2007 sports in review

As in all years, Nevada area sports had its ups and downs during 2007. However, unlike most years, where the top story has a relatively short life, the major story of 2007 will impact Nevada High School athletics for the foreseeable future. Whether the impact will be good or bad, only time will tell.

The end of 2007 leaves next year's Nevada High School athletic contests up in the air following the dissolution of the Southwest Conference during the summer of 2007.

Although the Nevada schools have contacted the Big 8 and Central Ozark Conference, as well as all of the other surrounding conferences about becoming a member, none have been interested in allowing Nevada in.

The future of the conference came into question when Webb City announced that it was wanted to leave the Southwest Conference to join the Central Ozark Conference to make it easier to fill their football schedule. The end of the conference really came when the Central Ozark Conference decided to expand to 14 teams with two seven-team divisions and invited Carthage, Webb City, Holister and Springfield Catholic to join.

Once the invitation was made it was all but over, since Webb City and Carthage had already expressed an interest in joining the COC. When Neosho asked to join and was accepted, it left Nevada and McDonald County to fend for themselves.

The weather during 2007 turned out to be a major sports story, ice and snow canceled and postponed numerous basketball games and wrestling matches in mid-January, rain caused postponement and cancellation of high school baseball games in the spring and continued on into the summer, wreaking havoc with the Nevada Griffons and other Jayhawk League baseball games.

Because of the postponed games, Nevada's basketball teams ended the regular season by playing six boy-girl conference games during the final 11 days of the regular season.

Although the basketball and wrestling seasons ended in February, the weather did not take a break, continuing to interfere with the baseball schedule all spring with rainouts that caused Nevada and other area teams to be unable to complete all of their scheduled games.

While recent summers have been hot and dry after the first couple of weeks of June, the wet weather of the previous five months of 2007 continued through June into July, completely raining out the Tournament of Champions qualifying tournament for the National Baseball Congress World Series, held each August in Wichita, Kan. By the end of the summer baseball season in late July, so many games had been rained out, that several Jayhawk League teams were scrambling to finish their league schedule so the two Jayhawk League qualifiers to the NBC World Series could be determined.

With the end of summer baseball, the weather dried up for a few months before starting all over again with ice and snow in early December, canceling and postponing basketball games at the start of the new season.

Nevada's wrestling team capped a successful season by winning their first district championship in 20 years, beating Clinton and Seneca in the district tournament in Harrisonville. Nevada had 11 of their 14 wrestlers finish in the top five of their weight classes. Five Nevada wrestlers made it to the championship round of the district tournament and seven wrestlers qualified for the state tournament. Of the seven wrestlers qualifying for the state tournament, Nevada ended up with three medal winners and two others who came within one match win of medaling.

Nevada junior Spencer Daniels, who had lost one match all year, won the state title at 189 pounds when his opponent was injured in their match and was unable to continue. This was the first state championship for a Nevada wrestler in 20 years.

Junior Mason Heard, wrestling at 112 pounds, lost a 9-4 decision in his title match and fellow junior Ryan Herda placed fourth at 215 pounds.

The Nevada Lady Tigers volleyball team went into their first sectional game in 10 years with a 14-14-3 record and lost to Logan-Rogersville 25-18, 25-16 to end their journey. The third seeded Tigers beat the top seeded Holden Eagles 26-24 and came from behind to win game two 25-18, in a rematch from the previous year with a different outcome. The Tigers lost to Holden in three games in 2006 and had already split a pair of games with the Eagles earlier in the season.

The Nevada Lady Tigers played in their first sectional basketball game since 2003, coming away with a 66-35 loss to the number 2 ranked Bolivar Lady Liberators.

On their way to the sectional game, the Lady Tigers amassed a 21-5 record, decisively winning their Class 4 district 10 game over the Pleasant Hill Chicks 44-29 and finished the regular season sharing the Southwest Conference championship with the Webb City Lady Cardinals. The Tigers also won the Nevada Lady Tiger Classic and finished third in the 12th Annual Lady Tiger Classic in Carthage.

The Hume Hornets, who were playing in their first sectional game since 2003, lost to the Wheatland Mules 70-59 to end their season with a 23-5 record. The previous Saturday the Hume Hornets captured their first district championship since 2003, beating Drexel 63-48 to advance to the sectional game. During their regular season and the Class 1 District 12 tournament the Hornets were undefeated by any District 12 opponent.

The Nevada R-5 School District hired Shannon Jolley in 2007 as the Nevada Tigers new head football coach. Jolly came to town with a record of turning faltering football programs around over several years. The Tigers season started with high hopes and a large increase in the number of players, but a season-ending injury to senior quarterback Ronnie Herda dashed the hopes of a winning season, but not the enthusiasm and spirit of the football players. The Tigers ended the year with a 2-8 record.