Tom Rackers

Nick Saban is widely recognized as one of the handful of best coaches in the history of college football. Now retired, college football needs him to lead the way to save the sport from itself. Saban, the former head coach at Alabama, testified in front of Congress last week to ask for legislation to college sports in the name, image and likeness (NIL) and transfer portal era. NIL and the transfer portal have brought upheaval to college sports in recent years.

This will be nothing new for the Eugene Eagles. When Eugene takes the field today in its Class 2 baseball semifinal game against the Portageville Bulldogs at Ozark Mountain Sports Complex, it will be the fourth Final Four appearance in 15 months for the Eagles. “Our guys do a great job of staying focused, staying relaxed,” Eugene coach Taner Helton said last week after the Eagles defeated Schuyler County in the quarterfinals. “It’s a goofy group of guys, it doesn’t take a lot to keep them calm.

When the Missouri State High School Activities Association released district track and field assignments in March, the Helias Lady Crusaders weren’t surprised they were in District 4. The classification they were in? That was a shocker. The Lady Crusaders were in Class 5, the state’s largest. The focus at that point turned into making the other Class 5 schools sorry they were in the classification with Helias. It wasn’t always easy, it wasn’t always smooth.