Why don't SEMO teams ever travel west?
- Thread starter Bad Mo Mo
- Start date
Poplar Bluff played Savannah a few years ago.
Valle has played Lamar the last 2 years.
Caruthersville and Cape Central played Mountain View Liberty a few years ago.
If Lamar played a SEMO team, that means a SEMO team played a western school. See how that works.
I guess either I don't understand or you are agreeing with me. We've played Caruthersville (in Lamar), Malden (in Malden and in the Dome), Ava (at Ava), Mt. View Liberty (multiple times in Mt. View/Liberty and a couple of times in Lamar), Valle Catholic ( are they really considered SEMO?). So, to answer your question, Lamar has ventured to SEMO to play SEMO teams. Is the question,really, "Why don't western schools SCHEDULE SEMO teams?"
The reason seems obvious - travel. SEMO is difficult to get to from pretty much anywhere except STL, which is still a ~2+ hour drive. Crossing the southern half of the state is not like the north half or even from KC to STL. It's a very large geographic area and much of the terrain is rugged and sparsely populated, so major roads are few and far between.
As an example, from Joplin - Cape Girardeau is almost identical driving distance as Dallas Texas and 30-40 minutes further than Omaha, Nebraska. Heck even Hannibal and Kirksville in NEMO are closer than Cape. Seems like a school would have to really want to play a particular school or literally be out of options to someone in that region.
As an example, from Joplin - Cape Girardeau is almost identical driving distance as Dallas Texas and 30-40 minutes further than Omaha, Nebraska. Heck even Hannibal and Kirksville in NEMO are closer than Cape. Seems like a school would have to really want to play a particular school or literally be out of options to someone in that region.
Ava and Mountain View are over by Springfield. You've got a pretty liberal definition of "SEMO" if you count them.
I guess that SEMO teams have played teams in the west more than I had acknowledged. I also have to agree that the travel is quite a bear. I guess I was just expressing a desire to see a little bit more examples of how SEMO teams would stack up against the west teams.
Please don't use the term "Liberal" when describing anything of mine. When driving from Lamar, Ava (1 hour and 10 min. from Springfield) and Mountain View (1 hour and 45 minutes form Springfield) feels an awful lot like South Eastern Mo.
Lamar - Ava - 2 hours and 15 min.
Lamar - Mt. View - 2 hours and 50 min.
Well they're both 2 to 3 hours west of Poplar Bluff, which is one of the westernmost SEMO schools.
West Plains used to be in district with Poplar bluff, Sikeston and Cape Central.. We did very well when we were in that district..
It would be interesting. I be trying figuring out the classes and districts lately. Here is my Class 4 districts prediction
District 1
Hillsboro
Central Cape girardeau
Farmington
North County
West Plains
Sikeston
Desoto
Festus
District 2
Ladue
Gateway
Rookwood Summit
Roosevelt/Cleveland
Windsor (imperial)
St Mary's (St Louis)
Clayton
Bishop Lebond
Affton
District 3
Parkway Central
Parkway North
Hazlewood East
Riverview Gardens
McCluer
Westminster
University City
Jennings
Micds
District 4
Ft Zumwalt East
St Charles
Hannibal
Warrenton
St Dominic
St Charles West
Jeff City Helias
Kirksville
District 5
Camdenton
Washington
Rolla
Priory
St Francis borgia
Union
Sullivan
Pacific
District 6
Neosho
Webb City
McDonald County
Carl Junction
Marshfield
Boliver
Monnet
Hillcrest
District 7
Grain Valley
Grandview
East (Kansas City)
Raytown South
Warrensburg
Van Horn
Harrisonville
District 8
Winnetonka
Platte County
Kearney
Smithville
Marshall
Excelsior Springs
Layfette (St Joesph)
District 1
Hillsboro
Central Cape girardeau
Farmington
North County
West Plains
Sikeston
Desoto
Festus
District 2
Ladue
Gateway
Rookwood Summit
Roosevelt/Cleveland
Windsor (imperial)
St Mary's (St Louis)
Clayton
Bishop Lebond
Affton
District 3
Parkway Central
Parkway North
Hazlewood East
Riverview Gardens
McCluer
Westminster
University City
Jennings
Micds
District 4
Ft Zumwalt East
St Charles
Hannibal
Warrenton
St Dominic
St Charles West
Jeff City Helias
Kirksville
District 5
Camdenton
Washington
Rolla
Priory
St Francis borgia
Union
Sullivan
Pacific
District 6
Neosho
Webb City
McDonald County
Carl Junction
Marshfield
Boliver
Monnet
Hillcrest
District 7
Grain Valley
Grandview
East (Kansas City)
Raytown South
Warrensburg
Van Horn
Harrisonville
District 8
Winnetonka
Platte County
Kearney
Smithville
Marshall
Excelsior Springs
Layfette (St Joesph)
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The SCA is the South Central Association is named that for a reason because it's in the Central southern part of the State 2-3 hours from west edge and 2-3 hours from east edge give or take a bit.
For starters Rockwood Summit and Hillsboro would be flip flopped. For starters.
With large schools (classes 4-6) at least aren't the conferences pretty much loaded in the west to the point where they pretty much can't fit non conference opponents on the schedule? Then combine that with the fact that there are an abundance of possible opponents in a much closer radius to you out west it's just really not convenient to scheduled games across the state. This becomes an issue though for the Poplar Bluff, Cape Central, and Jackson as their only options to really fill out their schedule like a large school should have are to schedule games with St. Louis schools and that can still be hard to do when in St. Louis schools still have an abundance of opponents in a closer radius, heck some opponents could be just a few blocks away.
If this happens West Plains better hope they're #1 seed every year cause 3+ hour bus rides stink.
West Plains gets an additional (minimum) 90 district points because they only play Class 5 or 6 schools. So if they have a decent season they'll get a 2 or 3 seed.
