Spring begins tomorrow!
That’s the last exclamation point I’ll use to complete a sentence for another year, but I thought it was called for in this occasion. I think a popular opinion in Missouri is that fall is the favorite season, but while I understand the sentiment, to me nothing beats spring. As I write this Monday morning, the wind chill is in the teens and light snow is blowing around. By the end of the week, it’s going to be 80 and sunny. Welcome to Missouri.
Spring around my house means a rebirth of dozens of varieties of trees, bushes and flowers. The rose of Sharon bushes that flank a kitchen window are 6 feet tall and by June will be pumping out their beautiful pink and white flowers all summer long. I like to sit at the kitchen table and watch bees and hummingbirds drink their nectar. The towering 100-foot tall tulip tree in our backyard is showing signs of life on its higher branches. The massive elm tree in our neighbor’s yard, that looks more like two or three trees, provides an umbrella of shade for both of our houses when it grows in.
When the Festus girls basketball team was eliminated from the playoffs in the state quarterfinals by Lift for Life Academy Charter on March 13, it marked the official end of the winter sports season that crowned two state wrestling champions from the county, saw a score of basketball players achieve career milestones like scoring 1,000 points, and flood of new college recruits signing their letters of intent. The Leader will be running those in print throughout the course of the rest of the school year.
While we’ve all been snug watching basketball in gyms, since Feb. 6, the Jefferson College baseball team, and Feb. 19, the school’s softball team, have completed about half of their seasons. Viking baseball is on a heater, having won its last six games, the most recent a 14-0 shutout March 7 against St. Louis Community College. The Viking softball squad has a record of 6-3 after winning a pair of 8-0 shutouts March 9 against Lewis and Clark Community College.
On Friday, the Festus baseball team will host its annual two-day tournament, and the Tigers will open the season for the eighth time in a row against Fox. Talk about a roll, Festus will attempt to extend its streak of district championships to six this spring, and as usual, head coach Jeff Montgomery has the Tigers ahead in the arms race. A 7-4 loss to Festus in last year’s district final only served to stoke Hillsboro’s ambitions.
The Hawks begin their season Friday in Ste. Genevieve with games against the Dragons and Valle Catholic. The defending JCAA large-schools champions return pitcher Jackson Marks (1.77 ERA in 47 1/3 IP) and twin brothers Max and Zach Partney.
Boys golf, girls soccer, boys tennis, boys and girls track and field, and boys volleyball are the other spring sports we’ll be covering this spring. Check out the Spring Golf Guide in next week’s Leader. Several players have a chance at qualifying for state, and Jefferson was a couple strokes from getting its team there last year.
Back at Festus, girls track and field head coach Wes Armbruster is on quite a streak that could certainly be continued at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City in May. Armbruster is also head coach of the school’s girls cross country team. The Tigers won the Class 4 state cross country titles in 2024 and 2025, and the Class 4 track and field state crown in 2025, meaning Armbruster is going for four in a row as a head coach. That’s an incredible accomplishment. There are 19 events in track and field. The moving parts have to function as one, literally, during relay events. In cross country, you have to convince teenagers to run as hard and fast for as long as possible, over and over again, their progress incrementally examined to the second.
In coaching news, St. Pius X hired Deb Nicollerat to be the head coach of its highly-successful girls volleyball team. Nicollerat most recently served as head coach at Rockwood Thunder Volleyball Club. She’s amassed 499 career wins coaching at Notre Dame High and Bishop DuBourg High.
Nicollerat takes over a Lancer team that finished second in the state in Class 4 last November, and has won state titles in 2011, 2016-2017 and 2024 under head coaches Shannon Leftridge, Dustin Cutts and Karrie Hermann.
“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Nicollerat to our Lancer family,” said Athletic Director Tilden Watson. “Her experience, vision, and passion for developing student-athletes make her an outstanding fit for our volleyball program and school community.”