Local Special Olympics team to host first informal meet

The New Albany Special Olympics team will host its first informal track meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 14, in the New Albany High School football stadium.

“It’s more like an informal, fun thing,” said Amy Thomas, founder of the local Special Olympics team.

Thomas said the New Albany and Westerville Special Olympics teams will practice together and team members have the chance to earn ribbons.

“People can come and watch and cheer them on,” she said.

Thomas said the June 14 meet will prepare the New Albany team for the state meet, which will be held June 23 and 24 in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of the Ohio State University.

Thomas organized the New Albany Special Olympics team in January 2011 as a nonprofit organization. The organization is part of Special Olympics Ohio.

In her first annual report, Thomas wrote, “New Albany Special Olympics fits well with the growing image of New Albany as a healthy community.

“For children and adults with intellectual disabilities, New Albany Special Olympics provides an opportunity to get involved, improve their physical fitness, be part of a team and experience the thrill of winning.”

New Albany Special Olympics works with ages 8 and older in track and field events, bowling and swimming.

Thomas said in 2011, she had 10 to 12 on the team. For the team’s second year, she has 20 athletes and 80 volunteers who help with events and practices.

Thomas said many children and adults with special needs are not able to compete in athletics events.

“They certainly get to enjoy the feel of winning,” she said of the team members who have participated in events.

She said some team members had shied away from the finish line because they feared the cheers that awaited them.

“To see them grow, especially the autistic kids, they kind of come out of their shell,” she said.

In her annual report, Thomas wrote, “Special Olympics provides continual opportunities to develop physical fitness and experience the joy and challenge of competition.

“Athletes develop new skills and form new friendships. They learn to set higher goals for themselves and in working to achieve them, (they) gain self-confidence and self-respect.

“This increased sense of self-worth carries over into other areas of their lives and has a profound effect on athletes’ families.”

Thomas said the New Albany Special Olympics team found support in the community and gained awareness by participating in the Founders Day and Fourth of July parades.

The team worked with local businesses and individuals, who helped support attendance at sanctioned events.

Thomas said Special Olympics Ohio requires each nonprofit to raise funds and pay entry fees for athletes who participate in events.

New Albany elementary school fourth-graders also shared profits from their Entrepreneur Day, in which the students created a product and tried to sell it to community members during a business unit at the school.

“Since two or three of our athletes are fourth-graders, they were giving back to their classmates,” Thomas said.

According to the New Albany-Plain Local Schools District, the fourth-graders raised $13,000 from Entrepreneur Day this year and donated the money to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State, New Albany Special Olympics, the Stefanie Spielman Breast Cancer Research Fund at Ohio State and the Chromosome 18 Registry and Research Society.
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High-school baseball All-Ohio, All-Conference teams

Area first team: Catcher: Matt Smith (Johnstown). Outfield: Zach Ratcliff (Columbus Academy). Area second team: Catcher: Ronnie Thomas (Northmor). Outfield: Matt Smith (Fredericktown). Area second team: Pitcher: Jimmy Lough (Newark Catholic).
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Johnstown’s Colvin keeps her cool in taking fifth in high jump at D-II state

Johnstown’s Kendall Colvin competes in the high jump during the Division II state meet Friday at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.

COLUMBUS — Cool temperatures and a steady rain during much of Friday appeared to be a bad recipe for Johnstown’s Kendall Colvin.

The junior, who often calls her mind-set her biggest hurdle, persevered during her first trip to the Division II state meet. She overcame what at times were treacherous conditions to tie for fifth in the high jump at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

“I had to adjust according to the weather. I just had to be prepared,” Colvin said. “It was all in my head. I had to keep my head straight and not let nerves take over.”

Colvin cleared 5-feet-2, tying with two others, and she finished behind two others on misses. Only two cleared 5-4.

Most of the field, including Colvin, cleared 4-10 and 5-0 without incident. The rain started at 5-2, and Colvin cleared it on her third attempt. Only eight cleared 5-2, guaranteeing Colvin a medal.

“We had a lot of talks about making sure her head was in the game, making sure she was relaxed, taking deep breaths,” Johnstown coach Brad Orr said. “I told her, ‘Let me be nervous. You just go compete.'”
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Three girls qualify for track regional

According to Northridge High School coach Gene Weil, reaching a regional track and field meet takes effort and confidence, but the ratio of those factors changes when an athlete attempts to qualify for state.

Three members of the Vikings girls team tried to do just that when they competed in the Division II regional that concluded May 26 at Lexington. The top four finishers in each event advanced to the state meet Friday, June 1, and Saturday, June 2, at Ohio State.

 

“I think track is probably 60 percent physical and 40 percent mental,” said Weil, who is in his first season at Northridge but has coached cross country and track for more than 30 years at the high school and college levels. “But when you get to that (regional) level, it’s so much mental. Everyone there has talent, so you’re not going to get any stronger or faster, but it becomes more upstairs.”

 

Junior Caitlyn Tulloss, sophomore Hayley Menix and freshman Ellie Shedloski advanced to regional after finishing in the top four in the district 1 meet that concluded May 19 at Westerville South.

 

Menix finished third in the long jump (15 feet, 2 3/4 inches) and fourth in the high jump (4-10). Shedloski was fourth in the long jump (15-2 3/4) and Tulloss placed fourth in the 400 meters (1 minute, 1.61 seconds).

 

“I want competitors (on the team), and these girls have shown me that they are competitors,” said Weil, whose team finished eighth in district 1 with 28 points as 13 teams scored and Granville (176.5) was champion. “Caitlyn dropped her time by two seconds (at district) and really had a great performance.”


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Shooter Eller clinches fourth Olympic bid

2008 Olympic gold medalist Glenn Eller clinched his fourth Olympic bid in shotgun double trap Saturday, beating U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit teammate Jeff Holguin of Yorba Linda, Calif., at USA Shooting’s Olympic Trials in Tucson, Ariz.

Eller hit 49 of 50 targets in the final round and totaled 609 of 650 total targets in events this week and last fall in Kerrville. Holguin, a 2008 Olympian, totaled 603, and Billy Crawford of Johnstown, Ohio, was third at 601.

Army Marksmanship Unit member Josh Richmond of Hillsgrove, Pa., qualified earlier for the Olympics, and Eller won an additional berth secured by USA Shooting through the International Shooting Sports Federation.

“After the gold medal there’s nowhere to go but down, so I fell, stumbled and hung around down there for awhile and slowly eased my way back, but that’s what it’s all about, though,” he said. “Now, I have the opportunity to go back and win another one.”

2008 Olympic gold medalist Vincent Hancock of Eatonton, Ga., leads in men’s skeet, which concludes Sunday. B.J. Blanchard of Vidor is tied for third, 12 shots off the lead, and Dustin Perry of Lovelady is 13 behind.

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Graduation

With 2012 graduation season coming up, everything related to graduation seems a hot topic. What’s your plan to celebrate the graduation? Have anything to say to your bros? If possible, it will be really a great idea to hold a graduation party at your house, invite your classmates and friends to enjoy the day with you. Or you can simply prepare a gift, like DIY a photo DVD slideshow with your photos and favorite music, for easy play on TV and permanent preservation. Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you’ll make a difference.

 

Graduation just has its symbolic meaning that we have finished the study at school, but in fact the road of learning never ends. Anyhow, these meaningful graduation quotes will be perfect for you to express appreciation and prospect to the future.

  • If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
    ~ Milton Berle
  • Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
    ~ Arnold H. Glasow
  • Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.
    ~ David Lloyd George
  • Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
    ~ Albert Einstein
  • Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.
    ~ Leonardo da Vinci
  • If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.
    ~ William Arthur Ward
  • An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
    ~ Benjamin Franklin
  • You schooling may be over, but remember that your education still continues.
    ~ Author Unknown
  • Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
    ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
  • It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
    ~ E.E. Cummings
  • Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
    ~ Winston Churchill
  • The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions.
    ~ Bishop Mandel Creighton
  • The best of all things is to learn. Money can be lost or stolen, health and strength may fail, but what you have committed to your mind is yours forever.
    ~ Louis L’Amour
  • Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
    ~ Mahatma Ghandi
  • Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
    ~ Dale Carnegie
  • A professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep.
    ~ W.H.Auden
  • Education make a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.
    ~ Baron Henry Peter Brougham
  • Education is what remains when one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
    ~ Albert Einstein
  • Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
    ~ G.K. Chesterton

www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/…/20-meaningful-graduation-qu…


 

Jenkins’ shutout caps Utica win

CENTERBURG — Pitcher Kassi Davidson fired a two-hit shutout to lift the Northridge Vikings to a 1-0 victory over the host Centerburg Trojans in a Division III sectional semifinal clash between the two Mid-Buckeye Conference rivals on Wednesday.Centerburg pitcher Lindsey Mapes was touched up for only five hits in another classic pitchers’ duel between these two teams.“Anytime Centerburg and Northridge have gotten together the past two years, with the excetion of one game, we’ve really had a pitchers’ duel between both teams,” said Centerburg coach Gary Lambert. “It’s like a mini-rivalry. We know that Northridge and Johnstown are big rivals, but we seem to fire up for them and they get fired up for us and it’s good for the conference. The MBC could stand for Most Balanced Competition because this league fights. When we get done, we all shake hands. There’s a lot of sportsmanship among the kids.”

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Steelers’ Roethlisberger graduates college in Ohio

AP – 23 hours ago OXFORD, Ohio (AP) Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has graduated from Miami University in southwest Ohio, about nine years after leaving for the NFL.

The university said Roethlisberger received his bachelor’s degree in education and joined nearly 600 students during a commencement ceremony on campus. His wife, parents and grandmother attended.

The 30-year-old quarterback, who has led the Steelers to two Super Bowl titles, played football for the university from 2001 to 2003, setting several school passing records.

An associate dean said Roethlisberger was four courses short of graduation when he jumped to the NFL. He completed those courses over several years and finished this spring.

Roethlisberger said he felt it was important to finish his classes to illustrate the value of getting an education.

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