College Sports

President Donald Trump on Monday joined a U.S. senator and a number of coaches calling to save the college football season from a pandemic-forced shutdown as supporters pushed the premise that the players are safer because of their sport. There was speculation two of the five most powerful conferences — the Big Ten and the Pac-12 — might call off their fall seasons and explore the possibility of spring football...

The Big Ten released its 10-game conference-only football schedule beginning as early as Labor Day weekend but cautioned Wednesday there is no certainty games will be played. The Big Ten was the last of the Power Five conferences to announce its schedule as college football navigates how to play games amid the coronavirus pandemic...

Baseball has begun its coronavirus-delayed season with limited long-distance travel and no fans in the stands. The NBA has its Disney World bubble. The NHL will have two bubbles, in Toronto and Edmonton. NFL rookies began reporting to training facilities last week as teams build up toward the start of training camp...

On Monday: • The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference announced that high-risk contact sports soccer, football and volleyball will be played in the spring of 2021. The HCAC plans to have competitions this fall in tennis, golf and cross country as scheduled...

Following several months of planning for the safe return of athletics, DePauw and its North Coast Athletic Conference partners have agreed to suspend competition through December 31, 2020. "My heart aches for our student-athletes, coaches and staff," said Stevie Baker-Watson, DePauw Associate Vice President for Campus Wellness and Theodore Katula Director of Athletics.

Recent North Putnam graduate Adam Ammons has signed to play football for DePauw University, although his freshman season was canceled on Wednesday due to COVID-19.

Cloverdale graduate Tori Combs was one of 32 Lincoln Trail College student-athletes honored recently for their work in the classroom during the 2019-20 academic year by the National Junior College Athletic Association. Nineteen LTC players earned NJCAA All-Academic third-team honors by having a GPA of 3.6-3.79, including Combs...

More than 100 DePauw student-athletes have earned recognition from the North Coast Athletic Conference as members of the league’s 2019-20 Academic Honor Roll.

Former Indiana high school cross country and track and field state champion Emma Wilson of Greencastle has transferred from the University of Illinois after one year and will compete for Huntington University this fall. Wilson was a five-time state champion at Greencastle, winning the cross country state title in her junior and senior years and winning both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in track and field...

Greencastle senior baseball standout Ethan Maier made a verbal commit on Saturday to play collegiately for Indiana Wesleyan University. Maier, a catcher, batted .425 as a sophomore with 23 RBI, four doubles and two home runs. His team’s season was canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic...

Following an outstanding South Putnam swimming career in which she won several championships and set school records, recent Eagle graduate Evvie Timberman will continue her athletic and academic careers at Bethel College in northern Indiana. Bethel is an NAIA school located in Mishawaka which is moving this year into the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference as an associate member...

Recent North Putnam graduate Lucius Alexander chose Elmhurst College near Chicago to continue his education and football career this fall — in that order. Alexander, who tied for 18th in the state in interceptions last fall with six, will study to be a math teacher and really likes the program available in that area...

Following a stellar North Putnam football career in which he earned all-state honors as a defensive back and Putnam County Offensive Player of the Year honors last fall, recent Cougar graduate Aidan Baker will continue his football career this fall at nearby DePauw University...

Outgoing North Putnam football coach Sam Carnes knows that some things can be taught to football players, and others are just instinctive. Skyler Warren, the 2019 Putnam County defensive “Player of the Year” will compete collegiately this fall at Trine University in northeastern Indiana, and Carnes thinks his former defensive leader has what it takes to succeed...

Trent Ross’s path to play collegiate tennis was set at one point, then was in limbo and now has been finalized as the recent Greencastle graduate has signed to compete for NAIA Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky. Ross originally committed to Milligan College in Tennessee, but — as sometimes happens — the financial arrangement did not prove to be as good as originally hoped...

WEST LAFAYETTE (AP) — Morgan Burke, the longest serving athletic director in Purdue history, died at his home Monday after battling a rare disease for the past year. He was 68. University officials said in a statement Burke had been diagnosed with amyloidosis, an ailment caused by the build-up of an abnormal protein which prevents the body’s organs from functioning properly...

Chelsie Edwards has taken a long road to running collegiately, but that journey finally reached its conclusion on Thursday. The 2019 Cloverdale graduate signed to compete in cross country and track for St. Mary-of-the-Woods, transferring from Indiana State after one semester...

Frank Martin remembers the day 22 years ago when he was stopped by a police officer in the middle of nowhere, when he was driving across the country from his home in Miami to help coach a youth basketball camp. “An officer walked up to my window and asked, ‘What’s a guy from your neck of the woods doing up here, like real sarcastically,” the South Carolina coach recalled. ...

College football is scheduled to kick off in less than three months and there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful that games will be played Labor Day weekend. Universities across the country are taking the first cautious, detailed steps toward playing football in a pandemic, attempting to build COVID-19-free bubbles around their teams as players begin voluntary workouts...

Indiana State University track and field program director Angela Martin admits that looking for “determined” multi-sport athletes to add to her team was a priority this off-season. In signing recent Cloverdale graduate Kenzie Stoltz, Martin found someone who at times would compete in volleyball, cheerleading and track and field all in the same day...

Tracy Menzel has now “gone home” for the second time in her collegiate swimming coaching career. After graduating from Kenyon College as a national champion swimmer, the Greencastle High School graduate made her way back to the Ohio college as an assistant coach three years ago...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The smell of barbecue wafts through the parking lots hours before kickoff at Arrowhead Stadium, and when the first salvo of fireworks explode overhead, thousands of Chiefs fans begin to march en masse toward the entrance gates...

Injuries are normally bad for athletes for obvious reasons. For recent Cloverdale graduate Keeley Hughes, however, an injury early in her high school career resulted in a change of focus from softball to track and field. Hughes used that change to her advantage, turning a one-season career as a thrower with the Clovers into an opportunity to compete at the collegiate level for Marian University in Indianapolis...

Recent Cloverdale graduate Sammie Shrum has long had a goal of eventually playing college basketball. She is also an accomplished golfer, and will get a chance to play both sports for the next four years at Ohio Christian University in Circleville, Ohio...

Julia Mundy had an outstanding freshman season last year for the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals. Mundy led the team with eight victories, a 4.14 ERA, 39 strikeouts and three saves. This year, the Greencastle graduate was even sharper with a 4-2 record one save, three complete games and a 2.08 ERA in 43.2 innings of work. Mundy struck out 25 batters and walked just seven...

Many colleges and universities gave their senior spring sports athletes special tributes on their athletic websites. Among those honored were four student-athletes from Putnam County - South Putnam's Katie Hewitt, Josh Stewart and Alex Lesko and North Putnam's Brayden White...

Students from smaller high schools frequently choose smaller colleges when they get to that point of their lives. They are used to knowing everyone and being able to get from place to place quickly. South Putnam senior Alex Bratcher had that theme in mind when she signed earlier this spring to attend Manchester University in northern Indiana and continue her basketball career...

BLOOMINGTON (AP) — Khristian Lander, one of the nation’s top point guards, has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball next season at Indiana. Coach Archie Miller announced Monday that Lander has decided to reclassify from the 2021 recruiting class so he can play this fall...

Good timing and good connections are important tools in any job search, and DePauw grad Michael Engle utilized both of those factors in a recent return to his alma mater as offensive skill coordinator coach. Monday was Engle’s first day on the job with new coach Brett Dietz, and was also the same day that his previous school — Florida Tech — eliminated its football program due to COVID-19 budgetary problems...

Brett Dietz is in the same situation as all college football coaches right now, with the COVID-19 outbreak putting question marks on the starting date or whether there will be a season at all. He’s a little more behind than most coaches, though, having taken over from Bill Lynch after last season in his first head coaching job...