It is often times said that timing is everything. Personally I know such to be true in reference to real estate and romance; it seems such is true in newspaper deadlines. It would have been great to cover the Missouri State High School Basketball Sectional action held Wednesday evening, but in order to meet deadline such was an impossibility. Both the boys and girls of St. Charles West traveled to Hannibal to take on Saint Francis Borgia. The girls’ season ended and the boys’ will continue until at least this Saturday. Details are unavailable at press time. What I can assure you is we will have coverage of the St. Charles West/Westminister quarterfinal action in next week’s issue. Should the Warriors win that match up they will be traveling to the final four in Columbia the following weekend.
The following is an explanation, not an apology. If you go back twelve editions to when I started this, I explained to you that I was it when it came to covering sports. Now, the wonderful action photos you have seen recently have been taken by Robert Joseph Barton, but as far as the written words and coverage, I am it. Oh sure, I could fill the pages with second hand press releases from all sorts of sources, but the philosophy of this weekly is to print news, first hand covered news. It is a philosophy that seems to be working by the number of e-mails, comments and letters I have received.
One such letter came from Tom Yockey, Jr., who wished to discuss everything from River Otters hockey to Classic Pro Wrestling (those last three words might just be a great example of the term paradox). Yockey compared the St. Charles/West rivalry to that of McCluer/North in the 70’s. Tom old buddy, I am even older than that. Before McCluer North even existed the real rivalry, at least in football, was between Riverview and McCluer. Was it my imagination or did a number of their games end with a 2-0 score? This was before there was a state championship in football. The winner was often times called the “unofficial state champion.”
The winter season of high school sports is just about over. As mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago, the state championships in basketball will be held next weekend. The spring season will bring baseball, girls’ soccer and boys’ and girls’ track. I will do my best to cover St. Charles High, West and Duchesne in these sports. At the same time it is becoming crunch time in the United Hockey League with the playoff right around the corner. Finally, the River City Rage will begin their first season under new ownership in just a few short weeks.
