Last night, Sunday December 10th, 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tire-HjK6SA
The 2023 Volleyball Coach of the Year was presented to Ashley Martin of Mountain Grove. She lead her team to the State Quarter Finals this year and had two players on her team name All-State Players. This is her 2nd consecutive year being named the Coach of the Year.
The 2023 Football Coach of the Year was presented to Josh Watson of Salem, Arkansas. He lead the team this year to an 11-1 record with an undefeated regular season. In the post season they lost to Mansfield, Arkansas in the second round of state competition. The Grayhounds averaged 40 points a game while only allowing an average of 16.
The 2023 Volleyball player of the Year was Pre Daniels of the Lady Liberty Eagles. Are Daniels is a leader for a winning program out of Mountain View-Birch Tree. She always delivered every time she was on the court and was well deserving of the the award.
The 2023 Football players of the year were Briggs Hughston of West Plains and Elijah Roman of Salem, Arkansas. Briggs Hughston had a phenomenal senior year at West Plains and plans on extending his football career in college. Elijah Roman was a phenomenal player for the Grayhounds and was a driving force to their district championship and pushed them to the second round of state playoffs.
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
Gabe Hightower
Braden Burns
Ava Bears recipients
Mallory Melton
Maggey Potter
Cabool Bulldogs recipients
Tyler Fleetwood
Logan Walls
Houston Tigers recipients
Brady Brookshire
Wyatt Hughes
Anna Gale
Angie Smith
Liberty Eagles recipients
Bre Daniels*
Maci Tharp
Carter Pruett
Brody Ruttledge
Mountain Grove Panthers recipients
Raylee Stenzel
Jozy McPherson
Carson Allen
Kaden Richardson
Mountain Home Bombers recipients
Anna McCarn
Mia Jones
Robert Dover
Gray Padgett
West Plains Zizzers recipients
Briggs Hughston*
Rylan Kenslow
Madi Hughston
Mylea Adams
Willow Springs Bears recipients
Aiden Stuart
John Jones
Sydney Stuart
Katlyn Brixey
Salem Grayhounds recipients
Olivia Smith
Madeline Keen
Elijah Romine*
Nick Ortiz
Thayer Bobcats recipients
Rowan Spencer
Mark Spencer
