More tournaments schedules are up, along with the Top 25

It's probably little surprise that Scott County Central is No. 1 among more than 80 high school boys basketball teams in Southeast Missouri. The Braves lead the list in our annual preseason Top 25 poll, which is determined with input from coaches and others across the region.

The Braves finished strong last season with the program's first trip to the state final four in more than a decade; they finished third with a defeat of Fair Play.

The complete poll is in our high school area of the site. Click here for the whole 25-team list.

Also added to the site this week are schedules for several basketball events next week, including tournaments at Potosi, Farmington, Crystal City, Valley and more. We'll add tournament schedules in our forum as they come in, so click here to see the list so far.

And more from the high school scene: Individual team pages are updated to include the latest records from boys basketball and football teams, and more sports will be added in the coming weeks.

A final note: The voting for Southeast Missouri's football MVP includes almost 10,000 votes so far with Brandon Bourbon of Potosi and Michael Greminger of Valle still in a close race. The voting will close at the end of the day Friday (which is the day the season formally ends for Southeast Missouri teams), and we'll post the final totals on the site Saturday.

Early hoops focus turns to Van Buren, NMCC, Cape

The schedules are posted in our forum for the season-opening high school basketbal events across the region, including the Current River Challenge at Van Buren, the Riverbend Classic at New Madrid County Central, the Pepsi Shootout at Cape Girardeau, and the Farmington Invitational at the Farmington Civic Center.

The schedule is also up for the Heartland Hoopfest and a boys basketball tournament at Crystal City, both in December. Check back for schedules from upcoming events at Woodland, Oran and South Pemiscot and more in the next few days.

Among next weekend's events, the Van Buren schedule has grown by two games and features an eight-game lineup on Saturday. It's set to make a busy afternoon and night, joining five games at the Show Me Center's annual event and four games at NMCC on the day's schedule.

As he won a state title, Potosi runner lost his home

Jacob Swearingen was still catching his breath after winning a state high school cross country championship when he found out his home was gone.
His family's house in Potosi was destroyed in an afternoon fire just hours before he crossed the finish line.

"It was as if someone had pulled the rug out from under him," Jacob's stepfather, Tim Busse, told the Daily Journal for a story Tuesday. "Five minutes after he won the state championship for the second time in a row, Nick’s sister got a call from people down the road."

Swearingen, a back-to-back winner of the Class 2 state title, and family members are looking to rebuild with the help of community members. Two funds have been set up to help the effort; the small home shared by Jacob, his parents and two brothers wasn't insured.

The funds:

Belgrade State Bank, 306 North Missouri Street, Potosi, 63664. Make checks to Belgrade State Bank or the Jacob Busse family.

Unico Bank, P.O. Box 398, Potosi, 63664. Make checks to Unico Bank or Swearingen-Busse Relief Fund.

Amid the rubble, the family found only a few of Jacob's medals from a string of cross country wins since the first grade, but all of them were either melted or destroyed.

The family welcomes household items, furniture or other items to help rebuild. To help, call 573-637-2664.

It was a tough semifinal round for Southeast Missouri

The fate of a Southeast Missouri football championship rides with just two teams after a weekend of mostly lopsided results cut four local teams out of the mix.

Caruthersville, Farmington, New Madrid County Central and Valle all lost Saturday in quarterfinal games, leaving just Jackson (Class 5) and Thayer (Class 1) with hopes of bringing a title back to the 23-county Southeast Missouri region.

Both teams will play Saturday: Jackson goes to Hazelwood East, and Thayer goes to Tipton. Saturday's winners land at the Edward Jones Dome the following week for a state title shot.

And with the state championship chase down to its final two weeks (or less), time's running out to determine Southeast Missouri's football MVP. The poll on the SemoSportsWeb.com home page has produced almost 10,000 unique votes (after a few votes from duplicate addresses were deleted) with a neck-and-neck race between Brandon Bourbon of Potosi and Michael Greminger of Valle.

Football notes heading into the regionals, plus more

Thirteen football games are set to kick off tonight for Southeast Missouri teams. Click here to see tonight's full schedule, and check back for live scoring updates throughout the night.

SemoSportsWeb photographers will be at sites across the region, including at Farmington and Valle, so check back Thursday for photos from those two showdowns.

Winners of tonight's games advance to Monday's regional round. Quarterfinal games are Saturday, Nov. 15.

A few other notes:

Kory Faulkner on Friday became the first-ever Ste. Genevieve High School quarterback to pass for more than 3,000 yards in a season. He threw for 412 yards and completed 45 of 51 attempts.

Brandon Bourbon of Potosi took over the spot as the region's top rusher Friday in a win over Park Hills Central. Bourbon has 2,182 rushing yards this season and could pile on more tonight against New Madrid County Central.

More than 7,000 votes have been cast so far in our poll for Southeast Missouri's football MVP title. The lead has gone back and forth among several players, although Bourbon holds the spot now over Michael Greminger of Valle. The poll will stay open until each area team has finished its postseason schedule.

And, in response to concerns that some voters found a way to hack the system and vote more than once: Yes, a few did, but the IP address of each voter was recorded, and multiple votes from the same IP address have been deleted.

Tickets are on sale now for the high school basketball game between Cooter and South Pemiscot at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. The game is at 1 p.m. Jan. 24. Tickets are available from both schools for $20 apiece, which includes admission to the Grizzlies' NBA game that night.

The all-district volleyball team for the Class 1 District 2 tournament featured Kristin Eaves of Bernie, Whitney McClung of Richland, Chelsea Bledsoe of Campbell, and Sherilyn Long, Jasmine Johnson and Codie Lancaster of Bell City.

Second-team picks were Taylor Irwin of Oran, Mallory Dockins of Bell City, and Sami Palmer, Leslie Kean, Kristen Armbruster and Sarah Deason of Bernie.