The Laura Brillhart Benefit Celebration was held at the Hallar Memorial Building October 19, 2008 from 1-5 p.m.
According to Laura’s husband Phil, there was a good crowd on hand to enjoy the live music, wonderful food and a fantastic silent auction.
One of the volunteers donating his time for the event was ice sculptor Jess Addison from Grandview.  His artwork was quite a hit with the crowd, according to Phil.
The event was spearheaded by Jim Wright and Amy Hillsman and Forward Community Church and many area businesses donated items for the silent auction.
“Everyone has been so supportive,” said Phil. “To see the community and everyone open their arms to us instills hope back into the world.”
Food served was hot dogs, nachos, chili and snacks, which were donated or purchased with donated funds.
Prior to the auction, Laura traveled to Branson to get autographs on the guitar that had been donated by Brillhart Music.  She received autographs from The Oak Ridge Boys, Mel and Pam Tillis, Mel Tillis Jr., Carrie April Tillis, Joe Diffey, New South and members of the Country Jubilee.  “The trip to Branson was definitely a highlight for Laura,” said Phil.  “Everyone was so kind to her, The Oak Ridge Boys gave us fourth row seats at their show and then we were invited backstage to meet them.  It was very exciting for both of us.”
“I have been shown so much love and concern, it has been overwhelming,” remarked Laura.
The Holden community as well as the Branson theaters opened their hearts and have been such a blessing to Laura, according to Phil.  “Overall, there were more than 20 signatures on the guitar for the auction,” stated Phil.
“While cancer attempts to defeat many positives in a person’s life, it is wonderful friends, family and acquaintances that allow the positives to outshine the negatives,” Phil said.
By Dana Raker
News Staff


Mike Watterson, Rodger McConville, Sonya Corrigan, Pat Zvacek, school board members, and Mike Ringen, superintendent from the Holden R-III School District attended the 2008 Annual Conference sponsored by the Missouri School Boards’ Association in cooperation with the Missouri Association of School Administrators.
This event was held October 23-26 at the Lake of the Ozarks and is the largest gathering of education leaders each year in Missouri.
The theme of the 2008 conference was “Visualize Success.”  The event featured nationally recognized keynote speakers and numerous workshops and clinics designed to improve the leadership skills of school board members and superintendents.  The conference focused on ways school board members and administrators can influence the improvement of student achievement in Missouri’s public schools.
The Missouri School Boards’ Association is a private, not-for-profit organization that exists to help school boards succeed.


The Holden High School band has had a very successful season, according to band director Jon West. 
They performed at Blue Springs Marching Invitational on Saturday, October 4.  There were nine bands that competed in the morning.  Out of the nine, there is one grand champion that moves on to the finals that evening.  Macon received grand champion and Holden received second place to Macon.  The band did very well with their performance.  They are graded by eight different judges. The on-field percussion placed one point behind Macon.
“Our colorguard had a great day as well.  They finished fourth in their competition.  The colorguard beat out flag squads from much bigger schools,” said West.
The band also competed in the Festival of Champions this past Saturday at UCM in Warrensburg.  Holden started out the day at 10:26 a.m.  They were followed by Higginsville, Warsaw, Madison-South Dakota, Marshall and Cole Camp.  The top two spots were filled by Madison in first and Cole Camp in second.  Both of those bands moved on to finals.  Marshall finished in third with 56.45 points and Holden finished a close fourth with 56.35 points.  The colorguard placed third in their division.
West added, “The band ended their season feeling very happy with it.  There have been great improvements made this year.  The students are working hard and it’s paying off.  We are looking forward to concert band and pep band.”



The Holden High School football Eagles took a giant step to securing the Class 3, District 13 championship Friday night as they defeated the state’s third-ranked  Pleasant Hill Roosters, 32-30, at Eklund Field in Pleasant Hill. 
If the Eagles, ranked fourth in last week’s AP Class 3 poll and now 9-0 overall, are victorious over Oak Grove Thursday night, they will win the district crown outright and finish off a perfect 10-0 regular season.
The win at Pleasant Hill was everything that it had been touted to be.  Large crowds from both towns witnessed  a titanic, hard-fought battle which included two ties and five lead changes before the visiting Eagles prevailed in the end. 
The Roosters couldn’t stop the vaunted Holden running attack as both Dennis Hutchings, 270 yards and 2,003 on the year, and David Lerda, 105 yards, ripped chunks of yards almost at will as they propelled the Eagle attack up and down the field for a total of 432 yards on the ground.  Senior quarterback Aaron Ferguson scored two touchdowns  one rushing and one receiving, while he passed for another.  Holden’s defense held the Roosters to only 123 yards rushing, but quarterback Cody Todd was effective through the air, hitting on 10 of 26 tries for 238 yards and two touchdown passes.
“It was a great victory,” exclaimed head Eagle coach Rich Johnson.  “The best win since I’ve been coaching at Holden.  Our kids played with heart and executed very well.  Pleasant Hill was every bit as good as I thought they would be.  They have a lot of speed and play hard.”
As if it were an omen of things to come, the game started with a 74-yard drive that was aided by a fake punt call on a fourth-and-one play.  Hutchings reeled off 12 yards on the play to keep the drive alive.  Although most of the first drive which took seven and one-half minutes was on the ground, ironically the final yardage was covered by a pass.  With another fourth down call on the Roosters’ 12 yard-line, quarterback Ferguson pitched to reserve quarterback Dalton Smith, who had entered for the play.  Smith then threw perfect strike back to Ferguson who was streaking around left end.  With Deron Binkley’s missed extra point try, the Eagles were on the board first, 6-0.
Pleasant Hill returned the ensuing kickoff almost to midfield and five plays later senior running back Tyler Crotty knotted the game at six with a 25-yard run.  The Roosters’ also converted on a fourth-down play on a pass interference call.  Their first extra point try was no good and the game was tied a 6-6. 
An offensive holding call stunted the Eagles’ next offensive possession and once again the Roosters took over with good field position at their own 49-yard-line.  With only one minute remaining in the first quarter, Rooster quarterback Cody Todd hit tight end Chris Kemerling who had gotten loose in the secondary for a 38-yard touchdown pass.  Holden stuffed the first of four Pleasant Hill two-point extra point tries which turned out to be the difference in the game as the Roosters took a 12-6 lead.
The second quarter belonged to the Eagle defense as they held Pleasant Hill on all three of their offensive series with timely sacks and great pass defense in the end zone by senior defensive back Crosby Coleman who leaped high and batted away an apparent TD pass.  While the defense was doing their job, the offense did theirs as well.  Ferguson capped a 64-yard touchdown drive midway through the second quarter with an 11-yard keeper which ended in the endzone.  Binkley’s point-after try was successful and the Eagles took a slim 13-12 lead into halftime.
After holding the Pleasant Hill offense to a three-and-out on their first offensive series of the second half, the Eagles went on another smash-mouth, 66-yard time consuming drive which ended with Hutchings crashing into the end zone from seven yards out at the 6:06 point of the third quarter.  Binkley’s kick was once again true and Holden held their biggest advantage of the night at 20-12. 
It didn’t last long as Rooster junior running back Matt Hertzog took the ball to paydirt from seven yards out only 36 seconds later.  The touchdown on the two-play, 51-yard drive was set up on a 44-yard pass from Todd to Clint Ederer ending on the Eagle seven-yard-line.  After an unsuccessful extra-point try, the Roosters only trailed, 20-18. 
On their next series, the Eagles had a promising drive stopped by a fumble and Pleasant Hill set up shop on their own 45-yard line.  Two plays later, Todd hit Ederer again for 44 yards this time ending in the endzone with only seconds left in the third period.  The TD gave the Roosters their first lead since the first quarter, 24-20.
That lead was short-lived as well as Ferguson hit Coleman with a 45-yard touchdown pass and retook the lead at 26-24 at the 10:46 point of the fourth quarter.  After holding Pleasant Hill to a three-and-out on their next offensive possession, the Eagles went on another time-consuming, bruising ground attack that covered 75 yards and nearly five minutes.  It was finished off by a another seven-yard burst into the endzone by Hutchings, his second TD of the night.  With six minutes left in the contest, Holden held a 32-24 lead.
Another Eagle holding call aided a 70-yard TD drive by Pleasant Hill which was capped by a one-yard run by Trever Wilson.  Once again the Eagle defense came up big stopping the two-point try and preserving a 32-30 advantage.  With only three and one-half minutes to go, the Eagles thwarted the Rooster’s try to retain possession on an onside kick as they covered the ball on the Pleasant Hill 47.  Holden held on to the ball the rest of the way and ran out the clock securing the 32-30 victory.
In the game, the Eagles offense totaled nearly 500 yards with good individual performances from Hutchings, Lerda, Ferguson, Smith and the offensive line.
“We really ran the ball well tonight against a good fast defense with good linebackers,” Coach Johnson stated.  “Our offensive line came up big.  They controlled the line of scrimmage all night.  We also had two TD passes.  We can throw the ball if we need to.”
The coach’s praise of his defense was marred only by the fact that, “They need to do a better job tackling.  We missed some tackles tonight,” he said.  “Otherwise we made big defensive plays.  We shut them down without scoring for four straight series in the middle of the game, and our defense of two-point conversions was awesome.”  The coach also gave special kudos to Hutchings, 14 tackles, and both Coleman and Anstine’s efforts in the defensive secondary.  “They came through when they needed to,” he praised.
Besides Hutchings, Reiman with seven and Coleman with six were the Eagles’ tackling leaders.  Anstine finished with five and Binkley had four.  With three apiece were Clayton Hill and Kevin Kephart, while Andrew Wakeman and David Lerda tallied two each.  Jacob Borgen and Smith finished the night with one apiece.
Although still concerned about the kickoff coverage team’s lack of consistency, the coach had some praise for his special teams in the win.  “Our punt team was the ‘team of the night,’”  he said.  “Those two fake punts for first downs kept important drives alive.”
The coach hopes to see another big crowd  Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Oak Grove to support the Eagles to their final district game.  “This is a huge game,” he stated.  “We’re one win away from a district championship and an undefeated regular season.  We’ve put ourselves in the position where every game we play just gets bigger.”
Winning at Oak Grove will be another struggle.  “Oak Grove is a very talented football team.  They have losses to only Harrisonville and Pleasant Hill,” Coach Johnson continued.  “They’ll be playing hard because if they don’t win, they’re finished for the season.  It was a great atmosphere at P. Hill and our fans who came to support us were awesome.  I hope they’ll all be in Oak Grove Thursday to do the same thing.”   
By Steve Sullins
Editor