Sports

STILL UNDEFEATED The varsity boys weren’t Richmond’s only undefeated basketball team entering this week. The middle school girls A team was 8-0 entering Monday’s meeting with visiting Oak Grove.

When it came time for Collin Lyon to help seal Hardin-Central’s 45-42 win over Tri-County in varsity boys basketball, he thought of what his coach, August Hoeper, might say. With Hardin-Central leading 44-42 and 13.2 seconds left in the final quarter of the Dec.

The Hardin-Central varsity girls basketball team saw the first week of December going one of two ways, according to coach Tommy Burton. Option 1: the Bulldogs could sweep their three games.

NATIONAL TITLE HOPES Two Richmond High School graduates have the chance to win a national college football title – one as coach, the other as a player. Dan Lanning, a 2004 graduate, has the chance to coach the University of Oregon to the title.

Controlled aggressiveness on defense is a focal point for third-year Richmond varsity girls basketball coach Kaylee Vantrump and her Spartans.

Like Richmond’s previous varsity boys basketball coach, the Spartans’ new coach has a history of winning. Brent Behler, who succeeds Kevin Jermain, joins the program after a stint at Braymer, where he led the boys program to a runner-up finish in the Class 1 state tournament last season.

Like his teammates, Richmond senior Travis Cardwell will start this high school boys wrestling season competing in his home gym. And like wrestlers at Richmond and other schools, Cardwell hopes his season will end in Columbia, where the state tournaments are held.

In some ways, the second season of Jonathan Kinder’s stint as Orrick varsity girls basketball coach is like his first. During a preseason interview, Kinder estimated he would lead a nine-girl roster – or as he put it, “similar numbers to last year.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS In terms of progress, Orrick’s varsity boys basketball program is miles ahead of where it was around this time last season, according to secondyear coach Chris Harbison.

August Hoeper is expecting “some struggles” in his second season of coaching Hardin-Central varsity boys basketball. “We just have to take it game by game,” Hoeper said.