It looks as though the top area high school soccer players may have to make a difficult choice come this fall.
United States Soccer announced Friday the U.S. Soccer Development Academy is adopting a 10-month schedule running from September to July, starting in 2012.
That means many of the area's premier players will have to decide between playing for the Academy or playing for their high school teams.
The hot-button issue has been debated for a while and Joe Lyons took the pulse locally and got plenty of reaction from those involved in the area soccer scene.
STREAKING COMET
Grayling Tobias led McCluer to back-to-back Class 4A boys basketball state championships in 1974 and 1975 and then went on to a standout basketball and baseball career at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Tobias made it as far as Class AA in the Detroit Tigers organization before he was released and decided to pursue a career in education.
Today, the 55-year-old Tobias is an assistant superintendent for learning in the Hazelwood School District and continues to be involved with baseball as the head coach of the South-West Stars of the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Association.
In the weekly "Where Are They Now?" feature, Scott Fitzgerald catches up with Tobias.
KUDOS
The latest batch of STLhighschoolsports.com Athletes of the Week features a trio of boys basketball scoring machines, a pair of standout wrestlers and two more girls basketball standouts. To nominate an athlete, send nominations and head shots by Sunday to pkopsky@stltoday.com.
WEEKEND REWIND
There was lots of great action both Friday and Saturday. State wrestling berths were punched in both Missouri and Illinois, so here is a look at our comprehensive wrestling coverage. For an up-to-date look at our latest basketball coverage, click here for the boys and here for the girls. And Mid-States playoff action is heating up, so here is a look at our latest hockey coverage.
ON THE TOWN, MONDAY STYLE
Our first real dose of snow this winter season is predicted for today, so all games on the docket are weather pending. Readers can come back to the site late Monday to catch up on the game action. Here's what we're covering.
• A top-10 small-schools boys basketball battle takes shape in the city when No. 7 Imagine (18-6) visits No. 1 Soldan (16-5). Tip-off is 6:15.
• Illinois girls hoops playoff action heats up as Nashville (26-3, No. 2 SS) will take on the host squad in the Class 2A Sesser-Valier Sectional at 7:30.
• SLUH took Game 1 of its Mid-States Club Hockey Association Challenge Cup quarterfinal series from Marquette on Friday and will look to wrap up a semifinal berth in a 7:40 contest at the Hardee's Ice Plex.
• A solid non-conference boys matchup greets the final week of the Missouri regular season as Parkway Central (15-8) pays a visit to Marquette (12-10). Tip-off is 7.
• Normandy (4-16) travels to Fox (7-14) in girls basketball action beginning at 7.
THE VIEW FROM ELSEWHERE
• We've all seen basketball games where that seldom-used player gets in for the last minute or two and his teammates do everything they can to get him the ball for a chance at scoring a basket and sending the home fans into a frenzy. That very scenario presented itself on Senior Night at Hickman and, as Eric Short of the Columbia Missourian reports, Richard Bihomora delivered the storybook ending.
• Otto Porter is one of the top basketball players southeast Missouri has produced and Kevin Winters Morriss traveled to Washington D.C., to check up on how the former Scott County Central standout is faring in his freshman season at Georgetown.
