Cape Legion team turns in strong campaign

For the second straight year the Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63 American Legion baseball team came up short in its bid for a trip to the state tournament.

But it was another impressive season for a tradition-rich program that has bounced back nicely from a down period that culminated in 2008 with a 9-22 record and a district tournament forfeit due to a lack of players.

Cape rebounded last year to post a 31-15 record and capture its first district title since 2003.

This summer's squad was even better, going 39-13, claiming its second straight District 14 tournament championship and placing third in the five-team Zone 4 tournament that it hosted at Capaha Field over the weekend.

While Cape's players deserve plenty of credit for the turnaround, so do Post 63's coaches, who are all former players in the program.

Ex-Southeast Missouri State All-American and minor leaguer Todd Pennington took over the program two years ago. He has helped stabilize things through his knowledge of the game, organization and ability to attract strong talent.

Fellow ex-Southeast All-American and minor leaguer Steve Williams brought those same qualities after coming on board with Pennington prior to last season.

Also important is longtime assistant Bill Bohnert, who has been a constant with the program through the past few decades.

And you can't forget Doc Yallaly, one of Cape Girardeau's legendary baseball figures who spent 40 years as Post 63's coach and has served as the program's general manager since his retirement in 1996.

While Yallaly no longer serves any one-field duties, he remains heavily involved in the program and was among the people most responsible for putting together the current coaching staff.

Nobody has poured his heart and soul into Cape Legion baseball more than Yallaly -- he led the squad to a pair of state titles -- and I don't think anybody is more proud of the way the program has bounced back than Yallaly.

While Cape loses some strong talent from this year, several key players are eligible to return next summer so Post 63 should be in line for more success.

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The Plaza Tire Capahas are in the middle of a grueling road trip.

The Capahas left Cape Girardeau on Friday to compete in the Union Printers national tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla. That event began Sunday and runs through Wednesday or Thursday.

After returning from Daytona Beach -- which is about 900 miles from Cape -- the Capahas will have a brief stay at home before heading to Wichita, Kan., for the annual National Baseball Congress World Series that begins later this week.

Wichita is about 550 miles from Cape. That makes for nearly 3,000 miles of driving.

That's quite a road trip.

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The Ohio Valley Conference's preseason predictions and all-league teams for the upcoming football season will be announced today.

Just about every publication I've seen so far has Southeast picked last in the nine-team OVC, which is exactly where the Redhawks finished in 2009.

We'll find out later today if the OVC's coaches and sports information directors, who do the voting, believe the Redhawks again will wind up in the league's cellar.

And even if that is the verdict, it's often not a strong indicator of what actually might happen, although lately with Southeast football it has been.

But the Redhawks have to break through one of these seasons, don't they? Maybe 2010 will be the year.

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It's hard to imagine a Southeast basketball team ever having an assistant coach with better playing credentials than Dionnah Jackson, hired last week to join the women's program.

Jackson, a point guard, earned multiple all-Big 12 Conference accolades and was an honorable-mention All-American at Oklahoma before becoming a first-round WNBA draft choice.

The 27-year-old Jackson, a former Missouri player of the year at Parkway West High School in suburban St. Louis, should be a nice addition to John Ishee's staff.

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The Southeast softball team received bad news with star pitcher Giana Zimmerman leaving the program following the school year.

As a freshman in 2008, Zimmerman had one of the better seasons in school history as she helped lead a Southeast resurgence that saw the Redhawks post their most wins since 2000 and narrowly miss out on an NCAA tournament berth.

WIth Zimmerman missing all of last season due to an injury, the Redhawks plummeted to a last-place OVC finish.

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Well, I finally got to the bottom of A.J. Ellis' background in Southeast Missouri, which I had been curious about since he became the Dodgers' backup catcher this season.

Ellis, a standout collegiate player at Austin Peay, put up strong minor league numbers and had several brief call-ups with the Dodgers in 2008 and 2009 before spending virtually all of this season on the major league roster.

Unfortunately, Ellis was sent down to Class AAA Albuquerque on Wednesday after Brad Ausmus returned from his season-long stint on the disabled list, but hopefully Ellis will be back up with the Dodgers soon.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.