OTTOVILLE — Bob Kaple can remember when there was no cross country or track and field teams at Ottoville.
He can because he started both programs in 1968 with junior high kids.
Both programs have grown so much since those days 40 years ago.
His name now stands as a memorial to his legacy as an Ottoville coach, inscribed on the front of the Ottoville soccer/track and field stadium.
An official ceremony was held Friday night during a junior high track meet.
“I feel doggone good; it’s a great honor for them to think that much about me to do this,” Kaple said. “I started both programs in 1968 with the junior high and I just completed by 40th year as head coach of the cross country teams. I was head coach of track and field for about 20 years.”
He can remember the days when there was a facility literally dug out of the ground for track to use.
“There was an area in the Ottoville Community Park that I and a student measured out, dug out with shovels and had some stone put in. It was a 300-yard track,” he recalled. “I can remember trying to hold meets there for a while. It’s hard to have a mile relay with a 300-yard oval; you had to do something like a lap and a half. Lima Senior’s coach then, Ron Dodson, would come over and help out. He was one of the charter members of the track coaches’ association in Ohio.
“It just got too hard to have home meets like that — it was just so much easier to go somewhere else — so we stopped until the stadium got built a couple of years ago. You can still see some of the stone near the baseball/softball diamonds at the park.”
The first year of varsity track — in 1971 — wasn’t necessarily indicative of what was to come.
“We were almost all freshmen, with a couple of sophomores mixed in. In those days, they announced the score after every event; we had a meet with Hardin-Northern and scored four points,” he continued. “In 1973, we were the runners-up in the Putnam County meet and sectional runners-up, what is now the districts.
“Vaughn Horstman graduated in 1974 and he was involved in the beginnings; now he’s the girls track coach.”
Kaple has no plans to give up coaching in the near future.
“I still enjoy being around the kids. I help coach the shot put for track and indirectly coach the distance events,” he added. “I have a great bunch of runners to work with, especially in the girls cross country team. We’re going to have no seniors on the roster on either team and I look for big things in the fall.
“I’ll keep coaching until I can’t get around anymore. I enjoy it too much to stop.”