If you are a dreamer, you had to be happy with the way the Jefferson County sports year played out.
You had to cheer for the Herculaneum and De Soto district football champs. You had to smile that St. Pius played in the state championship match in volleyball. You had to cheer when Crystal City's girls regrouped after losing both their best player and a death grip on the conference and went on to win a district title in basketball. And certainly the dreamer in you had to be pleased with the Windsor girls winning their first district title in soccer, Seckman getting up off the canvas to win the Suburban South baseball title and, maybe the most unlikely story, No. 8 seed Hillsboro winning a district baseball title.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. That short list of dream seasons didn't include a state title by the Herculaneum boys cross country team or individual titles by Matt Kraus in wrestling or Sarah Bringer of Hillsboro, Daniel Mazar of Rockwood Summit and Drew White of Festus in track. And, again, that is only the beginning of a long list.
Here is a look back at the best stories of the 2010-11 school year:
FALL 2010
Football had a number of team successes. Put Herculaneum and De Soto at the top of the list. After losing most of their lineup to graduation an injury, Herky went 9-3, won a district title and a playoff game with a lineup coach Stan Helms called the Ironman 13. And the Blackcats added a bit of drama to the fall season, winning their Week 10 district showdown with Crystal City on a deflected pass that Aaron Fuller pulled in for the winning score in a 28-21 victory. De Soto was a terrific story, too, winning the school's first district title in football thanks to a long list of contributors topped by Mississippi Area Football Conference MVP Donald Hoss.
Among the individual nice surprises on the gridiron: Myles Robinson throwing 24 TDs for Summit; Blake Pepper rushing for 1,575 yards when Seckman lost Tyler Fisher to a concussion in the first half of the season opener; Frank Abate of Herculaneum scoring 24 TDs; and the pass-catch combinations of Fox's Daylon Harper-Tyler Rhoades and De Soto's Hoss-Harrison Evola each producing 61 connections and Seckman's Sam Tramel-Alek Ferbet completing 59.
Usually, the argument about the area's best volleyball team is easily settled. This, surprisingly, was not the usual season. Take your pick from among Northwest, De Soto and St. Pius. All three were aces. All three could claim to be the area's best. Northwest, a newcomer to this argument, had its best season ever, going 27-6, including a 9-0 record against area teams. (The Lions went 19-1 in games with area teams, with Fox the only team to take a game off them.) De Soto won the JCC large-school title and had the year's best record, 27-4. St. Pius, the JCC small-schools champ, went 25-10 and was the best postseason team, advancing to the Class 2 state championship match for the first time in school history.
Not quite in volleyball's "who's best" argument, but not far from being part of the discussion was Windsor, 21-10-4.
The volleyball list of outstanding talents included Kayla Fortner of Northwest, Amelia Held of St. Pius, Molly DeClue of De Soto and Haley Pouliezos of Windsor. Pouliezos played libero on the USA junior national team last spring and recently was part of the 25-player pool invited to tryout for the next edition of the USA junior team.
Cross country produced, as always, some of the year's biggest highlights. The Herculaneum boys won the Class 2 state title, their fourth in the last eight years. With three runners in the top 12 - Ryan Jackson, Jacob Coffman and Collin Thomas - the Blackcats were the class of the field.
Festus came within a whisker of winning a second consecutive boys cross country state title. No one from Festus or Ladue was certain where the title would go until the official announcement: Ladue 78, Festus 83.
The Herculaneum girls' string of championships ended at four in a row. The Blackcats, with Kaitlyn Fischer and Mary Moloney in the top 10, ran well, but finished second to Springfield Catholic (49-68) in the Class 2 state meet.
Drew White of Festus emerged as the area's premier cross country talent. The junior became the first area runner ever to run the 5,000-meter state meet in less than 16 minutes when he finished second in the Class 3 race in 15 minutes, 57.8 seconds. Others who finished with big days at the state meet: Tyler Holmes of Fox, Daniel Mazar of Summit, Alyssa Jones of Summit and Sadie Darnell of Festus.
Hillsboro has had it up to here with softball teams called the Tigers. The Hawks went 23-5 last fall, and four of five losses came against Tigers. State champ Oakville defeated Hillsboro three times, including in the state sectional, and Festus tripped Hillsboro once, a game that cost the high-scoring Hawks sole possession of the JCC title. While the year had a hiccup or two, the powerhouse Hawks scored an area-best nine runs a game thanks to through-the-roof hitting by players like Alicia Litviak (.545) and Mikala Torrence (.505)
Festus, with Mollie Carter shouldering most of the load as the Tigers' shutdown pitcher, went 23-6, won a district title and shared the JCC crown, and Summit, with an offense that featured Ellie Cooper (.582) went 19-8 and won Suburban South and district titles.
Hillsboro pulled off one of the season's biggest soccer wins. The Hawks boys shook off a four-game losing streak to scratch by Farmington 2-1 in overtime to win the school's first district title. Farmington had beaten Hillsboro 8-1 during the regular season.
Connor Lipp of St. Pius and brothers Brennan and Connor Callahan of Hillsboro were the area's best scorers, each notching more than 20 goals, and Jeff Schulte of Hillsboro was the set-up leader with 16 assists. At the defensive end, Scott Leslie of Seckman had a big season in goal with a highlight coming against archrival Fox when he came up with a diving save during a PK shootout moments after scoring on one of the Jaguars' penalty kicks. Other standouts in back: the Summit goalie duo of Sean Clancy and Jake Leeker, goalie Caleb Day of Northwest and St. Pius defender Brennan Lauterwasser.
Lindsey Eisenreich has picked up where Katrina Choate left off when it comes to high-level prep golf. Eisenreich of Summit was the area's best player in 2010-11, finishing fifth in the state tournament in October and starting her summer season in last week's boiling-hot weather with a third-place finish (81-84 - 165) in the Missouri Women's Golf Association Junior Championship.
Jumping ahead to the boys season, highlights included Sam Huskey of Grandview carding a 83-78 - 161 to finish 10th in the Class 2 boys tournament and earn all-state honors. A terrific boys foursome: Huskey, Robert Ray of Summit and four-time state qualifiers Dylan Saxner of Seckman and Ryan Meda of Herculaneum.
WINTER 2010-11
The winter list of highlights starts and ends with milestones: Allen Davis of De Soto reached the 500-win mark in an outstanding career at, appropriately, the Gene Steighorst Tournament at Hillsboro in December. The school year ended with Davis and long-ago Crystal City coach Lynn Long being inducted into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Steighorst, who rolled up 646 wins with all sorts of scoring power, was in the MBCA's inaugural HOF class.
The area's most successful hoops team was also the most resilient. The Crystal City girls went 23-5 and scrambled to a district title after losing anchor Audrey Cooper to a knee injury in the last month of the season. Delivering a little extra in Cooper's absence was a long list of Hornets that included Amanda Kilgore, Daniece Riney, Spencer Portell and Malorie Smith.
Melissa Collins set the St. Pius career scoring mark, finishing her career with 1,234 points breaking the 30-year-old record set by Suzy Brase. Collins led the JCC in scoring and steals and, by a mile, free throws and was the small-schools Player of the Year. Brooke Meyer was the JCC large schools player of the year after leading Hillsboro to a division title for the first time in more than 20 years.
Boys basketball was a high-scoring showcase with Eli Sample of Crystal City and Garrett McDowell of St. Pius each averaging more than 20 points per game. Caleb Day of Northwest led the Suburban West in scoring (16.6 ppg).
St. Pius swept the JCC small-schools division, and De Soto and Perryville shared the large-schools title. Sample was the small-schools player of the year, and Jared White repeated as the best player in the large-schools division.
Hillsboro was the only area boys hoops team to win a district title. The Hawks eked out a last-second win against Festus in a thriller at Hillsboro.
The wrestling season typically produces some of the year's best moments, and last winter was no exception. Seckman, with an unstoppable group of lightweights, was a St. Louis and state power. The Jaguars finished fourth in the Class 4 state tournament and became the first area team to break the 100-point mark at state since Northwest overpowered the state tournament by scoring 155.5 points in 1984.
Denny Kleinschrodt, the heart of Seckman's lightweight armada, closed his career with a Jefferson County record of 166 victories. The previous mark was 164, set by Jimmy Pepper from 2002-06. Also setting a school mark for career wins was Drew Lance of Summit.
Seckman's Matt Kraus repeated as state champ. The junior, who won at 103 pounds in 2010, went 45-3 and won a thriller in the 112-pound final. Kraus is the first area wrestler to win back-to-back titles since Mike Newbury of De Soto in 1984-85.
The state tournament is three days of drama, and among the highlights are the seniors who, down to their last chance, finally nab their first state medal. This year's list of seniors exiting with their first medal included: Brenden Southards of Northwest, Tim Niewald and Corey Matt of Seckman, James Williams of Hillsboro, Abram Reynolds and Lance of Summit and Ryan Partney of Herculaneum.
Also making a mark this year was Northwest heavyweight Nick Tufts, a state finalist and the area's wins leader this season with a 48-5 mark.
SPRING 2011
The story of the spring was the weather, which was hardly a surprise.
For the first time since area girls started playing high school soccer, Jefferson County produced a pair of 40-goal scorers. Kinsley Fitzpatrick of De Soto scored 42 and Haylee Eastridge of St. Pius scored 40. The 40-goal club is a pretty exclusive group. Among the few to reach that mark were Debbie Stark of Northwest in the late 1990s and Sam Carder of De Soto in 2007.
Notable team accomplishments during spring soccer play included Northwest and Windsor winning district titles. This spring marked only the second time ever - and the first time since De Soto and Summit in 2007 - that more than one area team won a girls district title in soccer.
St. Pius was elbowed off what seemed seemed certain to be the fast track to the state final when it was edged 1-0 by St. Vincent in their Class 1 district final. St. Pius' season wrapped up at 24-2, while St. Vincent rolled to the state final where it lost to Springfield Catholic 3-2.
Summit surprised more than than a few by earning a share of the Suburban South soccer title. Not many penciled the Falcons in as contenders after losing their two leading scorers, top defender and goalie to graduation last year.
The biggest upset of the year was pulled off by the Hillsboro baseball team. A No. 8 seed in their Class 4 district, Hillsboro defeated the Nos. 1, 3 and 5 teams on its way to winning the district tournament. And it pulled out the win in the district final in a grueling 10-inning thriller against Seckman. Hillsboro finished the year at 12-14.
Nearly as big a surprise as Hillsboro was No. 6 seed Herculaneum winning its Class 3 district. The Blackcats had to shake off a 2-11 start to get by Sullivan 4-3 in the district final and finish the year 9-15.
League titles went to Festus and Windsor in the JCC large-school title, Crystal City in the small-school championship and Seckman in the Suburban South.
Among the spring season's top players were, on offense, large-schools co-MVP Cody Russell (.446 ave.) of Hillsboro, Tyler Bilbrey (.442 ave.) of Seckman, area hits leader Doug Fromm (42 hits, .447 ave., 31 runs) of De Soto, Blake Womacks (.447 ave., 31 RBI, 19 extra-base hits) of Herculaneum, Andrew Hughes (.333 ave, 18 extra-base hits) of Northwest, pitchers Otto Schmidt (5-1) of Seckman and Gary Doyle (5-2, 1.98 ERA) of Crystal City and, straddling the line between offensive contributor and pitching ace, JCC small-school MVP Alex Winkelman (7-2, 102 Ks in 50.3 innings, .443 ave., 35 runs) of Crystal City and Hillsboro district hero Ryan Deckard (.338 ave, 4 HR, 25 RBI, 3-3 and 49 Ks in 45.3 innings).
Track and field was chockablock with stars, too. The brightest probably was Daniel Mazar of Summit. The Oklahoma-bound senior won the 800, finished second in a classic 1,500 duel and helped Summit win the 3,200 relay. Other state champs included two-time winner Kaitlyn Fischer of Herculaneum (1,600 and 3,200), JCC co-MVP Sarah Bringer of Hillsboro (300 hurdles), the Festus 3,200 relay anchored to a title in a dramatic finish by Sadie Darnell and Drew White of Festus (3,200).
Making the last of four exciting appearances in the girls 100 dash was Shawntanay Johnson of Fox.
Conference titles were won by the Festus boys and girls. The Festus girls, paced by Darnell and Breanne Borman, capped their year by finishing second in the Class 3 meet. Led by Mazar and Curt Wood, the Summit boys won a Class 4 district championship for the first time and finished second at the state meet.
