6th Annual Southwest All-Star Game Tonight!

Join us for tonight’s High School All-Star game, being hosted at Springfield Catholic High School for the first time. The game features the best graduating high school seniors in this region, as chosen by Steve Ole Olson of SGFsoccer.com, who covered over 50 games this Spring season, and Eric Sorlie of Springfield SC. Nominations were sought from the coaches of all of the teams from the three classes that play soccer in the Southwest Missouri region.

As part of the game activities this evening, we will be recognizing the Springfield Catholic girls team, along with Head Coach Ben Timson and assistant Meredith White. The Lady Irish won the State Soccer Title in Class 1 on June 5th, defeating Trinity Catholic from St Louis. The title is the first ever in soccer for any team in Southwest Missouri.

What: Southwest High School Soccer All-Stars
When: Tonight!
6:00 pm – Girls Game (download the rosters)
7:45 pm – Special Recognition, State Champion Springfield Catholic Girls
8:00 pm – Boys Game (download the rosters)

The Boys rosters includes 8 All-State players while the Girls roster includes

The Girls Head Coaches are Evan Palmer of Nixa and Clint Nurnberg of Parkview. The Eagles won their first ever District and Sectional titles this season while the Vikings achieved perfection in going 9-0 during the Ozark Conference season.

The Boys Head Coaches are Steve Fast of Bolivar and Jason Ingold of Camdenton. The Liberators won 2nd Place in Class 2 in November while the Lakers earned their first District title.

Key sponsors this year include J&K Soccer who provide the souvenir jerseys, game balls and this year are bringing tents to provide shade for the players during the game. Cox Sports Medicine is represented by Dr Rusty Bond (whose daughter Jamie was an All-Star in 2008) and Charles Bower. There will also be an ambulance stationed at the game. Springfield Catholic Schools is hosting the event and are ensuring every resource is available for the players and the fans.

That includes taking special steps to allow Mediacom to return to the game for the first time since 2006. Don West and Mike McClure will be on hand this evening to provide the play-by-play. Color analysis will be offered by Coaches Jeff Rogers of Glendale and Tom Davidson of Ozark, the deans of Springfield high school soccer.

The event is organized jointly by SGFsoccer.com, Southwest Missouri’s soccer resource, and Springfield Soccer Club, home to over 20 teams including the two time State Championship squad.

Southwest Soccer All-Stars Take The Field This Evening

UPDATE – the games will be played tonight. A little rain won’t stop us. Lightning and flooding would but I suspect we’ll avoid those possibilities and will enjoy the cooling effect a bit of rain will offer.

We’ve got a full day today folks.

Turn your radio on this morning, Thursday at 9:30am. Catch All-Stars organizer and Springfield SC Director of Coaching Jeremy Alumbaugh with All-Stars Katy McLain, Heath Melugin and Tara Bailes on JOCK 98.7, The Sports Reporters

In addition to watching the finest seniors in Southwest Missouri tonight, you can also catch the 1st Quarterfinal match of the European Championships today. Germany takes on Portugal at 1:45 pm, consider coming by Coester’s for a pre-game meal. Great soccer and the food is uniformly good.

The Girls game is at 6:00 pm.
The Boys game is at 8:00 pm.
Cooper Field #1 at Lake Country Soccer on Pythian Street in Springfield. Players need to register at the field 1.5 hours in advance of the game. Remember to bring your cleats, shin guards, white socks, black shorts, a water bottle and be prepared for the warm evening.

The lineups were announced earlier this week. Boys lineup. Girls lineup.

The Coaches for this evenings games include:
Girls Red: Jeff Rogers, Glendale Falcons and Evan Palmer, Nixa Eagles. The Falcons returned to the Quarterfinals this year for the first time since 2004. Evans working on replacing the Eagle’s top 2 career goal scorers on the girls team.
Girls Gold: Tom Davidson, Ozark Tigers and Ben Timson, Catholic Fightin’ Irish. The Tigers won their 1st ever large school District title this year while getting Tom his 500th win as a coach. The Irish made it to the Class 1 Quarterfinals yet again.

Boys Red: Eric Crain, New Covenant Academy and Mike Gow, Lebanon Yellowjackets. The Warriors earned their first District title in Fall 2007. Gow wraps up 12 years with the Yellowjackets this past Spring and heads for the sideline with the Waynesville Tigers in the Fall.
Boys Gold: Phil Hodge, Kickapoo Chiefs and Mike Howard, Rolla Bulldogs. The Chiefs were the #1 Public School boys team in 2007, taking 3rd place at the State Finals in Phil’s first season as head coach. Mike Howard earned his 500th win in the third game of the girls season.

Our Announcer this evening will be Bob Florez, who also handles the microphone for the Missouri State Bears men’s team. He’ll see two future Bears on the pitch this evening – Heath Melugin (Kickapoo) and Justin Scicluna (West Plains).

We will have Dr. Rusty Bond, a Cox Health sports medicine physician on the sidelines along with a trainer from the Athletic Advantage program at Cox. Dr Bond is part of the Southwest Spine and Sport office at Cox as well as the father of All-Star Jamie Bond (#4 on the Red squad). Thanks to Cox Health for their support of the players and this game.

Referee’s this evening include
Girls
Elizabeth Unruh – Referee
Andy Ellsworth – AR
Anthony Solari – AR

Boys
Trey Smith – Referee
Anthony Solari – AR
Todd McCutcheon – AR

Sponsors of this years event, in addition to Cox Health Athletic Advantage, include Lake Country Soccer, the Springfield Demize, Coesters Restaurant, The Copy Shoppe, J&K Soccer, Baywash Car Wash in Cassville as well as Rick & Tami Dorman and the Booster Clubs at Kickapoo, Glendale, Catholic and Ozark. Thanks as well to the Opfer family, including Scott, Tracy, Austin, Alix and Kasey; The Melugin family, including Phil, Kim, Megan and Miriam; and the Bailes family, including Scott, JoAnn, Allie and Mandy.