Over the past week and a half I have revealed my choices of the top sports stories of 2016. All that is left is #1.
From Keenan Haynes injury to announcement of Reeds Spring and Hollister joining the new look Big 8 there has been a lot happen over the past year. I will start a couple of cuts from my call of what I considered the number one sports story of 2016 in the tri-lakes.
Click on play to hear my call….
1- DOWN GOES BOLIVAR…. DOWN GOES BOLIVAR…. DOWN GOES BOLIVAR
From the night of September 2nd, when it took place, there was a good chance this would be my number one story. Even though a last week loss to Springfield Catholic would force the Wolves to share the COC Title nothing takes away from the magic of this night.
The Bolivar Liberators have owned the small COC and every team in it. They had not lost to a team that makes up the league in 13 years. And almost all of those games were turbo clock affairs.
Reeds Spring had been close the previous two years. In 2014 the Wolves came storming back from a halftime deficit. Down by 5 the Wolves had the ball and driving deep into Liberator territory looking for the winning score. On a 4th down and short the Wolves went for it… ran option to the left side and came up a few inches short. Bolivar survived.
In 2015 Reeds Spring traveled to Bolivar and went punch for punch with the Liberators once again. This time they led for a good part of the game. They still had the lead mid to late 4th quarter then it all fell apart. In a little over two minutes the Liberators went from being down to being THREE touchdowns up.
But, this year was a different story. On the turf of Carl Langley Field this night would belong to Reeds Spring. And, in a way, the rest of the COC. Not sure the Wolves have ever had as many fans as they had on that night. Reeds Spring led much of the evening. When Joel Gertson split the uprights to put the Wolves up by ten with time running out, we knew it was probably about to happen. And as you could hear from my call above, when that last Bolivar pass fell incomplete we knew the job was done. And, the entire small COC let out a collective YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!