Reacting to the COC’s expansion to 12 full-time teams and two part-timers:
To clarify, the East Division will include Ozark, Nixa, Kickapoo, Glendale, Lebanon, Waynesville and Central, while the West Division will be made up of Joplin, Webb City, Carthage, Neosho, Republic, Willard and Parkview. …
Not to be picky, but Nixa High School would seem to be a bit farther west than Parkview High School.
The COC athletic directors usually don’t have to do much in regard to completing schedules, and actually coaches sometimes make out their own schedules. Often times, the only change in schedules is flip-flopping who is at home. That obviously won’t be the case next season and, to their credit, the ADs wasted no time putting together football and basketball conference schedules for the 2024-2025 school year.
Less than a week after the announcement of Kickapoo, Glendale, Parkview, Central, Lebanon and Waynesville joining the ranks, the COC released schedules — surprising and impressive. …
The first thing that stands out in the new COC is the schedule over the first six weeks for Nixa’s football team. In order, the Eagles will play Republic, Webb City, Joplin, Carthage, Lebanon and Kickapoo. Those six are a combined 48-13 this season and the first five are playing for a District championship this week. …
COC schools will be making orders for paint jobs and/or new banners to recognize the new conference members on gym walls. That’s probably not cheap. …
The Nixa and Lebanon girls wrestling programs could have classic battles for supremacy in the COC for years to come. The Lady Yellowjackets have claimed state championships in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Lady Eagles have won the COC Tournament each and every year MSHSAA has sponsored girls wrestling. …
Recently, there was a naive reference to Nixa, Republic and Webb City as COC heavyweights, without any distinction to an individual sport. They play more than football in the COC and thus far this school year Ozark has captured COC championships in soccer, volleyball and girls cross country, to go along with the Lady Tigers' Josey Roberts winning medalist honors at the COC Golf Tournament. …
A COC two-division format makes sense in football because not everyone can play each other. But there’s no need for two divisions in all other sports. There are plenty of dates for everyone to play everyone. Surely, we won’t have separate wrestling tournaments or track and cross country meets for the West Division and the East Division. We will all want one true COC champion whenever possible. …
The divisions could use names with a bit more imagination than East and West. Admittedly, that’s no easy chore. References to Route 66 or I-44 couldn’t be unique to either division. One can give homage to a legend the likes of former Webb City football coach John Roderique and re-name the West Division the Roderique Division. …
COC football fans will get acquainted with legendary Lebanon coach Will Christian. Since being hired from Marionville in 2004, Christian has led the Yellowjackets to a 136-64 record in 19 seasons. Lebanon previously was 116-248 over 36 seasons. Also, his son Trevor was a state wrestling champion three years ago. …
Ozark girls basketball coach Brandon Clift is a Lebanon grad and a former Lady Yellowjackets assistant coach. …
The addition of the OC schools makes the decision by Neosho and Willard to stay put look good. The Wildcats and Tigers will now have more chances at wins in football and across the board. The COC got stronger in many sports with the OC additions, but also got weaker in others. Central, Parkview and Waynesville have had limited success in most sports and been downright woeful in a few.
The Vikings have lost 29 of their last 30 games in football, have had a combined record of 7-114 in softball dating back to 2018 and have lost more than 20 games in baseball four straight seasons.
Central hasn’t won more than eight games in baseball going back 15 years, is 3-50 in softball over the last four seasons and was 2-31-2 in volleyball this fall.
Waynesville's football program has had only one winning season over the past 13 years and endured a 24-game losing streak from 2015-2018. The Tigers were 2-22 in baseball last spring.
