by

Alan B. Gibson

Gridiron Dawgs lose a close one

The Bulldogs fell just a point short of a tie Friday night in their first home contest of the season, losing to Trimble County 14-13 at the Bulldog field to go 0-2 on the season.

Clinton County hits the road again this Friday night for a short trip over to Adair County to take on the Indians. The Dawgs will have their work cut out for them as they face yet another 3A school on this year’s schedule. In fact, Friday night’s game will be the first of back to back 3A opponents as Clinton County returns home the following Friday night to play host to another 3A opponent, Casey County.

Both games are set to get underway with 7:00 p.m. kickoffs.

Goodbye to a long-time Big Blue fan

Services were held last week for 99 year-old Rosa Conner, who was certainly one of the biggest fans of Clinton County High School sports ever.

The mother and grandmother of a host of stand-out athletes in the Conner family who donned the blue and white uniform for Clinton County down through several decades, it was commonplace – even last season – to look up from my table at courtside and see “Mama Rosa” sitting in the stands watching some roundball action.

I spent quite a bit of time in the Keith Conner household when I was growing up and enjoying a friendship with her grandson, Mike Conner, a teammate and later a co-worker, which is when I was fortunate enough to become acquainted with “Mama Rosa”.

Wasn’t a better fan of local sports – or a better cook for that matter, but as Mike commented last week during a conversation at the funeral home – what a long and blessed life she enjoyed.

Congrats to a couple of Golf Dawgs

Congratulations are certainly in order to a couple of our Golf Dawgs, which as I have mentioned here in these spaces, are enjoying one of their best seasons ever.

Evan Shelley recently fired a 75 in the All “A” Regional to qualify for a spot in the Touchstone Energy All “A” State Tournament which will be held September 10 in Paducah, Kentucky.

Sawyer Stalcup picked up a nice medalist trophy by firing an even par 72 this past Saturday in the Barren County Invitational Tournament.

Last of the ‘big three’ is here – again

Seems like it happens quicker every year, but believe it or not, the last of our “big three” tourism weekends is upon us.

The 2011 tourism season will, for the most part, come to an end after this weekend with the arrival and passing of Labor Day, and while that means for our two area lakes, things begin to go into a major slowdown mode, for local lakers, there’s still plenty of summer left in front of us.

With that in mind, I offer up my triannual message to remind local residents of the fact that both our waterways and roadways will be experiencing considerably increased traffic this coming weekend – and a reminder that it’s a long weekend.

Our visitors will be coming in early, and staying as late as possible, and during that time, we locals are charged with not only being good hosts, but remembering that we need to offer up a little extra room between us and those not so familiar with our habits and our terrain.

The tourists bring with them a pocket full of money that our local economy desperately needs – and believe me, they intend on leaving most of it here with us. Remember to treat them in a way that will hopefully cause them to want to return.

But the main thing is, let’s make it a safe weekend for everyone, so remember . . .

“Let’s be careful out there!”