Sports

1. With his background as a defender, it’d be easy to assume that Gregg Berhalter would bring a very defensive-minded style to the Columbus Crew this spring. In his first press conference as the Crew’s head coach and sporting director, Berhalter said he wants his team to be very aggressive offensively next season. “I want to organize defensively,” Berhalter says. “I wouldn’t necessarily make that link though to the team being defensive minded. “My ideas about soccer are very offensive and I want the team to play nice and attack the football. I believe in a possession-based game and I would say that the defensive side of it has to do with organization.” Berhalter, who was named as the second-best defender in SC Cambuur Leeuwarden (Holland) history and was named to the FC Energie Cottbus (Germany) All-Time Best XI during the European portion of his career, is the seventh coach in the Crew’s 18-year history. He replaces interim coach Brian Bliss, who was 4-4 overall after taking the reins after Robert Warzycha was let go last season. Columbus finished 12-17-5 last year, placing eighth in the 10-team Eastern Conference.

Nov. 7-9 may have been one of the most important three days for the Ohio State University football team’s pursuit of a national championship. All Buckeyes linebacker Ryan Shazier and his teammates could do was watch. Ohio State had the week off but got some help in the BCS rankings. Third-ranked Oregon stumbled against fifth-ranked Stanford 26-20 and fifth-ranked Baylor defeated No. 10 Oklahoma 41-12 on Nov. 7 and top-ranked Alabama easily handled No. 13 Louisiana State 38-17 and third ranked Florida State throttled Wake Forest 59-3 on Nov. 9. When the dust had settled, the Buckeyes moved up to No. 3 in the BCS rankings. “I’m definitely going to watch,” Shazier told a group of reporters before the slew of games. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pulling (for Stanford). I want to see how we compare with these guys. I’ve seen a little bit of both (Baylor and Oregon) but I feel with a good defense, you can stop anyone.” “I'll be there (in front of the TV) on Thursday night and watching them,” coach Urban Meyer said. “There's some great football to watch.” Shazier admits he may not be the best guy to kick back and watch these kinds of games with.

Andrew Rickly doesn’t remember having that driving ambition to compete in the Olympics when he was growing up. However, the Lewis Center resident has been working to put his name on the short list for the U.S. men’s gymnastics team. Rickly was one of the seven gymnasts and the only Ohio native to qualify for the U.S. Senior Development team after a solid performance at the P&G Championships Aug. 15-18 in Hartford, Conn. The Worthington Christian graduate and Ohio State freshman placed second in the all around with 163.6 points behind Dmitri Belanovski (164.8). “It’s been a dream in development,” Rickly says. “Early on I would’ve never seen that in my future. I just did gymnastics because I enjoyed it. But hard work and great coaching has taken me further than I thought I could go. That (dream of making the Olympic team) keeps me pushing harder and harder every day.” At the P&G Championships, Rickly was first on the high bar, scoring a 13.95 on the first day and a 14.2 on the second day to score 28.15 points and finish ahead of the University of Illinois’ Chandler Eggleston (27.45).

With a half mile remaining in the Arrowhead Invitational, St. Francis DeSales High School cross country runner Ian Lawson looked to the spot where Bob Lennon would’ve stood and tried to remember what the veteran coach would’ve told him. Lennon, 64, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while bicycling on Miller Paul Road in Granville on Sept. 14. “I couldn’t think of anything inspirational he said,” says Lawson, a senior who placed seventh in 17 minutes, 21 seconds in the Arrowhead Invitational on Sept. 18. “I’ll be honest. It’s not like he had the most inspirational words for us. The last race he coached, the two things he said to me were ‘hold that position’ and ‘OK, go now.’” While the words might not exactly match Vince Lombardi’s or Knute Rockne’s inspirational speeches, they’ve become the mission statement for the Stallions boys and girls cross country teams. DeSales is simply holding on to each other as they go forward without their coach. “They’re coping by sticking together,” says Katie Shelton, a DeSales guidance counselor who has been co-coaching the team with 1999 DeSales graduate Emily Rizek.

 Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus doesn’t hide his excitement about his golf course, the Muirfield Village Golf Club, playing host to the Presidents Cup on Oct. 1-6. “The Presidents Cup is becoming one of the greatest events in golf,” Nicklaus said in a press release. “I know The Presidents Cup we had in South Africa was just sensational. I still say to this day it was the greatest event I've ever been involved in.” Nicklaus’ involvement with the Presidents Cup is the subject of an exhibit at the Jack Nicklaus Museum, located at 2355 Olentangy River Rd. The exhibit displays memorabilia from Nicklaus’ four stints as captain of the American team as well as other items from the Presidents Cup. “Nicklaus has always talked about what a great honor it is to play for your country,” museum curator Steve Auch said. “While the Ryder Cup is still the top international event, the Presidents Cup has gained a lot of stature. While it may not be as intense as the Ryder’s Cup, it mirrors the event in many ways.” The Presidents Cup has a similar format to The Ryder Cup, which pits the top U.S. golfers against the top golfers of Europe.

The Columbus Crew are in a big transition. After falling well behind the pace in the MLS playoff race, the team dismissed long time Crew head coach Robert Warzycha on Labor Day and named Technical Director Brian Bliss the interim head coach. Warzycha had been the head coach since 2009 and the team had slowly lost ground to the rest of the league. The Crew had slumped to an 8-13-5 record and 8th place in the Eastern Conference this year before he was dismissed. The change marked the end of an era as Warzycha had been with the team since midway through the inaugural season of 1996 playing or coaching in all 18 seasons of the team's history. Bliss took over immediately and had two days to prepare for his first game in charge, a home match against the Houston Dynamo. The Crew looked re-energized against a fatigued opponent, winning 2-0. However by Saturday, that energy dissipated and the team lost it's seventh road game in a row, falling 3-0 against Eastern Conference powerhouse Sporting Kansas City. Looking toward the stretch run, the Crew have six games left. They still can make the playoffs, but face very long odds.