Lady Red Makes it Three in a Row to Start Season Off Right

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OV falls to 0-2 after two set loss Tuesday night

Photo by Keith Stewart Sullivan head coach Heather Lindenmeyer tells her team to get focused during a second set timeout Tuesday night. The Redskins did just that, cruising to a 25-19 win.

Photo by Keith Stewart
Sullivan head coach Heather Lindenmeyer tells her team to get focused during a second set timeout Tuesday night. The Redskins did just that, cruising to a 25-19 win.

by Emily Scott
Bethany Reporter

In an anticipated intra-county rivalry, the Sullivan Redskins volleyball team earned a 25-8, 25-19 win against the Okaw Valley Timberwolves Tuesday night.

Sullivan started out with a lead in the first game and continued with it strongly. Okaw Valley created a few chances to score but had trouble executing plays. As OV began to trail with  errors accumulating, Sullivan came out on top 25-8.

Attempting to come back in the second game, Okaw Valley saw better plays and execution as they kept a tighter hold on their opponent, who came right back with the same intensity. After a couple of time outs, which only increased the tension between the two rival teams, Sullivan struck back to defend their lead. Sullivan’s Emily Neuhauser and Brittin Boyer led the team in well-timed blocks and kills in the last half of the game to finish strong at 25-19 to win the match.  Read More

Knights Run Over, Through, and Around Cornjerkers For Opening Win

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Friday night lightning reschedules game for Tuesday night

by Kirk Whitaker
Arthur/Sullivan Reporter

Atwood senior Jordan Feagan and the rest of the Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond kickoff return team brought new meaning to the phrase, ‘it was over before it started’ Friday night, when the senior scooped up the opening kickoff and scampered 75 yards untouched for the first score of the season, 13 seconds into the game.

“It set a good tone for us and gave us confidence and it showed we could score,” Knights Head Coach Dale Schuring said, “We were ready to play and anytime we can get an early seven points it’s a good feeling and if the kids weren’t already motivated it gave them even further motivaton.” Read More

SOV Girls Edge T-Town in Home Meet Opener

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SOV’s Tori Murphy tries to cool off during the three mile run at Tabor Park last Thursday. The SOV girls’ cross country team was hot on the trail, beating both T-Town and Tuscola for first place.

Photo by RR Best
SOV’s Tori Murphy tries to cool off during the three mile run at Tabor Park last Thursday. The SOV girls’ cross country team was hot on the trail, beating both T-Town and Tuscola for first place.

Boys take third behind Tuscola and Wooden Shoes on hot opening day

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Opening the season at home last Thursday, the SOV cross country team hosted Teutopolis and Tuscola, as well as several runners from Riverton.

The SOV ladies took the quad meet with 30 points, followed by T-town with 43, and Tuscola with 65.

Minus the top three finishes, the Lady Red rounded out the rest of the top 10 with sisters Cadisen and Carlin Nuzzo finishing fourth (24:41) and fifth (24:42) respectively. Junior Elissa Stewart took sixth with a time of 24:55 and was followed by Bailee Pratt (25:24), Annie Hogan (25:13), Drew Lehman (25:26), and Holly Lamb (25:31). Read More

Narrow Week One Loss Leaves Redskins Fuming

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Hot and humid Friday night a battle in and of itself

Photo by Keith Stewart SOV senior linebacker Kainan Bushert goes to strip the ball from Tuscola quarterback Zach Bates Friday night. Bushert’s defensive showing included one fumble recovery.

Photo by Keith Stewart
SOV senior linebacker Kainan Bushert goes to strip the ball from Tuscola quarterback Zach Bates Friday night. Bushert’s defensive showing included one fumble recovery.

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Failing to convert on their second two-point conversion late in the third quarter, SOV stood just two points behind heading into the fourth quarter Friday night in Tuscola. But it was a combination of a hot night, cramping muscles, and a diligent fourth quarter Warrior run game, which chiseled away at the clock that paved the way to a 23-14 Tuscola win.

“You put your next person in, and you hope that you’ve prepared them well, and we did. What we got hurt on is something we don’t have, an incredible amount of speed,” said SOV head coach Charles Brown. “That’s not a shocking thing; everyone can see that. But we’ll work better on stopping some of those sweeps, but when they were able to manage the clock, that’s what they were doing, and we just don’t have the speed to counteract that. That’s not faulting effort, that’s not faulting the kids, that’s not faulting anything but the fact that they found something they were a little bit better at than we were defensively.” Read More

ALAH Soccer Cracks Open Season with 7-2 Win

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Photo by Keith Stewart ALAH sweeper Natalie Bicknell chases the ball out of the Knight’s territory as Mt. Pulaski forward Eli Grieshiem chases her down Saturday. The Knights dismantled the Hilltoppers 7-2.

Photo by Keith Stewart
ALAH sweeper Natalie Bicknell chases the ball out of the Knight’s territory as Mt. Pulaski forward Eli Grieshiem chases her down Saturday. The Knights dismantled the Hilltoppers 7-2.

Mt. Pulaski unable to counter Knights’ speed and footwork

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

The visiting Mt. Pulaski Hilltoppers may have been the first to strike Saturday morning, not even five minutes in, but it was the ALAH Knights who not only served up an equalizer 50 seconds later but went onto break open the game to win 7-2.

“I’ve coached teams where if the other team scored on you, you knew you were done because they just went down,” said ALAH head coach Jeff Trower, “but these guys weren’t going to do that. They just kept saying, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ “

After sophomore Jovanny Martinez scored from just a few yards out to tie the game, co-captain and brother Omar put a shot on just outside the 18, scoring to take a 2-1 lead with 30:23 remaining in the half. Read More

OV Wins Three-way Match at Clinton

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Purple-Rider Knights take close second

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Sophomore Drew Fruchtl led his Timberwolves Tuesday night to their first win of the season, shooting a 43 after nine holes, defeating both Clinton and the new co-op Arthur/Lovington-Atwood/Hammond-Arcola (ALAHA). Read More

2013 Area High School Sports Guide

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FrontandBackSportSection-1Most area high school sports got underway the week of August 26.

The News Progress has compiled previews for Sullivan, Okaw Valley, and Arthur-Lovington high schools, which in turn see a variety of competitors in volleyball, soccer, football, cross country, and golf.

Check out this week's sport section for all fall 2013 previews.

Richter Inherits Rebuilding Year for Golf

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Former assistant coach to instruct 19 golfers this fall

Photos by Phil Dickens/Dickens Studio Pictured is the Sullivan boys’ golf team: Front row, left to right– Cody Johnson, Tristan Hendrix, Andrew Freeman, Gavin Harlin, Luke Delong, and Tommy Schibur. Back row-Coach Ben Richter,Kenneth Farley, Sam Mulligan, Layne McMahon, Dylian Liddiard, Liam Bechtold, and Joey Davison. To purchase this photo visit www.dickensstudio.com.

Photos by Phil Dickens/Dickens Studio
Pictured is the Sullivan boys’ golf team: Front row, left to right– Cody Johnson, Tristan Hendrix, Andrew Freeman, Gavin Harlin, Luke Delong, and Tommy Schibur. Back row-Coach Ben Richter,Kenneth Farley, Sam Mulligan, Layne McMahon, Dylian Liddiard, Liam Bechtold, and Joey Davison. To purchase this photo visit www.dickensstudio.com.

Photos by Phil Dickens/Dickens Studio Pictured is the Sullivan girls’ golf team: Front row, left to right– Dani Boyer, Emmalee Hortenstine, and Jessica Yantis. Back row: Kali Forsyth, Beretta Phelps, Ariel Heppe, and Alexis Matlock. To purchase this photo visit www.dickensstudio.com.

Photos by Phil Dickens/Dickens Studio
Pictured is the Sullivan girls’ golf team: Front row, left to right– Dani Boyer, Emmalee Hortenstine, and Jessica Yantis. Back row: Kali Forsyth, Beretta Phelps, Ariel Heppe, and Alexis Matlock. To purchase this photo visit www.dickensstudio.com.

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Taking on the head softball coach position last year was just the beginning for Sullivan High School teacher Ben Richter. On August 12, he was also made the head golf coach after serving as the assistant to Jerry Lane last year. And though the new head coach says this year will be a rebuilding year for Sullivan golf, the program has attracted 19 players this year, providing an encouraging sign for the years to come.

“We’re mostly freshmen, sophomores, and a couple juniors so it’s going to be a rebuilding year,” said Richter. “Coming into it, a lot of these kids didn’t get to play very much over the summer.”

While the team graduated only two seniors last year, including then number one golfer Lucas Mossman, the team’s rebuilding woes continue from last year with still a largely young group of players.

Of the 19 golfers out this year, 12 are boys, while seven are girls, including four returning varsity players in senior Emmalee Hortenstine, Jessica Yantis, Ariel Heppe, and Beretta Phelps.

“Emmalee is the only senior girl on the team, and she is definitely the leader of the girls’ team,” said Richter. “Thursday we competed in a scramble in Charleston. Emmalee and Jessica Yantis and Beretta and Ariel paired up and both did very well, shooting a 45 and 46. It was very impressive. They were having a lot of fun which was neat to see. They knew that they were sticking with the pack, so they could see their game was improving while having a good time.” Read More

In Fifth Year, Brown and the Boys Stay Diligent

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Replacing large senior class a challenge, but not impossible

Photo by Phil Dickens/Dickens Studio Pictured is this year’s SOV varsity football team, which will begin its season at Tuscola Friday night. To purchase this photo visit www.dickensstudio.com.

Photo by Phil Dickens/Dickens Studio
Pictured is this year’s SOV varsity football team, which will begin its season at Tuscola Friday night. To purchase this photo visit www.dickensstudio.com.

by Keith Stewart
keith@newsprogress.com

Andy Brown. Caden May. Jacob Vail. Bailey Matheson. Four of just 18 that this year’s SOV football program will miss and have to replace–a large task at hand to say the least.

But for fifth year head coach Charles Brown, it’s not an impossible task.

“We’re going to be filling in seven positions on both sides of the ball with some people who didn’t play a whole bunch of varsity ball,” said Brown. “So that’s going to be the interesting thing– how do they come in and how do they up their game to the varsity level? This is going to be their first opportunity. And they’re excited, but it’s a whole different ball game, and they’re going to find that out.” Read More