CJ product a hot shot at Findlay

Chaminade Julienne High School graduate John Staley probably has the green light to shoot for the University of Findlay men’s basketball team.

A senior 6-foot-5 forward, Staley has started every game, averaging 10.5 points and 4.9 rebounds. Through 15 games, Staley has hit 67 of 91 field-goal attempts for a sizzling 73.6 percent.

Better to foul him, because he was just 27 of 45 (60 percent) from the line in that span.

Staley was named to the All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference defensive team as a junior. He will be hoping to make a deep NCAA Division II postseason run. The son of longtime Chaminade Julienne boys basketball coach Joe Staley, John transferred to Findlay after playing one season at Northern Kentucky.

• Alter senior Abby Nichols is the Gatorade Ohio girls cross country runner of the year. That makes her a finalist for the national award.

Nichols won the Division II individual state cross country title last fall (18:05.4) and also paced the Knights to the D-II state team title. She also was 18th in the Nike Midwest Nationals (18:08.5).

“Abby Nichols is always a joy to coach and to teach,” said Alter coach John Davalos in a release. “She is always smiling and laughing with her teammates and ready to enjoy life. But once the gun goes off, she is all business and her goal is that no one beats her to the finish.”

Also a track and field distance ace, Nichols has signed to run at OSU.

• It’s a big jump from Sinclair Community College to the Ohio State football program, but that’s what Alter grad Alex Craft has done. A freshman punter/kicker, he was accepted as a walk-on to the Buckeyes during the winter break.

Although Alter didn’t punt much during a 14-1 run his senior season, Craft averaged a whopping 45.8 yards on just 12 punts. He also converted 59 of 61 extra-point kicks for the Knights.

• Riley VanderKaay and Luke West, seniors at Fairmont, and Brett Wedding, a senior at Oakwood, were among 26 Ohio seniors to recently receive Chick Evans Scholarships. Scholars are chosen based on a “strong caddie record, excellent academics, financial need and outstanding character,” according to a release from the sponsoring Western Golf Association.

VanderKaay and West were loopers at Moraine Country Club and will attend Miami. Wedding was a caddy at Dayton Country Club and will attend Ohio State.

• Northridge senior QB Anthony Carroll was named to the Academic All-Ohio Team as an individual and the Polar Bears as a team, also, reports head coach Bob Smith. The awards on sponsored by the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association.

• Seed meetings for the upcoming winter sports are Sunday for wrestling, Jan. 31 for girls basketball and boys and girls bowling and Feb. 7 for boys basketball. Coaches vote online to determine seeds and position their teams in brackets at the meetings.

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