Shootout combines games with honor of former state champions

Saturday will be a day of showcasing for Notre Dame High School.

It will hold its third annual Notre Dame High School Girls' Basketball Shootout, which features four of Southeast Missouri's top teams facing St. Louis competition.

But Notre Dame will also take the opportunity to honor its past.

Notre Dame athletic director Chris Janet said the latest state championship banner -- the school's seventh -- will be unveiled prior to the final game that pits Notre Dame against Visitation at 6 p.m. The banner honoring the 2002 Class 2 state boys soccer champions is already in place but is awaiting the special moment.

The unveiling is part of a bigger celebration. Members of the six other state championship teams have been formally invited to attend since all the teams will be honored.

Notre Dame's previous six titles came in Class 2: 1983 baseball, 1984 baseball, 1985-86 boys' basketball, 1986-87 boys' basketball, 1993 baseball and 2001-02 girls' basketball.

About 140 championship members have been invited for the ceremony.

"We expect a large group of them to come back," Notre Dame athletic director Chris Janet said. "It's the first time we've ever done something like this to honor state champs."

An appealing Shootout

What makes the Notre Dame High School Girls' Basketball Shootout an attractive event?

Basic ingredients.

It's hard to go wrong when you group Notre Dame, Central, Poplar Bluff and Jackson in one gymnasium. The HealthSouth Holiday Classic, one of the most balanced and exciting tournaments in the area, has found that out. All four schools are frequent contenders for district and often state championships. The quartet has been a constant in the Shootout, now in its third year.

Jackson (10-3) is the top-ranked team in Southeast Missouri, with Poplar Bluff (11-4) second, Central (9-5) fourth and Notre Dame (7-7), last season's Class 2 state champion, eighth.

Bring in good St. Louis competition and it lives up to its name. The talent from the north has been evolving. Nerinx Hall (9-8), which will face Poplar Bluff, will be the only St. Louis school to have competed in the Shootout all three years. Nerinx returns from last year along with Incarnate Word and St. Charles.

Visitation (8-7) will make its Shootout debut, replacing Parkway West.

Provided St. Charles (7-6) does not lose before Saturday, all the St. Louis teams will enter at .500 or better. Incarnate Word, the sixth-ranked team in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch large school poll, leads the pack with a 10-3 mark.

Saturday's schedule: Central vs. St. Charles, 1:30 p.m.; Poplar Bluff vs. Nerinx Hall, 3 p.m.; Jackson vs. Incarnate Word, 4:30 p.m.; and Notre Dame vs. Visitation, 6 p.m.

Cost is $3 for adults and $2 for students. Children 8 and under are free.

SEMO Conference Tournament is Saturda

With state powers Farmington and Ste. Genevieve normally leading the way, and Jackson always in the mix, the SEMO Conference Wrestling Tournament is one of the premier wrestling events in the region.

The meet will be Saturday in the old gymnasium at Jackson High School. Wrestling begins at 11 a.m. and the finals will start around 6 p.m.

Also in the field are Central, Dexter, New Madrid County Central, North County, Park Hills, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston.

Cost is $4 for adults and $2 for students.

Risco pulls another bsketball vanishing act

The Woodland and Oran girls basketball teams are losing a game off their schedule due to an opponent closing shop.

The Risco girls called it quits after an 0-5 start and losing several players. Risco restored its girls basketball program last year, going 0-12 after dropping the sport for a three-year period.

Oran was to play Risco on Jan. 27. Woodland was scheduled to play at Risco on Jan. 30.

Stoddard County Tournament nears

The Dexter boys have the top seed in the Stoddard Co. Conference Tournament which begins Monday at Bloomfield.

Bell City picked up the second seed over (3) Advance, (4) Bloomfield, (5) Woodland, (6) Bernie, (7) Puxico and (8) Richland.

The semifinals will be Jan. 23, and the final Jan. 24.

jbreer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 124