Congratulations to several local sports teams and athletes … again! First, Oak Harbor’s Luke Cramer and Alex Bergman both finished fourth in their respective weight classes at the state wrestling tournament in Columbus last weekend. Alex was in what was regarded as the toughest weight class at the tournament! Luke will be back next year to try again. Also, the Port Clinton boys’ bowling team finished 11th at the state tournament last weekend in Columbus.

Congratulations and good luck go out to several local sports teams and athletes. First, Luke Cramer, Alex Bergman and Jared Chambers are on their way to the state wrestling tournament this weekend. Also, MacKenzie Stewart finished her stellar swimming career at Port Clinton High School taking third place in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 IM at the state swimming meet in Canton last weekend. Also, Cheyenne Meek, who really came on strong at the end of the season, took third in the 50 freestyle at state, and just missed out on a podium spot in the 100 freestyle. She’ll be back for more next year.

Coaching girls: It’s different than coaching boys. I’ve waited a long time to write about this because male coaches (and some female) tend to be skeptical about my observations. I will plunge ahead anyway, because during 21 years of coaching girls at the high school level, I experienced the same unique issues, year after year. Please understand that not every girl reacts the same way to all situations, but the patterns are pretty common. My goal in letting myself in for all the protests I will receive, is to get parents and coaches to realize girls and boys are different (duh) and need to be coached with the differences in mind.

Today is Volume 30, Issue 1 of The Beacon. That means we are beginning our 30th year as a community newspaper serving the people of Ottawa County.
Much has changed over the past 29 years since we began publishing in a tiny upstairs office at 106 W. Perry St. in Port Clinton. One big change has been the Internet. Many newspapers have been adversely affected by making choices about what to put online and what not put there. Fortunately for The Beacon, our circulation has remained virtually unchanged for 29 years, while our website has grown dramatically in popularity and readership.

Last week we ran the story about “The Last Shot” at the Port Clinton Middle School Gym/Auditorium. That got local historian Lock Zeis going and he went back into the archives of the Ottawa County Museum and pulled out an article in the Port Clinton Herald from Dec. 16, 1937, highlighting the FIRST GAME at what was then the brand new high school gym/auditorium! It was a 22-8 Port Clinton victory over Oak Harbor and drew a crowd of nearly 1,000 people. The player of the game was Gene Bolte, who replaced “Big Jim Sims” at center and was a rebounding machine.