Congratulations to Missouri Girls State Champions - March 14th, 2021

 It was a wild, roller-coaster ride this weekend with the Missouri Girl's classes one through three state championships and classes four through six quarterfinals.

Let me start by congratulating the three state champions:

Class One - Platte Valley (Jefferson (Conception)/South Nodaway) - however you spell it (and I wish the school and MSHSAA could agree on one name), the Blue and Cardinal Red girls have consistently been one of my top teams nearly all year long.  With a record of 31-0, they have established themselves as one of the all-time best teams in Missouri History.  The school record over the last 13 years is an amazing 311-57, an average record of 24-4.

Class Two - Ellington Lady Whippets (23-5) -  While the Lady Whippets were good, they played second fiddle to South Iron all season long, losing two close games to the Lady Panthers.  I had them rated 14th in class two in late February but they kept creeping up.  The team was a doormat in the Southeast corner of the state until they rose to a 63-18 record the last three years to win their first-ever state championship. 

Class Three - Lift for Life (15-11).  The Lady Hawks were 6-11 at the end of January and going nowhere.  By winning nine straight games in February and March, they bring the first state championship to the Broadway Avenue school within spitting distance of Busch Stadium and the Historic Soulard district of downtown St. Louis.  A remarkable year for both the girls and boys teams.

Hats off to these remarkable teams and all the hard work they and their opponents put in to get to the state finals.  Just plain remarkable!

So, do you even care how my predictions and ratings played out?  Probably not, but here's my scorecard.  For the boy's and girl's combined (districts, sectionals, and the class one to three finals), I am chugging along at a nearly 80% prediction rate.  That includes a whopping 417 games so far in the MSHSAA playoffs.  Yup, 325 correct predictions on 417 games.

I thought Walnut Grove had an edge on Platte Valley and I was wrong.  I was wrong on most of class one, two, and three girl's picks but nailed the class four through six picks nearly 90% correct.

In class four through six quarterfinals, I missed one out of twelve games and that was gratifying.  Here's my summary for those classes.  I still have my favorites, Vashon in class four, Whitfield in class five and Incarnate Word in class six, to win state titles but the road to a championship is filled with outstanding teams from around the state.  

I will be posting final state polls sometime soon, but Tuesday, I go under the knife for some corrective foot surgery, so this blog might be quiet for a while.  Wish me luck and Good luck to all of the Girl's teams next week.