Many of the area’s top track and field athletes will converge on Des Moines, Iowa next week to participate in the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games.
The track and field portion of the Junior Olympics will feature annually features the best of the best from St. Louis with many athletes expected to bring home plenty of medals. Area track clubs such as the St. Louis Blues, St. Louis Express, U City Xplosion, Ladue Lightning, Police Athletic League, Herbert Hoover Eagles, East St. Louis Greyhounds and Railers and Kirkwood Kougars will be represented.
These athletes earned their ticket to Des Moines by qualifying though last month’s AAU Ozark Regional meet at University City. Athletes compete in the younger age groups from 9-10 all the way up to the Young Men and Women’s (17-18) division.
Many familiar names in area track circles are expected to compete, particularly in the Young Women’s Division, where there is talent and speed to burn.
The Blues Track Club features former area prep stars as Olivia Lewis (Gateway Tech), Yolanda Suggs (Belleville West/UCLA), Lauren Hollingsworth (Villa Duchesne/Ole Miss) and current McCluer South-Berkeley star Kianna Ruff. The quartet combined to win nine individual state championships last spring. Together, they form an explosive 4×400-meter relay for the Blues.
The Ladue Lightning will feature top performers Lynette and Lauren Atkinson, plus Montenae Roye and Samantha Levin from the Class 4 state-champion Ladue Rams squad. Briana Isom-Brummer, a former Villa Duchesne standout headed to Drake, competes in the hurdles and heptathlon. Former Festus distance star Allysa Allison, who’s headed to Arkansas, competes for the Jefferson County Jets. She was a three-time Class 3 state champion in May.
A few boys who will be in the hunt will be former Hazelwood East distance standout Charles Johnson (U City Xplosion), sprinters Marquis White of North County Tech and Laron Cook of Hazelwood East (Blues) in the Young Men’s division and Mark Franks of Hazelwood Central (St. Louis Express) in the intermediate division.
Good luck to all the area participants. Bring home lots and lots of medals.
New urban sports talk
WESL Radio (1490-AM) is adopting a new urban sports talk radio format with many familiar names in St. Louis landing gigs at the new station. Richard “Onion” Horton will kick things off in the morning from 6 to 9 a.m. He will be followed by KTVI’s Rob Desir and Robert “Moses” Knighten from 9 to 11 a.m.
Veteran talk host Charlie “Tuna” Harris will follow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. He will be followed by Craig Black from 2-4 p.m. and the American’s “From the East Side” columnist Maurice Scott from 4-6 p.m.
It should be an exciting venture for the station. The new format was started on Wednesday. Do not be surprised if you hear yours truly turning up on WESL sometime in the future.
Summer hoops
The River-City Pro-Am Summer Basketball League will conclude its regular season and begin its playoffs this weekend. The four first-round games will be played on Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m. at Cardinal Ritter College Prep. The semifinals will be held next Wednesday at 6:45 and 8 p.m. with the championship game set for next Thursday night at 7:20 p.m. The playoffs are always entertaining because every team tries to load up for the home stretch for a shot at the big trophy.
Arms race still on
The National Basketball Association arms race continues to go hot and heavy in the off-season as the league’s top contenders try to jockey for that elusive championship. The moves aren’t the earth-shattering deals that we saw a few weeks ago, but it shows that everyone is loading up on the depth chart in the chase for the title.
The Cleveland Cavaliers continued to fill their need of more size on the perimeter with the signing of 6’6” guard Anthony Parker from the Toronto Raptors. He is an excellent 3-point shooter and defender. The Cavs also signed athletic 6’8” forward Janerio Moon of the Miami Heat to an offer sheet. The Heat have one week to match the offer.
The Cavs also managed to re-sign starting power forward Anderson Verajao, which was big, since he had become a restricted free agent.
The San Antonio Spurs found their starting power forward in veteran Antonio McDyess, who signed after spending the past five seasons in Detriot.
The Boston Celtics signed 6’6” veteran guard Marquis Daniels, who is coming off his most productive season in 2009 with the Indiana Pacers.
The Orlando Magic found their starting power forward when they signed 6’8” Brandon Bass from the Dallas Mavericks. The Magic also added versatile forward Matt Barnes, a free agent pick up from Phoenix, who can also score.
The one big piece of off-season drama puzzle is still the Lamar Odom situation in Los Angeles. Odom and the Lakers are at a stalemate entering the week with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat frantically trying to bring Odom back to Miami. Simply put, the Lakers need Odom back if they are going to repeat as world champions. He is too versatile and does too many things at 6’10” for the Lakers. One cannot imagine Kobe Bryant being a happy camper if team management lets Odom get away.
(You can follow Earl Austin Jr. on FaceBook and at twitter.com/earlaustinjr. His book, “The PHL in the STL” is available at AfroWorld, 7276 Natural Bridge and Not Just a Book Store, 5892 Delmar Blvd.)
