Familiar finalists in chase for Semoball Cup

The Semoball Cup could be staying in Kennett for another year. It could also be headed back to Advance, Jackson or Notre Dame.

The other six finalists are looking to get their hands on the Cup for the first time when the winner will be announced Friday, July 14, at the 10th annual Semoball Awards at La Croix Church in Cape Girardeau.

The top 10 schools in the final standings, in alphabetical order, include Advance, Cooter, Jackson, Kennett, Notre Dame, Portageville, Saxony Lutheran, St. Vincent, Van Buren and Westwood Baptist.

The Semoball Cup is presented to the area school with the most successful combined season. A traveling trophy is presented to the winning school to host for the year along with a plaque.

A point system takes a school’s overall combined winning percentage and adds bonus points for advancement in postseason play for both team and individual sports.

Kennett won the Cup last year for the first time and is a finalist for a fifth straight year.

Jackson, the 2021 Cup champion, is also looking for its second title along with Advance, which won in 2020. Notre Dame, which won three of the first four years, is a finalist for the ninth time.

Finalists for 28 individual Semoball Awards were previously announced along with the Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Lennies McFerren.

The New Madrid County Central’s boys basketball team coached by McFerren was one of five state championships won by area schools this past season. But the Eagles finished 11th in the race for the Semoball Cup, edging Charleston, which won a state title in track and field, as both schools had winning percentages lower than the top 10 teams. Hayti, which won a state title in boys track and field, ended up 30th.

Oak Ridge, Cape Central, Bernie, Dexter, Neelyville, Woodland, Chaffee and Greenville rounded out the top 20.

All but one of the schools that finished in the top 10 had a combined winning percentage lower than .602 and each had plenty of postseason success.

Advance won a state championship in volleyball, Kennett defended its team title in girls tennis while Van Buren had both of its cross country teams place second at the state meet. Jackson had three teams reach the final four while Saxony Lutheran and Notre Dame each had a pair advance to the state semifinals. Portageville and Cooter also had multiple teams advance in the MSHSAA playoffs.

Westwood Baptist won a state championship in boys basketball while the girls placed fourth in the Missouri Christian School Athletic Association.

The small Poplar Bluff school, along with Eagle Ridge, may earn playoff points for advancement in their own state playoff system, which is shorter than the MSHSAA playoffs.

The Cup’s formula to determine a winner also takes into account the number of teams a school fields, including individual performances for sports like running, swimming, wrestling, tennis and golf.

The process of awarding points was adjusted this year to reflect changes in the postseason format by MSHSAA with the elimination of the sectional round in some classifications and to streamline points in the individual sports.

Using the new formula, last year’s winner would not have changed, however, instead of a 10.78 point margin of victory, it would have been just 0.08 of a point. The three closest finishes, previously, were all by less than 4.8 points.

This year’s race was even closer with the winner finishing just 3.15 points in front while the top four teams were all within 3.99 points of each other.

That means if the school that finished fourth had won just five more games during the entire school year it could have climbed into the top spot.

Kennett was the sixth different school to claim the Cup last year, joining Jackson (2021), Advance (2020) and Hayti (2019) while Malden won it twice and Notre Dame three times.

Of the 57 area schools, 36 have now finished in the top 10 at least once.

All of the finalists this year have finished in the top 10 before with Cooter returning for the first time since finishing seventh in 2014. St. Vincent, which was 39th last year, is a finalist for a sixth time but first since 2019.

Notre Dame, which last won in 2017, is a finalist for the ninth time after finishing 16th last year while Jackson returned to the top 10 for a seventh straight year, the longest active streak.

Kennett finished in the top 10 for the fifth straight year and sixth time after winning the Cup for the first time last year.

Tickets are on sale at www.semoball.com/awards. General admission is $40. A limited number of VIP tickets are available for $100 and include a meet-and-greet reception with keynote speaker Dan Meers prior to the event.

The 2023 Semoball Awards presented by SoutheastHEALTH is also supported by The Bank of Missouri (Official Bank Sponsor), SEMO ESPN Radio, the St. Louis Cardinals, rustmedia and your local newspapers.