Season at a glance by Adrian curry
We are past the halfway point of the season and coming down the homestretch of the regular season with a little less than 4 weeks left and the tournament draw 3 weeks from Sunday. There have been so many twists and turns along with disappointments and surprises. Several surprise teams have come to the forefront including Westerville north, Watkins memorial and Dublin Coffman. For Coffman to lose what they did from last year and to be undefeated and ranked #2 in the state so far is quite amazing. Doing it with some of the same players from last year but have had others step up including Tessa Grady and Jenna kopyar. They have a favorable schedule to end the season as their toughest games are All at home including the district semifinals rematch with gahanna on the 25th. Watkins memorial is the ultimate surprise playing in the tough lcl and already owning wins against Granville, Utica and Lakewood and still undefeated. They are having a great season and with their toughest game left with Granville on the road on the road on the 25th could be undefeated at the end of the regular season. Westerville south is having a surprising good year despite the losses of key seniors from last year of Peyton Guice and sommer pitzer. They have been able to rely on seniors Gabby hutcherson and anyssa Jones along with Aja Austin and some key younger role players that have made significant contributions. There have been some disappointments and at the top of the list is gahanna. They have come on strong as of late winning their last 3 games and are 6-6 going into their game on Friday versus pick central. With a strong returning group coming back there was a high expectations that they would make a deep run and maybe make it to states. There is still time to turn it around but a tough early-season schedule has made it difficult. Also disappointing is Olentangy liberty and bloom-Carroll both teams have turned around their seasons after getting out the gate slow but have struggled for consistency throughout the season. Both teams have great players that can still make an impact on their teams and help them make deep runs in the tournament. Divisions 2 and 3 look deep as you can say anyone can win the state this year by looks of the first state poll. The classic in the country will be fascinating next week as their are some great matchups that include local teams Newark, Reynoldsburg, gahanna and pickerington central. The best league races left are the msl-Ohio, occ-cardinal and lcl. In all of these races they are still one meeting to go between the top 2 teams in each of these races. The tournament draw will be fascinating as always. Very much looking forward to the rest of the season and upcoming tournament.