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Davey keeps prep scores coming
By TOM USHER
419-993-2089
tusher@limanews.com

   Dave Spengler had one ambitious idea.
   At the time, he wasn’t sure what he was getting himself into.
   Spengler wanted to track the game-by-game results of a number of boys basketball teams.
   How many did he want to follow?
   Well, much more than a few.
   In the end, he decided to track the results of nearly every team in northwest Ohio. That includes 20 conferences and a few independents.
   Every score is right there on the Internet with amazing accuracy at www.davey1.com.
   If you need to know how your favorite team’s opponent has done this year or whom it has played, it’s all right there. It’s especially handy for following Lima Senior’s opponents, most of which are out of our area.
   “We keep track of 172 teams,” Spengler said of himself and partner Dave Sigler. “We have about 1,800 games in database and so far about 1,500 have been played. I’m only missing one score, Monclova Christian Academy and Senceca East on January 30.”
   Spengler updates the site with the new scores every day. With an endless number of e-mails to schools, he has also done an excellent job of staying on top of the postponements.
   “I spend a couple hours a day on it,” he said. “It depends on how many games are played the night before. I also have to double-check some scores. Sometimes, the winner and loser are turned around.”
   Spengler lives in Bowling Green and is a 1971 graduate of Elmwood High School. He’s been the school’s unofficial statistician for years.
   Spengler and Sigler started a publication called Trail Trash 10 years ago. The heart of the publication was the boys basketball tournament brackets.
   The Web site for the publication began in 2003.
   Then, with the Ohio High School Athletic Association putting the brackets on line the last few years, the duo wanted more.
   “After last year’s state tournament, my partner Dave Sigler, said, ‘Why don’t we do every schedule for northwest Ohio?’ I thought about it all last summer.”
   The key was Spengler writing his own software program. In this way, if he inputs the winning score of a game, it immediately registers a loss with the other school.
   Writing the program was a nice fit with Spenger’s real job of doing accounting and computer work for a trash collection company outside of Bowling Green.
   Once the program was in place, there was the matter of collecting schedules.
   “We sent out letters to all the ADs of about 170 schools and asked for their schedules. We also told them they could submit scores and cancellations and postponements,” Spengler said. “But, honestly, I didn’t get much help. With about one exception, that (getting scores from schools) hasn’t happened.”
   So how does he get the scores and keep his site updated on a daily basis?
   “I check every possible Web site I can think of,” he said.
   That includes The Lima News, The (Toledo) Blade, The (Findlay) Courier, the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, the Mansfield News-Journal and several others.
   “I’m not surprised. I’m impressed,” Elida coach Chris Adams said.
   Adams said he uses the site routinely to find out how teams on his schedule outside the area (like Toledo Central Catholic) are doing.
   “Anything we as coaches can do to help him, we should do,” Adams said.
   If you click on The Swami (OHSAA basketball), the list of conferences comes up. A click on each conference reveals each school and its game-by-game results.
   The site also includes commentary, boys northwest Ohio rankings and tournament predictions for each sectional, which are handled by the Swami (Sigler).
   As for compiling girls basketball results next year, Spengler said, “I don’t foresee that happening. We’d have to hire a staff. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it.”
   And what about football next year?
   “No, I don’t think so. We have have to set the boundary somewhere,” he said. “When the season is over, I want to do other things.”
   Such as?
   “I like to watch all kinds of sports,” Spengler said. “And I like to set up model trains.”
   But for now, there’s plenty of basketball to follow.
   



 
 
Thursday, February 17th, 2005