April 4, 2003

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Tiffany Sisson of KFVS-TV will coach the White team and Angie Wyatt of WSIL-TV will coach the Red team in the annual Southeast Missouri State University spring football game at Houck Stadium on Saturday, April 12, 6:30 p.m.

Sisson is an anchor on the KFVS-12 Breakfast Show and Wyatt is the evening news anchor at WSIL-TV, the area ABC affiliate in Carterville, Ill.

"Both Tiffany and Angie are really excited about being a part of the spring game," said Southeast coach Tim Billings. "We will let them call all the plays and see what happens. We will divide the teams as equally as we can and see which TV station gets the victory."

The spring game will be the finale for spring drills at Southeast and Billings has been pleased with what he has seen. "I think we have really made some strides this spring. We are just fine tuning our offense that was so successful last season and the defense has shown added maturity this spring."

Southeast returns nine starters on both offense and defense from last year's team that was 8-4 and ranked 24th nationally in both national I-AA polls.

Jack Tomco, who passed for a school record 3,132 yards and 29 touchdowns last season, is being challenged this spring by Jeromy McDowell who missed all but one game last season with a knee injury and Andrew Goodenough, a transfer from Arizona State.

"All of our quarterbacks have looked sharp this spring," Billings said. "It is a healthy competition that should make us a better football team.

Southeast will face the toughest schedule in school history in 2003 beginning with a game at Division I-A Ohio University on August 28. The first home game at Houck Stadium will be September 6 against regional rival Southern Illinois. The Indians will also face I-A Arkansas State and regional rival Southwest Missouri in addition to the tough Ohio Valley Conference schedule that includes newcomers Samford and Jacksonville State.

"We have a really tough schedule," Billings said. "We go up to play two I-A teams and we don't have any down games against Division II or NAIA teams. The OVC will be very tough, but for the first time since I've been at Southeast, I feel like we have a football team that can contend for a top spot in the OVC."