This Friday kicks off sectional play in high school football and there are many, many great match-ups. The biggest one is arguably Pioneer and Central Catholic. The two top teams in Class A. One poll has Pioneer ranked number one and another poll has Central Catholic ranked as number one. What is so hard to believe is that these two teams are meeting in the FIRST round of SECTIONALS. I’m just saying….

And of course, Friday night football wouldn’t be complete this season without heavy rain in the forecast. Put on your rain boots. It’s going to be a wet, muddy and exciting Friday Night Frenzy.

Due to sickness, illness, the flu, whatever you want to call it, Clinton Prairie has cancelled school Friday, October 16. Unfortunately for the Clinton Prairie athletes, that means all athletic events on Friday have been cancelled too. Even though the Gopher volleyball team is missing just one player, they had to cancel their match Thursday. The football team will miss their last game of the regular season against a number one or two ranked (depending on which poll you look at) Central Catholic team that was scheduled for Friday.

You can look at this cancelled football game from two angles: a negative one or a positive one. The negative side: for senior players on both the Clinton Prairie and Central Catholic squads, they are missing their last regular season football game EVER in high school. Kind of a bummer. The positive side: (Knight’s head coach Kevin O’Shea pointed this out) it gives both teams a chance to heal up. At this point in the season, many players are banged up and hurt to some extent. A Friday night off will give these players some extra time to regroup and heal before heading into the most important part of the season, post-season.

Now they just have to stay away from the sick kids at school.

Looking for free tickets to the Purdue football season opener against Toledo? How about free suite tickets?! If you know your Boiler trivia, you could win those tickets to the suite and much more!

The 12th Boiler Trivia Contest is a chance for a Purdue fan to get free suite tickets at Ross-Ade stadium, a $100 gift card and a year subscription to GoldandBlack.com’s website.

So all you have to do is answer some Boilermaker trivia questions correctly and you could win all of the above. The tickets are for the opening game of the 2009 Boiler football season against Toledo. The gift card is to  University Spirit so you can get all the Purdue gear you need for game day.

Make sure you enter the trivia contest before August 26th at 5:00 p.m. to have a chance to win. We’ll announce the winners on Friday August 28 during the Gold and Black Report on the WLFI-TV morning show.

Click on the link below to enter the trivia contest! Good Luck!

http://www.wlfi.com/generic/participate/contests/generic_purdue_12thboiler_contest_20090805

The two area Colt World Series teams are playing a series of exhibition games to prepare for the upcoming World Series at Loeb Stadium.

On Friday, the Lafayette All-Stars beat Hoosier North 10-9. Saturday the two teams are playing a double header at Central Catholic high school and then on Sunday, they will meet once again at Harrison High School to finish up the series of exhibition games.

Both teams seem to be compatible. From what I saw Friday and of the first game on Saturday, neither team is lacking in hitting. Hoosier North’s Frank Fisk hit a three run homer in Saturday’s first game. On Friday, the All-Stars’ Spencer Long had a great hit to deep center to help his team win.

Frank Fisk hits a home run.

Hoosier North Coach Matt Huckstep said that this year’s squad is all about experience and executing. He is happy with the leadership and how his team seems to get the job done. They are getting the bunts down (they did a great job of that in the first game on Saturday) to move runners around the bases and executing the hit and runs.

Lafayette All-Star’s Coach Dave Alexander saidlikes his team. He is Purdue baseball’s most winningest coach in history. He is also a scout for the Seattle Mariners. He said he notices a difference between coaching at the college level and at the high school level.

The Colt World Series feastivities kick off Tuesday with a home run derby. Check out highlights from the exhibition game on our sports page.

Tara Wiley

On Tuesday I met Tara Wiley, the 2009 Women’s City Golf champ. If you haven’t heard, the 23 year old has won the tournament three years in a row.

What makes it even more remarkable, she is blind in her left eye. I can’t hardly golf with 20/20 vision let alone what Tara has to overcome. And man does she overcome it.

She played golf for four years at Southern Indiana University where she made four appearances at NCAA regionals and won two individual meets during her time there.

Now that her four years of eligibility are up, she will graduate in May with a degree in education. She plans on playing next year in the Lafayette City Tournament, but doesn’t plan on playing much golf, just for fun. Her goal? To coach golf. You can bet she has a lot of knowledge and skill to pass on to some lucky kids.

Venus and Serena Williams were at it again. It was the fourth time the sisters met in the singles final at Wimbledon. But after six years, it was Serena’s turn to beat her sister. Make that Serena’s third title and eleventh grand slam championship.Venus won last year’s championship match against Serena at Wimbledon.

The sister-sister match up at Wimbledon is becoming a staple in tennis history. Venus has won five titles at Wimbledon while Serena beat Venus in 2002 and 2003 for the championship crown. In fact, Venus was trying to become the first female since Steffi Graf to win Wimbledon three years in a row.

So they played each other for the singles title and then a few hours later returned to the All England Club to play as teammates in the doubles championship. And what do ya know, they won. So now they have their fourth doubles title at Wimbledon and second consecutive win along with their ninth Grand slam doubles title together.

That’s one heck of a tennis resume. Try and keep all that information straight.

Today Matt and I went to the 3rd annual Memorial Tennis Tournament in honor of brothers Evan and Levi McTagertt and Andy Krout at Fountain Central High School. All three went to Fountain Central and played tennis.

Evan died in 2004 in a car accident on his way to baseball practice early in the morning. His brother Levi, a 2004 Fountain Central graduate, passed away in 2007 in a automobile accident after he hit a bale of hay and his car caught fire. Andy was 17 when he lost his life to pneumonia in 2007 after he collapsed in his home.

In Memory Of Evan Levi & Andy

Over 160 people are participating in the tournament which started on Thursday and goes until Sunday evening.  According to organizer and girls tennis coach Dave Kight, the tournament has raised 1,600 dollars plus donations. Two scholarships have been set up in Evan and Andy’s name for a Fountain Central senior who shows the same qualities and life interests as Evan and Andy. Also money will go to a trust that has been set up in Levi’s name for his young son.

There were a lot of people gathered at the tournament and not all of them were playing tennis. There were many people there just to watch and enjoy everyone’s company while remembering these three former tennis players. You can definitely tell that all three were greatly loved and are missed by their family, friends and community.

We’ll have more interviews and information about the tournament and how much was raised during the 6 p.m. newscast Sunday and we’ll also have it posted to the sport’s webpage after the 6 p.m. news.

This week the Purdue men’s basketball team had a camp that brought in 4A high school basketball teams across the state and Illinois to campus for a tournament.

It was also a good opportunity to see some Purdue recruits scrimmage. The newest 2010 verbal commitment Donnie Hale was there with his New Albany High School team. The game I watched, Hale’s team was playing Branden Dawson’s team from Gary. Dawson is a junior in high school and a 2011 recruit for Purdue. Both Hale and Dawson seemed to be really good players. That said, they were guarding each other in their scrimmage.

I talked with Hale after the scrimmage (you can hear what he had to say by going to the sports page and clicking on the story labeled “Boiler recruits scrimmage on campus”). He seems like a down-to-earth kid who loves Purdue. I asked him how he felt about not having a definate scholarship waiting for him (Right now, Purdue is projected one scholarship too many. A current player will have to get drafted or transfer to open up a scholarship). Hale said at first he was concerned, but then came to the conclusion that, if a scholarship doesn’t open up, going to a prep school for a year after high school wouldn’t be that bad. He said he won’t lose a year of eligibilty and it’s one more year to better himself as a player before coming to college. I think he has got the right attitude and seems to be pretty committed to the Boilers. I think he believes in what Coach Matt Painter has put together at Purdue.

Two other Boiler recruits were also at the shootout. Rock Island, Illinois’ Chasson Randle is also a 2011 recruit. I was most impressed with Avon High School’s Austin Burgett. He is only a sophomore but he is already better than most of the other players at the shootout. You can imagine how much better and improved he will be by next year and his senior season.

On Saturday I went to Victory Field for the class 2A baseball state final game where Lewis Cass faced Heritage Christian. If you haven’t heard, the Cass football team faced the Heritage Christian football in the state championship game this past fall. Cass lost the title game at Lucas Oil, so Saturday the baseball team, which had 14 players that played on the football team, was looking for some revenge, only this time with bats.

It didn’t go how the Kings would have liked. They lost 11-3. Head Coach Greg Marschand told me after the game that his team has nothing to be ashamed of. They had a heck of a season. They won their first ever semi-state game and went to the state championship for the first time in the school’s baseball history.

Coach Marschand and a few of the players said that they didn’t play like they usually did. They had more errors and the pitching wasn’t what it has been during the season.

I think Coach Marschand had it right when he said he knew his players were upset and not happy with the way the game unfolded, but every other team in the state would rather have the runner-up ring the Cass Kings have than be sitting where they are now, with no ring and no trip to the state championship. I think he’s right.

Last night’s Junior/Senior All-Star game featured the state’s best junior and senior basketball stand-outs. It was great to see some players that I had heard a lot about, but hadn’t been able to see play this past season.

Matt and I were able to see two future Boilermakers that will join Sharon Versyp’s squad in 2010. Oak Hill high school’s Courtney Moses, who was on the junior team, is a 2010 recruit for Purdue. We talked with her after the game. She said she loved everything Purdue has to offer. It is close to home so her family can watch her play, Coach Versyp’s coaching philosophy, and Ukari Figgs coming back to coach at Purdue all contributed to Moses’ decision to verbal to the Boilermaker basketball team. Moses gathered 5 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists for the Junior All-Star squad.

Courtney Moses

Another 2010 recruit for Coach Versyp is Ben Davis’ Dee Dee Williams. She also played on the Junior All-Star team Tuesday night.  She told Matt and I many times how excited she was to be going to Purdue. She said she felt a sense of relief already knowing where she would be playing in college which she thinks helps her relax and just play basketball the way she knows how. She feels like her diversity will help contribute to the Boilermaker squad because she can play post and handle the ball as a guard. Williams played 21 minutes in the All-Star game and finished with 2 rebounds, 4 points and one block.

Dee Dee Williams

Three area basketball stars were also playing in the all-star game.

Skyler Gick & Brandi Richardson

On the senior squad Skyler Gick represented Benton Central. She was able to play one last game in her home gym. She said she felt a little bit of pressure playing in her home gym and was a bit nervous. She said playing the Junior team helped her Senior squad to prepare for Saturday’s All-Star match-up between Indiana and Kentucky. Game time is at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 13 at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Benton Central's Skyler Gick

Gick had 5 points in 14 minutes of play along with one rebound and 2 assists.

Lafayette Jeff’s Brandi Richardson along with Logansport’s Jasmine Penny were on the Junior All-Star team. Both of them agreed that playing the seniors was exciting and an honor. They were more than happy to help the older girls prepare for Saturday’s match-up.

Richardson

Richardson finished the game with 14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and one steal. Penny had 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals.

Jasmine Penny

Congrats to all the girls for making the team! What an honor!!!

Tiff