Updates on coaches and rankings

Dustin Benson is the new boys basketball coach at Twin Rivers. The board approved the hiring over three other final candidates Tuesday night.

Benson has lifelong ties to Twin Rivers and was long considered the frontrunner for the spot left open by Rob Brown, who left last month for the head coaching job at Liberty High in Mountain View.

Benson played baseball and basketball at Twin Rivers before he graduated in 2000; he went on to play baseball at Crowley's Ridge College and graduated from Arkansas State. He was the head softball coach and assistant basketball coach at Poplar Bluff.

Plenty of other high school coaching jobs are open or have been filled in the past month alone. See the full list here.

• Several visitors to the site have asked about our SEMO Top 10 baseball poll, the exclusive rankings we developed last season with help from local baseball coaches, athletes and fans. The weekly poll won't appear this year, but we're already planning to bring it back in time for next season. For the 2010-'11 seasons, we'll continue our rankings for SEMO football, boys basketball and girls basketball as well, along with baseball and (hopefully) volleyball, too.

Just in case you're feeling nostalgic, check out the final 2009 baseball rankings here.