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Registration for the Lakota West fall girls’ hoops league is still open for Lakota students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. League play will begin Sept. 12 and end Oct. 17.

The league provides the opportunity for young girls to develop and work on their basketball skills with the aid of Lakota West High School coaches before the winter basketball season begins.

All games and instruction will be held at Lakota West High School on Monday evenings.

For more information, visit Westfirebirds.com or email coach Matt Lykins at mattlykins@hotmail.com or call 513-777-8931.

Posted in: Events, School events, Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: basketball camp, girls' basketball, Lakota West basketball, Lakota West sports, youth camp, youth sports

The “Best in the West” baseball camp is taking place this week, June 27-29, at Lakota West High School. The camp hosts children in grades K-5 in the morning and then ballplayers in grades 6-8 in the afternoon.

At the baseball camp, which is in its 14th year, young athletes are being taught baseball fundamentals like bunting, base running and hitting with Lakota West varsity head coach Bill Dreisbach.

>>>PHOTOS FROM LAKOTA WEST BASEBALL CAMP<<<

There are also many other great moments captured on our Flickr photostream. And more West Chester and Liberty Township related photo galleries on our Photos page.

Also, remember to share your photos through the Photos page.

Posted in: Events, Recreational events, School events, Sports, Spring sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: baseball, baseball camp, camp, Lakota West, Lakota West baseball camp, Lakota West sports, photo gallery, photos, summer camp

The Lakota Board of Education approved fees of $350 for junior high athletes – up from $200 this year – and $550 for high school students – up from $300 this year during tonight’s school board meeting, according to Cincinnati.com.

“We’ve talked about this for some time … to keep some semblance of our high school sports program,” Lakota interim superintendent Ron Spurlock. “We’re still not going to use general fund dollars for junior high sports. But by requiring minimum participation levels at the junior-high level we can be assured upfront the athletic program will be self-supporting.”

In March, the school board, Lakota parents, Spurlock and the Greater Miami Conference worked together to save junior high athletics, which was slated to be eliminated in the planned reduction package for the 2011-2012 school year.

The school board decided to table its $12.17 reduction package, which was presented to community in late February, at its March 28th meeting.

At that same meeting, Spurlock and the board decided to contact the GMC and make Lakota junior high athletic programs completely self sufficient.

The GMC will include the Lakota junior schools in the schedule. However, since the fees have been increased, the junior schools may not be able fill up every roster and may end up short on teams. If that happens, it will create a void in other GMC schools’ schedules.

“It is not a good situation,” Spurlock said. “It is really not fair to officials that have been contracted and it is not fair to the other schools that were counting on us to play and all of sudden have their 14-game season turn into a 13, 12 or 11-game season.

“They (other schools) understand the difficult situation we are in and I think a lot of the other districts in the GMC are feeling these same kind of pains.”

For more on the board’s decision visit Cincinnati.com’s story titled, “Lakota increases fees for sports, other activities.”

Posted in: Fall sports, Sports, Spring sports, Winter Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: Lakota Board of Education, Lakota East, Lakota East Sports, Lakota West, Lakota West sports

Drew Katona, a fifth grader at VanGorden Elementary School, took first place in the Division III – 122 lbs. weight class at the NuWay National Wrestling Tournament in Chicago last weekend.

Katona’s hard work and dedication has paid off this year for the young man, who loves to play with his younger brothers and little sister.

Katona hopes to one day wrestle for Harvard University and become a world-renowned scientist.

(Photo of Drew Katona as he awaits the awards presentation – click to enlarge)

Posted in: Schools, Sports, Student achievements, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: Drew Katona, NuWay National Wrestling Tournament, VanGorden Elemenatry School

After many parents and community members voiced their concerns about the potential elimination of junior school sports, the Lakota Board of Education, with the help of parents, Lakota interim superintendent Ron Spurlock and the Greater Miami Conference, decided to allow the sports programs to continue as long as they don’t take away from the school district’s general fund.

Spurlock said that the district has not “worked out all the details,” but the current plan is to offer junior school sports for a $350 fee to play each sport. Currently, student athletes pay $200 to play each sport.

Meanwhile, high school sports athletes are looking at a $550 per sport fee for the 2011-2012 season. This year, student athletes paid $300.

According to Spurlock, the GMC held off work on the 2011-2012 athletic schedule for a few months while waiting to see what Lakota was going to do with its junior high programs.

The GMC will include the Lakota junior schools in the schedule. However, since the fees have been increased, the junior schools may not be able fill up every roster and may end up short on teams. If that happens, it will create a void in other GMC schools’ schedules.

“It is not a good situation,” Spurlock said. “It is really not fair to officials that have been contracted and it is not fair to the other schools that were counting on us to play and all of sudden have their 14-game season turn into a 13, 12 or 11-game season.

“They (other schools) understand the difficult situation we are in and I think a lot of the other districts in the GMC are feeling these same kind of pains.”

The elimination of junior school athletics had been included in the $12.17 million reduction package that was expected to pass by the end of March, but was put on hold to take additional time to review potential memorandums of understanding and the package itself.

Since it appeared that junior school cuts were going to take effect for the 2011-2012 school year, the Lakota Tomahawks, a local youth football organization, announced in March that it would add junior high football.

“As we had stated earlier, if the school has decided to do football for the junior high grades, the Tomahawks would not compete against the schools,” Tomahawks president Ken Roesel said. “The Tomahawks will not be offering junior high football and will support the school district’s program.”

Posted in: Fall sports, Sports, Spring sports, Winter Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: Lakota East, Lakota East Sports, Lakota West, Lakota West sports

The 2011 Lakota March Madness tournament will feature 158 teams and is scheduled to begin March 14 and end March 25. This year’s tournament will be the largest ever with almost 1,300 kids participating the annual event.

Every elementary school in the district will be represented in the tournament. Many of children participating in the event do not play at the school level, but will have an opportunity to show their school pride during this basketball event.

The brackets for the event were posted last night, March 10, on lakotaonline.com and will be continually updated during the tournament.

- Boys’ Black Bracket
- Boys’ Red Bracket
- Girls Bracket

High school basketball players from both Lakota East and Lakota West will officiate the games. According to the event’s webpage, many of the current high school players participated in this event when they were in elementary school.

Last year, $6,000 was raised from the tournament and donated to local charities. This year, the organizers of the event hope to raise more.

Leaders of the tournament are still looking for more than 120 adults to come forward and help sell tickets, sell concessions and coach. If interested, contact Scott Koenig by e-mailing sjkoenig@roadrunner.com or by calling 513-779-9647.

Posted in: Events, Recreational events, School events, Schools, Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: elementary, Lakota East, Lakota East Sports, Lakota Local Schools, Lakota March Madness, Lakota West, Lakota West sports

As the sixth graders prepared in early November of 2010 for their last game in a Lakota Tomahawk uniform, league officials were preparing to possibly add junior high football – giving those sixth graders the opportunity to continue their Tomahawk careers.

Just days after the Lakota school levy failed, the organization held its Lakota Tomahawk Invitational. The event marks the last time sixth graders play as Tomahawks and pits those who will be attending Lakota East against those who will be attending Lakota West.

The organization’s new president Ken Roesel described that game as “a graduation process” for the sixth graders who will be moving on to play junior high football in the Lakota school district.

>>>2010 LAKOTA TOMAHAWKS PHOTOS<<<

However, at the time, Roesel was aware of the $12.2 million reduction package, which was released in August of 2010, that was going to be decided upon in the Lakota school district. One of the cuts in the package was the elimination of junior high athletics. In that reduction package, that cut would save the district an estimated $505,000 in expenses.

Roesel was worried that a loss of junior high level football would cause a ripple effect that could ultimately destroy the high school programs.

“If they play in sixth, but sit out in seventh and eighth then you are going to lose your program in high school,” Roesel said in November. “Somebody needs to step up.”

The Tomahawks, which had seventh and eighth grade football teams in the past, reached out to the school district and announced last week that it was going to add junior high level football. (more…)

Posted in: Board of Education, Levy news, Schools, Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: athletic cuts, cuts, football, junior high athletics, Lakota East, Lakota East Sports, Lakota Tomahawks, Lakota West, Lakota West sports, levy, reductions, school cuts, school levy

Three Lakota students, Connor Steinhilber, Kati Steinhilber and Gavin Kursman have qualified to represent the region at the 2011 NASTAR National Championships, which will take place at the Winter Park Resort outside of Denver, Colo., March 24-27. All three of the Lakota student athletes commute to Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, Ind., to train five times a week.

According to the release, NASTAR is the largest recreational ski and snowboard program in the nation with more than 95,000 racers representing 28 states. Skiers compete in races throughout the season on their local hills to qualify for the NASTAR National Championships. The top three racers in their respective divisions from each NASTAR resort are invited to compete in as many as three days of consecutive racing.

Connor Steinhilber is a sophomore at Lakota East and has been skiing for nine years and racing for five. This will be his third trip to the NASTAR National Championships, having qualified for the event five times. He previously competed at the event in 2004 and 2008. This year, he will be competing in the Boys’ 15/16 Platinum Division where he is currently ranked No. 2 in Ohio and No. 12 nationally.

Kati Steinhilber is an eighth grader at Liberty Junior and has also been skiing for nine years and racing for five. This will be her second trip to the NASTAR National Championships, having qualified for the event five times and previously competing in 2004. She will be competing in the Girls’ 13/14 Silver Division where she is currently ranked No. 1 in Ohio.

Gavin Kursman is a third grader at Cherokee Elementary and will be competing in his first NASTAR National Championships. Kursman has been skiing for five years and racing for two. He is currently ranked No. 1 Ohio and No. 3 nationally in the 7/8 Bronze Division.

For more information about NASTAR, visit www.nastar.com.

Posted in: Sports, Winter Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: Connor Steinhilber, Gavin Kursman, Kati Steinhilber, NASTAR, NASTAR National Championships, Perfect North Slopes, ski, skiing

The Lakota East Outlawz fifth grade girls’ team won their grade’s divisional championship at the Midwest Xpress MLK Holiday Classic Tournament held at Sports Plus Jan. 14-17.

The Outlawz were honored last week at halftime of Wednesday’s Lakota East High School girls’ basketball game against Princeton. Tournament director Kelly Peek and Lakota East High School head coach Nikki Drew honored the team.

Members of the team (photo above – from left-to-right) include Regan Butikofer, Abby Prohaska, Coach Asst. Mike Nelson, Ally Fine, Kirkland Kelly, Ravin Alexander, Kiana Allen, Asia Barnett Head Coach Kevin Floyd, (kneeling) Adrianna Brewer, Sophie Nelson, Kennedy Floyd and Josie Cappel.

If interested in playing AAU basketball for the Outlawz, visit www.mwoutlawz.com or call 513-290-3099. Tryouts will take place in early February.

Posted in: Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: basketball, girls' basketball, Lakota East, Outlawz

Every year, sixth graders play their last season of youth football at the Lakota Tomahawk Invitational. This year’s event will take place this weekend, Nov. 6-7, at Lakota West High School.

Games will be played from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. The main event will feature sixth graders, who will be placed into two teams based on their future high schools (East vs. West). That game will be played Sunday at 3 p.m.

“After this, they will be split up into junior high and others will no longer play football,” said Ken Roesel, who is scheduled to takeover as president of the Lakota Tomahawks in January. “It is kind of the last game, especially for the sixth graders…it is almost like a graduation process.”

>>>2010 LAKOTA TOMAHAWKS PHOTOS<<<

However, due to last week’s failed Lakota school levy, this group of sixth graders could be back playing for the Tomahawks in 2011.

Currently, the Lakota school district has a $12.2 million reduction package on the table. The package, which would help the school district avoid a possible cash balance shortfall of $4.2 million for the 2011-2012 school year, calls for the elimination of junior high athletics, a cut that could save the school district approximately $505,000 in expenses.

Losing football at the junior high level could have a ripple effect that could ultimately destroy the high school programs.

“If they play in sixth, but sit out in seventh and eighth then you are going to lose your program in high school,” Roesel said. “Somebody needs to step up.” (more…)

Posted in: Fall sports, Levy news, Schools, Sports, Youth sports |

Tags: Tags: cuts, football, junior high athletics, Lakota East, Lakota Tomahawks, Lakota West, levy, reductions, school cuts, school levy