Fulton County Ohio Media

Joe Nye, the Interactive Media teacher at Swanton High School and former Bulldog coach of several sports, was recently inducted into the 2023 Class of the Toledo City League Athletic Hall of Fame based on his accomplishments as the 13-year head coach of Toledo St. John’s Titans baseball program as well as his work as a Titan assistant football coach.  He was also an assistant baseball coach at Start when the Spartans won the Division I OHSAA State Championship.  Joe was notified of this prestigious honor in July by the HOF chairman Lynn Moran and was inducted during a dinner and ceremony at the Premier Banquet Hall in Toledo earlier this month.

“It was nice.  It was flattering,” said Joe as he tried to find a word to describe what a great feeling it was when he was notified.  “I’ve been to many of these Hall of Fame ceremonies as a guest.  To be selected with some of the best in Toledo City League is pretty cool.  You’ve got names like Steve Mix and Jimmy Jackson, I mean I could go on.  I always wondered if I had enough years at St. John’s, but as I look at it, we put up three City League baseball titles when that league was as good as any in Ohio.”

During Joe’s time with the football program, the Titans mad six trips to the playoffs, back when only four teams from each region qualified, unlike the 16 schools, today.  St. John’s region usually included historically powerhouse programs like Massillon, Canton McKinley and Barberton.

Reprinted from the induction ceremony program:

Mr. Joe Nye arrived at Toledo St. John’s in the fall of 1982, hired to teach Accounting and Computers until 1999.  In his first year he also coached Freshmen Soccer and Varsity Track.  In the Fall of 1985, he joined the football staff as an assistant under Head Coach Fred Beier.  In the spring of 1986, he was named Head Baseball Coach after serving as the Freshman and Junior Varsity Coach during 1984 and 1985.

His first football coaching assignment in 1985 was that of an equipment manager and trainer.  He then became an assistant with the JV team working with Tom Cole as the defensive coordinator.  He became the JV head coach in 1993 teaching young players the fundamentals and what it takes to compete at the varsity level. His JV record as head coach was 46 – 8.  He began coaching varsity special teams in 1987.  During this time, St. John’s made six division one playoff appearances (1990, 91, 94, 95 and 96) winning the school’s first playoff game against Barberton in 1991. St. John’s won five city league titles during his time as an assistant (1987, 90, 91, 94 and 96). Two of his special teams’ players, Jeremy Miller (long Snapper) and Jeff Delverne (Kicker) played together at Michigan.

During his 13 years as Head Baseball Coach at St. John’s, his teams won three City league Titles in 1988, 91 and 93. A few notable wins include defeating Start 9 – 4 in 1988, Bowsher 4 – 3 and Central Catholic 10 – 2 in 1993 all in the City Championship Games. During his tenure, St. Johns also made five district appearances. He is the career leader in wins with 205 and was very instrumental providing valuable insight when the baseball facility was built in 1988. The team previously only played away games his first two years of being the head coach. He was selected to coach the All – Ohio North Team in 1988 at The Ohio State University. Mr. Nye was also a member of Coach Rich Arbinger’s staff at Toledo Start in 1999 and 2000 where they won the Division One State Championship in 2000.

Mr. Nye, a Vanlue native, graduated from Vanlue High School in 1978.  There he participated in three sports earning all BVC honors in Football and Basketball.  He also earned the American Legion Award as the outstanding Senior for his leadership as Captain of the football and basketball teams.  He graduated from BGSU in 1982 with a degree in Business Education and earned his Master’s of Arts in Education in 2002 from the University of Findlay.

For the past 23 years, Joe has been a teacher in the Swanton Local School District through the Penta County Career Center Satellite Program.  He has also been very active in Bulldogs’ athletics, coaching volleyball and softball where one of his teams set a school record for wins in a season.  For many years, Joe was an assistant on the Lady Bulldogs soccer team under head coach Jim Dickman and captured several NWOAL, Sectional and District championships.

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The Swanton area community has a well-deserved reputation of kindness and compassion when it comes helping those in need.  So often, events are organized to help a person or a family needing food or clothing to survive a challenging time in their lives; or monetary donations to cover medical expenses while being treated for a catastrophic illness.  The good Samaritans in Swanton always seem to step up whenever they see the opportunity to lessen a hardship for their neighbors.  The village is fortunate to have benevolent organizations such as the Swanton Lions Club, the Swanton Rotary and a host of church groups with a long history of community service.

Another example of this can be seen every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas when the Salvation Army conducts its Red Kettle Drive in the vestibule at the Kroger grocery store.  Donations are collected here and all the funds are spent within the Swanton community.  Over the years many people and many businesses and organizations have generously donated their time ringing the bell as Kroger customers leave the store. 

For many years Joe Kahl spearheaded this drive and, through his efforts including countless hours manning the bell, the Swanton Kroger was at or near the top in donations among all the Kroger stores in the Toledo area.  Joe was, essentially, a one-man Salvation Army.  He is no longer with us but the needs of the Swanton community remain and the Red Kettle Drive is in need of volunteers.

The Red Kettle Drive begins next Friday, November 24^th and wraps up on Saturday, December 23^rd.  There will be no Sunday collections.  Daily hours are from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM and bell-ringing shifts are just two hours.  To volunteer, you can go on-line at https://www.registertoring.com.  Enter the Swanton Zip Code (43558) then page down to find Swanton.  You can also call Melody Williams at 419-934-5090 or the Salvation Army’s main office at 419-241-1138.  Please help if you can.

A man from Michigan’s Clinton Township was found dead early this morning on the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks east of Main Street and adjacent to Zeiter Way in Swanton.  Below is a press released sent out by the Swanton Police Department and Chief John Trejo.

“On November 15. 2023 at approximately 12:56 a.m., Swanton Police Department responded to the area of Main Street and Norfolk Southern railroad tracks reference a pedestrian/train accident.  Upon arrival, officers on the scene discovered a male deceased on the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks.  The male pedestrian, identified as Turner Royster (age 39) of Clinton Township, Michigan, was pronounced dead at the scene by Swanton EMS.  Next of kin have been notified.

According to Swanton Mayor Neil Toeppe, the investigation is in the early stages and more information will be released by Village officials at the appropriate time.

Delta resident, Delta High School graduate, and Delta Elementary Teacher, married father with three children, Jeffrey Mazurowski has had many jobs over the years, including contractor, used car salesman, steel worker and township trustee.  His passion, however, has always been the education of young children through his teaching positions and his coaching responsibilities in football and basketball.  Drawing on his myriad of experiences and his vivid imagination, Jeff or “Maz”, also writes children’s books. 

Jeff’s most recently published book, the third for the Defiance College alum, is titled “Red, White & Bloo”, written under the pen name Joey McGoo.  It was written just after the 9/11 terrorist attack on America.  He had it ready to print sometime in 2002 but, as life will often dictate, other priorities interrupted those plans and the book was put on the shelf for a very long time.

Ironically, this past year, Jeff was diagnosed with cancer, and, as he battled this terrible disease, he found he had time to finish the project.  “I had a lot of time on my hands to think about things and I found a program on Amazon where you could publish a book at a lot less cost than you could 20 years ago,” said Jeff.  “So, I spent the summer reformatting the book to their standards, got my first copy on September 15^th and have been selling them ever since.”

Despite having gone unpublished for more than 20 years, Jeff believes the story is applicable to the world today.  “It’s basically a story told from the point of view of a 12-year-old boy telling other kids that the United States is still safe and it’s still the best country in the world,” explained Jeff.  “It’s just a reassurance that things are okay even when people don’t think they are okay.  In today’s political climate, the story is back.  Stories come back for different reasons and I think it’s relevant again.”

Other “Maz” books include “The Bad Creek Gang”, an animal Habitat for Humanity-like story written with a great amount of creative input from Mr. Mazurowski’s fourth-grade students at the time.  There is also “The Christmas Boy” and “Aurora and Boris Touch the Sky”.  Currently, “Red, White & Bloo” is the only book available on Amazon.com. but Jeff does still have copies of the other three.  They are all well written and well-illustrated and would make a great holiday gift.

Photo: Jeff at the Delta Public Library

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The top-seeded 12-0 Liberty Center Tigers faced a major challenge Friday night in their OHSAA Division V Football Regional Semi-Final went they traveled to Clay High School’s Memorial Stadium to play the 12-0 and #4-seeded Oak Harbor Rockets out of the Northern Buckeye Conference.  The Rockets were known for their very stingy run defense and were intent on shutting down the vaunted Tiger running game as key to their hopes of advancing to the next round.

However, as someone once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” and a punch in the mouth it was as Liberty Center scored just three plays and 70 seconds after the opening kickoff on a Trenton Kruse 31-yard run up the middle to take a 7-0 lead, a lead they would never relinquish.  Colton Kruse would later follow that up with rushing touchdown and brother Trenton scored his second TD to put the NWOAL Champions up 21-0. 

Following a Liberty Center turnover around midfield, the Rocket offense put together a scoring drive to pull within 21-7.  Prior to halftime, the Tigers drove down the field in under a minute left for an Ian Rosebrook 20-yard field goal and a 24-7 advantage heading into the locker room.  In the second half, the Tigers went to the air, with quarterback Landon Amstutz using play-action passes to open up receivers down field while still mixing in their run offense to basically put the game away.

Waylon Rentz came off the bench for an injured Colton Kruse and ran for 91 yards and two big touchdowns.  The two Kruse brothers, Trenton (122 yds and 2 TDs) and Colton (118 yds and 1 TD) combined for 240 yards and three score.  Third brother Landon Kruse hauled in five passes for 114 yards and Amstutz threw for 195 yards, completing 10 of 16 pass attempts.

Liberty Center will next take on the Coldwater Cavaliers, a team they defeated last year in the playoffs 37-0, in the Regional Final at Spartan Stadium in Lima and November 17^th at 7:00 PM.  The Cavaliers football program has won seven state titles, the last one coming in 2020. 

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Trenton Kruse scores his second touchdown of the game to put Liberty Center up 21-0 in the first half.

Last December, with two more seasons of softball still left in her in her already record-setting high school career, Lady Viking Macey Chamberlain made a verbal commitment to play softball for Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State.  On Wednesday afternoon, at Evergreen High School, a large crowd of family, friends, fellow students and coaches, past and present, gathered to witness Macey officially commit to continue her education and softball career by signing a National Letter of Intent with the Nittany Lions of the Big Ten.

“It’s an exciting day.  Not only for Macy but for the community.  You can tell by the turnout here the impact she has had on the community and the school,” said Evergreen softball coach Jim Zoltowski.  “What people don’t really see is the hard work that goes on behind the scenes and the hours she’s put into this, the grind of the process.  And she’s really coachable.” added Coach Zoltowski, referring to Macy’s dedication and commitment to reaching the level of playing at a DI university in a Power-Five conference.

In addition to her talent, Macy’s popularity stems from the professional way she plays the game and the manner in which she carries herself on and off the field, leading by example and always respecting the game and her opponents and giving time back to the Evergreen community whenever possible. In turn, her opponents, players and coaches alike, grant her the admiration and respect worthy of a consummate well-grounded ultra-competitive star athlete.

“To have the community come out like this to show support of Macy, it was really an opportunity for us to say thank you to everybody.  She’s felt that support over the years and we’ve really never had the opportunity to say thank you.  And that’s what tonight is for,” commented Macy’s father, Shane Chamberlain.  “Macy is a very humble and kind person and she doesn’t come off as any different than anybody else.  She’s an Evergreen student that happens to be a pretty decent softball player.”

The drive to the Penn State campus is five hours and ten minutes from Macy’s home, according to her father.  With all her years of playing with elite travel softball programs, the Chamberlain family has become road warriors.  “There was one time we took Macy to a softball practice; we drove five hours for the practice.  This is no different, just an extra ten minutes,” said Mr. Chamberlain.

Possessing the kind of talent Macy has will encourage a lot of offers from many colleges and universities, and she had a great many factors to contemplate before making her choice.  Purdue and Central Michigan were also in the top three of her considered destinations.  “I get this question all the time.  Why Penn State?” said Macy, beginning to explain her decision.  “Several things come to mind.  I think one of the biggest things is the coaching staff.  They didn’t just see me as an athlete.  They saw me more as a student-athlete.  I got to go my official visit in September and I got to meet the current players.  I think at that point I got to see the family atmosphere that they have at Penn State.  The last thing was the facilities are awesome.”

Before Macy packs up and heads east on I-80, the two-time NWOAL Player of the Year and First Team All-Ohio catcher, has some unfinished business to take care of while still an Evergreen Lady Viking.  “I really want to finish strong in class and on the softball field as well.  We have a lot of kids back and some talent coming in and we’re looking to have a good year.  I’m looking forward to it.”

The Evergreen softball season is currently scheduled to begin in early April of 2024.  Macy has literally re-written the hitting record book for the Lady Vikings Softball Program.  With every trip to the plate this year, she will have the potential to set new records and raise the bar for those who follow even higher.  If you have not yet seen this generational talent on the diamond, I encourage you to attend at least one of the 25+ games on the Viking schedule.  You truly do not want to miss this opportunity.

Photo: Macy Chamberlain signs her Penn State Softball NLI with her mother Keri, father Shane and brother Maddux.

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Click on the link above to access photos. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

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As they have done for almost every game this season, the Liberty Center Tigers used the same game plan to defeat the Huron Tigers Friday night in the second round of the OHSAA DV Football Playoffs 41-7; score early, score often, trigger the running clock and start up the busses.  The hometown Tigers showed the visiting Tigers who was the biggest cat in the house by jumping out to a 28-0 halftime lead then finding the end zone early in the third quarter to turn on the rules-mandated running clock, virtually ending any chances of a Huron comeback.

The Liberty Center running game was on Kruse control for most of the night with Colton (15 carries for 195 yards and four TDs) and Trenton (10 carried for 86 yards and one TD) combining for 281 yards and five scores.  Waylon Rentz scored from 15 yards out before the end of the first half. 

On defense, the LC Tigers threw a shutout with Huron’s only score coming on a 90-yard kickoff return to make the final score 41-7.  Cody Scroggins, Huron’s quarterback, was hounded all night by the LC defensive line, getting sacked twice by senior Seth Navarre and four times overall.  The Huron offense was held to 74 yards while Liberty racked up 400 yards.

Liberty Center, now at 12-0, takes on the 12-0 Oak Harbor Rockets, winners of the Northern Buckeye Conference next Friday at 7:00 PM at a site to be determined.

Click on the link above to access photos from the game. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the fultoncountymedia.com website.

Photo: Liberty Center’s Seth Navarre takes down Huron quarterback Cody Scroggins for one of four Tiger sacks in the game.

There have been a lot of postings on social media recently regarding the possibility and even feasibility of having a debate between Swanton’s incumbent mayor Neil Toeppe and his opponent, Deacon Dzierzawski.  The postings and opinions lean heavily on the “It’s a good idea” side of the ledger.  I have always believed voters can greatly benefit from a debate or a town hall meeting where they hear what the candidates have to say on the issues most affecting and important to the citizenry and also see how they conduct themselves under pressure. 

That being said, it is now the eleventh hour in this election, with “Election Day” less than a week away.  It would need to be organized with a suitable venue being selected including a date and time, a format agreed upon, a list of topics and questions for the candidates to consider, and, maybe most importantly, a way to disseminate the information and details that come out of it to the community.  Is there any individual or group that will step up at this late date and make it happen?  If it can actually be pulled off, will there be enough time for the voting public to absorb and fully consider what they learned of each candidate?  Either way, it is not the job of the Swanton Village Council or the Village Administration.  There are times when voters need to be more involved and more engaged beyond the ballot box if they are serious about seeking change.

What this recent flurry of debate postings has shown me is that there has been a great opportunity missed.  Both Mayor Toeppe and Mr. Dzierzawski filed their petitions to run for office before the August 9, 2023, 4:00 PM deadline.  That is almost three months from the November 7, 2023 election day.  There was plenty of time to organize and schedule a debate or a town hall.  And plenty of time for voters to dissect each candidate’s position, research their history and be ready to make an informed and educated decision in the voting booth

That chance is essentially gone and, in many cases, is now a moot point.  Early voting began on October 11^th and will continue until Election Day.  How many of those early voters would have checked a different box had there been a debate between Dziertzawski and Toeppe?  We will never know. 

But before I get off my soap box, let me bring up a related issue.  The mayor’s race is the only contested race in Swanton.  Both the Village Council and the Swanton Board of Education have two open seats with only two candidates “running”.  That leaves the Swanton voter with no real choice at all as to who will be their voice at those two tables.  It is another important point to consider going forward.

There will be other elections and other opportunities to do more to make a difference.  At this point, the most important thing to do is vote.

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This past Saturday, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM, the Swanton Lions Club put on their widely and wildly popular Halloween Hoopla on Main Street in Downtown Swanton. Once again, Main Street and parts of Dodge Street and Zeiter Way were filled with Halloween celebrants, ages infant to seniors, dressed in every kind of costume imaginable.

Over the years, the Hoopla has become one of the most anticipated family social events in Swanton, second only to the Corn Festival. With bouncy houses up and down the streets, craft stations, candy being passed out at most of the businesses, free hot dogs, free popcorn, not to mention donuts and cider being given out by the members of the Swanton Fire & Rescue Division and, of course, Happy the Clown, and a dance troupe performing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, what could be better. And when all of this is over, kids and their families only have one hour before they head back out for the Village’s Trick or Treat night. Whew!

Members of the Swanton Lions Club put a tremendous amount of time, effort and money into making the Hoopla a very special event for the Swanton community, in addition to all their other benevolent works throughout the year.

Click on the link above to access photos from the Hoopla. Photos are in the jpeg format to allow for editing and can be downloaded for NO CHARGE courtesy of the Swanton Lions Club and the fultoncountymedia.com website.