Port Clinton rings in fall sports season with 'Midnight Madness'

PORT CLINTON — Port Clinton senior Addi Siefke asked the question on everyone's mind: "What time is it?" The answer was 1:10 a.m. PC's volleyball team had just completed their inaugural Midnight Madness event, and the 2022 fall sports season in Ohio was a bit more than an hour old. "It's definitely a neat thing," Port Clinton volleyball coach Kent Felbinger said. Port Clinton's boys and girls cross country teams had just finished running on the True-Lay Stadium track, as well, to start their Monday. The girls team, led by coach Nichole Wiechman, was the trendsetter with a midnight practice last year. "It's fun. Tons of team camaraderie, as long as no one gets hurt," PC's girls cross country coach Nichole Wiechman said. "They were already hopping fences, and I was like, let's not get hurt before we even start practicing. It's all they talk about in school." The Ohio High School Athletic Association allows official practices for the fall to begin August 1. For most, that means after a good night's rest. For these two Port Clinton sports, though, it meant at the earliest possible moment. Felbinger also took inspiration from the basketball Midnight Madness at Ohio State, his alma mater. The expansion of the midnight festivities in Port Clinton was organic. In 2021, Wiechman suggested it to her girls after learning about teams in other states doing such a thing. "I've heard of football teams starting at midnight," Wiechman said. "Texas football, you've got to get every minute in that you can. I was like, let's do this more for fun than anything." The runners couldn't stop talking about it, which spread the idea to the PC volleyball team. Seniors Alliyah Wharton and Kenzie Martinez talked about it with Wiechman in chemistry class. On Sunday night leading into Monday's practice opening day, Port Clinton's cross country team gathered about 10 p.m. at the track. They played a game of hide-and-seek, which presented one of the perils of the nighttime action — a runner spotted what he thought was an albino squirrel, only to realize it was a skunk. No one got sprayed, so the evening's cornhole and spike ball action went on without a hitch. The runners couldn't actually run on the track under Wiechman's direction until midnight, when they proceeded into a couple warmup laps and a timed mile to set a baseline for each athlete. "The corners are a little dark and scary, but I guess that's what makes it fun," Wiechman said. "We'll do some stretching, and we've got pizza already because we had to get it at 10 o'clock. We're trying to keep it warm." Another peril for the cross country team: old tents. They slept at the track after their short practice and had breakfast in the morning, but one of the tents didn't want to stay upright. The girls determined that'd be where the coaches, Nichole Wiechman and her husband Ryan, would sleep. Things will be very familiar for the Port Clinton cross country team this fall, with the parents leading a group that includes junior daughter Maddie and freshman daughter Morgan. "The joke this year is that we're all a family," Nichole Wiechman said. "With my husband and I coaching and two of our daughters on the team, this year we're as serious as it gets. That is truly a family, when four of the people are family members. We're trying to pull everybody else into our family." The midnight slate even included a family crossover, with Felbinger's son Quinn one of the members of PC's boys cross country team. He learned the rules of cornhole as his father donned a referee shirt over in the gymnasium. Felbinger took to the chair with his whistle for the volleyball intrasquad scrimmage, but not before the teams each performed an entrance dance. Then they got together as one unit to perform the Cha-Cha Slide in the final seconds of Sunday night before they could pick up volleyballs. "I gave them a little bit of lee-way, and they did a good job," Felbinger said. "We had a little skills session to find out who scores the highest to get the captains, and then we had a little draft today. The teams came up with their own schemes, outfits and stuff. It was a good team bonding event. That's what our whole weekend was based around, building a good team environment." Music played throughout the three-set match as parents and almost 50 students watched, most in their pajamas to meet the midnight theme. "(The girls) definitely wanted people here, so they used their phones for good this time, not for bad," Felbinger said. Felbinger felt it was a good way to ring in the season for a promising group. Five seniors — Siefke, Wharton, Martinez, Taylor Bollinger and the currently injured Claudia Gillum — provide a strong core. "They've been together for a long time, they're pretty tight," Felbinger said. "And they are by far our most athletic." Olivia Emerson led a group of younger players that also made strong plays in the scrimmage, and the sophomore unleashed a trio of aces on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th points of the final set. "(Emerson is) probably gonna be one of our main scorers," Felbringer said. Soon after the final ball dropped out of bounds, it was bedtime. Wiechman said she usually makes it to 11 p.m. in the summer, tops. Felbinger said he'd normally be asleep "three hours ago." But both expect the events to grow into even greater tradition next year, and they might not be alone. Felbinger knows his team won't leave him much choice. "I don't think they would let me not do it," Felbinger said, "Let's put it that way."