Sports

When the starting gun sounded at the Nov.

Two C-T-area high school football teams continue their 2024 seasons at home this weekend after one fell by the wayside in district play last week.The still-perfect B/B Bobcats will host Concordia in the first round of 8-man state play tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m., welcoming an Orioles squad it handled 52-27 on the same grass in the Aug.

Having safely worked a bit against someone other than themselves Tuesday night in their annual home “jamboree” scrimmages, Chillicothe High School’s varsity basketball teams will tip off their 2024-25 seasons at home this coming week.

One of the seven firearms deer seasons the Missouri Department of Conservation is offering to Missouri hunters this fall was an “early” youth season for young hunters ages 6-15 years.Those youngsters were pretty successful with a statewide harvest of 13,910, up from last year’s 11,531, although still far below the 18,272 checked in in 2019, the best year in the last 11.The weather during the 2-day season Nov.

A greatly-deserved celebration and night of recognition for the 2024 Chillicothe High School volleyball Lady Hornets team which, by nearly every measure, produced the most-successful season in the program’s 3-decades history – including, as of Wednesday, CHS’ first All-State honoree ever – took place last Sunday evening in the LICOVA Veterans Building downtown.For the assemblage of players, family, fans and friends, third-year head coach Lanie Beetsma and assistants Amy Dixon and Emily Mattingly recapped the season at all developmental levels, introduced and spoke about each of the players, and shared the recipients of a series on in-team awards.“It’s such an easy team to celebrate,” the coach stated early in her remarks.Coach Beetsma also gave public recognition to five varsity team members who were accorded postseason honors by outside groups, one player – record-setting junior outside hitter Lyla Beetsma – of which subsequently added one more blossom to her 2024 bouquet – statewide kudos.Beetsma and classmate Emerson Staton were both first-team all-league picks in the highly-challenging Midland Empire Conference and also were first-team Class 3 all-district and all-region in deliberations by members of the coaches’ association, the coach related.

MARYVILLE — As a 2024 season which, realistically, finished about as successfully – in terms of wins and losses – as could have been hoped, the Chillicothe High School football Hornets exited on a high note last Friday, in spite of what the scoreboard displayed at the conclusion of their final game.Despite a yeoman effort by the CHS defense against, admittedly, perhaps Maryville’s least-potent offense in more than a decade, the Hornets concluded 2024 play with a 5-6 record after what deceptively went in the books as a 35-0 setback.Rarely in the past decade and a half of Maryville gridiron dominance of Chillicothe could it legitimately be said the outcome of one of CHS’ many losses to the Spoofhounds might have rested on a couple of plays whose outcomes, whether of their own volition or through outside forces, didn’t go the Hornets’ way.Last Friday’s contest joined 2009’s 7-0 CHS home loss, 2014’s gallant upset bid at Maryville in the district playoffs, and 2017’s painful home district-finals defeat in which CHS – after clipping the ’Hounds 24-0 early in the regular season – squandered a 12-0 second-quarter lead in a 20-12 loss as contests which might have turned out differently, were it not for a key play or call or two.On this occasion, an official’s split-second decision not to flag Maryville for defensive pass interference – an infraction both video and still photography clearly showed was committed – in the middle of the second period and a separate official’s unintended, baffling inadvertent whistling to a premature halt what likely would have been a Hornets touchdown return of an early-third-quarter fumble recovery pivoted a game Chillicothe conceivably could have led as much as 16-7 after that latter play toward the home team.After reviewing game video, CHS head coach Chad Smith, when asked, acknowledged there were a handful of officiating decisions which went Maryville’s way “that were a huge factor in the momentum of the game.”Despite their biggest offensive weapon and CHS’ third-leading all-time ground-gainer, senior running back Silas Midgyett unavailable after sustaining a fracture of the radial bone in his left forearm in the prior week’s victory over Kansas City: Northeast – he also essentially missed the entire regular-season contest at Maryville, as well, with an ankle sprain, when the teams switched ends of the Maryville field after the first period of last week’s rematch, the game was scoreless and the Hornets had modestly out-gained the favored hosts 54-2.With the Spoofhounds three plays into their third possession of the night as the second stanza began and having the ball at the CHS 36, the sense among some was Maryville might about to assert some control.