Bernie is top seed at Bloomfield tournament

By ROB TATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

Earlier this week, the seeds were finalized for the long-anticipated Bloomfied Christmas Tournament.

As always it's shaping up to be a good one with the possibility of a fourth straight year with a new champion.

Top-seeded Bernie will start things off in the first round with No. 16-seed East Carter. Bernie already has one tournament title on the season as the took the Campbell Invitational last Friday night. The Mules last won the tournament back in 1993.

Host Bloomfield drew the No.8-seed and will take on No. 9 South Pemiscot in the first round. Both teams lost in their respective fifth-place semifinal games last season.

No. 5 Dexter will battle No. 12 East Prairie to start the tournament. The Bearcats dominated the tournament from 1998-2004 as they won seven straight titles.

Defending champion No. 4-seed Hayti will have a tough first-round game against No. 13-seed Puxico in the 'Battle of the Indians.' Puxico lost in the third-place game last year and John Smith averaged 18.5 points per game in the tournament.

The Twin Rivers Royals, who are 3-2 so far this season, drew the No.6-seed against the No.11-seed Malden Green Wave. Malden won the third-place game over Puxico last year.

No. 3 Kennett will take on the No. 14-seed Van Buren Bulldogs. The Indians haven't taken a Bloomfield title back home to the bootheel in 27 years (1981).

No. 7-seed Doniphan will surely be a dark horse as they take on No. 10 Richland. The Dons (2-1) are last season's runner-up and look real strong offensively so far this year.

Rounding out the bracket is No. 2-seed Portageville against No. 15-seed Greenville. The Bears lost in the first-round from the same spot last season to Bernie.

Some interesting quarterfinal games could feature Bloomfield vs. Bernie. The Wildcats lost by just two to Campbell at the Campbell Invitational last week which could of setup a game championship game against the Mules.

Twin Rivers could meet Kennett in the quarterfinals, the teams played each other in the consolation semifinals last season with the Royals coming out on top.

If Greenville can pull off a big upset over Portageville, the Bears and the Doniphan Dons could meet in an Ozark Foothills Conference matchup.

Look for a more in-depth preview of the tournament in the Dec. 24 edition of the DAR.

SOCCER AWARDS

The SEMO Conference announced its All-Conference teams this past week. Representing the Poplar Bluff Mules were senior Josh Thompson and junior Jay Raulston on the first team. Junior Kenyan Francis made the second team. Senior Dallas Berry and sophomore Nate LeGrand landed on the honorable mention list.

ALL-STATE FOOTBALL

The Associated Press Missouri All-State football teams were announced on Wednesday. No players from Poplar Bluff, Dexter or Malden players made this year's team.

Richard Nixon, who was an assistant coach for the Mules in 2002-03, was named Class 6 Coach of the Year after his Hazelwood Central team won a state title.

Rob Tate's weekly high school notebook runs Thursday in the DAR and is updated on his blog at darnews.com.