Written by
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Jonesboro, Arkansas – The Arkansas State Football team has accepted an invitation to play in the 2013 GoDaddy.com Bowl on Sunday, January 6, 2013 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama.
The A-State Football team is the 2012 Sun Belt Conference Champions and will face the Kent State Golden Flashes of the Mid-American Conference with an 8 pm (CT) opening kickoff scheduled.
The Red Wolves have chosen black as the color for the game and will be donning black jerseys as they take the field. The “Sound of the Natural State” is ASU’s marching band for athletics and will also take the field at half-time.
For nearly 80 years, the A-State Marching Band has been an important part of the University and provides nearly 200 students with opportunities to continue their musical activities. They have been described as “one of Arkansas State’s greatest assets” by Chancellor Potts. They are a vital part of the action of Sun Belt Conference and Bowl Championship Series football. Each year the performances of the band are varied and exciting, offering a well-polished and energetic show.
ASU has been long recognized the many talents of high school students and is pleased to have an innovative scholarship program. Many students from Dexter Senior High School have received scholarships and currently march at ASU.
Shelby Chappell, Tim Moore, Lauren Dudley, Brandon Moore, Daniel Chappell and Andrew Webb are the most recent DHS graduates who are performing this weekend at the GoDaddy.com Bowl. They left early Thursday morning and headed to Mobile where they will perform on Sunday evening.
The Red Wolves football team will also be taking part in a number of bowl-game functions prior to the game along with the band that will be marching in the Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday evening.
Dexter folks are extremely proud of their accomplishments and we wish them much success, as they will surely entertain thousands of football fans in the stadium. ESPN will also be televising the game nationally.
Submitted by
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Missouri – Many young hunters from the area may have shot their first deer this year or having been hunting for several years. If you have pictures or stories you want to share with the ShowMe Times, please send them to news@showmetimes.com. We would be glad to showcase your child’s hunting story.
This week the Missouri Department of Conservation announced that young hunters, ages 6 through 15, harvested 2,197 deer during the statewide firearms deer late youth portion. The youth season ran on December 29th and 30th weekend.
The top counties in Missouri were Callaway with 55 deer, Putnam with 47 deer, and Camden with 45 deer.
These young hunters shot 2,193 deer during this portion in 2011. Earlier in the season they checked in 19,277 during the statewide firearms deer youth weekend, which ran November 3rd and 4th.
The late youth portion concluded this year’s firearms deer season with a total harvest of 257,307 deer. The second segment of the deer archery season remains open through January 15, 2013.
According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri has more than 511,000 deer hunters, including about 70,000 under the age of 16. Deer hunters spend about $690 million in the state each year on related activities. This has an overall economic impact of $1.1 billion in Missouri each year and supports almost 12,000 jobs.
If you would like more information or want to follow the Missouri Department of Conservation on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest, Slideshare, Flickr, or through RSS feeds, visit mdc.mo.gov and click on the icons at the bottom of the page.
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Bloomfield, Missouri – The Holcomb Hornets were unstoppable and not even the three-time defending Bloomfield Christmas Tournament champions, the Kennett Indians were able to stop the Hornets from winning the title. This was a great game between two Dunklin County schools who had two coaches that are very impressive both on and off the court.
Senior Michael Glover who plays for the Hornets said, “Even if we won the state tournament this win would be right up there with it.” This was the first time in the school’s history that the Holcomb Hornets have won the tournament.
“There was purple everywhere in the stands tonight,” Coach Seth McBroom of Holcomb said of the New Year’s Eve victory. “Our community support was unbelievable with the weather and it being on New Year’s Eve night. The kids have brought into hard work and doing things right. You have to have character first and they are all great kids. From then on you just keep trying to build and improve things. The kids are trying to attack their weaknesses and there was no doubt. Everybody has weaknesses in their games and our kids attacked theirs and get better at them so we can play in games like this and have a chance to win!”
Holcomb was on the board first and scored the first eight points of the game. They came out strong and fast. Kennett closed the margin to 13–10 by the end of the first quarter, but did not take the lead until early in the second quarter. At half the Indians lead by three points following a dunk by Kevonte Mitchell with less than five seconds remaining.
It was an intense battle with Holcomb leading the game 68-63 with only 2:21 left in the game, but Kennett quickly came back and tied the game 68-68 with less than 2 minutes remaining in regulation. Holcomb’s coach said of giving away the lead, “We had just come off a high and the crowd was going nuts as they called a timeout. Kennett took the ball twice from us and converted, which is something they are quite good at. We regained our composure and tried to take care of the ball tonight.”
Jamie Massey shot two free throws to put the Hornets back on top. Then just 55 seconds later, Kennett was able to capture one of two free throws cutting the lead to one point. Ryan Reeves followed with a 2 pointer to push the Hornets’ lead to 3. Antonio Primer missed a 3-pointer for Kennett. Then with only 19 seconds left in the game, Mitchell made two free throws to cut the margin to a 73-71. With only seconds remaining, the Hornets made two more points for the win!
Six foot seven Jamie Massey led the Hornets with 30 points with 20 of those points in the second half. McBroom said of Massey’s performance, “When we give him the ball he puts it in the basket. That’s just what he does and he does it extremely well. He is a senior this year and one of the best players around.”
Devonte Mitchell led Kennett with 27 points for the evening and played with a noticeable limp during the second half. “I think he slipped on the floor and maybe pulled a muscle for a bit,” stated coach Vaughn.
It was the fourth straight season that the Kennett Indians had advanced to the finals and for Holcomb it was their first. “The path to the title was tough and that’s one of the reasons everybody loves this tournament,” McBroom said.
Holcomb now 9-3 on the season will return to action on January 4th to host Campbell. Kennett now 8-4 will play in a Bootheel Conference regular-season contest against Hayti.
The sixth-seeded Hornets withstood the top-seeded Kennett Indians in the final minutes of regulation to win by only four points. Final score was 75-71. Congratulations to Holcomb on a game well played!
Stats for Championship Game
HHS 13 16 21 25 - 75
KHS 10 21 17 23 - 71
HOLCOMB (75) - Chase Davis 16, Cameron Clark 2, Ryan Reeves 9, James Vance 4, Jamie Massey 30, Michael Glover 14. FG 28, FG 17/25, F 18. (3-pointers: Davis 1, Reeves 1. Fouled out: Vance)
KENNETT (71) - Antavies Drake 6, Akeem Nelson 9, Jay Edgington 3, Collin Smith 6, Kevonte Mitchell 27, Harold Weeden 3, Antonio Primer 17. FG 26, FT 16/24, F 21. (3-pointers: Weeden 1, Primer 1, Edgington 1. Fouled out: none)
For more photo coverage of the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament championship game, check out our Facebook page.
Dee Loflin, SMT Writer
Bloomfield, Missouri – The Holcomb Hornets and the Kennett Indians will go head to head at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament tonight at 7 pm. This is a battle of Dunklin County varsity basketball and fans have been waiting for such a match.
Jim Vaughan, head coach for the Kennett Indians stated, “A lot of our kids know each other. The towns are only 15 miles apart and they play together in the summer.” Coach continued to say, “Holcomb came up big in the Hayti game Friday night. They have Massey, Glover and Vance who are good players and they will be easily rattled Monday night.”
“Folks are going to look at it like a big school, little school thing,” Seth McBroom, head coach for Holcomb said of the championship. “But we aren’t worried about it at all. Kennett is a good team and we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t just as good. “
“It is a big rivalry and we should play each other,” McBroom continued. No other team in Dunklin County has won more games than Kennett or Holcomb in the past few years. Both programs have increased their rankings under the leadership of current head coaches. They also have not scheduled a regular season game against each either.
Holcomb and Kennett both enter the finals with a 8 – 3 record; however Kennett has won the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament the last three years. Kennett is top seeded going into today’s championship final, but Holcomb who is ranked sixth has won three games in the last three Saturdays. Should be a great game between these two athletic teams.
This will be the first appearance in the title game for Holcomb, and Coach McBroom hopes his players make the best of a well-deserved game. McBroom also stated, “We can relish in the fact we are here, but great happenings come from great opportunities and we need to try and take advantage of it.”
