Volume 285

Recently, I have been telling many people that fall is one of the great reasons to live in southern Illinois. The weather thus far has been nothing short of spectacular. The colors of the leaves are just starting to turn and it is hoped that they are as vibrant as ever. Some believe that the lack of rain may cause this to be a less than beautiful fall. Let us hope that those people are wrong. October is generally, in this writer’s opinion, the most picturesque in our area.

On the sports scene Friday nights and Saturday afternoons have been near perfect football weather. This coupled with the Lions’ solid defense last week-end, it appears short of a major collapse this coming Friday, they will go to the playoffs for the seventeenth year in a row. The Salukis are however as in the words of many sports fans, chanting, the “wait until next year” slogan. The NFL season by the end of this month will pass the halfway point.

The local favorite Cardinals are in hot pursuit of a World Series Crown. The playoffs in baseball have been among the most exciting in years. It is my hope this continues throughout the World Series.

Our Junior High softball team won another state championship. That makes seven such trophies over the past 11 years. This is more than just a major accomplishment. We as a community should be very proud of this. The boys’ baseball team, also, had a great season as they only lost one game, a 3-2 decision at the state tournament.

The rosters of these two squads are:

Girls’ Softball Roster

Megan Barrett, Addison Bogard, Alica Dawson, Avery English, Chelsea Gooden, Marisa Hundley, Zoie Mann, Madison McBride, Sydney Monje, Erin Moore, Taylor Morgan, Erica Pansing, Becky Peterson, Mackenzie Rosenbery, Olivia Savka, Hanna Schulmeister, Rachel Venable, and Morgan Wright

Boys' Baseball Roster

Ashton DeRousse, Brant Glidewell, Alex Griffin, Alex Haake, Logan Halstead, Taylor Heil, Kyle Heuer, Blake Hicks, Blake Jackson, Justin Johnson, Zack Liddell, Jacob McCaughan, Shane McCowen, Justin Parson-Nalley, Cole Sizemore, Austin Swalls, Brock Tuttle, Tanner Watts, Kaleb Vaughn, Colt Wilkey, and Gavin Zimbro.

Thank you coaches Clark and Jackson for this remarkable season.

Yes, fall is a great time in southern Illinois. This has thus far been a special one. I hope that continues for each of you.

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Meet the Board

The Tri-C Athletics Board met last week and selected new members and officers for the coming year. The new members are Trey Anderson, Ann Bybee, Nick Martin, Jason Phillips, George Shepard, and Jeremy Smith. We want to welcome each of them and hope that they enjoy serving on the board. In this writer’s opinion, we had a very strong group of candidates this year. I look forward to working with each of the new members.

The officers for this year are listed below. We are yet to fill the positions of Equipment and Flag Football Coordinators.

President- Rick Stanley

Vice-President- Roger Norman

Secretary- Pete Rosenbery

Treasurer- Jim Hunsaker

Coordinator for Baseball- Burk Watts

Coordinator for Softball-Jason Jordan and Pete Rosenbery

Coordinator for Tackle Football- Rich Lentz

Coordinator for Basketball- Dave Draper and Bill Rosado

Fundraising- Kimber Monje

Field maintenance- Jim Wallace

Concessions- Jason Jordan

Officials- Russ Thomas and Roger Norman

Scheduling- Burk Watts

Volleyball- Pete Rosenbery

We want to thank those five who resigned from the board this year for their service. Tina Emery, David Tolcou, John Vaughn, Shannon Watson, and Scott Wiggs each in their own way was an important part of this organization. It is my hope that in a few years, we see those with children playing in our program, consider joining the board again.

We, also, must thank Kimber Monje for serving as President the past two years. Her service to this organization and the community, as a whole, is to be greatly admired.

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The World Series is set with the two teams. Our contest is, also, set with only two possible winners. They are Dewey Morgan and Kevin Chapman. If the Rangers win the World Series Dewey will win the contest. If the Cardinals win the World Series Kevin will win the contest.

The prize is a $75.00 gift certificate from Grumpy’s Smokehouse.

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ODDS and ENDS

Tri-C Youth Athletics is sponsoring a Volleyball program this fall. Practices will begin this week and the first games will be October 22. We are fortunate to have the high school coach, Erika Lange, over-seeing the program.

Remember, also, that basketball registration will begin in a few weeks and practice will start up after Thanksgiving.

This past week in 1960 the most dramatic event in baseball history occurred when Bill Mazeroski belted a HR in the bottom of the ninth to give the Pirates a 10-9 victory over the Yankees and a World Series Championship. Hal Smith, who was born in West Frankfort, hit a three run home run in the bottom of the eighth giving the Pirates a 9-7 lead. The Bronx Bombers scored 2 in the top of ninth to tie the game. Many baseball experts and other fans, including this writer, consider this the greatest game ever played.

Congratulations to all of the Cardinal fans on their team’s victory. A month ago, though, many of those same people had quit talking about baseball, and were very critical of the entire organization. Funny, I thought that true fans stuck through the hard times as well as the good. Do not celebrate too much; any team who bats Nelson Cruz seventh in their lineup must have a pretty good offense.

The only thing I can say to all the LaRussa bashers is, “this is all Tony’s fault.”

The Insider will be on vacation for the next few weeks, as its writer is taking a slow trip to Arizona to visit his and his wife’s daughter. We are going to visit a few places and catch a few Arizona Fall League games, but mostly relax and have fun. We are going to stop in Amarillo on Tuesday night. If any of you remember, from a column two years ago, that town is the home of The Big Texan Restaurant. A 72 ounce steak and all the trimmings for FREE if one can eat it in an hour. This could be my chance for fame or, probably, make myself real sick. I may have to pass on this one.

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Last week we had no winner in our contest. Let’s try it again. Before coming to the Cardinals Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday had very successful seasons with other National League teams. Name the teams that each of the two enjoyed great success with as rivals of the Cardinals.

If you know the answer, please email me at brm48@hotmail.com to be included in the drawing for a $10.00 gift card from Subway.

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Until next time,

Pay attention,

Hustle, and always

Use your “noodle.”