Sports

Reshaping Both Lines Keys for ’Dogs

By PAUL STURM LCL/C-T Sports Editor psturm@cherryroad.com This season’s Brookfield Bulldogs look to improve on an up-and-down 4-6 season of a year ago that included a midseason 3-games winning streak which briefly pushed them above .500 in Cory Luke’s debut as head coach, On the “plus” side of the balance sheet when assessing the prospects for a winning fall this year are quite a few returnees in the offensive “skill” position and at the “second level” of the defense.

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Hamilton Seeking As Much or More

By PAUL STURM C-T/LCL Sports Editor psturm@cherryroad.com Few high school programs have generated the successive success Hamilton’s Penney Hornets have over the past 13 years – four undefeated state championships, beginning with unprecedented back-to-back crowns in Class 1 and then Class 2 in 2009-10; five state title-game appearances; 11 district championships and state-playoffs berths; nine double- digits wins seasons; at least nine victories in all but one of the previous 13 campaigns and nary a losing mark. A 148-31 cumulative won-lost record.

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Limited Roster Is More Experienced

By PAUL STURM C-T/LCL Sports Editor psturm@cherryroad.com Following a peerless start to the ’20s in which all the stars aligned, leading to – on the heels of a runnerup finish in 2019 – Missouri’s 8-man state championship two falls ago, the Southwest Livingston Wildcats football team went through a predictable transitional season in 2021. With a new head coach and nearly- all-new starting lineup, the co-op team comprised of Southwest, Tina- Avalon, and Hale high school students had a trying season, but avoided a full crash-and-burn scenario, managing to claim three victories in 10 tries.

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Lines Likely Nexus of Hornets’ Hopes

By PAUL STURM C-T/LCL Sports Editor ptarmic@cherryroad.com Once common, but something of a rarity recently, this year’s Chillicothe High School Hornets – while surely havtng higher targets – initially hope to achieve something their program surprisingly has done only once in the past 12 years: Post consecutive winning seasons. From 1963-2009, the football Hornets had non-winning records only three times (once finishing at .500), but then the landscape shifted.

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