Rachel Crader is the editor of semoball.com. She graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in May of 2009 before spending the summer covering the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Highlights from Rachel's days in college include having a class down the hall from Chase Daniel and having NCAA wrestling champion Ben Askren hold the door open for her at Brady Commons, Mizzou's student center. She spent time covering Mizzou basketball, softball and baseball while working for the Columbia Missourian and is excited to return home to Southeast Missouri to cover local sports for semoball.com.

Rachel has covered three Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournaments for the Southeast Missourian and semoball.com, and she'll see you courtside again this year.

High school sports, anyone?

Posted Saturday, August 1, 2009, at 12:27 AM

With the calendar turning over to August, I think it is officially time to start thinking about the fall high school sports season.

I don't want give everything away just yet, but I will tell you that you can expect some significant changes to semoball.com in time for fall.

Part of those changes include giving you all more opportunities to share your thoughts, stories, and information. While commenting on my blog or a news story is sure fire fun for the whole family, it's just not enough space to talk about all things Southeast Missouri sports.

We're going to change that.

In a few (three, four, ish) weeks...

The point is it's coming.

Soon.

For now, I'm looking for bloggers. Lots and lots of high school sports bloggers. There are 58 schools in the semoball coverage area, and I'd like to have multiple people sharing their thoughts on each and every team.

You don't have to have dozens of strong opinions or lots of writing experience. You just need to care about Cape Central tennis or Malden football or Kelly softball or Senath-Hornersville basketball or any of the dozens of other teams that play in Southeast Missouri. I'd like to know what former high school great you saw at the game, what funny story your granddaughter told you about the team's halftime pep talk and what you predicted before the team's big second-half comeback.

High school athletes, you're welcome, too. I'd love to read about your three-hour practice, your pregame rituals and your coaches favorite saying. (For the record, my high school coach used to say "Push here, girls" upwards of 20 times per volleyball match. What were we to push? Were we not pushing already? Should we not have been?)

Of course, I'd like to hear about a lot of other things, too, but what I read is for you to decide. If you are interested but unsure please leave your questions and comments below and I'll answer. I'm sure others will have the same questions. If you know this is something you'd like to do, click here and fill out the short survey/information sheet. It's is not a test -- just a way for me to learn a little bit about you while seeing what sports and schools you'd like to write about. All I want to know is what you know. Then we'll see if a blog is right for you and you're right for a blog.

If blogging is definitely not for you but you have more to say, hang on, I'll be back with you shortly.

Thanks for visiting semoball.com today. I hope you'll be a part of the next phase of the site (and all the ones after that).

Comments

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Will this year have a dream game like the scc vs sikeston. Last years game was great i believe neither team lost. They both played a great game.It was an exciting game and i would like to see it again.(both teams had a great season last year.Good luck to both teams this year.)

-- Posted by sccfan on Sat, Aug 1, 2009, at 11:27 PM

Rachel Crader's response:
I certainly hope it does, but it is hard to imagine a game out-shining that one for a while. Unfortunately, I was stuck watching online since I didn't live in the area at the time.
Rachel, if the game is not played with a ball, does semoball.com care about those sports and our opinions? Just a thought.

-- Posted by swimfan on Mon, Aug 3, 2009, at 8:22 PM

Rachel Crader's response:
Of course, swimfan! It is a little bit of an unfortunate name situation, but I assure you that I want to hear about swimmers and wrestlers and runners, too.

I actually just finished up a swimming and diving addition to the site today which I'll tell you about later. Hopefully, your username holds true and you'll be willing to help out so we can all keep track of how area high school athletes are doing. Of course there are plenty of swimmers, wrestler, runners, etc. (as well as people who play games with a ball) who are not yet or no longer in high school...we'll get to them in the future as well.
lol swimfan, maybe thats why there is semosportsweb for the other sports.

-- Posted by moemoney on Mon, Aug 3, 2009, at 8:45 PM

Rachel Crader's response:
I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about. :)
I hope we get to have another Sikeston and Scott Central matchup this year,both teams should be strong.......

-- Posted by kmasters on Mon, Aug 10, 2009, at 8:52 PM
It would be great to see the same weekly updates on football. Offensive and defensicve leaders, etc.

With all the talent in the area.....we should push those stats to the larger outlets....and get some D1/DII scouts to actually take in a few games.

Kony Ealy, Eli Jackson, Zack Ferguson, GDarius Stevenson, Cole Rodgers, just off the top...seem to be ready for the next level....and I am sure there are others.....I see kids signed to DII schools, with no better stats/ effort that local kids.....it is all about exposure...best of luck to everyone this fall....stay healthy and play tough.

-- Posted by Headhunt on Tue, Aug 18, 2009, at 1:22 PM

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