Price is right on time with sports stories in rhyme   By Felix Hoover For Your News Columbus   As a sports administrator, Roxanne Price has spent much of her time in the company of some of the state’s most famous athletes and most accomplished educators.   As an author, she has drawn on her experiences with celebrities to reveal lessons of value to children.   Price’s latest book, Buckeyes, Bow Ties and Sweater Vests evokes images of a certain university president and a football coach from said school. But her writing goes beyond the “trademark” neckwear of E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, and the sweater vests of football coach Jim Tressel.   “All bow ties don’t have to be alike” sums up Price’s message of diversity to her young readers.   The visual part of the book comes from illustrator Mark Dyser, a former animator on the scoreboard crew at Ohio State. He lives in the Chicago area where he designs toys for Burger King and the Kellogg Co.   Price served as president of the graduating Class of ‘77 at Fremont Ross High School, where she excelled in basketball and track.   “I was in the second or third year in which girls could compete in the Ohio High School Athletic Association,” said Price, an assistant commissioner at the association since 2007.   Through the years she has cultivated a passion for writing, eventually converting what she call her “silly talent for rhyming,” into three books.   Along the way she wrote poetry in middle school and began Roxie’s Reflections the day she graduated from high school.   When she had an answering machine, she gained notice by recording her message for incoming calls in rhyme.   “People would call up just to hear my message and hang up,” Price said.   Besides appealing to the ear, her style of expression serves other purposes.   “I feel that rhyme is a good way to teach children to read and it captures their attention,” Price said.   In addition to Buckeyes, Bow Ties and Sweater Vests, Price has written Little Brutus Buckeye Makes New Friends and Troy and the Championship Trophy. Little Brutus deals with bullying, while Troy focuses on sportsmanship.   Price completed Little Brutus in 1995 during off hours from her job with the OSU Department of .Athletics. Some of her connections with the university , where she earned her bachelor’s in psychology in 1981 and her master’s in counseling psychology in 1984, helped her cut through red tape to get licensing as needed.   Price was in charge of the sportsmanship program at the Ohio High School Athletic Association when she published Troy and the Championship Trophy. It deals with a fifth-grade flag football team, the Little Giants, which finds itself in a championship game despite lacking a strong supporting cast for star player Troy.     The theme is ‘We can all be winners if we respect the game,’” Price said.   The book came out shortly after Troy Smith won the Heisman Trophy as a quarterback for OSU, but Price had another Heisman winner in mind when the idea for the book first hit her   Had she followed the original plan, she would have written Charles and the Championship, with fellow Fremont native Charles Woodson as the inspiration for the lead character. That’s the same Charles Woodson who was one of the University of Michigan stars who struck the Heisman pose in games against Ohio State.   “It’s kind of hard to be at Ohio State and write about a Michigan fellow.” Price said, almost with a straight face.   Even though she has little spare time, she plans to keep rhyming. Obesity is the likely topic for her next book because it deals with athletics. It also happens to be a topic of interest for First Lady Michelle Obama.   In the meantime, Price hopes that professional athletes will buy her books in volume and donate them to schools, libraries and youth organizations.   Except for Little Brutus, which is out of print, her books can be purchased online. For Troy and the Championship Trophy, see www.outskirtspress.com, and for Buckeyes, Bow Ties & Sweater Vests, go to www.Trafford.com