This past Sunday, Ozark Marketing held their annual All Star Sports banquet for Fall Sports in the area sponsored by Taylor Grubaugh of West Plains. Ozark Marketing hosted athletes, coaches and families from Highland, Salem and Mountain Home Arkansas as well as Ava, Cabool, Houston, Liberty, Mountain Grove, Thayer, Willow Springs and West Plains. You can watch the livestream of the event at this link here. Scroll to the bottom for Coach and Athlete photos.
For the second year in a row, Ashley Martin from Mountain Grove received the Coach of the Year award for Volleyball. Ashley and Panthers had a great season finishing the season 27-4-1 and going 5-0 in district play.
This year, there were two Coaches of the Year for Football. The first went to Coach Sterling Stowers of the Highland Rebels. Stowers has a raised a struggling program into a 9 and 2 team going 6-1 in the conference. The Rebels had a record of 9-39 from 2018 to 2022 and in the past two years has turned around to a 16 and 6 record. The Second Football COTY was Coach Josh Watson of the Salem Greyhounds. Watson is taking his greyhound team to the State Championship this week after an amazing season. This Saturday, the Greyhounds will play the Bismarck Lions for the State Championship.
The Volleyball Player of the Year was handed to Raylee Stenzel. Stenzel put up some wild numbers in her career as a Mountain Grove Panther. Throughout her career she has set state records, school records and even nationally having the most kills at 939 for the season. The Panther will be a Bear next academic year as she signed for the Missouri State University Bears.
The Football Player of the Year went to Jacob Chenoweth of Mountain Home. Chenoweth was a beast on both sides of the ball this season and led the team to a 10-3 season finishing 3rd in conference.
The night started with a dinner catered by Ozark Cafe followed by handing out awards to players who shined in their programs on and off the field and court. It was a special night for coaches because these awards are not always based off who produced the most touchdowns or who had the most digs. Most of these awards are handed out to players who help out the program in anyway possible. The following list is for all recipients of the awards:
Highland Rebels recipients
Jill Wesselin
Josey Sprinkle
Keagan Statler
Zac Huckabee
Ava Bears recipients
Paris Henry
Alexis Emrick
Hunter Adams
Thomas Merritt
Cabool Bulldogs recipients
Carson Long
Carson Lindsey
Cambree Woodard
Sophia Dotson
Houston Tigers recipients
Jordan Arthur
Brayden Richardson
Kayla Wagner
Morgan McKinney
Liberty Eagles recipients
Korie Lind
Kaylie Wagner
Gavin Reese
Chris Sharr
Mountain Grove Panthers recipients
Raylee Stenzel*
Makenna McGowan
Dustin Unger
Cooper Hoerning
Mountain Home Bombers recipients
Addison Martz
Aspen Vostatek
Jacob Chenoweth*
West Plains Zizzers recipients
Alex Judd
Isaiah Jones
Lucy Hafer
Libby Welch
Willow Springs Bears recipients
John Jones
Everett Smith
Aleisha Shanks
Sydney Stuart
Salem Greyhounds recipients
Allison Smith
Allyson Tanner
Skyler Payne
Caleb Leisenring
Thayer Bobcats recipients
Abby Bowers
Ashlee Jackson
Cooper Clarke
Brandon Prince