Football is just days away, and so are the SEMO 33 rankings

Our first SEMO 33 football poll is in the works, and it's set to be posted on SemoSportsWeb.com next Monday — four days before the start of the season, and three days after we get our first look at local teams in Friday's jamborees.

In case you weren't around to see it last season, the SEMO 33 poll is the only ranking that lists all 33 high school football teams in the region. Watch for it every Monday through the end of the playoffs.

We use input from coaches, athletes, fans, media — anybody with an opinion on high school football. And we're always looking for extra input, so share your thoughts at any time during the season with an e-mail (to jhall@semosportsweb.com) or with a post on our message board.

As for Friday's jamborees, they're scheduled for 10 different sites around the region with start times of either 6 or 7:30 p.m. Click over to our 2009 football page at this link for the whole schedule, along with the full schedules for every team in our area.

Check back over the weekend and early next week for photos from at least three of Friday's jamborees.

Howard should know pro baseball plans soon

A few notes heading into the weekend:

• Vince Howard Jr., who graduated from Sikeston High School in the spring, is still working on a deal to play professionally after he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in June. Vince has signed to play at Meramec Community College, and the decision is likely to be reached in about a week. Don't be surprised to see him playing at the college level, at least for the next year.

• Former Cape Girardeau Central all-state pick Mitch Craft has finished his first season of pro indoor football with a noteworthy award: Linebacker of the Year. The award was based on a fan survey. His Louisiana team lost 50-43 in an SIFL semifinal to Austin. In 11 games as a starter, Mitch was second in the league with 31 solo tackles and second with 24 assists.

• A new locally published book details a darker, seldom-seem side of boxing. The book, "8 ... 9 ... 10 ... You’re Out!," was written by former boxing promoter Rob Russen and published by BT Press, a publishing house based in Steele.

BT Press co-owner Brian Tramel calls the book a "tell-all storoy" that details the politics that help rule the sport, including the details that eventually led to the murder of a well-known boxing promoter.

The book retails for $19.99 and can be bought online at BTPress.net or at Amazon.com.

SEMO finishes 13th out of 60 teams in Arkansas fishing tournament

Southeast Missouri State doesn't just have a bass fishing team — they have a pretty good bass fishing team.

SEMO finished 13th out of 60 teams in the Under Armour College Bass National Championship on the Arkansas River near North Little Rock, Ark., over the weekend, one spot behind Mizzou and one ahead of Arkansas.

Boater Taylor Gorton and partner Mike Rains finished with a two-day weigh-in of 9.48 pounds, a little more than a half-pound behind 12th-place Missouri. North Carolina State won the event, which aired on ESPNU and paid the winning team $250,000.

A few other SEMO notes of local interest:

• Bijon Jones, who left the Southeast men's basketball after last season, has signed to play at Indiana University East. Jones, of Jackson, Tenn., will have one year of collegiate eligibility. Jones started 12 games for SEMO last season and averaged 24.4 minutes, three points and 2.5 assists per game.

• A former SEMO assistant basketball coach is standing firm against critics as the new GM of the Golden State Warriors. The San Jose Mercury News featured a profile Sunday of Larry Riley; he coached the SEMO men's basketball team in the early '70s and earned his master's degree there.

• Keno Davis, another former Southeast men's assistant coach, has signed a contract extension as the head coach at Providence, where he recently finished his first season. He guided Providence to a 19-14 overall record; the win total was the most by a Providence coach in his first season.

• Leon Powell isn't likely to play this season for the SEMO men's basketball team because of what appears to be an ACL tear. The rumor was confirmed by coach Dickey Nutt in Wednesday's Southeast Missourian. Powell played the past two seasons at an Iowa junior college and was expected to anchor the team in Nutt's inaugural season as the Redhawks' coach.

One closing, one opening for local racing fans

One surprise closing was announced this week, offset by another one that came just days earlier, both of them sure to make waves among motorsports fans in the region.

Owners of the Turkey Penn Extreme Adventure park — a massive 3,800-acre site near Doniphan with more than 40 miles of off-road trails for ATVs, motorcycles, dune-buggies and other off-road vehicles — announced this week that the facility has closed less than 6 months after it opened.

I haven't been able to reach owner Todd Smith, but a message on the company's web site late Monday announced the bad news.

"Thank you to all of you that patronized our facility," the site said. "Due to the economy we have not been able to obtain the funding needed to complete or continue operating Turkey Penn."

Just weeks earlier, plans were being discussed to develop an area suitable for truck pulls and monster truck shows, along with a slightly-banked oval track for karts, ATVs and potentially stock cars.

But just a few miles away, Rick Donnell is putting the finishing touches on an oval dirt track that could be ready for stock car racing within a few weeks.

The track, 3 miles west of Doniphan on State Route A, has been under construction for almost two years. Only a few final details are left unfinished, including the addition of lights for nighttime racing.

Weekly racing will be on Friday nights and could feature several divisions, including open-wheel modifieds, street stocks, cruisers and four-cylinders. Special events for late models, sprints and other classes could be added.

The track is a quarter-mile oval with straightaways almost 300 feet long.

It would be the fourth track in Southeast Missouri to feature stock cars on Friday nights — tracks in Doe Run, Fredericktown and Malden also compete on Fridays, while St. Francois County Speedway near Farmington holds weekly events on Saturdays.

SEMO's football game at Cincinnati finally has a kickoff time

If you plan to follow Southeast Missouri State to Cincinnati for the Redhahwks' Sept. 12 football game, you can take all afternoon getting there.

Cincinnati announced today that kickoff for the game will be 7:30 p.m., and it said the game will air live on Fox Sports Ohio. That start time will be the latest one this season for SEMO; two others kick off at 6, including the season opener Sept. 3 against Quincy.

And one reminder if you go: Cincinnati is in the eastern time zone.

From the SIFL: Former Cape Girardeau Central all-stater Mitch Craft is having a big season with the Acadiana Mudbugs of the SIFL, an indoor football league. He's started every game on defense so far in a 4-3 season and stands third in the league in total tackles (21 solo, 12 assists).

Junior Nationals: At the USA Track & Field Junior Nationals on Sunday, a pair of Southeast Missouri athletes placed high in the field.

Alyssa Allison of Festus finished second in the junior women's 3,000-meter steeplechase, one spot better than in 2008. Crystal City's Precious Selmon was sixth in the 100-meter hurdles and 11th in the long jump.

Changes are coming for MSHSAA and OVC events

Watching the Ohio Valley Conference baseball tournament will require a longer road trip, and seeing the state high school basketball tournaments for teams in Class 1, 2 or 3 might require a little extra shuffling, too.

First, for the decision that is set in stone: The OVC recently voted to relocate its postseason tournament from Paducah, Ky., to Pringles Park, home of the Double-A West Tenn Diamond Jaxx in Jackson, Tenn. Pringles Park will host the tournament for at least three years starting in 2010; next year's tournament will be May 26-30.

And a decision being debated but not voted on (yet): The MSHSAA Board of Directors has asked for further study of an idea that would use two facilities for first-day games in the Class 1, 2 and 3 state high school basketball championships, saying the move would be "more advantageous" for the athletes involved.

The plan would help balance the schedule through the first day of the event, altering the existing schedule that calls for more than 12 hours of nonstop basketball at Mizzou Arena. The proposal being considered would use both Mizzou Arena and Hearnes Center for the first day of games.

With that idea still up in the air until a later vote, the association did approve a plan that would keep the championship events for wrestling and basketball on the Mizzou campus for at least the next four years, while track and field state championships will stay in Jefferson City for at least the next two years.

The area's best sports program? The numbers say Notre Dame

For the second year in a row, the numbers point to Notre Dame as the best athletic program out of more than 80 in Southeast Missouri.

Notre Dame finished with 36 points in the annual SemoSportsWeb.com all-sports standings, 14.5 points ahead of runnerup Herculaneum. St. Vincent finished third, Festus fourth and Farmington, Sikeston and Valle in a tie for fifth.

Notre Dame clinched the No. 1 spot on the list when the school won the Class 3 state baseball championship.

Fifty-two of the region's 83 high schools earned points in the list, which awards points based on postseason success in each of the state's athletic competitions (10 points for a state title, 8 for second place, and so on). Click here to see the full list of all 52 schools and their ranking.

The list (at least the top two) is identical to last year, when Notre Dame won with 39 points and Herculaneum finished second with 22 (a 17-point edge). This year, Notre Dame finished with 36 points, and Herculaneum had 22.5.