Perrysburg boys, ND girls top year’s first Blade poll

Rogers girls, Lake boys, Archbold teams No. 1

1/6/2014

The first Blade high school basketball polls for the 2013-14 season are out, and the Perrysburg boys and Notre Dame girls hold down the top spots in their respective Division I rankings.

Coach Dave Boyce’s Perrysburg Yellow Jackets are off to a perfect 9-0 start, including a key league win against preseason Northern Lakes League favorite Springfield.

City League leader Bowsher (7-1) and Three Rivers Athletic Conference front-runner St. John’s Jesuit (9-2) rank Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, among D-I boys.

Coach Travis Galloway’s Notre Dame Eagles (7-0) are coming off back-to-back trips to the D-I girls state semifinals and already have a signature local win against City League leader Rogers (9-2), which heads up the first D-II girls poll.

Perrysburg (9-1), which leads the NLL girls standings, and Whitmer (7-2), second in the TRAC, are ranked Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, in Division I.

Ranked behind coach Lamar Smith’s Rogers Rams in the D-II girls poll are No. 2 Central Catholic (6-2) of the TRAC and No. 3 Port Clinton (8-3) of the Sandusky Bay Conference.

Northern Buckeye Conference co-leader Lake (9-0) heads up the first Blade boys D-II poll, followed by 2013 D-I state runner-up Rogers (3-2) at No. 2 and Northwest Ohio Athletic League co-leader Wauseon (8-2) at No. 3. Lake coach Ryan Bowen’s Flyers have a first-place showdown with preseason NBC favorite Rossford scheduled for Friday.

In D-III, the Archbold boys and girls hold the No. 1 spots in their respective polls, with the Blue Streak boys (7-1) of coach Doug Krauss and the Blue Streak girls (11-1) of coach Brian Ziegler both in first place in the NWOAL.

NWOAL rivals Delta (7-1) and Evergreen (6-2) rank Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, among The Blade poll’s D-III boys teams. Liberty-Benton (9-1) of the Blanchard Valley Conference is No. 2 in the D-III girls poll, and Oak Harbor (9-2) of the SBC is No. 3l.

Toledo Area Athletic Conference leader Ottawa Hills (7-1) tops the first Division IV boys poll. Coach John Lindsay’s Green Bears are followed by Fayette (5-2) of the Buckeye Border Conference at No. 2 and TAAC co-leader Maumee Valley (8-1) at No. 3.

The Division IV girls poll is headed up by coach Jim Niese’s Holgate Tigers (9-1) of the Green Meadows Conference. Ranked at Nos. 2 and 3 among the D-IV girls are BBC members Fayette (8-1) and Pettisville (8-2).

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com, or 419-724-6461 or on Twitter@JungaBlade.