Friday, September 24, 2010

We didn't stink it up this week, but we came close

Just as we hit the halfway point of the season, we discovered that local football teams still have a lot of surprises left in them.

Nobody correctly picked all six winners in our Cash Money Football Contest on Friday, and only person — our guru named CW — correctly picked five. Turns out that Chaffee's win over Scott City and Malden's win over Dexter really threw us off; only person (sportswiz) picked Chaffee, and only three of us picked Malden.

After the night was settled, two stand at the head of the pack — zoe95 and hardknocks both have 25 points out of a possible 30 so far. Two are tied at 24, and four others have 23 points apiece.

And in case you forgot why you're playing along: The leader after the regular season in our first annual contest wins $100 in cold, hard cash, along with the distinction of being Southeast Missouri's wisest high school football swami.

I'll have next week's lineup of six more games posted by the end of the day Sunday.

Here are the top 15 after Week 5:

1. hardknocks, 25 points
1. zoe95, 25
3. billythekid, 24
3. headhunt, 24
5. bystander, 23
5. CW, 23
5. epnation, 23
5. roundbelly, 23
9. dj, 22
10. daddy, 21
10. jamiehall, 21
10. officerpigskin, 21
10. sportswiz, 21
14. epfan08, 19
14. hb1025, 19

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Valle Catholic, Ste. Genevieve coaches reach milestone three days apart

It's rare enough to reach 500 wins as a volleyball coach, but two local high school coaches have done it three days apart — and just across town from each other.

Valle Catholic coach Nancy Fischer won her 500th career game Tuesday when her Warriors won 25-11, 25-12 at Kingston. It gives her team a 16-0-1 record. She was greeted at the city limits by cheering crowd that escorted her back to campus in a convertible.

Just three days earlier, Ste. Genevieve coach Dennis Drumm won his 500th career game as part of his team's championship at the Jefferson College Tournament in Hillsboro.

Valle Catholic is No. 7 in Class 1 in the newest state coaches' poll released Monday; Ste. Genevieve is just outside the top 10 in Class 3.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

An imperfect week makes it an interesting race

For the first time this season, none of our football gurus were perfect in their Friday night picks, and that helped tighten the race in our Cash Money Football Contest.

Nine experts went 5-for-6 in Friday's games, seven went 4-for-6, and one really, really absent-minded one — that would be me — went 5-for-6 and somehow forgot to even guess a winner in the Malden-Portageville game, thus preventing a guaranteed 6-for-6 night.

So that leaves three swamis at the top with 21 points apiece — zoe95, billythekid and hardknocks lead the pack for now, with headhunt, bystander and dj right behind with 20 points each. Behind that pack is a free-for-all with a lot of folks still in close range.

And for those who are new to our football season guesswork: There's a $100 bill set aside for the person who picks the most winners of local games through the end of the regular season. After I post six matchups here each week, just add your reply with your predicted winner of each game -- each correct pick earns a point, with a maximum of 6 points awarded to one person each week and 60 for the season.

Next week's pairings -- guaranteed to not be easy -- will be posted on The Board by the end of the day Sunday.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Six gurus go 6-for-6 in the Cash Money Football Contest

Maybe this week's picks weren't as tough as I expected — six SEMO football gurus went 6-for-6, the best (and possibly easiest) week out of three so far in our Cash Money Football Contest.

The wisest of the wise: officerpigskin, zoe95, billythekid, mutigers, hardknocks and DJ accurately picked Farmington, Grandview, Portageville, Park Hills Central, Fredericktown and East Prairie to win Friday's games. Nice job by all six.

That keeps a tie at the top of the heap between zoe95 and billythekid, both with 17 points out of a possible 18 so far. Tied for second are bystander, hardknocks and dj with 16 apiece. Behind that pack, one of our gurus has 15 points, and four have 14, so it's still anybody's ball game.

The ultimate winner gets the honor of being SEMO's No. 1 football mastermind and $100 cash after the 10-week season.

Next week's games will definitely be tougher on our whole panel with several good rivalries on the schedule — I'll have the list posted in our forum by the end of the day Sunday.



Tuesday, September 07, 2010

SEMO Spike Volleyball Tournament's field of 48 gets ready

Outside of the playoffs, there's not a bigger stage for Southeast Missouri high school volleyball teams than the SEMO Spike Volleyball Tournament, a two-day showcase that kicks off Friday and wraps up in a flurry Saturday.

The 48-team field starts working through 16 pool divisions at 4:30 p.m. Friday, and each team in the three-team pools will advance to bracket games at 8 a.m. Saturday. Games will be scattered across eight courts at the Show Me Center, the Southeast Student Rec Center and Notre Dame High School both days.

Championships in each bracket — the gold bracket, silver bracket and bronze bracket — will be played later Saturday.

Admission prices vary. On Friday, it's $5 for adults, then $9 for adults before 2 p.m. Saturday. After 2 p.m. Saturday, adult admission is $5. Youth admission is $4 across the board.

Click here to take a look back at last year's tournament scores. More than 5,000 fans attended parts of the two-day event a year ago.

Friday, September 03, 2010

In a tough, tough Week 2 contest, one stands alone

I knew our six games in our Cash Money Football Contest would be tough this week, but I thought at least a couple of people might get lucky enough to pick all six.

Instead, only one of our football experts - hardknocks - correctly picked the winner in all six games. Nice work.

Five others went 5-of-6: epfan08, z0e95, billythekid, bystander and DJ all missed just one game out of six.

After two weeks, there's still a deadlock at the top, where z0e95, billythekid and bystander all have 11 points, just one game short of perfection. Four others are tied for second place with 10 points apiece: epfan08, headhunt, hardknocks and DJ.

We have eight weeks left to go before we know who will walk off with a $100 bill as the winner and the satisfaction of being Southeast Missouri's true high school football guru of 2010.

Looking ahead at Week 3, it looks like our six-game lineup might be a little easier, but not by much. I'll have those games posted over in the forum by the end of the day Sunday.