Basketball

Local traveling team SEMO Elite Basketball is bound for national competition this week at the AAU National Championships in Orlando, Florida. The team is one of two SEMO Elite Basketball teams coached by Tommy Delph of Cape Girardeau, who uses basketball as a tool to keep children out of trouble, instill life values and introduce them to college recruitment possibilities...

Two of the athletes in attendance Saturday night were no strangers to the Semoball Awards. Kennett's Hadley Hilburn and Poplar Bluff's Morgan McAtee became the first-ever four-time Semoball Awards finalists. Both athletes were recognized during the event's fourth installment, held at Southeast Missouri Sate's River Campus in Cape Girardeau...

The Semoball Cup ended up being a battle of the Bulldogs that needed overtime to decide. Megan Heisserer's golden goal to lift Notre Dame to the Class 2 soccer title also happened to clinch the Cup. In the closest finish in the early history of the award, Notre Dame edged Van Buren by 4.79 points in the standings that determine which area school had the most athletically successful school year...

From across Southeast Missouri, people descended upon Cape Girardeau on Saturday night for the region's premier sports awards show. More than 150 student-athletes from 57 area high schools were on hand for the Fourth Annual Semoball Awards presented by SoutheastHEALTH at the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall on Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus, as awards were handed out in 25 sports categories...

June has always been a busy month for Kirk Chronister. It's time to bale hay and tend cattle on his 130-acre ranch in northern Butler County. This, however, is the first June in some time in which Chronister isn't also in a gym coaching. It was at the beginning of the month when his retirement started to sink in...

Oak Ridge has a new boys basketball coach. The board of education confirmed Chris Trimmer's hire in April, according to Oak Ridge school District superintendent Dr. Adrian Eftink. Most recently, Trimmer coached at Valle Catholic. He stepped down after the 2015-16 season...