Weather muddies the early fall sports picture

It must be spring. Is it Spring? I don't think it's spring.

But last weeks weather-related postponements and cancellations sure made it seem like spring sports season instead of fall.

And the rainouts of the Terre Haute Early Bird Invitational and the White River Valley Invite have made it tougher to get an early read on the cross country season.

Thursday's Greene County Invitational should give us a clearer outlook.

And the defending champs, the Bloomfield boys and the Eastern Greene girls are well-positioned to repeat.

Both return most of last year's rosters and expect to be strong again.

The Cardinals could be pushed by the Eastern Greene Thunderbirds. And with the area's top girls runner Liz Bredeweg, the Shakamak Lady Lakers could challenge the Lady T-Birds.

But rain and thunderstorms are forecast for Thursday...

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The weather has no such impact on volleyball of course.

So far, Bloomfield and Linton-Stockton are off to strong starts.

Both will be tested this week.

Bloomfield hosts 4A Bedford North Lawrence Tuesday. Linton-Stockton squares off against the early 2A sectional favorite Barr Reeve.

After consecutive State Finals appearances, the Lady Vikings moved up to 2A last season under the IHSAA's tournament success factor.

And the higher classification didn't seem to affect them. Barr-Reeve made it to the 2A semistate last fall.

"I'm sure the girls are tired of me talking about Barr-Reeve," first-year Lady Miners coach Scott Vanderkolk said in the season preview.

The girls are sure to hear more talk about Barr-Reeve this week - after Tuesday's match at Loogootee, of course.

Eastern Greene, Shakamak and White River Valley all had their moments in Saturday's Eastern Greene Round Robin. But they're all searching for consistency.

"Our defense is just a little slow," Lady T-Birds coach Whitney Richardson said. "We are still playing timid and I have to get the girls communicating more."

WRV coach Shawn Brown said his young team struggled with passing and serving.

"We played well at times but couldn't seem to close out games," the coach said.

"The bright spots were our setting and hitting are improving. We just need to work together and limit errors on our side of the net."

New Shakamak coach Amy Robertson also saw moments of excellent play from her team - and times when the Lady Lakers shut down, giving up points.

"We need to maximize on opportunities to attack and be more aggressive," she said.

"But I am glad we were in this tournament. It gave us a gauge on all that we need to work on."

And as Richardson said of her Lady Thunderbirds, "I'm excited to see where this young team can go from here. I think they will accomplish things that people won't expect this season."

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And there was football.

And yes, we had a rainout. Dugger's game with the Noblesville Linos was cancelled due to the condition of the field.

And there was nearly another weather-related casualty.

Rain rarely causes a football game to be called off. But lightning can.

A heavy thunderstorm settled over Speedway just as the Miners and Speedway Sparkplugs were warming up.

The last lightning strike came at 7:40 p.m., 10 minutes after the originally scheduled kickoff time.

When play finally got underway after the mandatory waiting period it was the Miners who struck.

49-8. I didn't see that coming.

Is Linton-Stockton that good? Or is Speedway a program in disarray.

It's probably a little of both.

With the game ending an hour and a half later than usual, there wasn't enough time to get quotes from the coaches and players and still meet the newspaper's deadline.

But I had a chance to talk with coach Brian Oliver and several players before Monday's film session.

"I was kind of surprised at the outcome of the game," Oliver admitted. "I thought it would be a little closer.

"We were ready to come out and we played good football from the beginning."

Quarterback Tyler Meurer agreed, saying, "I expected a closer game. But we came out firing on all cylinders and they came out pretty flat. And it showed."

Oliver said one of the keys to the game was being able to establish the running game and get some big plays.

And they did. Meurer rushed for 1171 yards on just eight carries, including an 87-yard touchdown run. Garrett Mason hauled the rock 15 times for 91 yards. Keaton Cox added 59 more on nine totes.

"We expected it," Meurer said. "We've got four real solid running backs. And we've worked on our run game like we always do."

The Miners outgained the Sparkplugs 425-176. And 68 of Speedway's yards came on Jacob Jones' touchdown sprint with two minutes to play, against the Miner reserves.

"I didn't really know what to expect going into the game at first," linebacker Avery Gentry said. "I just figured we had to come out strong and positive and do what we had to do to win the game.

"Our defense just clicked when we got out there."

The defense also came up big for Eastern Greene in its 34-6 romp over Springs Valley.

And the Hamilton brothers Caleb and Isaac came up big as well, combining for 165 rushing yards and four TDs.

And they collaborated on the big play of the night.

The brothers stuffed Blackhawks quarterback Braden Whitaker on a keeper at the 1-yard line. Springs Valley trailed just 14-0 at the time.

And from that point on, all the momentum belonged to the Thunderbirds.

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Let's hope for better weather this week!

Terry Schwinghammer is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 27. He can also be reached via email at tschwing32@yahoo.com.