At this point in the season, the drama surrounding football programs in Missouri should be on jockeying for playoff positions, finding a good heater for the sidelines and other mundane parts of the season that tie into the home stretch.
Then there’s St. Louis.
As David Kvidahl from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, Cardinal Ritter, the top school in Missouri Class 2, may be in some hot water for playing an ineligible player in Week 1.
Bill Jackson was ejected in the state finals last year, which carries a one game suspension, that should have been served in the first game of the season. And to be fair, no one wearing Jackson’s jersey played in the game against Nazareth (Ill.). That doesn’t mean Jackson wasn’t playing. Photos show a playing wearing a different jersey but having identical tattoos.
What’s this mean?
That’s a good question. If it can be proven that Jackson hasn’t sat out yet, then Cardinal Ritter stands to forfeit all their games.
There’s also a theory out there that some opponents may have known and were sitting on the information until districts started. This would have forced Ritter, the top ranked small school team in the nation according to MaxPreps, to forfeit their first district game.
Meanwhile in St. Louis public schools…
Roosevelt, which finished 8-3 last season and won the Public League, is without a head coach or activities director.
Head coach Trey Porter was relieved of his duties this week without a public explanation.
The Roughriders snapped a 26-game losing streak in Porter’s first season.
Now that’s a district
Much attention is paid to some super districts in Class 6 and Class 2, but quietly, Class 1 District 2 is a pretty impressive as well.
The district contains Thayer, Pierce City and Miller.
Until last week, when Thayer lost to undefeated Class 2 Ava, each of the schools was undefeated.
While they have one loss, Thayer is the top seeded team in the district, Pierce City is second and Miller is third. The second and third seeds will be decided on Friday when Pierce City travels to Miller. The winner of that game will get to host the likely district semifinal between the two.
