Sports

Understanding the game of poker on a full table can be quite a daunting task – reading your opponents, playing in and out of position, calculating pot odds. But what if you find yourself heads-up, facing only one opponent. Once you’ve made it to heads-up play in a game of poker, be it Texas Hold’em, Stud, Omaha or any other form of the game, playing styles and strategies can change tremendously.

In less than two weeks, the Lady Indians’ soccer team will pick up where they left off last season, with hopes of advancing past the second round of the state championship, where Ursuline awaited in 2009 to vanquish the Indians’ post-season dreams. This year, Indian River is returning plenty of talent, but they’re doing it without some integral athletes from last season’s squad.

Indian River softball coach Chris Megee will have his hands full this season as he looks to fill the cleats left empty last year by the graduation of shortstop Lindsay McCabe. As the season quickly approaches, young talent and new faces are filling out the lineup for the Lady Indians, in hopes of bringing conference and state titles to the program.

Forget those cheap plastic sleds. Throw away those saucers. For the true adrenaline junkie looking to get down a hill in the most exhilarating way possible, there’s no comparison to the U.S. National Toboggan Championships, held each February in Camden, Maine. Just ask Doug Fagley and Andy Rose, two Sussex Countians with a serious appetite for excitement.

The DIAA Girl’s Basketball Tournament hit the hardwood earlier this week, and the Lady Indians were prepared to put on a show. After clinching the Henlopen Southern Division championship last week, Indian River followed up Tuesday night with an exhilarating one-point win over Padua Academy, advancing into the second round of the state tournament, where they faced St. Mark’s, the top-ranked team in Delaware.

Shimmering chrome, bold paint jobs and purring engines... Next weekend, some of the most spectacular hot rods and unique automobiles on the Eastern seaboard will be rolling into Ocean City, Md., for the 30th Annual Hot Rod and Custom Car Show. The Ocean City Convention Center will fill up with more than 160 automobiles on March 13 and 14, and host celebrity appearances, entertainment and more in what promises to be one of the most anticipated automotive events of the year for the area.

Despite wintery temperatures lingering outside, things got heated last Saturday at Indian River High School’s 2nd Annual Chili Cook-off, which garnered more than a dozen entries and helped raise hundreds of dollars for the school’s athletic department.

Two conference powerhouses collided on the hardwood Monday evening as Indian River hosted the Lady Bulldogs of Laurel to settle the score in the Henlopen South. Lady Indians’ Keeonya Shelton turned on a dominant offensive attack, leading the squad with a personal-best, career-high 22 points as the rest of her team supplied a brick-wall defense for a 64-40 victory.

This winter, Indian River fans have had a little more to cheer about, thanks to cheerleading coach Tori Abell, who has stepped in this year as the winter sports’ cheerleading and competitive cheerleading coach.

Indian River’s wrestling team might have come up short against Milford in their last regular season match. They might have erred against their opponents from Caravel this past Tuesday, Feb. 23, at the state duals at Delaware State University. But that hasn’t discouraged head coach Jeff Windish, who has vastly improved on last year’s record and will see eight athletes go to the state individual wrestling tournament this weekend at Sussex Central.

What began as a fun winter alternative has grown into a golden opportunity for five Indian River athletes, who posted qualifying times to the boys’ state preliminary swimming championships this past Wednesday, in the school’s first year offering the sport.

Soccer has been a passion for Indian River High School senior Jake Buchler as long as he can remember. He’s assumed every role on the pitch, and his experience has allowed him to excel with comparative ease. The four-year varsity letterman even showed off his boot on the gridiron as the kicker for the IRHS football team. And, this fall, Buchler will be headed to Lock Haven in Pennsylvania, where he will look to make a significant contribution to the Bald Eagles’ soccer team, which finished this past season 7-10-2.

Winter weather over the last month has undoubtedly caused a number of setbacks, from power outages and road closures to limited business hours throughout the community, but one of the most notable impacts has been at local schools – specifically, in the athletic programs. As the winter sport season draws to a close, teams are finding themselves making up critical games before conference and state tournaments come around, while others have been forced to cut their seasons a little short.

Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Allen Cunningham, Erik Seidel. To most people, these names mean nothing. But to poker players who frequent the felt, these names are synonymous with success. These poker professionals are among the most profitable in the world of live poker. And just weeks ago, arguably the best poker player today – Phil Ivey – surpassed Canadian pro Daniel Negreanu as the all-time live tournament money-winner.

A five-point win over Laurel last week and a 56-43 triumph at Lake Forest this past Tuesday kept the Lady Indians’ basketball team at the top of the conference, after a back-and-forth struggle in non-conference play through January.