Denny Burrows accepted his first coaching position at Van Buren High School in 1941. In 1946, he took his team to the state tournament in St. Louis. Burrows was then hired to coach at Ozark High School in 1947. Just two years after taking over as coach, the took them to the state tournament. In… Read more »
News
Team: Ozark High School
2021 Class – Diamond Nine
CLASS of 2021 Mannie DeCastro (Carl Junction High School/Pittsburg State University) Judy Straatmann Hadsall (Washington High School/East Central College/Springfield Slow-Pitch) Gage Jacobs (Bolivar High School/Drury University) Catlin Evans Jones (Pleasant Hope High School/Southwest Baptist University) Alan Mahaffey (Kickapoo High School/Three Rivers Community College/University of Arkansas/Minnesota Twins) Justin McMillin (Hillcrest High School/Missouri State University) Willy Morgan… Read more »
2020 Class- Diamond Nine
CLASS of 2020 Heather Anderson – Missouri State University Johnny Eierman – Warsaw High School/Tampa Bay Rays Kelli Wenberg Eierman – Warsaw High School/Park University Bill Fischer – Springfield Cardinals Dallas Hord – Ozark High School/Missouri State University/Miami Marlins Robert Murders – Southwest Baptist University Justin Skinner – Hillcrest High School/Drury University Ryan Vincent –… Read more »
2022 Class – Diamond Nine
CLASS of 2022 Dr. Mark Baker — Webb City High School/Missouri Southern State University Charlie Burt — Truman High School/Ban Johnson League/Missouri State University Tim Clubb — Eureka High School/Missouri State University Mary Stratton-Johnson — Hillcrest High School/Slow-Pitch Softball Jordan Logan — North Callaway High School/Jefferson College/Columbia College Renay Ries Spilker — Blue Springs High… Read more »
2015 Class – Diamond Nine
Class of 2015 Jack Burrell — Humansville and Southwest Baptist Brad Simmons — Glendale High School and the Kansas City Royals Kelly Snider — Hillcrest High School the Oklahoma Sooners and the Los Angeles Dodgers Barry Short –Mansfield High School, Three Rivers Community College and the New York Mets Jim Lumpe — Glendale High School,… Read more »
2016 Class- Diamond Nine
CLASS OF 2016 Marin Whorton Cooney (Ozark) Sophia Alexander Denning (Strafford/Drury) Bob Detherage (Hillcrest/Royals) Bill Helfrecht (Glendale/Missouri State) Brent Maggard (Sparta/Crowder/Southern Arkansas) Kristen Marshall (Glendale/William Jewell) Troy McMain (Willard) Christian Overstreet (Nixa/Missouri State) Tom Wilson (Bolivar/Detroit Tigers)
Elite 11- Class of 2021
CLASS of 2021 Brock Baker — Bolivar High School/Western Kentucky University Blaise Bauer — Monett High School/Pittsburg State University Joe Close — Parkview High School/University of Missouri Lance Johnston — Branson High School/Northwest Missouri State University Marcus Klund — Scott City & Cape Central High Schools/Lindenwood University Drew Newhart — Cameron High School/Missouri Western State… Read more »
Mike Essick
He had long dreamed the dream. Of coaching a high school baseball team. Of teaching teenagers about the game he loved. Of filling out lineup cards and winning games and, well, everything else great about it. Truth is, Mike Essick had to climb from the very bottom to get there. In fact, the journey began… Read more »
Filbert Five – Class of 2021
CLASS OF 2021 Women’s Team Kyndal Clark – Branson High School/Webb City High School/Drake University, Nebraska Kelsie Cleeton – Hillcrest High School/College of the Ozarks Hannah Cook – Ozark High School/University of Alabama Marla Douglass – Mountain Grove High School/Oklahoma State University/Missouri State University Katie Gariss Marsh — College Heights Christian High School/Missouri Southern State… Read more »
Filbert Five – Class of 2015
CLASS of 2015 Men’s Team Chris Harville (Rogersville/Missouri State) Steven Hill (Branson/Arkansas) Sam Singh (Ozark/Bradley) Mark Sparks (Neosho/Mizzou/Drury) Kevin Williams (Nevada/Mizzou) Women’s team Sara Bos Barnhart (Billings/Drury) Laura Granzow Buetow (Kickapoo/Denver/Canisius) Terianne Wolford Brown (Nixa/Mizzou) Alyson Young Hooten (Rogersville/Avila) Anita Rank Oplotnik (Lincoln/Missouri Southern)
Buford Goddard
At the confluence of the James and Finley rivers stands an old general store. In the back of the general store is a single bedroom where in 1934 Buford Goddard was born. The general store, owned by Goddard’s grandparents, also served as a post office for the unincorporated community of Jamesville, located in Stone County,… Read more »
Lucas Harrell
Lucas Harrell spent a lot of time playing whiffle ball and shooting hoops while growing up in Springfield. The back yard was for whiffle ball and, later, fielding grounders hit by his dad. The front yard, the driveway, that’s where the basketball was played. “When I got a little bit older we got a batting… Read more »
Steve Hunter
For years, Steve Hunter’s basketball teams “pressed the dog out of you.” Those were his words and for good reason. In the early 1990s, after about seven years as a high school coach and clearly frustrated, Hunter and assistant Rick Boyce installed their own version of the run-and-jump press while at West Plains High School,… Read more »
Yancey Little
For Yancey Little, being a coach was the plan from the start. “I always wanted to be a coach,” Little said. “I watched my dad coach men’s fastpitch softball through the years, learned a lot and it intrigued me. Then, when my oldest brother Marty began coaching high school, my desire to coach grew.” And as… Read more »
Rusty Medearis
For years, southwest Missouri’s has been known for basketball. At times, however, the eyes of major college football powers can’t help but find their way to the Ozarks. That was the case in the late 1980s, to the small community of Ozark just south of Springfield. There, a teenager was growing into a blue-chip football… Read more »
Ozark High School Baseball Program
Thumb through scrapbooks or yearbooks of Ozark High School baseball players, and it’s one of those sweet trips down Memory Lane. “Baseball Resumed” reads the headline tucked away in the 1975 Yearbook, accompanied with a collage of black-and-white photos. Four years later, in 1979, the team reached none other than the Final Four, and the… Read more »