Published: August 04, 2008 11:07 pm            

Ramblin' Reck: PGA returns to Wabash Valley

TERRE HAUTE — Play began in an Indiana PGA event Monday — the first state event to be played in our town for a while to the best of our knowledge.

Two rounds of the Assistant’s Championship were played Monday and the final round is slated today.

Players with local ties have done well in this event in the past. Chad Penman, who was a top golfer at Northview, won the championship a year ago.

Ron Poore Jr. and Rick Fernandes also have been top finishers.

Kyle Miller is one of the players in this year’s tournament. He played for Terre Haute North and is the assistant at Crook-ed Stick, where the U.S. Senior Open will be played in 2009.

Word has it that his coach at North, Steve Higham, will be his caddy today for the final 18 holes. Higham, of course, recently was named coach at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Rich Schelsky probably would have been playing in the tournament, but he recently resigned as assistant at Rea Park and will get back into coaching.

Schelsky was named baseball coach and study hall supervisor at Western Boone High School last week. He formerly was the baseball and basketball coach at Rockville and had been an assistant at Northview.

• • •

• Good deal — Trades were the big news in major league baseball last week and at least one has turned out well so far for two teams.

The New York Yankees aquired Xavier Nady from Pittsburgh and he had a career-high six RBIs in Sunday’s wild 14-9 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Jeff Karstens, a pitcher, was one of the players Pittsburgh got in the trade and he made his debut against the Chicago Cubs on Friday. He was the winning pitcher in a 3-0 Bucco victory, allowing five hits in six innings.

We happened to be in Wrigley Field for the game, thanks to an invitation from a longtime friend to join a group on its annual bus trip to the park.

Earlier in the week, we made our first trip to Ellis Park in a few years with fellow coffee drinkers and walkers from Honey Creek Mall.

We and got off to a good start, picking some winners, but ended up being a loser like most folks for the day.

Both trips were fun, though, as we took a few days off for a little R&R. It’ll be busy this week again with high school girls golf under way and the senior city golf tournament set this weekend.

• • •

• Tom-Cattin’ It — Pike High School has a new boys basketball coach. Phil Spoljaric was named last week to succeed Billy Wright, who took a job at Western Illinois. Spoljaric formerly was an assistant at Pike before going to Anderson Highland. … Heather and Nickole Gonser of Owen Valley say they will play college basketball at the University of Indianapolis. As juniors, Heather averaged 17.3 points, 6.1 steals, 6 rebounds and 2.8 assists and Nickole averaged 15.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 steals. … Andrew Smith of Covenant Christian plans to sign with Butler. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 14.5 points and 10.6 rebounds last year. … Bill “Fig” Newton was one of the athletes honored at the annual Rockville reunion. Newton graduated in 1968 and played for LSU and the Indiana Pacers. He was with the Pacers in 1973 when they won a championship. “Slick” Leonard was the coach.

Tom Reck may be contacted by email at tm_reck@yahoo.com, by telephone at (812) 232-3231 or by mail at 4284 South 5th Street, Terre Haute, IN 47802.

        

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