Random thoughts from the Missouri football championships
The new playoff format for Missouri schools has proven a huge success. The idea of advancing two teams from each district into the playoffs was to strengthen the postseason field by putting deserving teams that happened to be in very tough districts into the playoff bracket. In Year One, two district runners-up won state titles, Cassville in Class 3 and Hazelwood Central in Class 6.
The system also created better playoff games throughout the postseason, especially after the first week of the playoffs in which many of the weaker teams were eliminated. The championship series of six 11-man games was the best in many years. With the exception of Cassville’s 31-7 victory over Cardinal Ritter, every 11-man game was a great one. Consider:
Class 1 … Orrick 34, Thayer 28 in double overtime
Class 2 … Clark County 10, Maryville 7
Class 4 … Webb City 41, Helias 34
Class 5 … Hazelwood East 39, Raytown South 34
Class 6 … Hazelwood Central 25, Blue Springs South 20
My player of the weekend trophy would go to Tarrell Downing, the Hazelwood East receiver who had a monster game from start to finish. In the same game, Ronnell Garner of Raytown South left quite an impression. In a losing cause, Maurice Taylor of Cardinal Ritter was all over the field, on offense and defense, and was the best player in that game. And waterbug Maurice Scott of Hazelwood Central, all 5-foot-5 (yeah, right) of him, was unforgettable. … If Mike Jones isn’t offered the fulltime head coaching job at Hazelwood East, it will be a real shame. I mean, what more could he have done? And his kids love him.
Signing off from the Edward Jones Dome.
Cameron
As a former fb player for Haz E. I have a problem with the former and current playoff system. We spent many playoff seasons at home 10-1(90), 9-(91), 11-2(92), 10-1(93). The problem with the system is that it easily rewards teams that don’t play well till late in the year and can hurt teams that play well (almost) all year. We played Haz C., McCluer N, McCluer, Pattonville, East Saint, SLUH, Sumner almost every year. When you play this kind of schedule on come out with the records we did, you should be rewarded. I like the idea of district play but maybe there should be some type of automatic entry for teams with one or two losses. I’m not saying I have the answer. I’m just saying its tough to win every week for 14 weeks. Maybe we would have won a few more state titles if we tried a little less in the first 5 or 6 weeks…