Community Sports

SIKESTON — Emotions ran from shocked to upset to sadness when the news hit the East Prairie and surrounding communities that Steve Stokes had passed away. “It was crazy because I had seen him a couple of days before, and he was doing well,” Portageville head boys’ basketball coach and East Prairie resident Jason Irby said. “Steve, over the last 10 years or so, kept himself in great shape and had lost a lot of weight, so I had no clue this was coming. To get the call, it was a total shock.”...

Arguably the best-known figure from the first Gulf War, the late Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, loved few things more than taking off his combat helmet and putting on a fishing cap, festooned with artificial lures.

POPLAR BLUFF — The Poplar Bluff Parks Department, in coordination with the Butler County Emergency Management Agency and the Butler County Health Department, has decided to close the Ozark Ridge Golf Course because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The action was a precautionary and proactive measure, Director of Parks and Recreation Lanny Corcimiglia said, and the decision will be reviewed as things evolve...

Capahas manager Tom Bolen is bullish about his team’s upcoming 2020 season, no matter when it may start. “I’m the most excited I’ve ever been about the product we’re going to put into Capahas’ uniforms,” Bolen, 44, said Tuesday. The Capahas, generally comprised of unpaid college students, are supposed to begin their season May 17 at Capaha Field against Belleville...

The St. Louis Cardinals were to have spent Sunday evening wrapping up a three-game road series against Central Division foe Cincinnati Sunday, but as every baseball fan knows all too well at this point, there is no crying IN baseball, but there is crying ABOUT no baseball due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has engulfed the world.

Fishing is perhaps the most social distancing-friendly sport around. Consider the facts. For many anglers, perhaps most, fishing is a solitary activity. It’s often done entirely alone. Bait can be secured without encountering anyone. In addition to being a safe sport in this time of coronavirus anxiety, fishing is also ideal for the frugally-minded...

It’s still safe to go outside and the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will soon be giving folks incentive to do so. In a move prompted by the current coronavirus emergency, MDC has announced permit-free fishing in Missouri beginning Friday and continuing through Wednesday, April 15...

While one area race has been postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, another looks to keep running in a different format. The Badge of Honor Benefit Run postponed the April 4 race due to the coronavirus. A new date will be announced later. Meanwhile, the seventh annual Wolf Creek Trail Run will not have an official gathering, which was set for April 11, but will have runners and walkers post their times between April 11 and May 1...

The third annual Special Olympics Basketball Exhibition was held in the Kennett Middle School gymnasium on Saturday. Athletes were able to showcase their skills in front of the largest crowd ever to attend the exhibition. Kathy Rogers, a coach for the Kennett Special Olympics team, appreciated the community support and sponsors for the exhibition...

SIKESTON — Clay Graviett loves pool. “Whenever I was about three-or-four-years-old, I used to have wooden soda crates,” Graviett said. “I used to stack them up to where I could see over the pool table so I could shoot. I’ve been playing pool ever since I was three-four-five-years-old. I enjoy it.”...

MINER, Mo. — Former Sikeston baseball standout Lance Rhodes returned to his hometown on Monday evening, as the Fellowship for Christian Athletes hosted the SEMO South FCA Fundraising Banquet at the Miner Convention Center. The current head baseball coach at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., Rhodes made the trip down for an event that enters its second year in the area...

The Poplar Bluff baseball team will be hitting the road this spring with trips to Kansas and either side of Missouri. To help with travel costs, the Mules will be hosting a Home Run Derby at Bobby Strenfel Field on Saturday, March 14. There will also be a Fungo Golf Tournament starting at 7:30 a.m. before the 10 a.m. start of the derby...

Good Sports is a weekly feature appearing in the Southeast Missourian and online at Semoball.com. It profiles the life of a person connected to sports and allows readers the opportunity to know the people who are impacting athletics throughout Southeast Missouri in a deeper way. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity...

The Kennett High School Key Club recently hosted a Hooping for Hunger fundraiser for the local backpack program. “We decided to sponsor a four on four basketball tournament benefitting the Kennett Backpack Program,” said Key Club President, Jonathan Jain. “The backpack program works in conjunction with the SEMO Food Network to provide backpacks of food for students full of non-perishable food.”...

Sports Destination Magazine, a trade journal, is highlighting Cape Girardeau as a new and emerging sports market. In its latest edition, the publication targeted what it called a “carefully curated list” of 19 cities in 11 states. Cape made SDM’s cut for having “professional-grade facilities…a mix of environments (catering) to nearly every popular sport and all within 10 minutes of a major highway and other amenities.”...

As a native western Pennsylvanian, I’ve been to Punxsutawney, Pa., and specifically to Gobbler’s Knob, the promontory above the town in which top-hatted men dressed in black drag an unwilling woodchuck out of an enclosure on February 2 each year.

Chayton Bass of Jackson is just fine with people who don’t understand his affection for the 49ers. Bass, 18, will be rooting for San Francisco in Sunday’s Super Bowl LIV, perhaps the only occasion in 21st-century American culture in which Roman numerals are used widely...

In the Tom Hanks film, “A League of Their Own” (1992), Tom Hanks, a washed-up major leaguer coaching a woman’s team during World War II, confronts a weeping ballplayer. “Are you crying?” Hanks asks. “There’s no crying in baseball!” Maybe not, Mr. Hanks, but in real life, there sure is cheating in the most leisurely of all professional sports...

It took an hour for Reiley Calvert’s family to drive from Risco, Mo. to Monday’s Cardinal Caravan. “I’m here to see the players and get my baseball signed,” said Reiley, 12. “I think (the Redbirds) are going to make it to the World Series,” young Reiley added...

Good Sports is a weekly feature appearing in the Southeast Missourian and online at Semoball.com. It profiles the life of a person connected to sports and allows readers the opportunity to know the people who are impacting athletics throughout Southeast Missouri in a deeper way. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity...

The foursome of Andy Roark, Ted Cassinger, Tom Graber and Danny Andrews finished at 7-under 28 to win the Polar Bear Classic scramble Wednesday at Ozark Ridge Golf Course in Poplar Bluff. With birdies on five of their first six holes and the final two, the winning foursome took the annual New Year’s Day tournament by a stroke. Barry Stahl, Rick Losh, Doug Link and Paul Tucker, who had six birdies to finish at 29...

MALDEN, Mo. - The No. 2 seeded Malden Green Wave jumped out to a 21-7 lead by end of the first quarter and led by double digits the rest of the way as it beat No. 4 seeded Portageville 52-39 in the eighth grade title game of the Bootheel Conference Tournament Thursday at Malden...

MALDEN, Mo. - Kennett seventh grade boys basketball coach Travis Wilcut encouraged his squad to deliver a championship performance on championship night at the Bootheel Conference Tournament Thursday night. "We started off pretty slow in the first half,” Wilcut said. ...

Adrian Branch took off his beret, revealing close-cropped gray hair as he spoke Saturday at a Cape Girardeau church.

SIKESTON — Building cultural values while participating in a fun, exhilarating sport is how Nick Slinkard, owner of the Sikeston Missouri Taekwondo Insitute, would describe what he wants from his students. Slinkard has owned the Sikeston studio, located just right off of Interstate 60, for 10 years and enjoys every moment he spends with his students...

Good Sports is a weekly Thursday feature that appears in the Southeast Missourian, as well as online at Semoball.com. It profiles the life of a person connected to sports and allows our readers the opportunity to know the people who are impacting athletics throughout Southeast Missouri in a deeper way...

Gannon will be inducted into the SEMO University Athletics Hall of Fame Feb. 7. Gannon, 57, is a SEMO alumna and has spent most of her professional life at her alma mater. The Cindy Gannon Walk for Women has raised to-date more than $500,000 in scholarships for Southeast student-athletes.