Author: Lee Goodwin

We don’t live in a competitive world. We live in an over-competitive world. Throw in the unfortunate reality of sports betting and you have a recipe for a troubled society. It’s not a developing thing. It’s a here-and-now-and-been-here thing. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” The words have echoed loudly through generations since first being uttered by UCLA Bruins football coach Red Sanders in 1950. He, not Vince Lombardi, is credited with using the words in a conversation with Los Angeles Herald and Express sports writer Ben Furillo after UCLA lost to arch rival USC in 1949. Lombardi, the…

David Swink has been through the ranks of wrestling – as a wrestler, the father of wrestlers, a middle school head coach, and finally, a varsity head coach. The last position Swink held from 2016-17 to 2023-24. He said there were no second-thoughts and no regrets. He said it was time to move on, and it could be time to give someone younger a chance to build a program his way. Along the way, Swink was aptly assisted by Eric Mowen, whom Swink succeeded as the top coach. Mowen chose to stay on staff due to his love of wrestling.…

There are two months that a major college division men’s basketball player pays close attention to: October and March. Well, three months: add the first Monday in April when the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball championship game is played annually. In case you forgot, the team with the biggest bullseye on its chest this year is Connecticut, which a season ago won the program’s fifth national championship. Most of the 29 conference tournaments will have been completed before the major conferences – ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Big East and SEC put an end to the tournaments in anticipation…

HAGERSTOWN, Md – Perhaps John Kinsella said it best: “If you build it, (they) will come.” The new downtown Hagerstown stadium (Meritus Park) at 50 West Baltimore Street is nearing completion, and the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars believe that “they” – the fans – will come when the first pitch is thrown in late April. Hagerstown, which has not had a minor league baseball team since 2019, will play in the Atlantic League, the same league that features York and the Lancaster Stormers (formerly Barnstormers). The team didn’t have to venture too far to hire its manager for the 2024 season.…

BASEBALL Travis Hardman, a 1998 WASHS graduate who inherited the ace pitcher mantle from Matt White, began his fourth season as head coach after the retirement of Greg Chandler (who coached from 1988 to 2020). The Indians finished the 2023 campaign with a 10-10 record. Waynesboro’s first regular season game is Monday, March 18 at West York, a non-conference game. Hardman’s coaching staff consists of Joe Wetzel, Jesse Mowen and Jarrett Biesecker. The junior varsity coaches are Dan McCleaf, Wyatt Freeman and Daryl Warrenfeltz. Hardman said, “Several student-athletes trying out for baseball started working out with our Strength and Conditioning…

MECHANICSBURG – Swimming is a highly competitive sport in Pennsylvania. And, it’s hard enough getting out of District 3 into the PIAA Championships. Waynesboro’s Eve Phillips and Brenner McIlquham both did it. Phillips earned the gold medal at last weekend’s District 3-AAA Swimming and Diving Championships held at Cumberland Valley. She won the 50-yard freestyle and then placed second in the 100 freestyle. “Pennsylvania is the fourth best state in the country for swimming and PA schools hold a number of National High School Records so this meet is tough to even qualify for,” said Waynesboro coach Sharon McIlquham of…

WAYNESBORO – The Waynesboro Indians varsity basketball team spends ninety-nine percent of the season playing teams belonging to the PIAA Class 5A classification. It’s the staple of the Mid-Penn Colonial Division with teams like Greencastle-Antrim, Northern York, Gettysburg and Shippensburg. It’s tough enough for a developing team like Waynesboro, which had to replace its entire starting five and had just two seniors who played a lot of minutes this season (Kellan Smith and Grant Thompson) to play teams that have shown significant improvement over the past two seasons. It’s why the Indians were on par with teams they dominated last…

WAYNESBORO – In the game of basketball, when a team is gifted with tall players, they should make maximum use of them. The Chambersburg Trojans had two of them – Emily Forrester (6-foot-2) and Riley Evans (6-3). Both made big impacts on the Waynesboro Maidens, who could not answer at the other end. The result was a 52-33 Chambersburg win in the season finale on Senior Night. Waynesboro, who finished 11-11 under first-year head coach Tyler Stoner, had just one senior on the team, and that was Gracie French. “We knew coming into the game that they were really big,”…

The Super Bowl is not super. It is also not a bowl. It is the final game of the National Football League’s season. That’s all. Nothing special. It’s overhyped, overblown and overrated. Much more homage is paid to celebrities than to the players and coaches who built the NFL into the monolithic institution that it has become. Moreover, the association that professional football shares with the entertainment industry is a subservient one and not a good one. If the NFL needs to be seen with the stars, superstars, and megastars for validation, then they have already sent a poor message…

WAYNESBORO – The Waynesboro Indians varsity basketball team led the Carlisle Thundering Herd early on Senior Night, but it didn’t last very long. It might have been that the Tribe forgot they were playing the second-ranked Class 6A team from District 3, or the Herd might have forgotten they were 17-3 and ranked second in the district. Whatever the case, Carlisle revved the engines and raced to a 66-32 non-league victory to improve to 18-3. The Herd trailed the Indians 12-7 and entered the second quarter with a 15-14 lead. By the end of the second quarter, Carlisle was comfortably…