EHS/EMS Athletic Department Update

In this day and age, many schools would be fortunate and happy to have at least one athlete to attain All State Honors but this past Fall, Eastwood had THREE of our HS athletes achieve All State Honors in their respective sports.

Leah Emch a Sophomore on our Girls Cross Country Team placed 14th at the OHSAA State Meet which earns her All State Honors.

Hannah Montag a Senior on our Girls Varsity Soccer Team earned 1st Team All Ohio status for Girls Soccer Division III.

Case Boos is a Senior on our Eagle Varsity Football team and earned 1st Team All Ohio Running Back for Division V Football.

These All Ohio awards that these three Eagle Athletes earned also gets them up on our Wall of All Ohio Athletes in front of the gym.

Congratulations to all of these fine student/athletes for this accomplishment! We deserved for their hard work!

Eastwood has been blessed to have 16 individuals who have scored 1000 points or more in their HS Basketball careers and while they were honored at the times in which they eclipsed this mark, as a school district we have not collectively honored them in the past.

That is now going to occur and it will take place on Tuesday, February 7th. On that night we are going to honor all 16 of our Boys and Girls Basketball 1000 point scorers at halftime of the Boys Varsity Basketball game versus Ottawa Hills. Invited guests include the 16 Male and Female 1000 point scorers and their families and their head coaches.

At 6pm that night there will be a reception in the Eagles Nest for these individuals and we invite Eastwood Community members to come down and meet with the invited guests. Part of this recognition will include introduction of the 16 players or their representatives and their coaches. Each 1000 point scorer will receive a commemorative plaque from the night and all of their banners will be hung on the HS gym wall and be displayed there permanently.

We hope you can join us this special night as we celebrate Eastwood's rich Basketball history.

Here are the 16 individuals who have scored 1000 points or more in chronological order with their years of graduation:

Randy Gardner - 1173 points (1977)

Carol Bruning - 1048 points (1978)

Cathy Smithey - 1268 (1980)

Teri Poggemeyer - 1495 points (1984)

Jodi Juergens - 1127 points (1986)

Stephany Dunmyer - 1124 points (1996)

Kerri Wohltman - 1121 points (1996)

Aaron Lawniczak - 1635 points (1997)

Darcy Miesmer - 1143 points (2000)

Stacey Weiland - 1014 points (2002)

Kim Young - 1194 points (2006)

Clay Rolf - 1038 points (2010)

Jacob Schmeltz - 1230 points (2014)

Jamie Schmeltz - 1572 points (2020)

Aubrey Haas - 1347 points (2022)

Jacob Meyer - 1175 points (2022)

What is amazing about this list is the span of year from the first person to reach 1000 points and the last which is a 45 year span. Also keep in mind the changes in the game from the first ot the last with the adding of the 3 point line in 1987, use of a smaller basketball for Girls back in the late 80's and the length of season for each player from a standard 18 game season to 22 games now. They all achieved their milestone under different situations and guidelines and that is what makes it that much more remarkable.

We have been so fortunate in the fact that we have had many of coaches who have coached in our district for very long periods of time. It is one of the special things about our district and our Athletic Program and athletes have benefited from that.

I have been informed recently that we have four coaches that have chosen to step away from coaching because they felt it was time. They are not leaving coaching because of the kids or because they are mad at anyone or anything. Their reasoning to me was that they knew it was time.

The years of service and energy to the youth of this district are unmeasurable and will be hard to duplicate. What they are leaving behind are legacies and memories of many great things and relationships built over that time.

They will be missed but they have earned every bit of making these decisions and taking time for themselves and their families. They will always be a part of the Eagle Coaching Family but now they get to see what life is like with this chapter of not coaching.

Mike Gardner

Mike Gardner is retiring as our Head Boys Golf Coach, a position that he held for many years. He has coached and taught in the Eastwood District for 51 years! When Mike came in to talk with me about retiring from coaching, he had a written list of 110 reasons why it was time to retire from coaching. He shared his top 10 reasons and it was hard to argue any of them. After 51 years of coaching numerous sports at Eastwood he certainly earned the right of when to make that decision!

John Cavendish

John has been our Head Girls Golf Coach for over 20 years and has been a fixture for our Girls Golf program over that time. Again, when talking to John, his reasons for stepping away from coaching also involved knowing it was time and to take time enjoying life after coaching. Will be hard to imagine John not coaching next year but he too has earned that right to say it is time.

Bob Brough

Bob has been our JH Boys Golf Coach for 23 years and has worked side by side with Coach Gardner throughout that entire time. He too has been a fixture of our Boys Golf Program and will be hard to imagine not seeing him around the team.

Ken Perkins

Ken has been a JH Track Coach for the last 20 plus years and has chosen to step away from coaching at this time. Ken is another example of the character of the culture of our JH and HS Track programs and has been a huge contributor to that culture. He will be missed as well this coming Spring.

With these 4 gentlemen we are losing over 115 years of coaching experience from our ranks. I am sure all of them will still be interested in what is going on with their teams and will be helpful to the next ones coming in to coach in their spots. They all will be tough shoes to fill and I am thankful these four gentlemen chose to work with the youth of our district and for being such great role models for them.

Before the start of every sports season we are required by the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) to hold a Preseason Parents and Athletes meeting. At this meeting we will cover all of the information needed involved with your son/daughter being involved in athletics here at Eastwood Schools and the OHSAA. It will also give you the opportunity to meet with the respective coaches for each of the Spring Sports that we offer ( HS - Baseball, Softball, Boys Track, Girls Track, JH - Boys Track, Girls Track). For student/athletes to be able to participate in athletics, attendance at this meeting is mandatory.

The first part of the meeting will include policy rules and regulation information from Eastwood Local Schools and the OHSAA. The second part of the meeting will be where the parents meet with the individual sport coaches so that they can talk about the expectations involved with their sports.

If you have been involved with a Fall and or a Winter Sport then your parent does not have to attend the first part and should plan on being there by 7:30 so you can meet with their respective Spring Sport Coach.

This meeting will be taking place at the HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM on Thursday, February 16th at 7pm.

Either a parent and or the student/athletes must attend this meeting and if that is not possible please contact me ASAP to let me know. We have alternative ways to fulfill this responsibility should that be the case.

For more information please e-mail me at:

jhill@eastwoodschools.org

Here are all of our coaches for the Spring Sports that we offer. If you have any questions concerning their sport please contact them directly with your questions.

High School Coaches

Baseball

Kevin Leady - kleady@eastwoodschools.org (Head Coach)

Kyle Szczublewski - (JV Coach)

Cade Boos - (Varsity Assistant Coach)

Jacob McNulty - (Varsity Assistant Coach)

Josh Marten - (Varsity Assistant Coach)

Softball

Joe Wyant - jwyant@eastwoodschools.org (Head Coach)

Jay Young - (Varsity Assistant)

Diana Bushman - (JV Coach)

Aaron Grover - (Volunteer Assistant Coach)

Boys Track

Brian Sabo - bsabo@eastwoodschools.org (Head Coach)

Ethan Downey - (Assistant Coach)

Tyler McCrory - (Assistant Coach)

TJ Tuttamore - (Assistant Coach)

Cody Seifert - (Assistant Coach

Girls Track

Nikki Sabo - nsabo@eastwoodschools.org (Head Coach)

Whitney Recker - (Assistant Coach)

Jack Corken - (Assistant Coach)

Nicole Schmeltz - (Assistant Coach)

JH Boys and Girls Track

Nathan Howard - nhoward@eastwoodschools.org

Stephanie Schneider-Sims - ssims@eastwoodschools.org

John Sponaugle - jsponaugle@eastwoodschools.org

Chris Cunningham - ccunningham@eastwoodschools.org

For some of you this will come as no surprise and for others this might be the first time you are hearing about it officially.

To clear any confusion or misinformation about my status for next year...and beyond, this will be my last school year as Eastwood Director of Athletics and I am retiring (again) effective July 31, 2023. That is when I will be completing my 42nd year in education and it will be time for me to step away from this dream of a lifetime profession.

I am not writing this to start the Goodbye and Good Luck process that happens when people retire. There will be plenty of time for that at the end and there is far too much to do before then. I am only informing you all formally so as to let everybody know at the same time and to let you know that this does not change how I do things or what I do for you.

In talking to Coach Mike Gardner when he came in to tell me he was retiring, he mentioned that he wrote down over 100 reasons why "it was time." The top 10 reasons he shared with me in detail and I shared at least 9 of his top 10 reasons why it is time for me to step away. None of those reasons have anything to do with you as my coaching staff or our athletes. Those two reasons alone made this one of the hardest decisions I have had to make and have helped to make this profession one of the most enjoyable and rewarding anyone could have hoped for.

I leave my position with great pride and confidence in all of the great things that I felt were accomplished in my years and that they mirrored the culture of what Eastwood is all about. I took great care in making sure that I always represented Eastwood with class and character and that our teams, athletes and coaches did the same. I can proudly say that I believe that is one of our strongest characteristics. You can win contests and still have class in doing that. You do not have to sacrifice one for the other and our coaches and kids do that on a daily basis.

In closing, I feel that I am leaving our Eastwood Athletic Programs in a good place but that will be for others to judge. I am not the type person that will just ride out the last 6 months of my career. I can assure you I will attack it in the ways I always have with energy, enthusiasm and passion until July 31. It is not really time for goodbyes and good luck yet. There is too much to do yet in the time remaining. I may not have been born an Eastwood Eagle but I can proudly say that I bleed Red, Columbia Blue and White and that I am an Eagle!

To look at the current Spring Sports schedules for both JH and HS you can go to this link to access that information: https://eastwoodeagles.org/

Schedule Star is a great tool to stay up to date with the current schedule. As you know, the schedule can change daily so checking Schedule Star frequently can keep you up to date with schedule changes. You can even sign up on Schedule Star to be sent email anytime there is a change in schedule in the sport you designate.

We also use Twitter extensively for immediate information that needs to get out concerning our athletics. We also use it to give score updates, schedule updates and many other different informational items involved with HS and JH athletics. The Twitter site is:

@ELSEaglesAD