Winning in the Cards as Woodland claims 11th Annual Semoball Cup

The Woodland Cardinals accept the Semoball Cup trophy at the 2024 Semoball Awards, presented by Mercy Health, at the La Croix Church on Friday, July 12.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

With the 11th edition of the Semoball Cup awarded Friday night, the Woodland Cardinals made waves by claiming their first all-sports title in school history.

At the 2024 Semoball Awards, the Cardinals had their undeniable athletic year come to a close by being crowned the greatest program in Southeast Missouri.

This comes behind some unbelievable Olympic performances, with a state gold, state silver and state fifth in boys and girls cross country and boys track and field respectively.

With coach Ryan Layton behind all three of these successes, also winning the SEMO ESPN Coach of the Year title, the Cardinals etched their name in Cup history along with some legendary programs.

“I would call it a fulfillment of a mission of mine,” Layton said. “I always thought that Woodland, at least when I first came, didn't really have the confidence that they should have.

“They didn't really think that they could do what I thought they could do, and that's changed. I'm really, really proud that I could be a part of a part of that.”

Mercy is the presenting sponsor of the Semoball Awards, the area’s premier awards show recognizing student-athletes and coaches in Southeast Missouri.

Joining the ranks of Notre Dame, Malden, Hayti, Advance, Jackson, and Kennett, Woodland becomes the seventh school to claim the title in the annual award’s history.

Woodland’s score of 111.07 was more than eight points clear of second-place Jackson as the Cardinals ran circles around even the greatest of local competition.

On top of these phenomenal performances at state, Woodland’s boys basketball, girls basketball, and softball teams all finished well over the .500 mark to help bolster its winning percentage.

Beating out Jackson (2nd, 102.53), Portageville (3rd, 102.11), and Notre Dame (101.84), Woodland had to go through some seriously talented teams to claim the all-sports title in the 2024 cycle.

But with a generational performance from the school’s running talent, spearheaded by Boys Cross Country Athlete of the Year Reed Layton, winning that title for the second year in a row, Woodland finally came out on top.

It was a performance unlike any other for the Cardinals, as they’d never finished higher than 12th in the Semoball Cup race prior dating back to the 2013-14 athletic year.

The two teams right behind Woodland, Jackson, and Portageville, had the second-best and best-winning percentages as a program respectively, well over the 70-percent mark.

Sitting at just 56 percent as a program in the win-loss category, it had to take some spectacular postseason performances, and the Cardinals lived up to the moment.

Had the boys' cross country team finished even second at state, Woodland wouldn’t have even finished in the top five of the Cup standings, but that gold medal guided the way to the school’s greatest run in the history of the Semoball Cup.

With the help of a great silver-winning performance out of the girls' cross country team, led by all-staters Faith Rouggly and Presley Ridings, Woodland got the job done in style.

Part of a new winning culture being established at Woodland High, those athletes are part of a new wave of Cardinal pride that’s sent shockwaves through Southeast Missouri.

And now, after a long year full of ups and downs, the Cardinals can call themselves Semoball Cup champions.

The Semoball Awards are presented by Mercy and brought to you by official bank sponsor The Bank of Missouri and title sponsors SEMO ESPN Radio, the St. Louis Cardinals, rustmedia, and your local newspaper.