Month: February 2017

Friday Night will feature a tri-lakes match-up: Reeds Spring vs Forsyth.  But, the night will also feature a new class being inducted into the Reeds Spring Sports Hall of Fame.

Six Individuals and one Team made the list this year:

Craig Hesseling- A 2005 Graduate overcame leukemia to become one the best runners the school has had.

Erik Wood – A 1983 Graduate was the second All-State Football player in the programs history.  He went on to play at William Jewell.

Jesse Stovall- a 1999 Graduate shot Skeet and Trap for the Wolves as well as playing baseball.  Better known for his success in the racing world.

Coach Becky Lipasek- Coached two Final Four Volleyball teams during her tenure of leading the Lady Wolves program

Jessica Smyth- a 2007 Graduate was an All-State Volleyball player and part of the 2006 Volleyball team that finished 3rd in the state.

Brittany Stone- a 2008 Graduate and part of both the 2006 and 2007 Final Four Volleyball teams.  She also lettered in Basketball for the Lady Wolves.  Brittany played four years of Volleyball at College of the Ozarks helping lead them to the National Tournament.

2006 and 2007 Lady Wolves Volleyball Teams… as pointed out in the info about some of the players, these teams both qualified for the State Final Four, bringing home third place finishes both years.

Happy to be part of the Hall of Fame Committee and Proud to honor all of these deserving athletes.  Ceremonies will take place between the JV and Varsity games on Friday Night at Reeds Spring High School.

The first of the area districts have released their seeds for the Tournament that will start on Feb 2oth.  Class 2 District 11 will be held at Galena.

On the Girls side Blue Eye is the top seed and will face 8th seeded Billings at 4:00 on Monday the 20th.  That game will be followed by #4 Verona vs #5 School of the Ozarks.  Miller is the #2 seed and plays #7 Marionville at 6:30 and finally #3 Crane faces #6 Galena.  Semi finals are Wednesday with the Championship at 5:30 on Friday the 24th.

In the Boys Tournament Marionville is the one seed and takes on Miller.  #4School of the Ozarks vs #5 Galena. The bottom of the bracket features #2 Crane vs #7 Verona and #3 Blue Eye vs #6 Billings.  Boys semi final round will be played on the 23rd with the Championship game to follow the Girls on Friday the 24th.

The winners will advance to the Sectional Round of the State Playoffs in Carthage on March 1st.

The Branson Lady Pirates needed a win last night to keep their hopes of a COC Championship alive. In order to do that they would have to beat Republic on their own floor.  Even though Branson had already beaten them once this season, that is a task that is easier said than done. Add into the mix that Amanda Kearney was eleven points short of the magical 2000 point mark and it had the makings of an incredible night.

The game was incredibly physical.  MOST of the night the officials let them play. The score remained tight throughout.  Republic led 16-15 at the end of one.  But, it was Branson that held a one point lead at the half.  The two teams only managed seven points apiece in the third quarter setting up a final eight minutes to decide it.

Republic would score the first four points of the final frame to take a 39-36 lead. But from there the Lady Pirates would take over.  Branson went on a 13-0 run to put the game away, hitting their free throws down the stretch and claiming the 53-45 win and moving to 18-4 on the season.

Kearney did not leave much doubt, as to whether or not she would get the mark.  She came out firing from long distance.  She hit FOUR first half three’s, the last of which put her over the 2000 point mark.  This is what my call sounded like as the historic moment took place.. Kearney2000 (click on link to hear the call)

She becomes the first Branson player to ever score 2000 points for her career. She already holds the school record for points in a game, season, and career.  She has committed to Harding University and will start attending there this fall.

Kearney led all scorers with 20.  Lauren Garrison and Tara Utz-Depriest also broke double figures in scoring with 12 and 13.  Taylor Fergen led Republic with 12.  The win gets Branson back to 2-2 in the conference slate.

A few thoughts from last night….

1. Great crowd.  Wonderful atmosphere for girls basketball.

2. I have no trouble with “letting them play” but it tended to go a little far at times last night.

3. Karis Goodwin only scored two points but thought she played some really good minutes with Jaeger in foul trouble.

4. Two different styles, but two teams that know how to play defense.

5. Happy to see Amanda get this mark, she is an incredible young lady.

6. Im sure Amanda would like to have got #2000 at home, but if she was going to hit it on the road, hard to think of a better place for it to happen.

7. Coach Kip Bough continues to do an amazing job.  Dude has flat out built a program.

8.  Thought the Lady Pirates showed great poise and did a nice job of sticking to the plan in a tough place to play.

It was a big day for Branson Football as a total of FOUR Branson Pirates made announcements of where they will continue their football and academic careers…

Luke Masters will be heading to Oskaloosa, Iowa to play for William Penn University.  The most prolific pass-catcher in Branson Football History will head to a school that runs the flexbone offense.  The Statesmen were 7-4 a season ago and already feature three players that call the tri-lakes home.  Reeds Spring graduates Cooper Gosch, Dalton Haddock, and Nick Haddock are all already on the roster.  They are members of the Heart of America Conference.

Rolla will be the college home for Chad Utzman.  Missouri S&T (some people still remember as Missouri-Rolla) is one of the top academic schools in the state.  They play in NCAA Division II as members of the GLVC.   Utzman joins them after a senior season that saw him catch 28 balls for 423 yards.

The University of Arkasas has granted preferred walk-on status to long snapper Jordan Silver.  While not listed on the official Arkansas recruits list that came out last night Silver might just get a chance to play before many of the “big names” that are headed to Fayetteville.  With a future scholarship on the line and a position that is currently up for grabs Silver may very well be playing on the SEC network before you know it.

I have also learned that Carter LaCroix will be headed to Dakota State.  The 6-5 235lbs lineman is headed to Madison, SD to play for the NAIA school.

For Reeds Spring fans wanting to continue to watch Korey Robinette play football, they got very good news today.  The speedster will continue his football and academic career at Missouri Southern in Joplin.

Robinette was the Perryphillipssports.com player of the year this past season.  He rushed for 967 yards averaging just under 10 yards per carry.  He also was a leader on the defensive side of the ball from this cornerback spot, where as a junior,  he tied the school record for interceptions (7) in a season.

Robinette is also part of the Reeds Spring track team.  He brought home four medals from the state championships last year.  Silver in the 100 and bronze in the 200 to go along with the gold he earned as the anchor to the State Championship 4×100 relay team.

Southern is getting a great athlete and more importantly and incredible young man…..

 

The Hollister Tigers are coming off of their best football season in school history.  One of the major reasons for that is the play of their offensive and defensive lines.  Today a huge part of that signed a National Letter of Intent to attend Benedictine College in Atchison, KS

Patrick Schultz has decided to become a Raven.  The Heart of America school was 7-4 this past season.

Schultz had a signing ceremony at Hollister High School this morning in front of a large group of family, teammates, coaches, and friends.  He said he felt comfortable during his visit to Benedictine and looks forward to playing there…SchultzSigning (click link to hear interview with Patrick)

Well its the day that football players across the nation dream about… Its National Signing Day.  The Day that high school kids sign the National Letter of Intent and actually lock themselves down to attend the college of their choice.

No surprise that most people think that Alabama will have the highest rated class when the ink of all signatures is dry.  Another example of the rich getting richer.  I am happy to see that most people seem to think that Oklahoma will be in the 5-6 area in the rankings.  Its been a little while since the Sooners recruits were rated that high.

But its not only the “big-time” schools that will be locking down athletes today.  NCAA Division II as well as some NAIA schools will be using the day to promote their new recruits as well.

We have a few local athletes that will be making their commitments today, as well.  I will have stories posted covering their events on this site in the next day or two.