Sidelines: 8 to enter City League hall of fame

10/6/2005

Eight members will be inducted into the City League hall of fame on Nov. 7 in a banquet at SeaGate Centre. Social hour begins at 5:30 p.m.

The inductees include:

• Allen Smith (Scott, 1962), who starred in football and track for the Bulldogs before competing in both sports at Findlay College and eventually reaching the pro ranks with the New York Jets of the American Football League.

• Tony Beier (St. John s, 1986), a CL champion and state finalist in wrestling, and an All-CL and all-district fullback in football.

• Shawn Contos (St. John s 1993), the first four-time individual champion in the City League wrestling tournament, a state placer, and the Titans career leader in pins and takedowns.

• Kim Erdmann Edwards (Waite, 1981), who earned 10 varsity letters, and received All-CL and all-academic honors in basketball, tennis and track. She later played tennis at the University of Toledo.

• Kimberly Bates Barnett (DeVilbiss, 1990), who competed in volleyball, basketball and track, earning CL player of the year and All-Ohio honors in volleyball, which she played on scholarship at the University of Toledo.

• Orris Tabner, former longtime sports anchorman for WTOL (Channel 11). He joins the hall as Toledo s distinguished citizen inductee, and also played football at Libbey (1950 graduate).

• Glen Browning, who is the honored coach inductee. He coached track for almost 30 years at Libbey and Rogers, guiding 88 All-CL athletes, nine state champions and six state runners-up.

• Joe Westenkirchner, who is the hall s posthumous inductee. He played football at Waite (1944 graduate), Notre Dame, the U.S. Navy Air Force team and the NFL s Los Angeles Rams. He later coached football and track.

Otsego senior quarterback Matt Mills will be out for at least the next three games with a broken fibula in his leg.

Mills had thrown for 614 yards and six touchdowns this season before he was injured Friday in the first quarter against Eastwood. The Knights (6-0, 3-0) managed to outlast the Eagles 29-26 in five overtimes.

Otsego coach Dan Cocke said Mills met with a specialist on Monday who said the earliest Mills could return would be the last game of the regular season.

It s a non-weight bearing bone. He s not on crutches and he is walking around on it with a brace on it, Cocke said of the broken fibula, which is the smaller and outer of the two bones between the knee and ankle.

Cocke s son, Andy (5-foot-6, 131 pounds), will continue to fill in at quarterback with sophomore Kenny Rodgers serving as his backup.

Our focus is still to win the SLL, make the playoffs and enjoy all that fun stuff that comes along with it, Cocke said.

It will be a border war featuring two of the area s better small schools tomorrow when Liberty Center hosts Whiteford.

Bobcats coach Jack Luettke knows his team will have a tough time handling the Tigers. Outside of its home loss to Patrick Henry, Liberty Center has won its other five games by a combined score of 216-69.

The Tigers opened the season by scoring 60 points at Tinora, then posted 71 points at home against Swanton last Friday.

We go out of the frying pan into the fire, Luettke said following his team s loss to Sand Creek last Friday in Tri-County Conference play.

I know they re good, so we look at this as a challenge to see what we can do.

Luettke s hope is that tomorrow s contest will give his team one final test before the Michigan playoffs, which begin Oct. 28.

A year ago, Maumee s boys soccer team won a Division II district championship before falling short to Akron Archbishop in a regional semifinal.

Nine starters are back from the team that finished 13-5-2 overall and the Panthers opened 8-01 before dropping two NLL matches.

Joe Albright, who finished tied for the lead in goals scored last season, is the top returner.

It s a tight-knit group led by its senior class, according to Maumee coach Joel Calkins.

Eight of the nine starters have played together at least since the second grade, said Calkins, a Maumee grad in his fifth season as the Panthers coach. The bond between that group had already occurred long before they reached high school.