Fan Speak Sept18

Hoops time is near

BASKETBALL SEASON is just around the corner. I enjoy driving down Sprigg Street and seeing the members of the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team running. This has become a tradition for me. Also, give Brandon Foust a break. Everybody deserves a second chance. Who among us is perfect? Some people can never be satisfied.

More scores

I JUST want to tell you how disappointed I was in the high school scores that you all put out. You all don't cover the area very well with all the scores in the state of Missouri. You don't publish all the scores in there that you could. That's for high school football. For college football you only score the top 25 teams instead of the whole nation. All newspapers, you know, give you the national scores of all the teams and all the games played. It's just a respect to the players in the colleges and the high schools that we have in this area and nationwide. I hope we can see some changes in your sports section and maybe get some better information about all the games -- well, not all the games but top 25 games anyway and all the national scores because people from all walks of life and different areas come to Missouri and like to keep up with their other teams.

(Unfortunately, space prevents all the national college and state high school football scores from being published on a consistent basis.)

A bad trend

IN REGARD to the person who called into Fan Speak about letting Brandon Foust play for Southeast's basketball program and says Foust might be what we need to move us into a legitimate OVC contender: Here's the problem. It would be different if this was a one-time situation but it's not. Since coach Gary Garner has come to Southeast, he has recruited some players and signed some players who then can't even play. Either they didn't make their eligibility in junior college or they have legal problems. If it was a one-time deal, it'd be different. But it's not, it's a trend, and I think athletic director Don Kaverman needs to look at this. I don't want criminals brought here to play at Southeast. I want decent, upstanding students. Maybe we should step down a division where we can recruit decent kids.

Where is Southeast?

I WAS wondering why the St. Vincent of Perryville football team is considered part of "Southeast Missouri" but football teams from Farmington, North County and Ste. Genevieve -- teams that are also ranked in the top 10 teams in the state for their class -- are not. Where exactly does Southeast Missouri begin and end?

(The Southeast Missourian coverage area includes Perry County but not St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve counties.)