Paying another visit to the variety store...



Mighty Mike

With the Ohio high school football playoffs down to the final eight teams in each of the state’s six divisions, one Ashtabula County connection remains intact.

Former Pymatuning Valley great Mike Bell, a 1986 PV graduate, will guide his Lake Catholic Cougars (11-1) against the Ashland Arrows (11-1) in a Division II regional championship game today. The contest, which will send one of the two teams to the Division II Final Four next weekend, will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and be played at Green Memorial Stadium.

Bell’s Cougars defeated Canfield, 31-24, in a regional-semifinal contest a week ago, while Ashland was conquering Howland, 19-14, to set up tonight’s matchup.

Bell was a star two-way performer during a stellar four-year career at PV, the first of which were for coach Brian Cross, the final being for coach Ken Parise.

The Lakers went 9-1 in his junior season at PV in 1984 under Cross’ direction, then took it a step farther in his senior season of 1985, posting a perfect 10-0 season, the only one in PV history.

Bell was such an accomplished player that he was inducted into the Ashtabula County Football Hall of Fame a year ago.

Now in his eighth season at the helm of the Cougars, the 41-year-old Bell is now 63-33 (.656) at Lake Catholic.



End of the line

Speaking of Cross, he was the county’s other connection to the football playoffs, having led the Olentangy Orange Pioneers to a Division II, Region 7 semifinal, where they were eliminated in a shootout last Friday night by Columbus Marion-Franklin, 36-25.

Marion Franklin (10-2), an eight seed, will play third-seeded Columbus Brookhaven (10-2) in the Region 7 championship game tonight.

Cross, who went on to great success at Columbus Eastmoor, Grove City and then Canton McKinley before being the man to get the football program off the ground in 2008 at Olentangy Orange, left PV after the fine 9-1 season of 1984, which included the likes of stars such as the Bell brothers, Lou Konyha, Larry Tennant and Mike Hussing.

His Pioneers finished the season with a 9-3 record.



Star power

With apologies to Tony Pasanen, Big John Hagstrom, Mike Olmstead, Matt Rothbauer and J.C. Lenk, none of those guys are the most accomplished basketball players on the Conneaut girls basketball coaching staff.

Nope, that status is bestowed on Darcy Quinlan, who joins Pasanen’s staff for what is expected to be an outstanding season for the Spartans this winter.

Quinlan was a tremendous player for coaches John Diehl and Craig Lobmiller during her days as a Howland Tiger.

A 2003 Howland graduate, Quinlan was an All-Ohio basketball player — and also an All-Ohio soccer player — during her days at Howland.

I hereby challenge Tony, John, Mike, Matt and J.C. to take on Darcy in a game of H-O-R-S-E — my Diet Coke is wagered on Darcy.

Stay tuned.



‘Thankful Fors...’

OK, Loyal Readers, the deadline for me to receive your “Thankful Fors...” will be Sunday.

Tell me whom or what you are thankful for. That’s it, short and sweet.

You can submit them my way via email at donmac@suite224.net, fax at 998-7938 or drop them off here at the Star Beacon office, located at 4626 Park Ave. in Ashtabula. At this point, it’s too late to send them via snail mail.



Update

In this space yesterday, I mentioned how a sheriff’s report was filed after one 14-year-old Pymatuning Valley Middle School kid socked another in the face — for blocking his shot three times in gym class.

Well, with apologies to the late-great Paul Harvey, here’s the rest of the story:

A game of “knockout” was being contested. That’s a game where the players line up single file and the first kid shoots from a spot. If he doesn’t make the shot, he must get the rebound and score before the kid behind him makes a shot from the same spot. If he doesn’t, he’s eliminated.

The punchee was not participating in the game, but threw a basketball that knocked the puncher’s ball away from the game. That’s what prompted the punch in the moosh.

The punchee was more than a bit shocked, but OK.

The puncher got three days’ out-of-school suspension.



Potty mouth

Intrepid Ohio State University researchers have learned students don’t just party in a campus lake during rituals before the annual Michigan game.

They also potty there.

Thousands of students jumped into Ohio State’s Mirror Lake on Thursday night, ahead of Saturday’s football game between the Buckeyes and Wolverines.

Before, during and after last year’s big swim, the College of Earth Sciences monitored the water quality.

Postdoctoral research associate Steve Goldsmith says the lake’s temperature went up three degrees throughout the night, and the ammonia level surged.

He says body heat could explain the warmer water, but the ammonia likely means one thing: urine.

Goldsmith advises students to have fun, just not open their mouths.



The Associated Press contributed to this report. McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.