Chillicothe Gazette from Chillicothe, Ohio • A5

11308A 005 111208 11:39 PM Paae 1 Sports Women in sports have more chances than ever Mfre Carolyn O'Leary, a member of the Columbus Comets professional women's football team, speaks Wednesday at Ohio University-Chillicothe's Women in Sports Symposium. Lindsay Niegelberg Gazette Allen joined Carolyn O'Leary, a guard and defensive tackle for the Columbus Comets women's professional football team, to discuss the importance of women getting involved in sports. The Women in Sports Symposium is a part of the "Commemoration of Women" series held by the university. Both Allen and O'Leary hit on the importance of getting young girls involved in athletics, and once they get involved, helping them realize sports doesn't have to By JOEY CHANDLER Gazette Sports Writer Most days when Pam Allen was in second grade, the girls in her class lined up for music while the boys lined up for gym. But on this particular day, dressed in shorts and sneakers at her catholic grade school, Allen joined the boy's line.

After all, what's so wrong with a little girl wanting to participate in gym? What seemed like a surefire entrance to the unknown quickly turned into a detour to the principal's office, while the boys marched off to the gym, and the girls to music class. "My father was on my side and said: 'Did you ever hear her sing? So what if she's a girl? I guarantee you she will out-play at least half of those boys," Allen said. If only the second grade version of Allen could see how far women in sports have come. She'd definitely have a big smile on her face. The grown-up health and physical education teacher version of Allen did smile Wednesday night at the Women in Sports Symposium held in the Ohio Uni-versity-Chillicothe Bennett Hall Scott Art Gallery.

4 Knights leads long list of Cavaliers on AU District team Mustangs put six players on D-IV first team The Gazette Staff Seven Chillicothe players were named to the Division III Southeast District first team, and four honorable mention. Quarterback Caleb Knights, who helped lead the Cavs to an 8-3 season, including playoff berth. Joining Knights are senior running back Eric Young, senior offensive lineman Tyler Dunkle, senior offensive lineman Danny Russell, junior kicker Drew Basil, senior linebacker Shay Netter, and senior defensive backs Jordan Benson and Ron Smith. Curt Smith, Tyler Vest, J.T Gray, Alex Grow, and Mc-Clain's Adam Hollar all received honorable mention. Six Westfall players topped the list in Division IV.

Senior D.J. Cain joined Waverly junior Derek Roback for first team quarterback honors. Westfall tight end and senior Ben Cline, senior tight end Bryant Gibson, senior kicker Cameron Puckett, senior defensive lineman Tyler Smith, and senior linebacker Tyler Cobb also made the first team. Gazette file photos The future of baseball in Chillicothe got a lot clearer when the Paints formally announced they will be joining the 11 -team Prospect League starting next summer. Future of Paints comes into focus JtfeDjresti Cnbmnisl Notre Dame struggles to return to gridiron glory till the best college song in the land, the Notre Dame Victory March.

Except lately, there has been plenty of marching but not enough victory. It has come to this. The Irish face what is tantamount to a must-win situation Saturday. Against Navy. In the fourth year of the Charlie Weis administration, it is difficult to get your arms around the state of the Notre Dame union.

The Irish have lots of youth, who occasionally do something impressive. Weis still seems on task confident, honest, usually with an idea what to do next. He'll be calling the plays himself against Navy, partly because his offensive coordinator had a family emergency, and very possibly because he thought it was time to do it, anyway. But this is a bottom line occupation. Let us see if the bottom line at the moment matches the stirring words from the fight song.

"Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame Not much to cheer lately, what with three losses in the past four games. Included were five-turnover monstrosities against North Carolina and Boston College. "I think that I'd be perturbed too, if I were them," Weis said of the fans at his weekly press conference. "Wake up the echoes cheering her name No echo would get out of bed for this: Notre Dame is 5-4 but 0-4 against teams with winning records. The combined record of the five teams the Irish have beaten is 12-37.

"Send the volley cheer on high Speaking of high, seen Notre Dame's turnover ratio away from home? Ouch. One turnover forced, 14 turnovers committed. "Shake down the thunder from the sky That was Weis' assignment, when Notre Dame au-dibled away from Tyrone Willingham after three years. But as we speak, Weis is 27-19, the .587 winning percentage roughly that of predecessors Willingham and Bob Davie. In other words, this is not the fast lane to a return to national relevance.

And it still makes the speed of Will-ingham's ouster an awkward issue for Notre Dame. "Maybe not as fast as I'd like," Weis said. "But do I believe that the future is promising? Yes I do." You look at the struggles in one of college football's most remarkable droughts, the Irish have not won a bowl game in 15 years and it is sometimes easy to forget this is Notre Dame we're talking about. "What though the odds be great or small Great odds? That used to be Navy against Notre Dame, the Midshipmen having lost 43 straight. Until last season.

Psychologically and symbolically, a second straight loss for the Irish would be worth a thousand words. "Old Notre Dame will win overall The good news is there are only nine shopping days until the game against 2-7 Syracuse. The bad news is, seven days after that, the Irish go to USC. "While her loyal sons are marching onward to victory." Weis has the answers. Maybe.

Jimmy Clausen will grow out of the mistakes and be the quarterback so many expected. Maybe. The talent level will rise so that the BCS computers don't have to ask for Notre Dame's ID at the door. Maybe. "I think that the bottom line is, where's the program going to go?" Weis said.

"I think that's the big question. And I'm confident that the Crennel vows to not quit as Browns' ship keeps sinking 1 "If anything, fans should expect better entertainment. And when they come to the park, things are going to be just like they have been, maybe a little better." Chris Hanners "People might say it's ironic that the chairman of the board of the Frontier League is the one who sees their team go," Hanners said. "But that's what makes the Frontier League a unique business. Our market can't keep up with the 5,000 fans some of those teams are drawing, and it makes sense for the low guy to move on.

"But the goal was to keep baseball in Chillicothe, and the Prospect League will continue to do that. And this isn't just a one- or two-year commitment. I hope it's here for a long, long time." The Paints and, yes, the team's name will still be the same will compete in the East Division of the new league, along with Richmond, Ind. (a longtime Frontier League rival of the Paints), Lorain, Ohio, as well leading up and they played stack defense the whole game. Hadn't played it all year, but that's what happens sometimes.

So you have to get adjusted to that. The coverages didn't change much, but their front totally changed and our guys had to adjust to that and you have some growing pains as you're going through a significant change, but what we do in the course of the game is based on what they do." Taking the ball first Fans may have wondered why Ohio State has frequently had the ball first to start games this season. The answer is twofold. First, 1 The full list of all-Southeast District football players. Next Page Westfall's Aaron Bailey and Mitchell Riffle made the honorable mention list with Zane Trace's Jordie Wonderleigh, Ben Jones, and D.J.

Merri-man, and Piketon's Keiffer Reed, Caleb Southworth, and Jordan Brabson. Despite barely missing a spot in the Division playoffs, Paint Valley cleaned up nicely. Four-year starter and Bearcat quarterback Matt Workman garnered First Team honors. Adena senior Buddy Barnes and Paint Valley's Colton Morris were named First Team in the running backs list. Paint Valley senior Ryan Broughton and junior Blake Wisecup, along with Adena junior Jeremiah Dehus, were first team offensive lineman.

Paint Valley senior linebacker Gage McFadden and sophomore punter Garrett Tyree also made first team. Paint Valley's Wes Parker, Adena's Jimmy Starr, and Southeastern's Jordan Elam all made honorable mention. "When you say that the team quit, that's saying that I quit. I know that I'm not a quitter and my players don't quit." Romeo Crennel land, rejected those contentions. "It seems like the word 'quit' has taken a life of its own and grown a little bit bigger, and now the Browns are quitters and the coach has lost control of the team and there's division in the locker room, and that's not the case," Crennel said.

"These guys are going to play and play together. Whether we play good enough remains to be seen." Lewis refused to get into any specifics about his post-game rant, which came after the Browns (3-6) dropped to 1-4 at home and severely damaged any chances of making the AFC playoffs. However, the nine-year veteran isn't retracting his statements and said he has spoken to some players individually. sarily think that that's an advantage starting on the 20, so we thought, well, let's begin the game with some field position. We've won the toss a lot this year.

It's amazing." List-maker LB James Laurinaitis was announced Wednesday as one of three finalists for the Lom-bardi Award, given annually to the best front-seven defender in college football. Laurinaitis, a finalist a year ago when LSU's Glenn Dorsey won, is joined by USC LB Rey Maualuga, Texas DE Brian Orakpo and Alabama OL Andre Smith. Paints owner Chris Hanners addresses the crowd near the end of last season at VA Memorial Stadium. Wednesday, Hanners said he hopes the upstart Prospect League stays in Chillicothe for a long time. Paints to play in Prospect League next summer By PHIL GRAY Gazette Sports Writer The future of baseball in Chillicothe is taking shape.

The Chillicothe Paints are now a member of the 11-team Prospect League, a wood-bat league for college-age players that will begin play next summer. "I think this is the new wave of baseball," Paints owner Chris Hanners said. "And we're certainly proud and very glad to be in on the ground floor of something that we think is going to be a very strong league." The Prospect League is a combination of five teams from around Ohio and Pennsylvania some of which are from towns that will be familiar to longtime Paints fans as well as six teams from the Central Illinois Collegiate League. The CICL was founded in 1963 (for the record, it played as a five-team league last year; a sixth team was added before the Prospect League became a reality), and lends immediate legitimacy to the upstart Prospect League. "Those people (from the CICL) are good people," said Hanners.

"I think it will be a nice business that we're all getting into. More By TOM WITHERS AP Sports Writer BEREA If he's going down, Romeo Crennel is going down fighting. Stung and personally insulted by running back Jamal Lewis' claim that some unnamed Browns quit in the fourth quarter of last week's loss to Denver, Cleveland's embattled coach disputed Lewis' belief, defended his leadership skills and said he's certain his team has not yet given up on him or a season spiraling away. "When you say that the team quit, that's saying that I quit," Crennel said. "I know that I'm not a quitter and my players don't quit." After the Broncos scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and beat the Browns 34-30 on Thursday just four days following a similar collapse in a home loss to Baltimore a frustrated Lewis vented by saying some Browns quit and others needed to check their egos.

Lewis' comments were then supported on Monday by return specialist Joshua Cribbs, who said the team needed to "weed out those guys and play the rest of the season out." Crennel, who is 23-34 in three-plus seasons in Cleve- the Buckeyes captains have won eight of nine coin flips each time calling tails. Second, after winning the coin flip, Ohio State has been electing to take the ball instead of deferring to the second half. Tressel said the reason is a rule change that moved the kick-offs back from the 35 to the 30. "We didn't start doing that until last year, and that was because kicking from the 30, we thought that you have a chance even with an average return to be out to the 25," he said. "When the ball was being kicked from the 35 and so many balls were going as touchbacks, we didn't neces than anything, when we came away from our meetings with them, we walked away saying that they're good, experienced and knowledgeable people.

And joining forces with them was the way to go." Frank Pergolizzi will move from his post as the commissioner of the CICL to the same job with the new league. "The Prospect League's mission is to create and maintain the best collegiate wooden bat summer league in the country," Pergolizzi said in a statement. "Our ownership groups are committed to providing the players a positive experience, quality instruction and a high level of competition while offering our communities first things then there's no distractions. I don't worry about what (Illinois LB) Brit Miller is saying about me. I could care less what he thinks.

I care that when I play on Saturday that I do my best and that this team wins because, obviously, there's some animosity between us and Illinois." Nicol said he's not alone in making the correlation to canines. "Malcolm (Jenkins) refers to us as 'We're dogs' and We've got killer he said. Tresselese Tressel on QB Terrelle Pryor's progress on his foot class, affordable family entertainment." "Frank has done an excellent job (with the CICL), and I have a lot of faith in him," Hanners said. That's a league that's rich with tradition, founded in the '60's. And it's humbling to be able to be in business with those people." For 16 years, the Paints played in the Frontier League, which Hanners was instrumental in starting over the course of 100 days in the spring of 1993.

The Paints were, until the last out of this past September, the lone surviving charter member of the Frontier League. On top of that, Hanners served for years as the president of the FL before becoming that league's chairman of the board. work and how it affects play selection: 'Typically the play selection is based upon what the defense is doing and if they work, usually your feet are right or the protection is right or the route was run right. And we may have we may have tailored down some because we had a little bit of time to study ourselves and which are we doing better, what can we block well enough, et cetera, et cetera, but then when you get into the course of the game, if they're doing what they've shown, which interestingly enough, Northwestern came out and they'd run a tight defense the whole nine games Buckeyes hungry for feeding time as Illinois looms The Associated Press COLUMBUS What's brewing today with the 2008 Ohio State Buckeyes Buckeyes buzz Rory Nicol says he doesn't have time to think about anybody else but himself and his teammates. It's almost an indoctrination for a college athlete.

He said coaches try to get players to focus, focus, focus to the point where they have little time or energy for anything outside their sphere. "We're like these trained dogs. We're trained to think about ourselves," he said. "But that's the best way to go about 0.