2B | The Marshfield Mail | March 28, 2012 SportS

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Mighty Joe Young picks up several postseason honorsBy Clint Mitchellclintm@marshfieldmail.com

Logan-Rogersville’s Joe Young collected a handful of postseason awards following a suc-cessful senior campaign.

The Wildcats’ do-ev-erything shooting guard was named to the All-Central Ozark Confer-ence team, as well as the Class 4, All-District 11 team.

But Young’s accolades didn’t stop there. The senior was also selected to the Class 4 All-State team, joining district mates, Dorial Green-Beckham, from Hillcrest, and Republic’s Nick Yo-cum, as the only three representing southwest Missouri.

“Being All-State means a lot to me,” Young said. “There are a lot of guys who deserve to be it that aren’t, so I’m really honored to be chosen.”

This season was not the first time Young was selected to the All-State team, however. But he said seeing his name se-lected never gets old.

“I have been (se-lected) a few times now, but the excitement I had whenever I heard about it is still the same as the first time,” he said.

Young was also named the small COC Player of the Year. The senior av-

eraged 17.4 points and 8.4 rebounds a game during his final cam-paign with the Wildcats. Young also surpassed the 1,000-point mark, tallying an impressive 1,164 points and 541 re-bounds for his career.

“We are very proud of Joe Young,” said Rog-ersville head coach Rod Gorman — who was named the COC’s co-Coach of the Year. “He

had a great career as a Wildcat, and he led us in scoring and rebound-ing the last two years. It will be hard to replace his scoring and athletic ability.”

Senior Colton Woods joined Young as a first team All-COC selection, as well. Seniors Dylan Cole and Aaron Orchard were also honored with second team All-COC accolades, too.

Mail file photoSenior Joe Young (24) sinks a long-ranger jumper and draws the foul during a district matchup against Hillcrest.

Can’t CatCh the game?Visit www.marshfieldmail.com and find out how your team did

Ernst resigns as Fordland boys basketball coach

Lady Eagles’ senior class recognized with all-conference, all-district honors

Contributed photo by Matt McCroskeySenior Jesse Booth signs his letter of intent to run track at Ottawa University in Ot-tawa, Kan., last week at Logan-Rogersville High School.

Booth signs with Ottawa

By Clint Mitchellclintm@marshfieldmail.com

Fordland head basket-ball coach Eli Ernst has tendered his resignation, effective following the 2011-12 academic year.

Ernst confirmed through email that he had indeed turned in his resignation, which was read during a Fordland school board meeting on March 15.

Ernst, an assistant at the time, took over for former Eagles coach Dave Smith midway through the 2008-09 sea-son. Smith and assistant Darren Rose — who, as a former Eagles baseball coach, was charged with two counts of attempted statutory sodomy and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy

in March 2010 — had only been at the helm for a single season before turning over the reigns to Ernst.

In his three-year ten-ure with the Eagles, Ernst posted a 26-42 record overall. The Eagles went 14-11 during the 2011-12 campaign, however, a drastic improvement from the 1-18 mark in 2009-10, and a step up from the 11-13 record in 2010-11.

Speculation has cir-culated that Ernst re-signed after being told his contract would not be renewed. Despite the Eagles’ consistent im-provement under the leadership of Ernst, con-cern was growing that the team was not making the desired progress.

Ernst, who had been

with the district since 2008, confirmed his resig-nation stretched beyond his coaching position.

“I resigned at Fordland from all positions includ-ing (physical education) teaching,” Ernst said in an email. “I appreciate the people in Fordland offer-ing me the opportunity and giving me the trust to work with their students/athletes. My family and I have been blessed to be an Eagle and will always be interested in the fu-ture of their boys’ basket-ball program.”

In addition to serving as a PE teacher and boys head basketball coach, Ernst also served as Ford-land’s athletic director. The school district has opened its search to re-place Ernst’s vacancy of all three positions.

By Clint Mitchellclintm@marshfieldmail.com

Coming off a second consecutive district championship, several Ford-land Lady Eagles were bestowed with postseason awards.

Senior Meagan Claxton led the way, earning first team All-Southwest Cen-tral League honors, as well as a first team Class 2, All-District 10 team.

Claxton’s 564 total points and 18.8 per game average was enough to earn her the nod as a Class 2 All-State selec-tion, too.

Senior Taylor Cornelison was also named to the All-SWCL and All-District 10 team, too. Cornelison averaged 16.2 points per game, and also pulled down 293 total rebounds during her final campaign.

Joining Cornelison and Claxton was senior Kat Zumalt, who averaged near-ly 10 points per game. She was named all-district and all-conference honor-able mention.

“This group was part of two district

championships and 88 wins over the last four years,” said Fordland head coach Kevin McDaris. “It will be impos-sible to replace them. We will have to work hard as a team next year to over-come the loss of this senior class.”

Mail file photoSenior Meagan Claxton dribbles along the baseline in a first-round playoff loss to Crocker earlier this month.