By Bobby Gerome ‘21

The bowling team has the largest lineup that Saint Ignatius has seen in recent years. Seven new members have been added to the roster, (6 freshmen) making the depth chart consist of 15 bowlers.

Although it is true that a majority of the players are freshman or sophomores, the young bowlers have some promising upperclassmen to lead them, primarily senior Vinny Doran and team captain, Alex Gehrlein, also a senior. Doran is coming off an amazing junior year. He is projected to average in the 190’s soon and on the end stretch in the early 200’s. With this high scoring average the Cats will look to qualify for Districts or maybe even States.

Alex Gehrlein has been on the team since his freshman year, and he has significantly improved the team with his great work ethic.

“I would say that we have a great lineup this year,” Gehrlein said.“The main concern with any year is getting the new players on to a higher skill level while balancing that with maintaining the older members’ abilities. So far I’m really pleased. The new guys are doing better than I had hoped for, and the returning members are showing improvements as well. We still have a few kinks to work out, but with practice and now lifting, we’re looking at a great season.”

As of this article, the Wildcats are 2-2 on the year. Expect theWildcats to develop a great chemistry throughout the year. With the amount of young talent entering the program, it looks like there is a bright future in Wildcat bowling.

By JACK SLEMENDA ‘21

Legends start and end their careers just like everyone else, but the end of an era shocked Northeast Ohio. On Tuesday, December 4, Urban Meyer stepped down as Ohio State’s head coach after 7 seasons with the Buckeyes.

The national champ made his choice based on past health scares. In 2014, he had surgery to remove an arachnoid cyst (a sac like object filled with fluid pushing on the brain) that caused severe headaches. Fast forward to 2018. During the Indiana game, Meyer was seen taking a knee on the sideline, his hand grasping his head. Meyer was treated by his medical team.

With all this talk about the end of OSU’s powerhouse coach, people have looked back into his career to reflect on his history in coaching football as a whole. Meyer’s first head coaching job was at Bowling Green University. When he went to turn in his application, he used our own Coach Kyle as a reference. Their friendship didn’t really take off until the yet-to-be Ohio State head coach went on to Notre Dame to become an outstanding recruiter.

“The way recruitment works is recruiters are put in different sections,” Kyle said. “And funny enough, Urban was stationed in the general area of Ignatius.”

Meyer would come to Ignatius and run plays by Coach Kyle on the whiteboard in the athletic office and talk football and obviously recruitment. Meyer recently came to Saint Ignatius to recruit line-backer Tommy Eichenberg, who committed to play for the Bucks soon after.

Back to that application reference mentioned earlier. The BGSU athletic director at the time ended up calling Coach Kyle about Urban’s qualities in recruitment and what type of coach he was. Kyle told the athletic director, “Urban is an offensive coach for sure and is a very solid recruiter to have.” Kyle also told the athletic director that Urban is going to be picked up by someone somewhere. The AD replied that they had already decided they wanted him for the position – they just wanted to hear some reassurance.

“BG wanted Urban for his offensive coaching not only to win, but to also bring attendance at games. The previous coach was more defensive, leading to low score games and low attendance,” Kyle said.

Coach Kyle told me about how you’re only given one life and the quality of that life is to be cared for. Coach Kyle thinks this is the safe move for Meyer. “Coaching a team like Ohio State is a year round job, it really is, and health issues can take away from a team and the person himself.”