There have been many events canceled due to this corona virus pandemic, and our lives have been turned upside down as most of us are relegated to spending almost all of our time confined to our homes. Things that we once took for granted – walking around the mall, dining in at crowded restaurants, going to the movies, etc – are now off limits. This of course includes sports. No Major League baseball, NBA, March Madness, high school spring sports… the list is endless. The Southwest Missouri Basketball Future 50 Camp that was to be held on March 29th at Lebanon High School was of course postponed, hopefully just till this summer sometime. We had spent many hours organizing that event, without the foresight of knowing what was to come.

Yet another casualty of this pandemic was the Southwest Missouri Basketball High School All Star Game, complete with a slam dunk contest that was open to any high school senior boy in the area, and 3 point shooting contests for both high school senior boys and girls who were invited to the all star game.

Not to mention that the 2020 high school class has had to endure the loss of their last high school spring sports sessions, and in some cases, had the tail end of their basketball season curtailed (The class 4 and 5 teams that made the MSHSAA Final Four) and they will miss out on their senior prom, among many other special events.

The least we can do is give some recognition to those seniors who would have received an invitation to the all star festivities, which was slated to take place this coming Sunday, April 19th, at BBC in Springfield, and would have included 4 all star games for senior boys and girls who were invited to come, divided into school classifications. The class 1, 2 and 3 all star game for girls would have been first, followed by the Class 1, 2 and 3 all star game for boys. Then the slam dunk and 3 point shooting competitions would have taken place, followed by the class 4 and 5 all star game for girls and the Class 4 and 5 all star game for boys.

Each of the teams would have consisted of up to 12 players that we invited. It was very tough to narrow down the list of top seniors for each group to send invitations to, but we gave it our best shot and came up with a list of players for each group.

Here is the list of 24 senior boys from class 1, 2 and 3 schools in southwest Missouri that were at the top of our list to be invited to this event, in no particular order. Congratulations to these 2020 seniors, and good luck to all of you with your future endeavors!

1. Arlo Stump, Golden City

2. Hunter Lane, Macks Creek

3. Grady Todd, Plato

4. Ethan Fagre, Richland

5. Tyler Campbell, Crane

6. Dax Beem, Skyline

7. David Oplotnik, Fair Grove

8. Will Morrison, Catholic

9. Cale Miller, Mt Vernon

10. Drew Wheeler, Stockton

11. Cade Kauffman, Weaubleau

12. Taylor Genzler, Clever

13. Nathan Garrett, Blue Eye

14. Matt Horn, Hermitage

15. Haydon Kisling, Sarcoxie

16. Presley David, Hollister

17. Ben Galligos, Catholic

18. JD Bishop, Lamar

19. Zak Lutgen, Strafford

20. Jon Deroos, Forsyth

21. Dakota Lafferty, Sparta

22. Cole Gilpin, Fair Grove

23. Aaron Garner, Pierce City

24. Nathan Swofford, Ava