a camp story was the Brownstown volleyball camp. It was for a variety of grades, just like the other camps, but I decided to go to the freshman camp. With all of the success that the high school team has had (making it to the state finals several times in the past seven years or so), there is a growing interest in the camp and the team. It was nice talking to the girls who will be entering that program, and I’m sure they will contribute well to keep that success going.

You go to some of these camps and there may be nearly or more than 100 kids participating. Then there was one camp that had six people. No matter what the numbers are, those kids are still obtaining essential athletic skills that will only make them better.

Speaking of that, I have also done several other feature stories that I just happened to come across. One was about Crothersville’s strength training program, which I didn’t even know existed until I was contacted by the athletic director, Drew Markel.

Markel said it was a growing program and that nearly 60 kids were involved. That’s a lot of kids for this small school. When I walked into the weight room to get some pictures and talk to Markel and the kids, it was a very serious environment, but the kids were having fun. Who knew lifting weights and sweating in the middle of summer could be so fun? Well, it was to them. Kids were scattered all around doing squats, lifting weights, jump roping, etc. and they were helping each other, too. After talking to a couple of the kids involved and to Markel, it was obvious that this truly is a big thing for everyone involved. It was great to see the enthusiasm and the dedication toward this program, which in turn, will boost their athletic program and make it stronger and make more kids interested in going out for sports.

I had heard of the success of the Brownstown Brave Wave swim team, and when I started receiving results from their meets and a schedule, I decided to go to one of their home meets. I remember how much I liked going to high school swim meets with Seymour’s team, so I figured I would like this, too. This was a little different, though. The Brave Wave involves right above 100 kids and they are age 5 to 18. They compete against three other schools in their conference and they all competed this past weekend in the conference meet, which I went to as well. Even though I only went to the two meets (they had six regular season plus the conference meet), I could see the seriousness these kids put into the team. I had the opportunity to talk with two kids after each meet, as well as their coach, Sharon Koch, and I was very impressed with the program. They have now won conference eight straight years and they’ve been undefeated eight straight years. Way to go, Brave Wave.

Another story I did recently came from a story I had received from a local woman. She talked about her sister, Ann Marie Miller, who had recently won a national cycling competition in Louisville. Miller is a former Seymour resident who now lives in New York City. After reading this article about the one race and a little bit about Miller, I knew I wanted to do more than just run the article that was submitted. I had a feeling there was more to this story. It turns it, there was.
It was one of the neatest stories, I thought. After graduating from Seymour High School in the early 1970s, Miller went to Ball State and pursued a teaching and music degree. While in college, she got her first introduction to cycling, but after graduation, she taught back at Seymour for a year. She reverted back to music and ended up in New York and traveled for eight years doing Broadway shows. While in New York, she got back into cycling and joined a club and eventually got her master’s degree related to exercise physiology. She later became a licensed coach and has done a variety of other cycling and fitness things. She’s even met Lance Armstrong a couple of times, and she’s ridden in competitions all over the United States. In all, she’s won nine national championships in her age group (she’s 54), with the two most recent ones being in Louisville within the past couple of weeks. It was just a fascinating story, and there’s more to it than what I just explained. You’ll have to read the full story on our Web site…just search for Ann Marie Miller and you should find it.

Most recently, I was able to sit down and talk with Chris Baker, who is a former Brownstown Central and Iowa State golfer who became professional a year ago. He had a lot of success at the high school level, qualifying for state three times and winning it his junior year. In college, he was the team’s stroke average leader all four years and competed very well there. He ended up winning an Indiana Amateur before he decided to go pro. He then took second in the Indiana Open in 2008, and a year later he was vying for the first-place spot in the Open. He held within the top three in three of four days and ended up placing fourth. But earlier in the spring, the 23-year-old won his first tournament as a professional.
I was able to talk with him and his parents at a recent event at Shadowood Golf Course where Baker invites people that have supported him in his pro golf endeavors in the past year. What people don’t realize is that it takes money to be a pro golfer. You may enter a tournament and pay to get in, but if you don’t place high enough, you go home with nothing. That is money you don’t get back. You may put $5,000 in to enter a tournament to try to make it to the next level (eventually the PGA Tour), and if you don’t make it past a certain stage, that’s lost money.
Can you imagine? I didn’t realize until I talked with him how much of a gamble being a pro golfer is. But at 23, Baker has accomplished a lot and he’s got a great future ahead of him. His ultimate goal is to make it to the PGA Tour, and at the rate he’s going, that’s possible. It’s great to see success like that, and I’m pretty sure he’s the only professional in any sport that’s come out of Brownstown.

Well, I think I’ve touched on quite a bit. This shows how busy I’ve actually been, and it’s been great. I hope you have enjoyed reading these stories about the success of local athletes. There is a lot, and I’m sure there’s more out there of stories we could do. If you think of something, let me know.

Before you know it, fall sports will begin. I don’t know yet if I’ll be back to working six days a week. Stay tuned. I’ll let you know how that goes.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.