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Smithville’s wrestling team won its home tourney for the third year in a row, PAGE C7.INSIDE:

CW E D N E S D Aydec. 12, 2012

TOUGH ENOUGH

Squad hit stride at right timeBy Andy Meyer

Armed with a a new offensive approach, It took a while for the Warriors’ foot-ball team to get rolling late in the season. Once they did, though, there was no stopping them.

Smithville started slowly but only got better as the year went along, reeling off a four-game win streak late in the year that helped the team advance all the way to the district championship game. The squad fell short of the district title but still fin-ished a resurgent campaign with an 8-4 record.

And they even got some revenge in the process.

Warriors’ coach Greg Smith watched his squad get better and better with each passing week and said the squad showed its true char-acter by beating the odds and springing a couple big upsets in the Class 4 post-season.

“I think it was huge for the program,” Smith said. “Every coach in the state at every level of football wants his team to be play-ing their best football at the end of the season. And this year, our group definitely did that.

“We built to a crescendo

at the end of the season, and we were playing some of our best football in quite some time there over the last three games.”

There were sure to be some growing pains early in the year, what with the new offensive game plan.

The past three years, Smithville utilized a spread attack that set basically every passing record in the book. Hit hard by graduation, the team turned back the clock and went to a ground-and-pound attack that also set plenty of records.

Senior running back Zach

Mick’s record night fuels 1st victoryBy Andy Meyer

GRAIN VALLEY — After knocking down his jump-er of the game, Smithville junior Brock Mick had a feel-ing that big things might be in store.

“It felt good hitting my first jump shot, and then I was like, ‘Alright, just keep

shooting,” he said. “And I kept shooting, and they kept going in.”

Behind Mick’s career night, the Warriors picked up their first victory of the year against Grain Valley on Tuesday, Dec. 4, against Grain Valley, 53-41.

Mick, a junior guard,

Girls come close vs. top-ranked Bruins

By Andy Meyer

On paper, it looked impos-sible.

Sure, Smithville had plen-ty of big-game experience and a couple all-state play-ers, but how were they going to match up against one of the best teams in the state, if not the entire country?

But like it has so many times in the recent years, the squad rose to the occasion.

Despite a huge height disadvantage, the Warriors’ girls basketball team rose to the challenge against Columbia Rock Bridge — the No. 1 team in Class 5 — on Thursday, Dec. 6. Despite

By Andy Meyer

The tattoo on Zach Par-menter’s muscular left arm says it all.

‘Success is the best revenge,’ it says, scrawled across his arm in cursive script. But for the Smithville

senior, the meaning is more than skin deep.

The phrase represents everything Parmenter has overcome in the past four years, all the pain he’s endured since the death of his father.

But it also serves as a reminder of how much he has to live for — his team-

mates, his friends and most importantly, the family that’s held together through a dev-astating personal tragedy.

“It just had so much meaning to me, and if it’s on my skin, you have to live by it,” Parmenter said. “And that was my thing. It was sort of an oath for my mom and my family. It’s real talk

now. It’s time to go.“It’s time to get every-

thing going.”Though they’ve walked a

rough road, Parmenter and his family have persevered thanks to their strong con-nections to the community and to each other.

After concluding a record-setting football sea-

son for the Warriors, he recently earned first-team all-state honors, getting rec-ognition alongside some of the best backs in the state.

But football served as so much more than a game for Parmenter. It’s been a con-nection to his father and has

Boys BasketBall: Grain Valley Girls BasketBall: rock BridGe

Parmenters stay strong amidst tragedy

sMitHVille FootBall

FootBall: season recap

File Photo/The Smithville Herald

smithville senior cory Marmet played a big part in helping smithville reach the class 4 district 8 championship game this year, when the Warriors posted an 8-4 record.

Andy Meyer/The Smithville Herald

smithville senior Zach parmenter has overcome some major obstacles in his life with the help of his mother, Janice parmenter, and sisters Brittany and courtney.

u See PARMENTER Page C2

u See fOOTBALL Page C2

u See GiRLs Page C8u See BOys Page C8

MArk Johnson/The Smithville Herald

smithville senior Maddie nelson and the Warriors couldn’t quite find a way past columbia rock Bridge last week.