THE LATEST LINE: OTAHKIANS JUST KEEP ON ROLLING

There are very few certainties in life, but here's one of them: always count on Southeast Missouri State University's Otahkians to field an exceptional volleyball team.

From year to year, no matter what players are lost to graduation and what players are coming back, the Otahkians just keep on motoring along as the scourge of the Ohio Valley Conference.

And in the process, the Otahkians have developed quite a following. Never was that more evident than Thursday night, when nearly 600 extremely noisy fans showed up at steamy Houck Field House for SEMO's OVC opener against Middle Tennessee State.

Those fans went home happy as the Otahkians begin their quest for a fifth straight OVC championship with a three-game victory.

That win continued SEMO's amazing string of OVC accomplishments under the impressive direction of coach Cindy Gannon. Not only have the Otahkians captured the past four league titles, they've also won 29 straight regular-season conference matches.

Today, at 2 p.m., the Otahkians will shoot for OVC win No. 30 in a row. Sports fans would be well advised to pull themselves away from the tube and show up at Houck to support the Otahkians.

You won't be disappointed in the show.

* The Cardinals' signing of slugger Mark McGwire to a three-year contract was one of the big topics of conversation around town last week and it will probably stay that way for quite a while.

Just about every place I went, people wanted to talk about the Cardinals landing Big Mac for a few more seasons when it had originally been thought that he would bolt St. Louis after this year.

I don't think I ran into one Cardinals' fan that wasn't elated with the signing and didn't have great things to say about McGwire, who by all accounts appears to be as fine a person as he is a baseball player.

When a superstar athlete shows as much class as McGwire in handling everything that comes his way, well, you just can't help but root for a guy like that.

A lot of the other elite athletes who are making all that money and constantly being pampered yet always appear to be mad at the world could stand to take some lessons from McGwire.

* Kelvin "Earthquake" Anderson, SEMO's all-time leading rusher, is having another strong season for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.

Last year's CFL Rookie of the Year when he rushed for 1,015 yards, Anderson has rushed for 754 yards through 12 games this season. He also has caught 19 passes for another 159 yards and scored five touchdowns overall.

* Although he hasn't been carrying the football all that much in Arkansas' tailback-oriented running attack, former Jackson High star Nathan Norman has been a fixture for the Razorbacks as their starting fullback.

Norman, a 6-foot, 235-pound sophomore, lettered at fullback last year as a true freshman at Arkansas. He and his teammates met national power Alabama Saturday. Entering that game, Norman -- primarily used as a blocker -- had rushed three times for eight yards.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian