Congratulations go to two of the area’s finest high school football players on earning All-American recognition last week. Terry Hawthone of East St. Louis and Sheldon Richardson of Gateway Tech were selected to the USA Today All-American First Team. Hawthone was chosen to the First Team offense while Richardson was selected to the First Team Defense. Both are participating in post-season all-star games this week. Hawthone will be playing in the Under Armour All-American Game in Orlando on Sunday. The game will be televised on ESPN. Richardson will be playing in the US Army All-American Game, which will be played on Friday in San Antonio. That game will be televised on NBC (KSDK-TV). Area standouts Kraig Appleton of East St. Louis and Ronnie Wingo of SLUH will also be playing in the US Army Game. Best of luck to these talented young men. Go and represent “The ‘Lou” well.
*A pair of St. Louis area athletes have really made their mark as student-athletes at the collegiate level. Former McCluer North football standout Steve Davis was a four-year starter at the University of Minnesota. He was a starting defensive end for two seasons before switching over to lineback for the final two years. Best of all, Davis has already graduated from college with a degree in Communications in just three-in-a-half years. That’s outstanding stuff, people. Former Cardinal Ritter basketball standout Alexander Barnett is hooping up a storm at Dartmouth College as one of the top players in the Ivy League. Ten games into his junior season, Barnett is averaging 20 points, five rebounds while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range and 85 percent from the free-throw line. The 6’6” Barnett is doing all of this while maintaining a high grade-point average at an Ivy League institution. It does not get any better than that my friends.
*Watching the Philadelphia Eagles demolish the Dallas Cowboys 44-6 in last Sunday’s winner-take-all game for the final NFC playoffs spot really made my weekend. Once again, the good guy Donovan McNabb is vindicated while the Court Jester that is Terrell Owens must take his toys and go home once again without a sniff of a playoff victory. When the Eagles booted T.O. off the team and he joined the Cowboys the following year, many thought he was getting over on Philly and headed to the Super Bowl with the hated Cowboys. NOT! When they got rid of him, I said then the Eagles were better off without him and his third-grade mentality. In the three years since T.O. departed Philly, the Eagles have a winning record against the Cowboys, the Eagles have won a Division title, the Cowboys have not. The Eagles have actually won a playoff game, the Cowboys have not. Sunday’s outcome was almost predictable to me. When it comes down to one game with everything on the line. Are you going to go with the team led by a stable, tough-minded leader who responds to adversity or a mentally-weak buster who blows a gasket at the first sign of trouble and takes a entire team down the drain with him. The choice was easy. 44-6.
*Incarnate Word Academy kept up the winning ways by taking home the championship of the Visitation Holiday Girls Basketball Tournament. The Red Knights defeated Hazelwood Central for the championship. Senior forward Jasmin Hitchens took home Most Valuable Player honors for IWA.
McCluer South-Berkeley guard Gerald Jones put up an incredible line in the Bulldogs 64-44 victory over Linn in the Kehoe Great 8 Classic in Jefferson City on Sunday. The 6’0” Jones just missed a “triple-double” as he had 17 points, nine rebounds, 10 assists and five steals. He is the son of MSB head coach Gerald Jones.
Earl Austin Jr.’s latest production, “The PHL in the STL: The DVD” is now available at the St. Louis American, AfroWorld, Johnny Mac’s Sporting Goods (Florissant and Sunset Hills) and on-line at www.earlaustinjr.com.