High School Sports

CRAWFORDSVILLE — North Putnam’s girls’ golf team opened its season on Saturday by playing in the Southmont Invitational. “Though I don’t yet know where we placed as far as team scores, I think the girls played pretty well,” North coach Earl Hall said...

The ancient adage that if something “walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck” is rearing its ugly head when contemplating the horrific decision the Indiana High School Athletic Association faces in evaluating health reports and deciding how (or if) to proceed with the fall sports season...

Greencastle evened its girls’ golf record at 1-1 on Wednesday with a 222-233 win over South Putnam, which was playing its season opener. Greencastle’s Molly Ramey was the individual medalist with a 46. Other Tiger Cub scores were Kadence Shaner 53, Allison Scott 61, Ryleigh Tuttle 62, Lilli Oliver 64 and Olivia Monnett 65...

Exactly five months to the day since the school’s last athletic competition, Greencastle’s Tiger Cubs opened the 2020 girls’ golf season with a 195-211 loss to a veteran Monrovia Bulldog team at Tiger Pointe CC. Molly Ramey shot a very good opening round of 42 to begin her season...

When Tim Menke of the Buzzi Unicem plant in Putnam County heard about the work of two South Putnam student-athletes with providing products to the New Providence Baptist Church food pantry, he wanted to help. Menke, the alternative fuels and raw materials manager at the plant, donated $1,000 this week to assist senior Macie Bumgardner and sophomore Madie Newby in the ongoing project...

The same pandemic-related questions that have bedeviled professional and college sports are front and center for high school administrators across the country -- and they are far more complicated. Setting up expensive, tightly regimented bubbles for professional athletes or setting protocols for thousands of college athletes who answer to a handful of coaches is not happening at the high school level. ...

TERRE HAUTE — The game was delayed two days by weather. It was played two weeks later than normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the weather was hot. Some of the players scheduled to perform didn’t make it and many players played considerably more snaps than normally happens...

Greencastle Middle School is looking for an assistant middle school football coach for the 2020 season. Anyone interested in the position should email Greencastle Middle School Athletic Director Bryce Rector at brector@greencastle.k12.in.us

FISHERS — Two Putnam County basketball standouts were key players over the weekend as the Grand Park Premier 2021 Black squad finished second in the Summer Classic at the Best Choice Fieldhouse. Greencastle’s Brody Whitaker scored 26 points as GPP Black lost 80-77 in overtime to the EG10 17U team (sponsored by NBA player Eric Gordon) in the championship game...

Jordan Vaughn did not play high school basketball while attending South Putnam in the first four years of this century, but is a long-time fan of the sport and has a huge interest in its history. To help promote the history of Putnam County basketball, as well as to find answers to questions he has not yet solved, Vaughn has created a Facebook group titled “Putnam County Basketball: Then & Now.”...

North Putnam has promoted assistant football coach Ryan Burress to replace Sam Carnes as head coach of the Cougar squad. Burress has been serving as an assistant coach with the Cougars while teaching at Mooresville High School, and will now get to delete that 55-minute one-way trip from his daily schedule as he will be teaching special education at North Putnam...

Aidan Baker of North Putnam High School recently received his National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award with former Cougar coach Sam Carnes and his parents, John and Lori Baker. Recent Cloverdale graduate Kenzie Stoltz is the recipient of a Wabash Valley Officials Association scholarship for the 2019-20 school year...

Recent Greencastle graduate Trent Ross successfully opened his summer tennis season on Sunday with a championship in the West Indy Racquet Club Highland Series Clay Court Championships in Indianapolis. In the 18-and-under semifinals, Ross defeated John Graham by 6-3, 6-1 scores. Ross then defeated Kyle Doctor in the finals by the same score...

Cloverdale decided to stay ‘in house” to hire its new girls’ varsity basketball coach, as Clover athletic director J.J. Wade was hired earlier this week to replace Matthew Langdon. Langdon resigned in April after coaching the Clovers for nine seasons. He inherited a program that had won only seven games in the three previous seasons, and after a slow start with five straight seasons of double-digit losses Landon’s last four teams all had at least 10 wins...

The Indiana High School Athletic Association Inc. is pleased that the COVID-19 Health and Safety ReEntry Guidance has been provided to Indiana schools on Friday by the Governor’s Office and the Indiana Department of Education. This guidance also includes a three-phased pathway for the return of education-based athletics which coincide with the previously scheduled first practice date for girls’ golf (July 31) and practice for all other fall sports (August 3). ...

Matthew Trotter is a recent North Putnam graduate who competed in cross country, swimming and track and field. ——— Banner Graphic: How important were sports to you, and what have you learned from them? Matthew Trotter: “Sports have been very important to me. They have essentially taught me to work with a team. You can learn that from school in group projects, but mostly it’s working for yourself. In sports you work for your teammates, and it’s a different experience that everyone should have.”...

Greencastle senior-to-be baseball players Nick Sutherlin and Ethan Maier were denied the opportunity this spring to both represent their school on the diamond and also to make names for themselves in the eye of college coaches. The Tiger Cub duo will get a chance to demonstrate their skills on a big stage after earning invitations to the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association “Futures Games” next month...

Abby Teipen graduated from South Putnam this month. She participated this year in swimming and tennis and previously competed in volleyball and cheerleading. ——— Banner Graphic: How important are sports to you, and what have you learned from them? Abby Teipen: “Sports have been so important to me throughout my entire high school career. ...

Travis Turpen has had his eye on a boys’ varsity basketball coaching job for a while after several years as an assistant, and saw his dream come true on Wednesday night. South Putnam hired the former Terre Haute South and Southmont assistant as its new boys’ basketball coach to replace Greg Dean, who resigned following the recent season. Dean posted a 46-94 record in six years at his alma mater...

Haley Smith is a senior at Cloverdale and participated in volleyball and softball. ——— Banner Graphic: How important are sports to you, and what have you learned from them? HS: “I have always been very involved and passionate about sports. They have taught me a lot of things, but the most important thing is that I will always have to work hard to achieve the success I strive for. I am very proud of my career and where I’m going with it. I’m excited to see where it takes me.”...