Greg Jackson

The News Tribune’s fall sports season is going the distance this year, ending with the Show-Me Bowl next Saturday at Faurot Field. Blair Oaks will play Seneca for the Class 3 state championship at 11 a.m., then Helias will wrap up the high school football season in Missouri with a 7 p.m. kickoff against Platte County for the Class 5 state title. It will be Helias’ first time playing at Faurot Field, and for all we know, it may also be their last.

For the third time in four seasons, the Capital City Cavaliers are playing for a boys soccer district championship. The Cavaliers got to that point of their season Thursday night by claiming a 2-0 victory against the Union Wildcats in the semifinal round of the Class 3 District 5 Tournament at Jefferson City High School.

The Helias Lady Crusaders fought all the way back, briefly taking the lead. Then a few plays went against Helias, leading to a difficult end to the 2024 softball season. The Lady Crusaders rallied from a four-run deficit after one inning Thursday night, but the Liberty North Eagles came away with an 8-7 win in eight innings in the Class 5 third-place game at Killian Softball Complex.

Before the St. Elizabeth Lady Hornets took the field in the bottom of the second inning Saturday afternoon, Lady Hornets coach Sheila Oligschlaeger gathered her players for a quick huddle. She encouraged her team to play like more like the team she had seen in the first 29 games of the season, not the past 1½ innings. “We weren’t playing our game,” she said, “and I know everybody in the stands probably heard what I said.”

Press Box: Taking afternoon break to be prep sports fan was enjoyable experience

The Fatima Lady Comets’ postseason winning streak is 13 games and counting. The two-time defending Class 3 state champion Lady Comets opened the Class 3 District 5 Tournament with a 10-3 victory Wednesday night against the Eldon Lady Mustangs at the Falcon Athletic Complex.

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Easton DeMilia had been there before. When the Blair Oaks Falcons won their previous baseball state title in 2019, a 1-0 victory against the Fatima Comets, the then-seventh-grader was one of the last people to jump on top of the celebratory dogpile at CarShield Field in O’Fallon. No, he wasn’t a member of the baseball team just yet. Call it one of the perks of being the coach’s son. “That was my dream,” Easton said. “I’ve always wanted to jump on a dogile after winning a state title.”

When you think of sports journalism, it’s natural for your first thoughts to turn to national outlets, such as ESPN. But for me, my first thoughts are of small-town journalism. I grew up on small-town journalism, whether it was the local sportswriter, TV broadcaster or radio show host. In my community, those figures were mainstays for several years. You got to know them as if they were part of your family. Unfortunately, northeast Missouri lost a big part of its small-town journalism family last…