Trivia question

Okay Columbia basketball fans -- since Harriton High School in Lower Merion is in the news for some computer spying on students. Anyone recall the year Columbia played Harriton in the state basketball playoffs? What was the year? Where was the game at? Who was the famous baseball player who had a son playing on Harriton?

Attention Columbia High School seniors!

Here's a challenge for seniors at Columbia High School. President Obama is looking for a high school in the United States to deliver a commencement address.

The web site is www.whitehouse.gov/commencement.
It gives you the details on how to get the President, who visited the Columbia Market House (see picture) during the campaign in September 2008, to consider a school for a commencement address.

There is a form to fill out and the principal must sign off on it. It's worth a shot and would bring positive publicity to our great scshool and community.

Library fines to increase

Public libraries in Lancaster County will increase fines on certain overdue materials effective on April 1. Increases will apply to adult and juvenile materials as follows: fines on the late return of adult and YA materials will increase from 20 cents per day to 30 cents per day and from 10 per day to 20 per day for children’s materials. Fines for videos and DVDs, which is $1 per item per day, will remain the same.


Public Libraries have experienced reduced state and county funding for 2010, which factored into the decision to increase extended use fees at Lancaster County’s public libraries. The increases come at a critical time when local funding for library services remains flat and state funding was reduced, impacting all public library budgets, while demand for library services continues to rise.

The public can easily avoid these charges by keeping their library account up to date and renewing checked out items either by phone 394-1721 or online at http://catalog.lancasterlibraries.org. Please note that not all library materials are subject to renewal. If a patron’s account includes an email address, an email reminder is sent out before materials are due.

For more information, please contact your local public library. For a complete list of Lancaster County’s public libraries, go to www.lancasterlibraries.org and select Your Local Library.

The Road to Hershey begins

For the Columbia wrestling team, the mythical “Road to Hershey” begins Saturday with their participation in a Class AA sectional tournament at Bermudian Springs High School.

The one-day tournament features not only the Crimson Tide but also Lancaster Catholic from the L-L League, but also eight teams from the York-Adams League including Eastern.

Coach Scott Rupp’s team drew two top seeds for the first link in the “Road to Hershey” in senior Joe Ronca (30-5) at 135 and sophomore Nathan Warner (26-8) at 160. Number two seeds for the Tide are John Markley (130) and Brandon Felus (215). Third seeds are Jordan Halter (140) and Jake Sentz (285), while Johnny Vazquez (152) is a fourth seed.

Wrestlers have to finish in the top four at their respective weight class to make it to next weekend’s District Three Class AA championships at the old (I mean old) Hersheypark Arena.

One of the things to watch this weekend is Ronca’s quest for his 100th career win, which could happen this weekend, or early next weekend, if he gets that far.

Ronca, who dropped a weight class, will meet 4-11 John Vu of York Suburban High School in the first round.

The Tide’s other top seed, Warner, will meet the winner of the Colin Butler (Lancaster Catholic, 7-15)/Derek Dick (Fairfield, 7-8) in the first round.

Here is a weight class by weight class rundown of who each Tide wrestler will face in the first round.

103: Tony Barton (10-21) will face top-seeded Brad Farley (25-0) of Bermudian Springs in the first round.

112: Phillip Stark (9-19) will face fourth-seeded Evan Goshert (9-14) of Eastern York.

119: Derek Zercher (14-18) will face Biglerville’s Nick Leiphart (21-7).

125: Alan Foehlinger (6-18) will face Matt Galetti (2-14) in a pig tail match. Galetti is from York Suburban.

130: Markley, the number two seed will put his 24-11 record on the line in the first round against the winner of a pig tail match between Damon Becker (18-12) of Bermudian and Matt Flick (3-12) of Lancaster Catholic.

140: Halter will move up a weight class with a 26-9 record and a number three seed and battle Fairfield’s Andrew Blinn (8-14).

145: Todd Lingafelt (15-18) will meet Lancaster Catholic’s Aaron Law (15-9).

152: Vazquez (13-13) will meet Kevin Nichols (12-13) of Biglerville.

171: Derrick Brooks (7-12) will meet Robert Aaron Mackley of Eastern (21-3).

189: Despite a 20-win season, Marcus Fischer (20-14) has to wrestle a pig tail match against Troy Hewitt (4-17) of Fairfield. The winner gets Bermudian’s Matt Wolf.

215: Felus (23-4) will face Jordan Brooks (8-11) of Biglerville.

285: Sentz (20-14) will face Jacob Higgins (7-8) of Eastern.

The Tide completed its regular season with a trip to Gettysburg last Monday for an invitational on President’s Day, where they placed second as a team. Ronca, Warner, Fischer and Felus lost in the championship finals, while Stark was second. In round four of the round robin event, Halter and Sentz were winners, while Lingafelt lost in that round.

Fastnacht Time!

Got my fastnachts from Holy Trinity this morning. They were still a little warm. It's the first time in two years I had any.

Here is the link

http://www.district3.piaa.org/

For updates on the District Three basketball playoffs and wrestling sectionals, etc.

Columbia football update

The Columbia School Board will meet Thursday night.


Columbia High School has been without a football coach since the first of the year.

Fifteen people have applied to replace Jason Shoff, who resigned after six years as head coach. As of the weekend, no interviews had been scheduled, that’s because at least one school official at Columbia has an in-house candidate that stands heads and shoulders above those from the outside and wants to give it to that coach, while other “powers to be” want to interview for the position.

It is not known as of today if there will or has been an interview for the coaching position or if the school board will have a name to approve at its meeting on Thursday.

Columbia is one of two schools in the L-L League without a football coach is McCaskey, who doesn’t appear to be close to hiring a replacement.

The other L-L school who had a coaching opening was Northern Lebanon and that was filled last week when Millersburg coach Ray Wall was hired to replace Jack Beidler, who got run out of the position. Millersburg won the District 3 Class A title this past season, beating the two-time defending state chap Steel-High in the process.

Refer to an earlier post to see who the favorite is for the Columbia position.

Columbia in the playoffs

Here are two things to note when it comes to the District 3 Class AA playoffs, which begin next Wednesday.


It’s been a long while since a public school won a Class AA title (Columbia) and a long time since a public school got to the finals. That could happen this year in the bottom half of the Class AA field. Three of the teams that could reach the semi-finals are public schools – Columbia, Annville-Cleona and Hanover. Of course, one of the three will have to go through Trinity to get to the finals. But at least one of the three has that chance to reach the semi-finals.

And usually when you are talking playoffs, you usually don’t get an opponent that you are too familiar with.

Well, for the Columbia boys’ basketball team, that won’t happen this year. Their first round opponent will be Section 4 foe Annville-Cleona, who they lost to on Saturday by a 45-28 score. They also beat A-C this year, 54-50.

Both teams are evenly matched. A-C led by Tyler Blanding with his 16 PPG average likes the three-pointer as they drained 108 treys for the year led by Alec Wizar with 33. That’s how they broke Saturday’s game open, hitting eight from behind the arc in the first half.

Columbia will look for scoring from seniors Brandon Arnold and Nate Wall and junior Tre’ Simms, along with the steady ball handling of freshman Nick Nobile. The play of sophomores Michael Burke and Seth Lefever will be key.

This game at best can be described as a toss up game, depending if A-C is hot from the outside and what Columbia team shows up.

If Columbia wins next Wednesday’s game at Hershey High School (7:30 p.m. tip), they will face third-seeded Hanover on Saturday at high noon at Northern High School near Dillsburg, York County. The Nighthawks, who are in the York-Adams League playoffs, are 16-4. Had Columbia beat Delone Catholic in the season opener, the two would have played in the finals of the Hanover Tip-Off Tournament.

Lancaster Mennonite from Section 4 of the L-L League is the top seed in the Class AA field and they will meet the winner of the Holy Name/Upper Dauphin game in the quarter-finals. The HN/UDA game is the lid lifter next Wednesday at Hershey High School.

The fourth seed is Delone, who will meet the winner of the Bishop McDevitt/Pequea Valley game.

Second seed Trinity, probably the best team in the Class AA field will meet the winner of the York Catholic/Tulpehocken game in the quarter-finals.

The top three teams in the Class AA field make the PIAA playoffs.

Girls' season in review

The 2009-10 basketball season at Columbia High School has been over for the Tide girls for more than a week now.

The Tide girls won’t play their final two games against Pequea Valley and Annville-Cleona and will finish 0-20.

So let’s get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. This will be first time since I think the early 1980s that Columbia won’t participate in the District 3 playoffs, where they haven’t advanced past the first round since Rick Bentley left as coach since I think it was after the 2000 season. It’s also the first time since the early 1980s or even before that the Tide failed to win a game in girls’ basketball.

Now, let’s move on.

The Tide program has dropped from the top of the L-L League since Bentley left as coach to the bottom. In came new coach/old coach Gary Sutton, who guided the Tide boys to a state championship back in 1987. With his arrival came a whole new way of playing basketball for the girls. There were multiple offenses, defenses and other characteristics that the girls hadn’t seen in years. The entire season, learning a new system was a learning experience on both sides. Despite a youthful roster, the Tide girls played hard every game. They just didn’t have the varsity experience yet,

For me, you saw 12 of their 20 games, there were several bright spots.

The first was the play was senior guard Emily Nobile, who I always felt should have played more varsity before this year, relished in the role of a leader and a point guard. She led the Tide in scoring with an average of around 12 points a game. She was deadly from the foul line and one of the best three-point shooters in the section.

The other thing I saw that I liked. For the most part, the Tide was able to adjust on the fly to a new style. There were moments when it looked ugly, but that can be expected.

There’s a good future here. There are four/five starters coming back and a number of players moving up from the junior high, which had a .500 season that will help with numbers and the re-establishment of the junior varsity team,

The other four/five starters back – juniors Becca Kuhn and Jenna Geesey, sophomore Paige Herchelroath and freshmen Jenna Plastino and Ashlyn Phillips all got a taste of varsity life this year and will be better next season.

I thought going in, the Tide’s schedule was brutal – L-S played for a state title last season (Columbia played them twice), Mennonite just missed out on a state tile appearance ans there was the two Catholics – Lancaster Catholic and Lebanon Catholic. Had to that Hempfield and you got a rough schedule for such a young team.

The schedule next season, other than the league schedule will not nearly be that tough, so winning following a good off-season, will be in order for the Tide.

Some positive publicity

http://www.wgal.com/video/22576985/index.html

Mark this date down!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Relay for Life Night

Union Station

4th & Union St

Columbia, PA

6:00 pm - midnight

Stop in to support a great cause

Proceeds go to the American Cancer Society

Sponsored by the Cancer Crusaders

Final Home Game

The Columbia boys' basketball team will host Pequea Valley in a varsity only game on the hill tomorrow at 6 p.m.
It will be the final game in the Elmer Kreiser Gym as we now know it. The gym will be renovated soon and will have a new look to it for the 2010-11 season.
The reason it is a varsity only game is a number of players didn't attend practice on Monday and also, the L-L League says junior high games can't be played after a certain date.
I'd like to hear some of the memories people have of the old gym. You can list them in the comment section.
The Tide boys will face Annville-Cleona for the third time this season next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., in Hershey. Don't get too excited, its at Hershey High School -- not the Giant Center!

Hall of Fame nominees

Received in the mail over late last week or after the February Blizzard was the 2010 ballot for the Susquehanna Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.


The annual banquet will be held May 1, at the Susquehanna Fire Company. All ballots must be returned to Rich Gerfin by March 9. Each voter must vote fir six individuals.

The deceased inductee this year will be former Columbia High football star Mike Wolfgang. He was inducted into the Columbia High School Athletic Hall of Fame last September.

The nominees are:

P. Abbott Asplin, who played football and basketball at F&M in 1936 and graduated fro Leighton High School.

Robert Brandt, former football player at Manheim Township.

Ron Caulwell, former athletic director at Columbia High School.

Gayne Deshler, former football coach at Donegal.

Jim Doughtery, who at one time was a former assistant coach with the old Columbia Raiders.

Bill Goad, former golf coach at Eastern High School.

Michael Orstein, former swimmer at McCaskey and Manheim Township.

Glenn Robinson, current basketball coach at F&M.

John Thomas, former wrestler at Columbia.

Robert Thomas, former fast pitch softball player.

Andrew Tompos, former golfer at F&M.

Leslie Bair Vink, former gymnast at Hempfield.

William Walton, a four-sport athlete at Penn Manor.

Jon Witman, former Eastern, Penn State and Pittsburgh Steeler football player.

For what its worth, my six were Caulwell, Deshler, G-Rob, Witman, Goad and Doughtery.

A piece of our town's history covered

This was sent to me by a friend of Columbia's Historic Wright Mansion on Second Street.

Working on Stuff

Here's what I am working on for today or Monday before the next blizzard hits:
1. District 3 playoffs seedings are out.
2. My thoughts on what it will take for Columbia to have a paper again. Yes, I believe there is a market.
3. An update on the coaching search at Columbia High School.
4. Review of the Columbia girls' basketball season.
5. Another poll, not sure of the topic yet.

check me out later today and tomorrow!

Do you know this man?

West Hempfield Township Police are looking for a black male with a heavy build, in his 30s or 40s with a beard and mustache after passing counterfeit $100 bills during the purchase of more than $800 in merchandise from the Kmart store in the 3900 block of Columbia Avenue.
Police said the incident happened Jan. 20.
The suspect, pictured, is wanted for similar incidents in York and Lancaster counties.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 285-5191

\

A tough one to write

NOTE: There will be a follow up on this in the next few days.

About a year ago this time, I started this, wrote a few paragraphs and stopped. Now, its time to start this again, as for the second time in a year, our great town is losing its newspaper as the Columbia Register ends its nine month run.


It’s no surprise at least to me and others, newspapers are dying at an alarming rate across the nation, I’m kind of surprised that local community papers aren’t making it. They have the ability to deliver what the major papers can’t and that is local news and sports. But this is the third time I have had a newspaper close on me and will probably be the last time. As much as I enjoy reporting on the events of our great town, I just don’t see anyone coming into a tough market. But despite the doom and gloom forecasts, I still think a local newspaper dedicated to the Columbia area can still make it.

For many, there is a lot more to do today than there was when I was younger and many have found ways, other than a newspaper to get their news, Still, I always hoped Columbia would newspaper till the end of time.

Last year when I sat down to pen this going away column, there was so much I wanted to write that I may have forgotten stuff.

This is the start of my 26th year of newspaper writing in Columbia. Along the way, I made many great friends,.met a lot of great people, covered a lot of outstanding events, worked with some good people and attended a lot of meetings and events.

Before coming to the Columbia News back in 1984, I got some pretty good training when I worked at WSBA and a good work ethic from the likes of Ed Wickenheiser, Ron Corbin and the late Phil Eberly. They also taught me a lot of professionalism and the right way to do things.

Then came the Columbia News, where I learned much from “Teedy” Aston and not so much from those who followed him.

Within a week after that publication closed, Columbia got rescued by the Ledger Newspaper group, which had a slew of owners during 19 years. It really helped me learn the community more than I ever knew. I learned the people, who I could trust and who I could not.

I learned a lot about running a newspaper, There were some great times and long hours.

I can’t really tell you what the best story I ever covered was, because there were so many. The Homecoming, May Days, parades, craft shows and Bridge Busts may have all run together, but they were unique events to our town.

I think in 26 years, I’ve been to thousands of meetings and I can honestly say there were times I wanted to stand up at meetings and tell people to shit down and shut up and there were times I just wanted to get up and leave. But I didn’t because it was my job to be there.

In 26 years, I can’t remember being late for too many events. I believed on being at places early and not walking in late and creating a scene like some.

There were the tragedies in our town. Many of them hit home because we are a small town and ade for some tough writing.

If there is one thing I was always proud of was the ability to write about the greatest high school of all times and its athletic programs. I’ll always be a fan.

As for the people, I can tell you, I like most of them. But there are a few, probably less than five over 26 years that I knew just weren’t right for Columbia. I could see through their images they presented.

I’ll never forget the 1987 state championship run. That will always remain special.

As I said earlier, I had plan to write this about a year ago. I stopped, but I did start writing something back in July when I had my accident. That took a lot more out of me than I first thought. I’m not the same person I was and will never be the same person. I’m strong because I have to be, but...

I’d like to list a number of people who have greatly helped me over the many years, but I don’t want to miss anyone.

I’m gonna be here. I’m not leaving town, I’ll just be in a different role. Perhaps trying a Columbia blog, because there might not be another way to get the news out to our town.

Thanks Columbia for many great memories and for allowing me to come into your homes each week.

I hope I made a difference.

Just in case you didn't get the last edition

Sometime this week, perhaps its already done, there will be interviews for the vacant Columbia High School football coaching position. Next week, Columbia High School is expected to have a new leader for its football program, which went 0-10 this year and 3-18 over the previous two seasons.


Perhaps as many as six people have been interviewed, unfortunately, I won’t be able to tell you before everyone else in the local media who the Tide’s next boss will be.

This is the last time, perhaps only for a while, or maybe forever, I will write a column for a newspaper. I’m trying to re-discover blog writing, which I did about a year ago (barry-ford.blogspot.com) to let the people know what is happening in our town.

This was one of the stories I was actually looking forward to writing. See by the time, Columbia had a new coach, there would only be the Tide boys in the district playoffs and the wrestlers would be getting ready for sectionals.

But, there won’t be that “home town” feeling in stories about our new coach.

I’ve asked and many of who that have attended basketball games or wrestling matches in recent weeks have probably seen me talking with CHS AD Jim Rhoads.

He did tell me he got 15 applicants for the position, which I found amazing and shared with me who some of the names were. I’m not going to share them, other than one, the person I think and some other I’ve talked with can do the job and that would be current Tide assistant Mike Burke III.

Outside of being away from the game for a couple of years and returning this year as defensive coordinator, Burke has given most of his post-high school life to the program, from junior high coach to coaching at the varsity level.

Of the names I’ve been told, there’s no one there that jumps out at me and says hire him.

I know MB3 had a meeting last month shortly after the rumors were confirmed of Jason Shoff’s departure with prospective players in grades 7-11 and close to 90 kids showed up. There have been a couple of Sunday workouts with around 40 kids showing up.

That’s a positive. I’ve talked with some of the prospective players and those I’ve talked with at basketball or wrestling, all favor MB3.

Since my days as a student at Columbia High School, then as a reporter, Columbia hasn‘t had much success with outsiders coming in and trying to coach our teams.

Basketball tried it three in the last 30 plus years. I remember when I was a student, George Hanna coached the Tide for one year and left and then there was Gary Sutton. He’s the only one who enjoyed success. Then there was John Larkin and many couldn’t wait for him to ride out of town.

There are a few in other sports, but two current ones that come to mind are Bob Pederson, who will be in his second year with the Tide in baseball and appears to have the Tide headed in the right direction and new softball coach Brad Brubaker, who many are looking for good things out of.

But Columbia has never enjoyed the success in those sports that they have in football and basketball.

And for that reason I was surprised there were 15 applicants for the position, knowing the school usually stays within the Columbia family.

Okay, sure, you can say bringing someone in from the outside might revive the program. They might, but it will take them a few months to learn the kids, set up the off-season and learn the L-L League. And there probably won’t be 90 kids at a meeting either. There’s also the need to get a staff in place along with the schemes the Tide will use. Right now, I here there’s a pretty good staff in place and the schemes are already there, they just need tweaking.

I hope the powers to be up on the hill realize this is one position to keep “in house” and keep it “within the family.”

Donation to Hoop Boosters

Mr.and Mrs. John Gamby (center) recently made a generous donation to the Columbia Basketball Booster Club. They are shown here with senior players Brandon Arnold and Emily Nobile.

The Thursday clean-up from the Blizzard of 2010

Here are various pictures from the neighbors cleaning up from the great blizzard. It's a scene being repeated all over our town.

Changes, changes, changes

Here's an update today on the athletic schedule on the hill:

Girls' Basketball: The Tide will travel tomorrow (Friday) to Annville-Cleona. The Pequea Valley game has been cancelled.

Boys' Basketball: The Tide will host Annville-Cleona tomorrow (Friday) and entertain Pequea Valley, Saturday, with j.v. starting at noon.

Wrestling: The Tide is scheduled to travel to McCaksey tomorrow.

Snow pictures

State of Emergency

Columbia Mayor Leo Lutz has issued a Snow Emergency declaration for the borough starting at noon, ending tomorrow.

What that means is vehicle traffic, except for emergency vehicles and those helping to remove snow is banned from the streets in Columbia.

Columbia schedule changes

Tonight's wrestling match with Penn Manor has been moved to 5 p.m.

The boys' basketball game with Pequea Valley tomorrow night, will be played on Friday, starting with the junior high game at 4 p.m.  The Tide boys will also play Annville-Cleona on Thursday.

The girls' basketball game with Pequea Valley is also off and probably won't be re-scheduled.

The Tide girls will play at Annville-Cleona on Friday.

Photos by Patricia Kreider