Ball State selects football captains

Ball State first-year head football coach Pete Lembo has announced the five team captains for the 2011 season as voted by their teammates and coaches.

Sean Baker, Kreg Hunter, Adam Morris, Briggs Orsbon and Andrew Puthoff will serve as the Cardinals' team captains this season.

"We are confident these five athletes will lead and represent our football program well both on and off the field," Lembo said. "They have been assets during the coaching transition and have earned the respect of their teammates."

Baker, who also served as a team captain in 2010, was an All-Mid-American Conference Second-Team selection last season and won Ball State's John Magnabosco Award as the team's most valuable player. The safety set the career interceptions record for the Cardinals last season as a junior with 16.

Hunter, an offensive lineman, started five games and played in eight last season, but suffered an ankle injury and missed four contests. Hunter had started all 12 games and 15 straight prior to the injury.

Morris, a defensive tackle, started all 12 games last season and tallied a career high four tackles at Central Michigan and against Akron. He managed at least one tackle in 10 games and was credited with his first career sack at CMU.

Orsbon, a wide receiver, was a 2010 ESPN Academic All-District choice and owns a 4.0 grade-point average on Ball State's 4.0 scale. He started all 12 games last season and has started 22 consecutive contests, while appearing in all 38 games in his first three seasons.

Puthoff, a defensive end, started all 12 games last season and played both defensive end and tight end. He made his first career interception at Central Michigan last year and tallied a career high nine tackles at Toledo.

Ball State's football team will open the 2011 season against Indiana University at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Sept. 3.

Radio personality coming to Wells County

2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. To celebrate, radio personality and Indy 500 announcer Howdy Bell will give an interactive presentation titled “Indy 500: Past, Present, and Future” at the main Wells County Public Library branch from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 5.

As a member of the Indianapolis 500 Worldwide Network Team of insiders reporting details of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” Howdy will share stories and anecdotes about auto racing: the drivers, mechanics and their cars. Taped interview excerpts and photos will also be on display that evening.

Howdy Bell, a native of Indiana, has spent more than 30 years as a broadcast personality, and this year will be his 50th race as a professional radio broadcaster to cover the Indy 500.

This event is free and open to the public. All ages are invited, but the presentation is geared toward adults. Registration is not required but appreciated. For more information or to register call 260-824-1612 or go to www.wellscolibrary.org and click on the "Calendar of Events" link.

Chatting with Southern Wells softball coach Sydney Osborn

The Southern Wells Raiders defeated the Bluffton Tigers 7-0 Tuesday at Bluffton. Get all the details about the game in the Wednesday, April 27, News-Banner.

Hoosier Homestead Gathering Details Announced for Salamonie Reservoir

The Hoosier Homestead Gathering will be held April 30 and May 1 on Indiana’s Salamonie Reservoir. The gathering offers the public an opportunity to investigate how to live a more "self-sustaining" lifestyle.

Vendors and Discussion Tables at the event both days:

• Gardening: Victory Acres
• Kettle Corn: LaFontaine Lions Club
• Walking Tacos: American Heritage Girls
• Glycerin Soap
• Egg Testing: Indiana State Poultry Association
• Leave No Trace: Boy Scout Troop 429
• Natural Beauty / Cleaning
• Weaving
• Incubating Eggs at Home
• Home Food Preserving
• Quilting
• Dutch Oven Cooking
• Maple Syrup Conversations
• Wool and other Sheep Products
• Old-fashioned Games for Kids and the Young at Heart
• Candle Dipping: American Heritage Girls
  

Saturday, April 30:

• 11 a.m. Planting Trees and Shrubs for wind breaks, food and shade
• 12:30 p.m. - Roll Farms, Milk Goat demo
• 1 p.m. - Victory Acres: Urban Gardening
• 2 p.m. - Edible Wildflower presentation
• 2 p.m. - Grid-tied Solar Energy Presentation
• 3 p.m. - Victory Acres: Urban Gardening
• 4 p.m. - Chicken Butchering demo
• 5 p.m. – Canning Demonstration

Sunday, May 1

• 11 a.m. – Planting Trees and Shrubs for wind breaks, food and shade
• 12:30 p.m. - Roll Farms, Milk Goats demo
• 1 p.m. - Chicken Butchering demo
• 2 p.m. – Cheese Making Demo
• 2 p.m. Rotational Grazing Presentation
• 3 p.m. Lawn Management Presentation
• 4 p.m. Weaving Rag Rugs

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Sunday. There is a $3-per-person fee. All events are held in the Salamonie Interpretive Center and nearby large tents.

For more information, contact Upper Wabash Interpretive Services at (260) 468-2127 or email lfager@dnr.in.gov. Gate fees apply to enter the property: $5 per Indiana vehicle and $7 for out-of-state vehicles. Annual entrance permits also available at the Lost Bridge West State Recreation Area off of Ind. 105 in western Huntington County.

Volunteer work day at Limberlost on May 2

In recognition of National Historic Preservation Month next month, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation will host a work day at Limberlost, the home of Gene Stratton-Porter, famed Indiana author and naturalist, on May 2. Limberlost is located just south of Geneva in Adams County.

The community is invited to participate in what is planned to become an annual event at a different site each year.

The DHPA will team with the DNR Division of Nature Preserves and the Indiana State Museum to assist with regular maintenance at Limberlost. The Friends of the Limberlost group also will participate.

For further information please contact Limberlost State Historic Site at (260) 368-7428 or rlehman@dnr.IN.gov.

Spring turkey season opens April 27

From the Indiana Department of Natural Resources:

If you're wondering why the spring wild turkey hunting season starts as late as it does this year, DNR wildlife research biologist Steve Backs has an explanation.

“It's always the first Wednesday after the 20th of April, so it can be the 21st to the 27th,” Backs said of the date-setting process that is based partly on biology and partly on courtesy to hunters.

“Part of the reason that we went to standardized dates years ago is it gave us the opportunity to set up the season dates ahead of time so those people who plan their vacations would know when the turkey season was,” he said. “We (also) based it on biological knowledge so that we would intercept the peak of the second gobbling period as well as when most of the hens were incubating.”

Backs provides more detail about this year's April 27 opener and other turkey topics in a series of video clips that can be viewed on the DNR website at www.hunting.in.gov/6417.htm.

The same web address also has the 2011 Turkey Hunting Guide. The downloadable guide contains information that every turkey hunter should know, including license requirements, bag limits, hunting hours, equipment regulations; plus it has a comprehensive list of public hunting areas and contact information for DNR district wildlife biologists and DNR law enforcement districts.

The last time the spring turkey season opened on April 27 was in 2005, and hunters set a harvest record that year of 11,159 birds. The next year, the season opened April 26 and hunters again set a record harvest of 13,193.

That record stood until last year when hunters set a new standard of 13,742 birds in a season that began on the earliest possible date (April 21).

This year’s spring turkey season runs through May 15.

Hunters are allowed one bearded or male turkey. A wild turkey hunting license and a game bird habitat stamp are required unless otherwise exempted. Exemptions are detailed in the online Turkey Hunting Guide.

Backs said he is “cautiously optimistic” about what hunters can expect this spring.

“I’d like to project that we’re probably going to kill around 13,000, 14,000 birds,” he said. “If we fall below 13,000 birds, given the summer brood production stuff, I won’t be surprised either.

“As usual, I tell people the highest percentage of the harvest occurs in the first five days of the season. However, if you don’t like hunting with the crowds, I suggest you hunt during the second and third weeks where we have a lot less pressure and still have plenty of birds to harvest.”

State Park Road Rally openings available, May 3-5

Indiana DNR Release:

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. It's almost time for the annual spring State Park Road Rally, May 3-5, featuring McCormick’s Creek State Park in southern Indiana.

Drivers pilot their own vehicles, as a navigator steers teams to adventure on scenic back roads to enjoy various small towns and discover some of Indiana’s lost treasures.

Along the route, should teams accept, there will be educational and exciting “challenges” to complete to earn points for the teams. At the end of the rally there will be an awards ceremony and dinner.

Cost is $225 per person (based on double occupancy), which includes two nights of lodging at Canyon Inn, breakfasts and dinners, two days of road rally events and nightly entertainment. Reservations can be made by calling 1.877.LODGES1.

For more information, visit http://www.IN.gov/dnr/parklake/3397.htm.