Northfield senior Matt Coe connects for an RBI triple during the Saturday, June 9 Class A baseball semistate against Daileville at Kokomo Municipal Stadium. Photo by Josh Sigler

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

KOKOMO – During its tournament run, Northfield’s baseball squad had made a living on superb pitching and defense, while scratching out enough runs to survive and advance.

The Norse manufactured a couple runs early in the Saturday, June 9, Class A Semistate against Daleville, but their pitching and defense were not as sharp as it had been this postseason in an 8-2 loss to the Broncos at Kokomo Municipal Stadium.

The loss for Northfield (16-15) snapped a five-game winning streak.
 

By Bill Barrows

Four Big Ten teams qualified for the postseason in NCAA Division 1 baseball this season.

That is a feat in itself simply because of one fact. The Big Ten is a “cold weather” conference based predominantly in the Midwest, therefore the opportunity to play games in warm weather is shorter, and because of that, schools have trouble recruiting as many top players because they are drawn to the south where they can play better competition and have a longer season.

Minnesota, Indiana, Purdue and Ohio State qualified this year and played in the regionals last weekend. Indiana, Purdue and Minnesota all got to the championship games of their respective regionals before being eliminated. The last team to win a regional, super regional and get to the World Series was Indiana 5 years ago.
 

Anna Driscoll will continue her golf career at St. Xavier University. She is joined by (front row, from left) mother Beth Driscoll, uncle Rick Treska, and (back row, from left), father Frank Driscoll and coach Eric Terrell. Photo by Josh Sigler

By Josh Sigler
jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com

Northfield senior Anna Driscoll will continue her golf career after recently signing a letter of intent to play and continue her education at St. Xavier University.

“I picked St. Xavier because of the academic opportunities,” Driscoll said in a recent interview. “The coach (James Kerr), he’s super nice. (And I like) the team atmosphere.”

Driscoll, who is undecided on a major at this time, served as Northfield’s team captain during the 2017 season.
 

By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

The Wabash City Schools board approved creating an education foundation for the district.

While creating foundation was unanimously approved Feb. 6, it still is not a reality.

Superintendent Jason Callahan and board attorney Jordan Tandy are exploring various options for the foundation, and will present a recommendation when the study is complete.

“As we do things like the Hall of Distinction, we have alumni that come back and want to give to Wabash in some kind of capacity or in some kind of way,” Callahan told the board, explaining why the foundation is needed. “Right now we really don’t have a receptacle to receive that money in, especially a 501c3 that is a tax benefit to the giver. We feel like we need to establish that.”

Tandy discussed two ways the district could go in creating a foundation.

One, available under state statute, is to create a Public School Endowment Corp., he said.

“It is a separate, special entity under the law,” he explained. “It gives the school flexibility to support programs and different things for the benefit of the school. That would be its own, separate 501c3 that we could create.”

The other would be creating an affiliation with the Community Foundation of Wabash County.

Community Foundation executive director Patty Grant is expected to speak with the board at a future meeting, he said.
“There’s pros and cons with either (option),” Tandy said.

This is the second time the board has explored creating such a foundation.

“We started one in 2000, but we never really fully created it,” Callahan said. “There was a lot of official stuff that happened. But I don’t know really why – I couldn’t find it in the minutes – it never happened.”

In other business, the board:

-- Waived facility rental fees for the Kiwanis Spelling Bee on Feb. 8 and the Special Olympics track meet on May 12.

-- Hired Katina Schram as a full-time bus driver effective Jan. 31.

-- Accepted the resignation of Courtney Wrisk, as bus monitor for the special needs route effective Feb. 2.

-- Approved Kate Carter as the O.J. Neighbours Elementary School café bookkeeper effective Jan. 8.

-- Accepted the resignation of Jessika Taylor as a paraprofessional at Neighbours effective Feb. 2.

-- Approved Alysia Olson’s request for maternity leave beginning April 9.

-- Approved Janet Sparks for after school tutoring beginning Jan. 15 through the end of the third nine weeks.

-- Approved a stipend for Angel Hostetler to continue her teacher of record responsibilities during the third nine weeks.

-- Approved a recommendation to alter Abbey Arwood’s Be Well stipend for the second semester, allowing her to tend to a personal issue that has arisen.

-- Accepted Heather Burton’s resignation and the hiring of Elizabeth Burns as Neighbour’s librarian, effective Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, respectively. It also approved retaining Burton at her current hourly rate to work with Burns on an as needed basis. The retainer will not exceed 20 hours and would occur prior to June 30.

-- Hired Jon Denney as a paraprofessional at Neighbors beginning Feb. 1.

-- Accepted the Family Medical Leave Act request from Amy Degitz beginning Feb. 19, and using her sick days during that time.

-- Accepted the resignation as Rick Forrester as part-time teacher aide for Wabash Middle School effective Feb. 23.

-- Approved Heather Jessee as Winter Guard director for the 2017-18 school year.

-- Hired Khristian Atchison as math teacher effective Feb. 22.

-- Approved the recommendation to pay math teachers Joey Till, Justin Denney and Tyler Olson their hourly rate to teach a class during their prep to help fill a vacant math position at Wabash High School.

-- Hired the following as coaches for the 2017-18 spring sport season: Bill Barrows, assistant varsity baseball; Nick Hentgen, reserve baseball; Mike Vinopal, assistant boys track; Mike Denney, varsity girls track; Katelin Vogel, assistant girls track; Sarah Cole, assistant girls tennis; John Yoakum, varsity girls softball; Brad Wagner, assistant girls softball; Katie Cromer, middle school track head coach; Beth Barden, middle school track assistant coach; Tyler Niccum, middle school baseball head coach; John Davis, middle school softball head coach; Stacie Parrett, middle school football assistant coach; Lyndsi Schenkel, middle school soccer head coach.

-- Approved the recommendation to create a business position for Wabash City Schools.