With Earl Austin Jr.
Five who made 2006 matter
Howard, Irons, Spinks, Anderson, Pujols
In next week’s American, I will feature the annual Year in Review in high school sports. This week, it’s time to look a five compelling individuals who made 2006 a memorable in area sports.
1. Ryan Howard: The former Lafayette High baseball standout followed up his National League Rookie of the Year performance in 2005 by being voted the NL’s Most Valuable Player in 2006. The 26-year old slugger led the Major Leagues with 58 home runs and 148 runs batted in. Howard also had a slugging percentage of .659 while almost single-handedly keeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the hunt for a playoff berth until late in the season. As a bonus, Howard also won the Home Run Derby during the MLB All-Star Weekend in Pittsburgh.
2. Floyd Irons: On March 12, Vashon High defeated Springfield Kickapoo for the Class 5 state title in boys basketball. It was Irons’ 10th state title as Vashon’s head coach. Nobody knew then, but it turned out to be Irons last game as Vashon’s head coach. In July, Irons was removed as the Wolverines head coach after a 33-year Hall of Fame career. The sudden move by the St. Louis Public School Board touched off a giant controversy that still has Irons’ supporters seething to this very day.
3. Cory Spinks: The St. Louisan returned to the boxing ring in triumphant style on July 8 when he defeated Roman Karmazin for the IBF junior middleweight championship. In his first ring appearance since losing his welterweight title to Zab Judah in St. Louis two years ago, Spinks was just as flamboyant in his ring entrance with rap star Yung Joc; and masterful in outboxing the hard-punching Russian to reclaim a world title.
4. Mike Anderson: By being hired as the head basketball coach at the University of Missouri, Anderson became the first African-American to be hired by the state university in any sport. Athletic Director Mike Alden got a good one in the process. After 18 seasons as Nolan Richardson’s right-hand man at Arkansas, Anderson went out on his own and delivered a NCAA Sweet 16 appearance at UAB. Mizzou fans is hoping for similar results. So far, so good. The Tigers are currently 9-2 and playing an exciting brand of basketball. Boone County; Enjoy.
5. Albert Pujols: The future Hall of Famer added to his growing legacy with another monster season with 49 home runs, 137 runs batted in and a .331 batting average. He also has his first championship ring after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series title. Prince Albert also became an All-Star in another category; petulance. Throughout the season, Albert became somewhat of a Barry Bonds Jr. A few of the highlights were belitting New York’s Tom Glavine after he shut out the Redbirds in Game 1 of the NLCS. He whined after losing out to Ryan Howard for the MVP award and became generally uncooperative with the media throughout the season.
Go, Shimmy
Kudos to Saint Louis University women’s basketball coach Shimmy Gray, who has the Billikens off to an 8-5 start this season. The eight victories are already more than the seven that SLU won last season in her first season as head coach. Gray-Miller is an excellent coach, excellent recruiter and dynamic personality who ooozzes with charisma. She is also winning with some talented freshmen including Belleville Althoff’s Theresa Lisch and Cincinnati natives Katie Pagnelli and Maggie Hennegan. Redshirt freshman Amanda Kemzys and leading scorer Tyler McIlwrath have also come up big. The Billikens face a big challenge on Saturday afternoon when they host the University of Arkansas at the Bauman-Eberhardt Center. Tip-off is at 4 p.m.
On the men’s side, the Billikens will host Mississippi on Saturday at the Scottrade Center, beginning at 1 p.m. The Billikens are currently 9-3 and enjoying their best non-conference season in more than 10 years. After playing Ole Miss on Saturday, SLU will open the Atlantic 10 season with three of their first four conference games at home. Center Ian Vouyoukas is enjoying a productive senior year while local products Tommie Liddell (East St. Louis), Dwayne Polk (Vashon), Kevin Lisch (Althoff) and Luke Meyer (Borgia) have provided much excitement for the local fans. The Billikens set a new arena record last Friday in their loss to No. 2 North Carolina. The new mark is now 22,xxx.
Earl on sale
The response to Earl Austin Jr’s Awesome 20 Years of St. Louis Prep Basketball has been great. You can purchase you copy at all six Johnny Mac’s Sporting Goods locations (Sunset Hills, Florissant, Ballwin, St. Charles, St. Peters and Swansea, Ill.), Sportsprint (Bermuda Road in Florissant), and my website at earlaustinjr.com. I’ll will also be selling tabloids at the Meramec, Normandy, Visitation and Collinsville Tournaments next this week.