Buford-Bailey will be honored in a ceremony on Dec. 3 at the Jesse Owens Awards in Orlando, Fla. It’s the first time Nike has chosen a female as its coach of the year.
“Receiving this award is a huge honor,” Buford-Bailey said in a statement released by USA Track and Field. “It wouldn’t be possible without the athlete’s commitment to me and their leadership in mentoring all of their training partners and each other.”
Buford-Baily excelled in the 400 hurdles and as a youth was mentored by Northwest Track Club founder Harold “Lefty” Martin. She competed collegiately at Illinois.
• Ten area players are on the Edison State C.C. men’s basketball roster: Chad Bergman (Botkins), Romello Yaqub (Troy), Nick Thompson (Tipp City resident), Jordan Underwood (Urbana), Dusty Poteet (Milton-Union), Hadith Tiggs (Wayne), Ja’Quan Dangerfield (Stebbins), Dae’Shawn Jackson (Springfield), A.J. Hickman (Miami East) and Zach Ledbetter (Vandalia-Butler).
Jackson, a sophomore, leads the Piqua-based team in scoring (19.8), rebounds (6.5) and assists (3.5). Edison (4-0) is led by first-year coach Rick Hickman, previously the head coach at Troy Christian, Miami East, Bethel and Parkway.
• Former Fairborn Park Hills baseball coach John Wevurski recently saw the Malone men’s basketball team play and shared a note that Jefferson grad Nate Shepperd is among the Pioneers’ top players. A 6-foot-5 redshirt sophomore guard, he was the team’s leading scorer last season (17.8 points) until suffering a season-ending injury after just four games.
Fully recovered, Shepperd is averaging 11.7 points and 3.0 rebounds for Malone (2-2), which hosts Walsh today.
• Springboro grads Morgan Eib (Ashland), Erin Bruner (Berry, Georgia), and Maddie Durbin (Ottenbein) recently ended their fall collegiate women’s golf seasons.
A sophomore, Eib (80.70) was the second low scorer for the Eagles. Bruner, also a sophomore, was second team All-Southern Athletic Association last spring. A freshman, Durbin (175) tied for 10th in the season-ending Ohio Athletic Conference tournament at West Lafayette, Ohio.
• A longtime Miamisburg football champion took exception to a recent story that labeled the Vikings’ season their most successful in program history. “Not even close,” he emailed, saying a “fair percentage” of Miamisburg readers were offended.
Miamisburg (10-3) had never won a playoff game prior to this season. The Vikings were defeated by two-time defending state champion Cincinnati La Salle 45-14 in a Division II, Region 8 final at Mason last Friday. Other Miamisburg teams over the years finished with better won-loss records.
• The girls basketball season begins on Friday. Varsity coaches are reminded to submit a box score and brief game summary as soon as possible by email only to sports@coxohio.com. Please include contact information.
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