Puppet shows and St. Louis Area Girls High School basketball rankings 12/03/2020

 If you have already read the Boys rankings, you can drop down to the Girls ratings below. 

I feel very lucky.  

My youngest daughter sent us a story that our 2nd grade granddaughter had written for her teacher this week.  The assignment was for the student to write about their favorite summer memory.  After much hand wringing, she wrote about a puppet show that she and I conducted for Grama and her family at our Minnesota cabin this summer.  When we read her story, both Grama and I began to tear up.  Could life be any better for us during the pandemic crisis?  We feel very lucky that we have stayed safe and maintained our health when so many others have fallen ill or died from Covid-19.

I hope we continue to be lucky.  I hope and pray that the Missouri high school 2020-2021 basketball season, which began in full force this past week, will be able to continue.  If players and their families remain diligent to the pandemic guidelines, they might just get a season in.  One slip-up by one family flaunting the guidelines and their player might infect the entire team, require isolation/quarantine and end up with canceled games or an entire season.

For now, St. Louis County is holding off on more severe pandemic guidelines.  We thought we had it bad in April but the pandemic is exploding, with record illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths over the past few weeks.  The next few weeks will be critical.  Will there be another surge from Thanksgiving gatherings?  Will the numbers start to tail off because people are finally waking up about wearing masks and limiting gatherings?

I am hopeful.  Hopeful that "Anti-maskers" will finally see that their "right" to not wear a mask is actually a very selfish act that could kill other Americans.  Hopeful that new restrictions will start to show a dampening of the virus spread.  Hopeful that the basketball season can continue through all of this.  Hopeful that a vaccine will arrive soon enough to squelch this horrible virus and hopeful that people will actually get vaccinated when they can.

So life goes on.  We remain vigilant and act like like can go on living "normally", when the new normal feels so strange.  For our younger daughter, staying safe is important.  Puppet shows are important.  Basketball is not.  For our oldest daughter, with two sons playing high school ball, this season IS.

For many young players, basketball is life.  Basketball is their ticket to college and a better life.  Let's hope we can do both.... Stay safe and play.  We can watch the puppet shows and basketball on live streaming.

Enough of that.  Here's a look at the large and small schools in the St Louis Area.  I have included some schools that have put their basketball programs on hold until January and may not play at all.  I will include them in rankings until those districts totally cancel their season.  The ratings will be more robust and relevant as I get more games in the rating calculations.  I have not included Illinois teams in these rankings.  If the Illinois teams get to play, I will include them at that time.

 Stay safe, folks.  I remain hopeful we will survive these times.  We might even get to see some hoops.

Boys ratings are listed at:

https://gramps2021missourihoops.blogspot.com/2020/12/puppet-shows-and-st-louis-area-boys.html

Posted	12/3/2020
Missouri Girls
Large Schools - St Louis area		2020-2021
Rank	Team name	Class	Rating
1	Webster Groves	5	148
2	Hazelwood Central	5	140
3	Ladue	4	136
4	Marquette	5	134
5	Parkway North	4	133
6	Fort Zumwalt West	5	133
7	Lafayette	5	131
8	Fort Zumwalt North	5	129
9	Troy Buchanon	5	129
10	Francis Howell Central	5	128
11	Parkway South	5	123
12	Holt	5	122
13	Kirkwood	5	122
14	Eureka	5	122
15	Fort Zumwalt South	5	121
16	Lindbergh	5	121
17	Fort Zumwalt East	4	119
18	Oakville	5	116
19	Francis Howell	5	115
20	Hazelwood West	5	113
21	Rockwood Summit	4	112
22	Pattonville	5	108
23	Parkway Central	5	108
24	Timberland	5	106
25	Parkway West	5	105
Schools that have delayed their basketball season until January are included, ie. Hazelwood School District
Missouri Girls
Small Schools - St Louis area		2020-2021
Rank	Team name	Class	Rating
1	Incarnate Word	4	146
2	Westminster Christian Academy	4	140
3	St. Joseph	4	137
4	MICDS	4	131
5	Ste. Genevieve	4	130
6	Gateway STEM	4	129
7	Nerinx Hall	5	128
8	John Burroughs	4	127
9	Ursuline	4	121
10	Notre Dame de Sion KC	4	117
11	Vashon	4	117
12	St. Francis Borgia	4	117
13	St. Dominic	4	115
14	St. Charles West	4	115
15	Cor Jesu	5	111
16	Visitation	4	109
17	Washington	4	108
18	Festus	4	107
19	St. Teresa's Academy KC	5	106
20	St. Charles	4	101
21	Notre Dame	4	99
22	Clayton	4	97
23	Rosati-Kain	4	96
24	University City	4	95
25	Villa Duchesne	4	93
Class and District assignments for 2020-2021 have not yet been released for Girls Basketball.          Large schools have 1000 plus students.