Southeast's new coach emphasizes toughness

Samuel said he wants his players to be able to deal with adversity following a 2-9 season.

If there is one recurring theme whenever I speak to Tony Samuel about what he expects from his first Southeast Missouri State football team -- and I'm not talking about wins and losses -- it's toughness.

When Samuel mentions toughness, he emphasizes that he's not referring to how strong a player is, and certainly not how talented a player is.

He's talking more about how players practice, how they respond to adversity -- which is something they'll be confronted with quite a bit.

As Southeast prepares to begin its first fall camp under Samuel --official workouts begin Monday -- you can bet Samuel will be trying to instill toughness into every one of the Redhawks players.

And Samuel should know all about toughness. He was a solid player at Nebraska in the 1970s and spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach with the Cornhuskers from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.

For the few decades that Tom Osborne coached the Cornhuskers, there probably weren't many programs in the country that embodied toughness like Nebraska did.

Now Samuel wants the Redhawks to take on a similar personality.

How successful he is in that area remains to be seen, but the process begins in earnest Monday.

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With college football teams across the nation either having already kicked off fall practice or getting ready to, there is at least one common denominator for all those programs.

Optimism.

That's the great thing about the preseason -- everybody is undefeated right now.

And that means hopes are high in virtually every corner of the country, not only for the teams that everybody expects to do well, but also for the squads from which nobody expects much.

While the majority of the teams predicted to struggle will likely do just that, there also will be several that come out of virtually nowhere to prove the forecasters wrong by having solid seasons.

There is no telling just who those surprise squads are going to be, which only adds to the hope that fills every training camp right now.

By midway through the campaign -- if not earlier -- many of those hopes will be dashed as reality begins to set in.

But for right now, there is nothing wrong with the enthusiasm of youth leading players to dream big.

After all, it's the preseason -- and every team in America is undefeated for at least a few more weeks.

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It's almost hard to believe, but Southeast's first football game is less than a month away. The Redhawks visit Austin Peay Sept. 2, with their home opener set for Sept. 9 against Missouri-Rolla.

And the other Southeast fall sports teams also are just a few weeks from beginning their seasons as they also begin practice this week.

Throw in the local high schools, which start fall practices Monday -- football openers are set for Sept. 1 -- along with the Rams, whose training camp is under way, and the Cardinals, who are trying to right the ship as they chase another National League Central Division title, and it's definitely an exciting time of the year for sports fans in this area.

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Turning to major college football, Oklahoma certainly took a big hit recently when starting quarterback Rhett Bomar was kicked off the team for violating NCAA rules.

Bomar wasn't great during his redshirt freshman season last year, but he made significant strides as the Sooners shook off a slow start to finish strong.

Bomar, the nation's top-rated high school quarterback a few years ago, was OU's only experienced signal caller, although Paul Thompson -- who had been moved to wide receiver -- will now return to quarterback, where he has seen some backup action the past few seasons.

The Sooners have been ranked in the top five in virtually every preseason poll and they are being mentioned as a serious national championship contender.

It will be interesting to see how Bomar's absence affects things.

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Southeast women's basketball coach B.J. Smith said Tatiana Conceicao, the Redhawks' star the past two seasons, will soon be playing professionally in Spain.

While the team Conceicao will compete for is not part of an elite overseas league, Smith said it's a nice start for her and a good first step toward what she hopes will lead to a shot at the WNBA.

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Although they will have their hands full today against a perennially strong team from Liberal, Kan., the Plaza Tire Capahas have so far had a surprisingly strong showing at the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan.

By longtime manager Jess Bolen's own admission, this is not one of the better squads he has fielded.

Yet the Capahas enter today's elimination contest with a 2-1 tournament record, having bounced back from an opening-round loss to win two straight games.

No matter what happens the rest of the way, this will mark the Capahas' most successful NBC World Series showing since 2002, when they went 2-2. Plaza Tire entered this year's event just 1-6 in Wichita over the past three seasons.

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As several area baseball products continue to toil in the minor leagues, there have been two recent developments of note.

Justin Christian, a Southeast All-American in 2003 who was not drafted, broke the single-season stolen base record of the Trenton (N.J.) Thunder, a Class AA affiliate of the New York Yankees.

With 51 thefts through Thursday, Christian is also running away with the Eastern League stolen base title.

And 2004 Sikeston High School graduate Blake DeWitt, a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been promoted to the Class AA Jacksonville (Fla.) Suns.

DeWitt had been on a real power tear for the Class A Vero Beach (Fla.) Dodgers, his 18 home runs ranking second in the Florida State League.

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Although the Cardinals are struggling in general these days, it's still fairly amazing they simply can't beat the woeful Cubs.

Last weekend's four-game sweep at the hands of the Cubs in Chicago left the Cardinals 0-7 at Wrigley Field this year.

In an otherwise miserable season for the Cubs, their fans -- believe it or not, there are even some around here -- can at least take solace in dominating the Redbirds.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.