Fall sport finalists for 2017 Semoball Awards are revealed

The 2017 Semoball Awards are still five and a half months away, but on Friday the 55 finalists from the eight fall sport categories were announced during the selection show broadcast live on SEMO ESPN Radio.

Finalists were selected for football offense (10), football defense (10), volleyball (10), boys soccer (5), boys cross country (5), girls cross country (5), boys swimming (5) and girls tennis (5).

Winners will be announced at the July 8 event at Southeast Missouri State's River Campus.

Of the 55 individuals honored, just 16 have been nominated for a fall sport before, meaning 70.9 percent of the representatives will be experiencing the event for the first time.

Two of those newbies -- Jackson's Cooper Callis and Advance's Alanis Below -- joined the selection show live in studio.

Callis is a first-time nominee in football offense after throwing for nearly 3,000 yards in the season and completing 64.6 percent of his passes.

"It's an honor (to be selected)," Callis said in an on-air interview. "There's a lot of top-talent athletes in this area."

The junior became the Indians starting quarterback a year ago, but missed significant time due to injury. In 2016 he took full advantage of a healthy season.

"Going into the offseason, going into junior year, throwing a lot with the receivers I had made me more comfortable, I think," Callis said. " ... Just doing a lot of extra stuff really helped us out as a unit. It wasn't just me or the wide receivers. The linemen were coming in and putting in extra work on Sundays. Everyone was putting in the extra work."

Callis is joined by teammate and wide receiver Quentin Kent among the football offense picks, a category in which none of last year's 10 nominees appear.

Football defense features two repeat representatives, Cape Girardeau Central's Kway'Chon Chisom and Hayti's Dayon Moore, along with Central's Aaron Harris, who was an offensive finalist a year go.

Chisom is a finalist for both offense and defense.

Below was among an elite group of volleyball players to be honored at the event after she helped the Hornets to a district title and sectional appearance. She finished the season with a 98-percent serving clip, 230 kills and 262 digs while garnering Class 1 first-team All-State recognition.

The junior will be attending the Semoball Awards for the first time, but in doing so will carry on a family tradition -- her older sister is a former finalist.

"I didn't get to go that year because I had volleyball, but she had a blast," Below said. "She told me she loved it.

"I'm kind of nervous-slash-excited about I don't know what kind of dress I'm going to wear. That's the one thing I'm kind of nervous about. But I'm excited to see everyone there and all the athletes together in one room. That's going to be really cool, I think."

The volleyball group features two return finalists from a year ago -- Bernie's Morgan Baker and Dexter's Krysten Garrison.

Other notable finalists announced Friday were two-time reigning Semoball Awards Boys Swimmer of the Year Brogan Davis of Cape Girardeau Central and 2016 Girls Tennis Player of the Year Hadley Hilburn of Kennett.

Twenty different high schools are represented among the 55 finalists, which are listed in full below.