May 27, 2020

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --- These are confusing, uncertain, lousy times in which we're living. And depending on who you ask and where you live, they're lousy non-living times.

Well, here's something that is certainly no head-scratching surprise --- and it's anything but lousy.

Pete vs. Ray. Around here, no last names required.

But here they are, anyway --- Adkins vs. Hentges.

The long and winding road that started with 64 combatants is down to two, as legendary football coaches Pete Adkins and Ray Hentges will meet in the championship match of KRCG's Mid-Missouri All-Time High School Coaches Bracket.

These men have stadiums named in their honor, as they should.

Now, they're the last two standing in this endeavor, as they should be.

"Everybody's so fed up with the kind of life we're living right now," said Adkins, who coached the Jefferson City Jays for 37 years, "anything that can bring a little bit of excitement and give people something to think about besides the virus, I think it's good.

"I just hope we get back to having some sports one of these days."

Hentges echoed those sentiments.

"Let's hope so," said Hentges, 81, who directed the Helias Crusaders for 33 years. "With no sports going on, this has given people something to do. This has been something to keep their minds on sports.

"Getting to the finals is really a nice honor."

For Pete, it's an honor plus.

"Heck, at my age (95),' Adkins said," it's an honor just to live another day."

If you were curious, Pete is still Pete. Maybe he's slowed down a bit, but not much --- physically or mentally. He's remains very active, works out almost daily, still fishes at the Lake and mows his own lawn.

He sounds the same, looks the same, acts the same. And he cusses the same.

I've been doing this "job" for nearly 40 years, and it was Pete who forced me to learn an important lesson as a young reporter, something they don't teach you in Journalism school.

The art of paraphrasing.

He hasn't aged in 30 or 40 years. Maybe 50.

"We don't see each other very often but when we do, it's very cordial," Hentges said. "When we do meet and chit-chat, we don't ever talk about football."

These two have sparkling Hall of Fame resumes' --- that's why they're both are in more than one.

Adkins retired after the 1994 season, winning 354 games with the Jays (405 overall) and nine state championships. The playoffs didn't start until 1968, or the number would have been considerably higher.

Hentges retired four years later after 32 years at Helias, where he won 251 games and two state titles --- the second coming in his final game. Just as Pete had done.

In his spare time, Hentges coached the Helias golf team to three state championships.

"Ray did a heck of a job for Helias, what else can you say?," Adkins said. "He had a lot of success and you know what the trademark of a good coach is --- you've got to win. It doesn't matter if you're coaching golf, football, whatever. That's the way you're judged, by the way you win or the way you lose.

"That's the way it's always been and that's the way it always gonna be."

Although back in the day, some games ended in ties and both men had a few.

It's amazing how many good/great football players these two produced. In a town this size, with two schools separated by less than two miles, the winning seemed to go on forever.

We wish it had.

"They did a great job over there" Adkins said, "and I think we did a great job at our place."

You could say that.

"His record speaks for itself," Hentges said. "Pete's been tremendously successful --- games won, state championships won, things like that

"I would say he's hard to beat."

The five wins for Hentges on the way to the finals came against;

^ Mick Byrd

^ Don Buffington

^ Mike Jeffries

^ Chris Wyrick

^ Brian Ash

"I wish I hadn't been paired against Mike,"Ray said, "but I guess we had to meet sometime. I think he probably had more state championships than any other coach in this deal."

Indeed he did. Jeffries, who built a wrestling dynasty at Helias, finished his astounding career with an astounding 12 state titles. And it was Jeffries who became the head football coach when Hentges retired.

In the next round, it got even tougher for Hentges --- personally, not because of the competition, but because Helias baseball great Wyrick is his son-in-law.

Some people asked me, "Who's your daughter going to vote for, her dad or her husband?" "Ray said. "I just figured she'ed vote for her husband."

Both coaches have libraries full of great memories. One of those for Hentges came right out of the gate.

"We beat Hickman in the first game I coached, and Hickman later snapped the  Jays' (71-game) winning streak that season," he said. "That was one of my top memories."

Does Pete remember that one? What do you think?

"I remember it," he said.

The wins for Adkins were over:

^ Diana Scheppers

^ Lisa Dey

^ Jerry Buescher

^ Ted LePage

^ Sharon Buschjost

Winners are decided in voting by KRCG viewers, and voting for the finale is open until 5:30 p.m. Friday at https://krcgtv.com/station/contests/mid-mo-coaches-voting-bracket. There will be over 50,000 votes cast throughout the "tournament' by the time it's over.

Rod Smith will announce the winner during Friday's 10 p.m. sportscast. Or, to find out nearly four hours earlier than that, you can tune into his Sports Talk show on the station's Facebook page at 6:30 p.m. 

Pete vs. Ray for all the marbles. Who ya got?

"We don't know (who will win), we'll have to wait and find out," Hentges said with a smile. "I've already voted ... and I didn't vote for Pete. And I'm sure if Pete voted, he didn't vote for me.

"But I think the big winner is KRCG for coming up with this idea and keeping us occupied with something pertaining to sports.."

By the numbers, the charismatic Pete should probably win. But the nicer-than-life Ray is equally deserving.

Hey Rod, let's call it a tie.

Ozzie falls short to
Henke, gives thoughts
on baseball season (?)

Chris Leuckel

Loeffler's Link

As it should be: It will be Pete

vs. Ray in championship match

A voting by our KRCG viewers (and readers) will decide the championship of our Mid-Missouri All-Time High School Coaches Bracket.