The Atlantic Trojans are gearing up for a homecoming tilt with the Denison-Schleswig Monarchs on the gridiron Friday night.  Atlantic struggled to get the offense going in a 7-3 loss to Shenandoah and Trojan Head Coach Mike McDermott said they are going to shake things up this week to try to get more production.

The Trojans will be working to get through those injuries and also will be dealing with a different atmosphere during a Homecoming contest.  Coach McDermott said his staff encourages the kids to participate in all of the school pride activities and to enjoy it but he’s been pleased with their focus on preparation when they have needed it this week.  Coach McDermott said he has seen improvement from his team but one goal this week is to finish drives when they get the chance to.

Atlantic will host Denison-Schleswig at the Trojan Bowl with kickoff set for 7:30pm following the Freshman contest.  Both teams come in at 1-1 with this being their first district game.

The Riverside Bulldogs travel to Griswold to face the Tigers in a Class A District 7 match-up on Friday night. Griswold is off to a 1-1 start to the season while the Bulldogs have an 0-2 record to begin the year.  The intensity may step up a notch this week with games now in district play having an effect on every team’s postseason hopes.

Griswold Coach Andy Everett said he feels like his team is a week behind having missed their scrimmage to start the year due to lightning but thinks is team is really starting to improve this week.

Coach Everett knows in order to keep up the offensive momentum from last week’s win the Tigers will have to get in the way of a big interior defensive line for Riverside.

Defensively the Tigers have been led by Senior Wyatt Robinette at the linebacker position and Coach Everett said he has a chance to have a really special season.

Riverside Head Coach Mitch Rice is excited to get some players back in the mix this week that were injured early in the season.

Coach Rice said he sees much of the same with the Tigers this season as in years past and knows they always present a tough challenge.

The Bulldogs did get some offense going last week against Tri-Center and Coach Rice liked the spirited way his team competed and thinks they have what it takes to end their 11-game losing streak dating back to last season.

We will have coverage of the Bulldogs and the Tigers on KJAN. Join Chris Parks and Mike Smith for the broadcast. Our pick ’em show Who’s Gonna Win? airs at 6:00pm, the Dvorak Tire and Service Pre-Game Show at 6:30pm and Kickoff at 7:00pm in Griswold.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Domingo Santana and Orlando Arcia hit back-to-back homers as the Milwaukee Brewers continued their recent road dominance routing the St. Louis Cardinals 12-5 on Thursday night. Hernan Perez had four hits and three RBIs for the Brewers, who won their season-high fifth straight on the road and have won seven of their last eight games. The Cardinals fell to 30-38 at home and dropped a half game behind the idle New York Mets for the second wild card spot.

Plans for renovating the Glenwood School District’s activities complex were heard at a special meeting Wednesday night. School officials, along with members of the Glenwood Activities Booster Club, held a public meeting to discuss results of a feasibility study by Lucas Partners on the proposed renovations, including a new track and press box, plus improved entrances, exits and parking. Glenwood School Superintendent Devin Embray says the improvements are much needed.

“The facility has served us very well over the years,” said Embray. “It’s just getting to the point where it’s very outdated, and needing upgrades, and to the point where some major things need to be done. The booster club, in looking at that, felt that if we have to do a lot of renovations and a lot of upgrades in a lot of different areas of the complex, maybe we should do it in one big project. So, that’s what they took on, and did.”

While saying most attendees expressed support for the project, Embray says money is the big question. “This feasibility study came back,” he said, “basically saying that people were in agreement that something had to be done with the sports complex, they differed in terms of how grandeur that would look, and how much money it would take to do that.

“The feedback basically said, ‘we’re for it, we just don’t have the money at this time to do it all at one time. Is there a possibility of scaling it back a little bit, and also phasing it out over time so that we can accomplish the end goal of getting it updated, so it doesn’t strain us at one point?'” Embray added. Coming off construction of Glenwood High’s new auxiliary gym, and the city’s new outdoor aquatic center, the superintendent says residents may be leery of another facilities project.

“Those two projects are revenue bond projects,” said Embray. “It wasn’t a capital campaign project, but it does affect people in terms of donations–kind of a donor fatigue that’s going on. We’re doing great things in Glenwood around our area. This was just one more thing that needed to happen. How it happens, when it happens, and how much of it happens–we’re just going back to the drawing board, and putting those things back together.”

Though Embray believes support for the upgrades is there, he adds it may not be at the level the district’s visionary committee originally expected. He says the district’s booster club will spearhead a capital campaign for the renovations, estimated at $5.2 million “in one fell swoop.” “The funding source for that is basically a capital campaign of donations,” he said, “and possible grants that we can get to do the project. The part that the district is looking at are the things that the district would normally be looking at in terms of facility plans and maintenance plans. So our dollars, our school dollars, would probably go into the track complex, itself.”

Embray says visionary committee members are expected to set a timetable for the project, and present it to the Glenwood School Board in three weeks.

(Story courtesy Mike Peterson/KMA Shenandoah)