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Newton's Kyler Booher (top) and younger brother Kale (bottom) have helped keep hopes alive for another rejuvenation of Indians' basketball!
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You can drive right through Pleasant Hill, Ohio and never guess there was a high school there. It's easy. Newton High School's a block removed from the main drag and for the most part out of the public's view.
It's not that the good folks of the P.Hill are ashamed of their school district...most assuredly not. No one ever thought to put it on Main Street.
But like many schools of that size, there's not a lot to distinguish it above the fact of solid academics and a reflection of community character. That is, unless you consider the number of athletes...and quality athletes...that have come out of Newton High School.
Rival coaches and area sports fan concede...there's no shortage in that respect. The problem at Newton is...the school's so small you can't get enough athletes at one time to win consistently in any one sport. It's maddening...to be so small as to be anonymous, yet good enough to be synonymous with outstanding individual achievement by many of its athletes, past and present.
They don't play football at Newton, presumably because there aren't enough boys in the school. There's also the matter of lack of community and financial support for the sport, a fact that on occasion has prompted good athletes to seek open enrollment for the opportunity to play in neighboring districts.
They have been competitive in soccer as an alternative fall sport to football, but lack the depth and numbers to truly compete for local or state recognition.
Yet from time to time, the Indians have had success in basketball...but again, the fact of not enough quality players at any one time to challenge the likes of Covington, Ansonia, Arcanum and Twin Valley South in the Cross County Conference on a consistent basis.
"There have been years," says current athletic director, Bob Huelsman, who came to Newton in September after 36 years of coaching and administration at Covington. He remembers well competing against Newton's best.
"They were very good when I first came to Covington in the last 60s and early 70s," says Huelsman. "Larry Shade played here then and they had some pretty good guys to go with him. And people forget the '97 team with Chris Bucio that won the district title that year. That was a very good basketball team. Actually, there have been more career 1,000 scorers here than at Covington."
Current Newton baseball coach Bryce Adams remembers the '97 team well. A graduate of Newton in the class of '91, Adams grew up in the community with most of its members..
"Chris (Bucio) holds the all-time scoring record here," he says, "..but that's probably going to fall in the near future with the pace that Kyler Booher's scoring points."
Booher, the Indians' outstanding junior forward, has consistently scored at a 20-point-per-game clip, starting as a freshman three years ago.
"Chris was a great athlete in two sports...basketball and baseball...and he had a lot of help," says Adams. "Sean Landis played, Ryan Stern, Tony Wise, Brad Ryan and Gavin Spitler was probably a sophomore on that team. They won the district that year, and they're still the only basketball team to ever win a league title in the Cross County Conference."
It's a distinction of which current players are more than a little aware.
"Oh yeah," says Kyler Booher. "We're all aware of that being the only title in basketball over the years...but we just haven't had enough players since then to win it again."
Adams agrees that teams with depth and talent have been few and far between at Newton...especially in basketball, citing the fact of sheer numbers...or the lack thereof.
"That's bound to have an impact," he says, agreeing with those rival coaches who claim schools the size of Newton and Bradford will always have that cross to bear. "However, we've been very successful in baseball and softball here, with players like Sean Landis, who was a top 50 player nationally and played at Miami University...Travis Duffy, who was Ohio's Division IV Player of The Year in 1995...Kelly Herbst, who was All-Ohio in softball in both '94 and '95...and Chrissy Kessler most recently."
For her part, Kessler was selected by FanFile as it's inaugural Athlete of The Year for her outstanding senior season in softball in 1993...a year that saw her bat .600, win 20 games as pitcher and pitch a no-hitter.
"I think for the most part there's been more of a commitment to the spring sports in recent years," says Adams, who's coached baseball at Newton since 2000. "I'll put it this way...there's been more turnover at the coaching position in basketball recently than with baseball and softball. And where there's stability you usually find success because the kids understand the expectations from one year to the next. Kurt (Kadel...the softball coach) and I have had that advantage."
Booher shrugs at the notion of coaching turnover, but admits to the frustration of playing against the likes of better competition without the requisite depth to be consistently competitive.
"It is frustrating," he admits, "...especially when you play AAU in the summer and see all the talent that's out there from bigger schools. We just don't have that here."
He admits, too, that he's entertained the notion of playing at another school...but only for the opportunity to play football, which Newton does not have.
"I'd never move for any other reason because I wouldn't want to leave my friends that I've grown up with," he says. "I would have liked to have played football but that won't happen here because we don't have enough boys to really be competitive and it's a very expensive sport to support."
By the same token, coaches like Adams agree that not having football has better focused the talents of the players available to the available sports, citing the fact that during football season the Newton kids are already inside the gym honing their jumpshot.
"We do play soccer, but many of our best athletes....like Kyler...reserve their time for preparation for basketball and that's understandable."
Booher and sophomore brother, Kale, have another year together at Newton and hope springs eternal in a school that size for another talented player to move into the district and make the Indians a more competitive team in 2006-07.
"Really, at this stage of his career, that's the only hope a kid like Kyler Booher has at a school like Newton," says one rival coach. "Everyone would like to have a kid like him to build around...but it has to be hard for him to sit and hope that some help moves in."
The irony of the situation makes it even tougher to play at Newton...where though small, they're good, and yet, too small for people to notice.
Anonymous...and synonymous!
The FanFile
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