On the Street... by Chuck Haney
The third annual Outdoor Classic drew 1,712 persons including 1,200 plus Saturday during its two-day run at its new location—the Chillicothe High School. “For the first time in a new location it went really smooth,” said Steve Shoot. “Our vendors were pleased, he added.
Shoot said he wanted to thank Principal Tony Peery, the high school, the hard work of Stan Baldwin and the Hunting and Fishing Club, the North Missouri Sportsman’s Alliance Committee and the volunteers from the Ambassador Chamber organization. He said there were also parents of those in the hunting and fishing club who helped.
He said the committee will meet soon to discuss the good and bad of the event and plans for next year which just might have some changes. He said the seminars were good and well attended.
Miss Missouri Tara Osseck made a special two-hour appearance at the show and had attended the West Plains Sports Show the previous day where she competed in the Owl Hooting contest. Learning this and knowing that six-time Owl Hooting Champion James Harrison was a guest speaker, he lined up a contest between the two.
She did pretty well but Harrison prevailed, however Miss Missouri asked Harrison to participate in one of those pageant walks. He was a runner-up. “It was a fun thing,” said Shoot.
At the Chillicothe Elks Lodge around 1,400, including a crowd of near 1,000 on Saturday, took in the Gun and Knife Show, according to director Kerby Vulgamott. “We did a little better than last year,” he said.
Vulgamott said the Elks help the vendors load and unload and provide a Sunday morning breakfast for them. It was prepared by Chef Lori Brown and 75 vendors and workers were served.
The vendors love to come here and they love the way they are treated and how they are received in the community,” said Vulgamott. The Elks volunteers and the Ladies Auxiliary serving food all did a great job, the director added.
Shawn Graves was the winner of the gun raffle and chose a Bone Collector black powder 50-caliber gun.
Later in the column I will speak of visits with Hall of Fame Coach Shane Cavanah of Marceline about his book and former CHS Jayvee Coach and Hornet grad Dave Garrison who was featured in a front page story in the Kansas City Star last week.
The Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce and the Chillicothe FFA Chapter have hooked up for the 2010 Salute to Agricultural this Friday at the new Jenkins Expo Center.
The previous two years the Chamber and its ag committee staged a Salute to Agriculture at the Jenkins Expo Center and last year brought in the director of Missouri Agriculture Jon Hagler that drew more than 150 persons. The initial year in 2008 had Andrew McCrea, a farmer, rancher, author and nationally syndicated radio broadcast as its speaker.
Now, at the suggestion of Rusty Black of the GRTS Ag Department and Chillicothe FFA, the event will be a combined one sponsored by the Chamber and the Ag department and will be held during National FFA Week.
The two groups also have attained another sponsorship of the event, this one a corporate sponsorship by Monsanto. The speaker following the breakfast will be Dan Cassidy, chief administrative officer for Missouri Farm Bureau.
Invitations went out in the mail last week to Livingston County farmers, longtime sponsors of the FFA banquet and programs, and ag/business places. The free breakfast will take place between 6:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. and the program will follow with dismissal about 30 minutes later.
Some agricultural firms and ag business places will have equipment on display while others will have booth space set up inside the Expo Center. Another large crowd is expected, according to Martha Berry, co-chair of the Chamber’s ag committee.
During the weekend I had a chance to visit with Dave Garrison head basketball coach at Park Hill High School. Dave a former Chillicothean and a 1995 graduate of CHS where he starred in basketball with his big 6-4 frame, was part of a sports feature on the front page of the Star’s sports section last Friday where he was pictured with two of his starters on the Park Hill team.
The headline of the story was “Coach’s Influence Still Felt’ and it related to the Park Hill boys team still coping with the death last year of their assistant coach and how they still are learning from the lessons of Jerry Alexander.
Garrison credits Alexander, who died last October, with developing two of his key players on this year’s team and also the work Alexander did in stressing defense and rebounding to the team.
Alexander stressed those two aspects of the game every day he spent as a coach until he died last fall of a heart disease at the age of 52.
Garrison said in the article written by Star sportswriter Terez A. Paylor that he has seen his players improve thanks in a large part to Alexander’s mentoring. The team has dedicated the season to Alexander, whom once was a big-time scorer in college. He always told the kids that he cared only about rebounding and defense. Win those battles he always told the Park Hill players and the offense would take care of itself.
Garrison told me the team is now 17-6 and just recently clinched the Big Six Conference title. Garrison is in his third year at Park Hill and has posted marks of 9-15, 14-13 and now 17-6. “Before I got here, Park, a Class 4 team, won only four games,” said Garrison.
Garrison played his high school basketball under Jeff Schnakenberg and was a four-year starter during one of the most successful runs in school history that included a fourth place state finish. Later Garrison served as assistant coach under Chad Snyder for five years before moving on to Excelsior Springs for three years.
In our basketball conversation, Garrison knew about Chillicothe’s Bryce Young and he remembered him as a youngster coming to basketball camps that he and Coach Snyder held. “You could tell then he was going to be good,” said Garrison.
Garrison and his wife, the former Katie Jackson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Don Jackson of Chillicothe, reside in Liberty with their three children—Mac, 7; Bailey, 5; and Libby, 20 months. Katie is a junior high math teacher in Liberty. Garrison’s parents are Mr. and Mrs. Don Garrison.
“We (Park Hill) play our District 4 tournament at St. Joseph Central and I expect some family and friends will make the short drive over,” Garrison said.
I receive a number of books each year from local persons I know who have had books published as well as others. I received a personal autographed one recently from longtime friend and Coach Shane Cavanah, who calls Marceline his hometown (It was also hometown on my Haney side of the family.)
The book, “Marceline/Green Recollections” by Shane Cavanah rekindled many memories of my younger days as well as my sports writing and broadcasting days In fact, Shane sent along a letter asking that I accept a complimentary copy and telling me to check it out that I was in the book when I wrote about his Princeton football team back when I was sports editor of the Constitution-Tribune. He also told me he always picks up a copy from one of the Ad Pages racks in Marceline to check out my column.
The book has a lot about his long football coaching career, his family, growing up in Bevier and Marceline, being a father and citizen and many of the things that went on in Marceline and Linn County.
You can order a copy of the 94-page lifetime of stories by sending a check for $24.95 per book plus $1.80 tax for a total of $26.75 to Shane Cavanah, P.O. Box 334, Marceline, Mo. 64658 or call him at 660-376-3078.
Shane is a Hall of Fame coach and has taken teams to the football playoffs in five decades. Just last season he returned again to coach his hometown team the Marceline Tigers. They went 12-1 and lost to Wellington-Napelon in the Quarterfinals. When he returns this fall to Marceline it will begin a sixth decade of coaching that included 373 games and 255 victories.
His long 35-year career has included stops in Nevada, Princeton, Knox County, Centralia, back to Princeton, Hamilton, Sweet Springs, Marceline, Trenton, Richmond and Brookfield. A brother Dave is now the coach at Princeton and they will meet each other again this fall in football in Princeton.
A son of Dave’s (Chris) is now a coach at Crest Ridge. Shane and his brothers (Dave and Lex) were all star athletes at Marceline where Shane graduated in 1959. Shane’s son Brett was an All-Stater and is playing indoor (arena) football with the Arkansas. Another son Brad resides in Chillicothe and is married to Sarah Martens, daughter of Ed and Ann Martens.
A son Michael was killed in a traffic accident in 1995 just after accepting a coaching and teaching position at Richmond.
Shane married his college sweetheart Cheryl, who is a sister to Marcia Beemer, wife of Jim Beemer of Chillicothe.
I watched Shane play high school football (quarterback) and then coach against Bob Fairchild and many high school coaches. He was a great radio interview when I was doing the Fifth Quarter Show on KMZU and the Coke Locker Room Show on KTTN/KGOZ.
The public is invited to a cultural luncheon presented by the Chillicothe Area Arts Council from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at the Alaska House at 445 Locust across from the Livingston County Library.
A soup luncheon catered by Hollie Caselman (Hollie Bakes) may be reserved for $5 by calling the Arts Council office at 646-1173 or by email at arts@chillicothemo.com .
The program will include a presentation of cartoons of World War II by Larry Vance; Janet Barnhart will present excerpts from poetry and speeches of World War II; and Abby Pitchford will sing songs from World War II.
There is no charge to attend the program and no ticket is needed, but if a lunch is desired, it requires a reservation with the arts council. Lunch begins at 12 p.m. and the program will start at 12:20 p.m. and end at 12:50 p.m. Deadline for lunch reservations is 12 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22.
This marks the second cultural luncheon hosted by the Arts Council and this one is a prelude to the upcoming Arts Council February show “War Bonds,” the songs and letters of World War II that will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 28, at the Dickinson Performing Arts Center.
The Slice of Life feature in the Ad Pages last week brought back memories to some of the old filling station on the hilltop west of Wheeling. It was mentioned in the feature story highlighting the 69th wedding anniversary of Ralph and Louise Wilson who were married on Valentine’s Day.
Norma (Ted) Blankenship saw the story and then called the Wilson’s and then this columnist. “That station they (the Wilson’s) stayed in and managed when they were first married belonged to my grandfather N.H. Randall and my father Noble Randall,” said Mrs. Blankenship, a Wheeling native and now residing in Chillicothe.
The Livingston County employee’s and elected officials will hold a bake sale this Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. (or until items last). The bake sale will take place in the lobby on the first floor. All proceeds from the sale will go to Operation Help.
Mark your calendar for April 16. Grand River Area Family YMCA will be holding their annual fundraiser on that date. Rock and Roll, soda fountains, a jukebox and prom king and queen will all be a part of the fun evening. Join folks for the 1957 Killer Class Reunion.
The Chillicothe Lady Hornets play their final home game this Thursday evening with junior varsity and varsity games against Cameron at the high school gym. The Lady Hornets will compete next week in the District basketball tournament at Smithville.
The Meadville boys and Southwest Livingston girls won the 2010 CLAA Conference tournament titles Saturday night before a standing room only crowd of 1,100 plus. It was the first conference tourney title for Southwest (now 18-3) in 42 years (1968). The Meadville boys are now 21-0 and won the tourney for the first time since 2001.
Happy 45th wedding anniversary to Ken and Brenda Lauhoff and Happy Anniversary to Buell and Judy Applebury.
Happy Birthday to the following celebrating birthdays from Feb. 17 through the 23--Dave Redford, Kathy Harlow, Tony Geib of Washington Street Food and Drink, Rosalie Huff, Shirley Bacon, Frances Gillilan, Fritz Kline, Clark Peterson, J. Scott Lindley, Brenda Trager, Bob Marriott, Fred White, Jerry Osgood, Raymond Jackson, James Vicky, Davey Scott, Richard McPheeters, Rachel Coburn, Nick Shiflett, Bob Christison, Lorene Fish, Doris Fitchett, Lena Bowen, Margaret Bonderer, Kay Green, Shirley Rodgers, Anne Wood, Henry Applebury, Faye Leppin, Jo Ann Silvey.
I have already told you more than I know.
We send our deepest sympathy to the family of Mike and Mary Wright following the loss of their son and stepson T. J. Webb last week.
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