I am Phil Ney with Southwestern Wisconsin sports this weekend during the Ithaca school fair and homecoming
They will induct another into the Ithaca athletic hall of fame and this year's inductee will be a
1975 graduate of Ithaca schools John Jones who went to the state track meet three years in a row and one the
Discus throw in
1975 his senior year he was the first Ithaca athlete to take a state championship in an individual sport and I spoke with him this week
About growing up in a close-knit community and how after his father died when John was just 16 the community really embraced him
very thankful for for some of the
The community as a whole I think sort of after dad died
took
took care of mom and and
My younger brother and I
The two older boys were we're off doing doing their thing, but
people like
Junior Miller and Mike Schoss Dave Manning Neal Anderson were very prominent in in
my
my life
High school not only supporting supporting me in the athletic, but
I worked for I think I think I think I worked for all of them. I was I was around
their families and
It meant a lot getting farms strong throwing a few bales in the summertime and things like that
That's a dirt. Yeah
That's for sure. That's for sure. I often often
Think you think back at the the athletic program that we had we had you know, basically no weight program I
remember some of us
Get together maybe be a week or two before football and and run together a little bit work out a little bit, but
We just didn't have the opportunity that or the the equipment. I guess they have now
I think I think we did pretty well for what what we had no doubt
Well, let's go through that the track season. I know you were out for track your your high school career
But the spring of 1975 that must have been pretty special John
It was it was and I
I guess I
Didn't really realize how special it was until I got to the till I won the state and
That was
Almost unexpected also. I I did I
competed against
several guys
Dan Kirkken from the Farge and I
Tell you the truth. I never I don't think I ever beat it during the season and
I got the state and
it just everything clicked and and I
I
I could say I I was I believe I was selected seventh in and they they took eight people eight eight of the best throws in the state at
Sectional they went to state and I think I was number seven and
I came out of state number one. So it was it was
quite surprising for me, but but
One of the greatest memories
The comments of John Jones 1975 graduate of Ithaca and he will be going into the Ithaca athletic hall of fame officially at
2 o'clock on Saturday prior to a game time kickoff at 2 30 for this year's Ithaca Royal Homecoming football game and
Now tonight's schedule well there's soccer Richland Center is at Lodi River Valley at Readsburg in
volleyball Fenemore at Mineral Point Iowa Grant at Bosca Bell and Cuba City at Riverdale
coach Jesse Kinney talked to us recently about playing during homecoming week will be seeing Cuba City at home and I mean
We've we've some of us have already scouted them. So it's always I mean Cuba's disadvantages that everybody wants to play their
Bust against them because of their reputation. So I'm really glad that that's our homecoming match and will that be a little earlier
But yeah, everything is bumped up just because of trying to get to skit night will be on the air a little earlier around six o'clock
Tonight with our vatesting power sports pre-match show a cross country meet today hosted by kick-a-boo high school
Many teams there cashed in De Soto Hillsboro, New Lisbon, North Crawford, River Ridge, Royal, Seneca
Shoalsburg, Wasika, Stuban, Westby and Weston and the meet gets underway this afternoon at five o'clock
Week number seven of high school football among the big games in the area
River Valley travels to Plattville for a showdown coming up between a couple of teams
Vying for a conference title River Valley down six nothing at halftime against Richland Center
I've had to make a few adjustments. I asked head coach Tyler McLean a River Valley about last week's game a win over Richland Center
The biggest adjustment that we kind of made was more or less just
Understanding what Richland Center was trying to I guess
Do in a sense kind of sounds weird to say but pretty much offensively with them. They did a really nice job of extending their own drives
They got the ball they ran the ball very well. I defensively we had to make a couple of adjustments
To make sure that we kind of sorted those long drives that kind of kept our offense up the field
I'm a little bit offensively
To start we show a little bit up front
Just handling their front and handling their backers and all that made a couple adjustments at halftime
I think we responded really well
Especially offensively finally getting some opportunities to put some points in the board there
But they did a very nice job with a good game plan coming in
I really appreciate all of our coaches and our guys at halftime
I'm kind of taking a deep breath looking at ourselves in the air
I'm going out there second half to execute
There were a couple of big plays that made maybe made the difference you can't always rely on those
But that you had some kids that really stepped up at the end didn't you?
Yeah, I mean the first time that pops right into mind is the the one became plummet that we had a little bit of luck
That kind of like out on our side as well there during that play
But um he's been a guy that we've leaned on quite a bit throughout the year to make some plays for us
They continue to do so so
Then also Jordan as well having his big catch there kind of self enough sealed the deal
On those are two guys that we do rely on to make big plays when the nice part is there are a couple more guys
I haven't named off quite yet
And I still think they're going to have some big plays in league moments for us as well
We'll keep relying on them when we can
But we also do want to make sure we're the team that is taking layups when we can
You know, I like to use that reference to get some
Basketball guys in the team that we need to make the layups for a story start shooting those threes at all those stepbacks
River Valley coach Tyler McLean his team headed to platville on Friday night
merchants league bowling last evening
Goblin insurance had a 2887 series cast in tools 2872 premier co-op at 2840 game honors goblin insurance at 1040
Castin tools in premier co-op at 1016
Gerner Farms at 953 the top individual series chase Keller as 668
Taylor Kenofi a 667 Greg Shep and Matt Fargeon each had 659's top game honors chase Keller a 269 Matt Fargeon
258 Taylor Kenofi and Matthew Thomas each had a 257 game in the merchants bowling league
Elsewhere in sports it was Mani Machano hitting a tour on home run mason miller dominating again
And the Padres beat the cobs three nothing to send their nationally wildcard series to a decisive third game today
Jackson Merrill had an early sacrifice fly as San Diego avoided elimination
The playoff tested Padres are looking for a repeat of 2020 when they dropped game one in the wildcard round before advancing
With two straight victories against St. Louis Machano also homeron game two of that series
Elsewhere today our yesterday it was the Dodgers eight four overs Cincinnati
Cleveland six one over Detroit and the Yankees four three over Boston
The Brewers await their playoff opponent either San Diego or Chicago
Game time has not been announced for that yet
It depends on who wins. I believe in the American League series the Yankees or Boston which could push that brewer cub game to the night
Or it could be an early game on the day for the NL DS
Also in sports Pat Murphy Brewer manager talk this week about experience is it important for his pitching staff
Having players that have played in the playoffs before. Oh, I think it does matter
But not to the point where you know if you've got a great racehorse and that racehorse is capable of winning the race
And you've got a real experience racehorse that might not be at their best and they're not capable of winning the race
You know, you've got to kind of tinker with both, you know
This one could bring you this and this one could possibly bring you this but you can't it doesn't get out of the gate
And you can't get it too big a leash
That's kind of I think experience is important and football news don't blame quarterback Jordan love for the Packers slow start to the NFL season
CBS sports rates him among the top five passers in the league in that 40 40 tie against the Cowboys love completed 31 passes for
331 yards and three touchdowns he kept producing clutch throws the kept green Bay in the high scoring game
After four games he's completed more than 69% of his passes for an even 1,000 yards eight touchdowns and just one interception
Tonight in football the NFL weekend gets underway with a game of the West Coast San Francisco plays at the LA Rams
I'm Phil Ney with an update on sports
