Old Guys Night Out (Missouri State vs. Mizzou)

/0 Comments/in , /by

I have never done this before, but I called in to a local sports talk show and got some free tickets to the Missouri State Baseball game versus #8 Mizzou tonight. It was a good game for the first few innings, but turned ugly quickly late in the game. Bears pitchers just couldn’t throw strikes and the pitches thrown for strikes didn’t have any movement and got beat around quite a bit. Actually, one home run still hasn’t come down yet, I think! It began to rain about half-way through the game, so after the Bears went down 8-3, we headed to the van. It’s a good thing we left when we did as it started pouring on the drive home and they delayed (and probably shortened) the game.

A former student in my youth ministry at Hopedale was there tonight at the game as a “Diamond Gal,” MSU’s baseball cheerleaders. Man, I am old. She gave Taylor a little baseball and had him come up and make “Bear Faces” on the TV camera in between innings.

I think Taylor had a good time. It was good to have some “big boy and daddy time” as Tucker stayed home with mommy. That is a huge sacrifice for mom, and we are grateful!! Surprisingly, we got out of there without spending a dime on concessions or souvenirs! Wow, I don’t know how that happened.

Here we go again . . . this time in Morrisville

/0 Comments/in /by

I was talking to a colleague of mine about this incident of the firing of the coaches in Morrisville this week. His brother is an associate athletic director at UCLA and former football coach. His brother says there are two kinds of coaches “those who’ve been fired, and those who will be fired.” Coaches realize the “business” they are involved, however, the recent firings or “resignations” in Morrisville are not exactly what should be expected.

Check out these articles here and here in the local papers and here on KSPR and here on Ozarks First.com.

Read more

Thrilling Victory . . . Happiness Doesn’t Last Long–at least for me anyway.

/1 Comment/in , , /by

The “Stone Boys” (Taylor, Tucker, and daddy) went to the second half of the Bears game last night vs. Drake!! What an exciting win and redemptive for a very difficult season for Barry Hinson and the Bears. But the cloud of Barry Hinson’s firing is still hanging around.

That joy did not last long as I heard this news of my friend’s firing as girls basketball coach at Nixa. Read more

Article from last night’s game

/0 Comments/in /by

Here is the article in the News-Leader of last night’s game between Ozark and Kickapoo. Ozark ending up winning the game setharnold.jpgafter being down the entire game by as much as 19 points. Nineteen points in a high school game is almost too many to come back from, but not Ozark last night. Basically it was a tale of two quarters–the first and fourth.

Here is a picture of Seth Arnold, my buddy’s son and one of Taylor’s favorite Tigers. He is doing a really good job in getting quite a bit of playing time on the varsity team as a sophomore. Keep working on those fundamentals and that shooting kids!!

Ozark wins tonight!!

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Both the girls and boys won their district tonight! The girls won their game going away while the boys squeaked one out in the last few seconds to win their game.

It was packed . . . so much that we stood the whole game behind the student section, so Taylor had a hard time seeing and I held Tucker the whole game (boy are my arms tired!) Tucker actually slept most of the second half. Went by the old “band hall” and showed the boys my old locker. It is really funny to see what we looked like in ’91 in all of the trophy cabinets.

The Ozark boys started the game down 11-0 and trailed 34-20 at the half. They never led the game until the final two minutes of the game. They kept on hanging around and capitalized on two consecutive missed front ends of one and one by Kickapoo. Then Ozark made their free throws down the stretch and won 60-57. One of the best high school games we’ve seen! Unbelievable!!

As you can tell, I didn’t have the heart to root against Taylor and his Tigers. I couldn’t do that to him. Plus, I don’t know any of the Kickapoo kids, but know several of the Ozark kids. Actually, we were rooting hard for Seth Arnold who was one of the “coaches” at Taylor’s summer basketball camp. Seth’s dad is a fellow pastor and church planter, so that made it even easier to root for the Tigers. Blood really is thicker than water, isn’t it?? It really is fun to go to games with the boys–especially with Taylor as he really understands the game and watches every detail–especially the announcers.

They move on to SBU in Bolivar on Wednesday. Way to go Tigers!

Difficult Decision Tonight!

/2 Comments/in , , /by

So you may or may not know that I graduated a LONG time ago in ’91 from Kickapoo High School–“The Home of the Chiefs.” My good friend Sarah (Green) Jones graduated together. Her dad is no other than Roy Green, Kickapoo’s head basketball coach. I have a feeling that I may see Sarah tonight at the District game tonight that I am taking the boys to enjoy some great basketball. . .

But I have this problem . . . and it is not that I don’t want to go back to my alma mater, or to see some old friends, or definitely not to watch high school basketball, which I love.

I have this problem . . . Taylor Quinn is all about rooting hard for his teams . . . and I think Kickapoo is one those teams because his dad went to school there.

I still have this problem . . .

Read more

Sunday Night Potpourri

/2 Comments/in , , , /by

Wow, what a week! Lots of eating and hanging out by the TV watching football! Taylor wishes that we would watch the Disney Channel as much as we watched football this week. We watch way too much of both, I imagine!

fooddrive1.jpgWe kicked off our Holiday Food Drive this morning by actually going out and didn’t “do” church this morning in a service, but we “were” the church. We sent out our folks to several neighborhoods to collect non-perishable food items for The Least of These here in Nixa. Even though the weather didn’t cooperate with us with a bunch of rain, we still had afood.jpg lot of fun–and we got a bunch of food (it covered the front to the stage!)

We decided at lunch that we are going to go out again the next couple of weeks! We are going to go drop off bags explaining what we are doing on NEXT Saturday. Then we will go pick up food items from those people on the FOLLOWING Saturday.

I think it is a great picture of what can happen if we all get together and do a little effort–huge results happen!! A small group of people giving about an hours worth of their time can benefit many, many families here in Christian County. It reminds me of this scripture from James.

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:14-17 (NIV)

mulogo.jpgOn the football watching front . . . How ’bout the Missouri Tigers?!?!

  • The KU/MU “Border Battle” proved to be as good as the hype. Mizzou looked strong the entire game and KU came back in the second half to give them a big scare. Mizzou should have a really good chance to win the Big 12 on Saturday in San Antonio against OU. Who wouldn’t really want the Sooners to go down??
  • Mizzou is actually #1 in the NATION!! Who would have thunk it?? My dad went to Mizzou, so we have always followed them, but kind of like KC, the lovable losers of late. They are back and as good as ever!!
  • The Arkansas/LSU game on Friday was awesome as well. 3 overtimes and the hogs come out with a win! Pig Sooooeee! Things are not good at the Terrell household these days I’m sure. Sorry Brad!
  • The Chiefs laid a huge egg today. Correction. The coaches at the end of the game laid a huge egg. Are you telling me your kicker can’t hit a 25-30 yard field goal to TIE the game? 4th and 1 and not even close. Against the Oakland Raiders at home. Not good.

Good Luck Lady Tiger Softballers!

/0 Comments/in /by

softball.jpgFriday is for FINAL FOUR! The Ozark Lady Tiger Softball team is playing a semifinal game this morning at 11:00 a.m. in Columbia against Oakville. Oakville (29-0) is going to be a real test for Ozark (29-2). This is the first team in Ozark’s history to have 29 wins as well as get to the Final Four. Way to go girls, good luck at State!!

Rolling Stones not rolling too well

/0 Comments/in , , /by

stones.jpgMy fantasy team STINKS.? I am currently in the cellar in the league with perfect record of 0-3!? If I would have started some other guys that have played terrible the first two weeks, I would have rolled, but coulda shoulda woulda!

I lost in the championship game last year in this league by just a few points, but I am back to my old self these days.? The Rolling Stones might very well change their name back to the Ozark Bungles.? The name certainly suits them just fine!!

About 15 seconds of the Tour of Missouri

/1 Comment/in , /by

Taylor and I got to see just a brief bit of the finish of the Tour of Missouri yesterday. Ibilde-1.jpg taylortourofmo.jpgpicked up Taylor after school and we rushed downtown to the Shrine Mosque to see the finish. I took us way too long to find a parking spot, so we missed the first “pack” and saw the second “pack” from about 100 yards away as a blur of color and motion. It was there and then it was gone in a moment!!? We saw a few stragglers up close and went around and saw all of the teams as they were back at the vehicles. Quite a sight indeed. They made it from Clinton, MO, about 120 miles in about 4 1/2 hours!! It takes taylorlookingon.jpgabout 2 hours to make that trip at highway speeds!! They were traveling about 40 MPH when they “blurred” past us at the finish. Here is a friend of Natalie Nance’s dad’s blog, who has some great pictures of the finish.? Take some time to read the entire post–especially the last paragraph.? Taylor and I saw some guys coming out of the medical tent all banged up–don’t know if it was the armadillo or not that caused their bandages!!

I’m glad we did it and can add it to the list of things we’ve done as a father and son. I think the Tour is coming again for the next 3 years or so, but will probably not be down here next year for sure as they are going to focus on the northern part of the state (north of I-70).? They are having the time trials in Branson today–the race will probably be won or lost today in that 18 miles experts say.