By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph has been granted two additional years of hosting the MSHSAA High School football championships, but in the future will lose the girls volleyball Final Four at Civic Arena.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association announced on Friday the future sites for each sports championship venue. In addition to Spratt Memorial Stadium hosting both 11-man and 8-man championships through 2028, a bid from the St. Joseph Sports Commission was accepted to also host the championships in 2029 and 2030.
Sports Commission Director Brett Esely says the bid being accepted by MSHSAA speaks to the fit in St. Joseph along with the venue it provides.
"I think we got a lot of great testimonials, I think people were treated excellent, and I think our colleagues at Missouri Western and just the campus and the way it sets up I think showed and proved Missouri Western and Spratt Stadium is an ideal place for state football," Esely tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And we're really excited that it will continue to be, not only this year, but an additional four years following."
After only hosting 8-man championships in the first year of the agreement, Esely says he believes any concerns about moving to St. Joseph from Faurot Field in Columbia were put to bed after last year's championships.
"When you see the Spratt Stadium complex, and it is a complex, and the locker room facilities and the amenities that not only Missouri Western provided, but some enhancements to the championship that I don't want to assume don't happen other places, but I'm pretty confident we put our own spin on that as well," Esely explains. "And I think the student athletes, coaches, and administrators noticed that I think they appreciated that."
A disappointing announcement from MSHSAA for St. Joseph was the site of the girls' volleyball championship returning to Cape Girardeau in 2028, 2029, and 2030. St. Joseph's Civic Arena hosted the event for the first time last year and is set to host girls' volleyball this season and again in 2027 before it returns to the site at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, the site it was held at for 14 years from 2011 through 2024, before coming to St. Joseph in 2025.
Esely says losing the girls' volleyball championships, while disappointing, is just a part of the bidding process.
"Everybody has an opportunity, and it's just like sports there's highs and lows, and we are disappointed," Esely says. "I think traditions aren't built in a year, they're built over the course of time, and as I've always said about events we've looked is we look for fit and niche, do we have a venue and is it a popular event here in St. Joseph? And I think we have a great venue in Civic Arena, we have a lot of young girls volleyball players, whether that be all the way down to grade school all the way up to great high school volleyball."
"I felt like last year's championship was a good fit here, I felt like what we provided for football we provided for girls volleyball, and that was our first one out chute state championship wise, and I feel like we did some things with that championship that had never been done before, and I think a lot of folks saw that."
While the girls' volleyball championships are set to return to Cape Girardeau in the future, Esely says the Sports Commission isn't done pursuing bringing it back at some point, as well as other opportunities.
"These bids aren't forever things, I think through every bid cycle you learn things, and we learned some things coming out of this bid," Esely says. And you know, when one door closes there's always another door that opens and another opportunity, so we'll seek those, and we'll continue to go after this championship and other events that fit our venue in St. Joseph moving forward."
Interview
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