S O U T H E A S T M I S S O U R I ' S I N D E P E N D E N T S P O R T S S I T E
|
|
 
feedback Got a news tip, idea, suggestion or complaint? Tell us about it: |
archives August 2007 Five East Carter athletes charged in sexual hazing New 8.2.07 Prosecutors in Arkansas confirmed Wednesday that charges will be filed in juvenile court against five East Carter County High School athletes accused of sexual hazing during a basketball camp. The announcement of the filing was made late Wednesday by 16th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Don McSpadden. The boys, ages 15 to 16, are accused of sexually hazing younger boys during a basketball camp June 10-13 at Lyon College in Batesville, Ark. According to reports filed in Missouri and Independence County, there were nine victims, ages 13 and 14. The hazing happened during lunch breaks and late at night in the dorms after counselors had gone to bed. "The older students reportedly told the younger victims that they had to go through the hazing in order to get on the basketball team," investigator Brenda Bittle told the Batesville Daily Guard. Some of the incidents were caught on video on students’ cell phones and a parent of one of the students later found the video, Bittle said. Once the charges are filed, some of the students allegedly involved are expected to be escorted to Batesville by their parents to appear in juvenile court, according to McSpadden. "I didn’t file this as a sexual crime," McSpadden told the Daily Guard. "There appeared to be no sexual gratification, just boys being mean." Southeast men open basketball season at Xavier New 8.9.07 A game at Cincinnati against Xavier will kick off Southeast's schedule when the men's basketball season begins Nov. 10, the school announced. After the Xavier opener, games against Illinois State, Culver-Stockton, Evansville, Coppin State, Louisiana Tech, Bradley, Tulsa, Central Methodist and an ESPN Bracket Buster opponent to be determined will fill out Southeast's regular-season schedule. Home-and-away games with OVC teams make up the built of the schedule, along with preseason home games against Lincoln University and Missouri-Rolla. The preseason kicks off Nov. 1 against Lincoln, and the regular season ends March 1 at home against OVC opponent Jacksonville State.  Click here to see the complete Southeast men's basketball schedule.
Local racetrack closes, blames small crowds New 8.14.07 Fredericktown Raceway has cancelled its final seven weeks of racing and closed early because of low turnout. In an announcement posted Monday on its Web site, owners Curley and Anne DeBold said the early closing was because of low participation by racers. "We know that opening late was a big factor in our car count, but it's just not enough to cover the payout each week," they said in the statement. The track, which was closed since late 2004, underwent upgrades over the winter and reopened to big crowds June 1. But after 11 weeks of racing, participation had dropped by Friday's events, when only three cars signed in for the track's top Late Model class. The track had 61 cars in its five other classes. The track will reopen next year, the owners said. Heeb says yes to college position New 8.10.07 Former Bell City and Scott County Central boys basketball coach David Heeb confirmed late Thursday that he's accepted a job as women's basketball coach with the Springfield, Ill., campus of Robert Morris College. Heeb confirmed the job change, which had been the subject of rumors for about two weeks, in a story in Friday's Southeast Missourian newspaper. Most recently Heeb was the coach at Scott Central, but his job was opened to applicants over the summer and he was reassigned to a teaching position outside the high school. Ronnie Cookson was hired to fill the basketball coaching position in late July, leaving Heeb without a head coaching job for the first time since he arrived at Bell City for the 2000-'01 season. Heeb will take over a Robert Morris program that was fifth in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association national tournament this year. The team finished second the previous two years. Heeb pushes to overcome lingering recruiting charges.
East Carter coach quits in wake of hazing charges New 8.17.07 East Carter County boys basketball coach Benji Stahl has resigned following charges that several athletes under his supervision were involved in a sexual hazing crime in Arkansas. Stahl coached the Redbirds for three seasons and was a member of the 1997 team that won the school's only state basketball championship. In June, Stahl accompanied 22 athletes to a basketball camp in Batesville, Ark., where the alleged incidents of hazing took place over several nights and during lunch breaks. Five students have been charged in Arkansas' 16th Judicial District; a court date has not been set. Preston Hoagland, a former asssistant coach at Winona, has been hired for the basketball job. No lights means no racing at Poplar Bluff New 8.24.07 Poplar Bluff Speedway called off its scheduled $5,000-to-win late model special event Thursday night because of malfunctioning lights that left much of the track in the dark. Heat races were completed for modifieds and pure stocks before track officials called off the rest of the program because of safety concerns. Most of turns 1 and 2 were left dark because of the malfunction. The events for the modified and pure stock classes will be moved to next week; the late model portion of the program has not been rescheduled. Football kicks off on 11 local fields New 8.24.07 Southeast Missouri football teams get their biggest tests of the preseason today when they head to almost a dozen area sites for preseason high school jamborees. Local teams play at Clayton, Crystal City, Grandview, Farmington, Festus, Fredericktown, Ste. Genevieve and Sullivan. One four-team jamboree at Thayer has been moved to Willow Springs while renovations continue at Thayer, and another scheduled at Perryville was moved to New Madrid County Central. The regular season begins Thursday for Southest Missouri teams when DeSoto plays Windsor. Worley's feature win ties ATPR sprint record New 8.26.07 Tommy Worley Jr. of Bismarck tied Eddie Gallagher for the most sprint wins in a season Friday when he took the feature victory at Auto Tire & Parts Racepark in Scott County. Worley's win was his ninth of the season at the track, tying the record set in 1995 by Gallagher of Memphis, Tenn. Gallagher won nine of the track's 20 sprint feature events that season but lost the points title to Jimmy Brewer of Sikeston. This season, Worley leads second-place Brewer by 344 points. In Friday's other events, Leo Kiefer won in the modified class, Jeff Herzog won in sportsmen, and Deitrich Bollinger won in pure streets. Cincinnati has a QB, but SEMO keeping quiet New 8.29.07 Southeast Missouri State University's football team will face Wake Forest transfer Ben Mauk in his first start Thursday when SEMO goes to Cincinnati in the season opener for both teams. Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said Mauk — who set a national high school record four years ago when he threw for 6,540 yards and 76 touchdowns in his senior season — will start after he won a preseason race with last year's starter, Dustin Grutza. It will be Mauk's first game since an injury in the season-opener last year ended his season at Wake Forest. Southeast coach Tony Samuel said the Redhawks won't announce a starting QB until game time, although it's expected to be either Houston Lillard or Victor Anderson, both junior college transfers. SEMO has won only once against FBS (formerly Division I) programs and has lost to Arkansas, Arkansas State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan (twice), Kent State, Marshall and Ohio. Its only win over an FBS school was in 2002 at Middle Tennessee. Click here to see news and rosters from Cincinnati.
A close one? Not this time: SEMO falls 59-3 New 8.30.07 Tony Samuel's prediction was ... well ... a little off. Southeast's second-year football coach had talked of a close season-opener Thursday against Cincinnati, but the Redhawks kept it close for just a half before bowing out 59-3 in Ohio against last season's Independence Bowl winner. Southeast (0-1) trailed 19-3 at halftime before the Bearcats (1-0) cranked out the last of their 612 offensive yards. Southeast, held to 256 yards, passed for 87 behind a two-quarterback rotation that featured junior college transfers Houston Lillard and Victor Anderson. Turnovers didn't help: Southeast had five to Cincinnati's one. The loss makes Southeast 1-12 against FBS (formerly Division I-A) opponents since moving up from Division II in 1992, including last year's 63-7 loss at Arkansas. The Redhawks host Division II Southwest Baptist at 6 p.m. Sept. 8. Click here to see the full boxscore with stats.
Knights escape slugfest with late field goal at Fox New 8.31.07 Farmington scored on a 25-yard field goal with 1.1 seconds left Friday night to pull past Fox 28-26 and help protect its spot at No. 1 in the SemoSportsWeb.com football poll. Adam Blum connected on the kick in the final 2 seconds to put Farmington ahead for the final time after the Knights gave up a Fox touchdown with 1:19 to play. But Doug Noble's key pass play down the right side put Farmington within field goal range in the final minute, setting up Blum's winning kick and preventing the biggest upset of Week 1. The lead changed three times after Fox dominated the first half, but the Warriors yielded 25 straight points to Farmington, which won last year's matchup 28-6. Fox finished 1-9 last season, while Farmington was 11-2. In one of the week's other most anticipated games, No. 14 Scott City picked up a key 14-6 SEMO Conference South win at No. 11 Malden. It was the first game for the Rams under new head coach Ronnie Jones. Park Hills Central also scored an opening-night upset when the No. 24 Rebels knocked off No. 10 Valle 12-0. |
|
 |