By Staff
After going 21-7 in the bowl games, Brandywine superintendent Gary Rider came from third place to win the Niles Daily Star's Football Forecasters. He finished 124-44.
Rider was three games behind U.S. Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, before the bowl games began, but finished with the best bowl record among the forecasters.
Upton, meanwhile, fell from first place for the first time all season.He slipped to a tie for third place by going 12-16 in the bowl games and finishing 118-50 overall. Upton was tied with Brandywine school board member Dennis Cooper for the third spot.
Cooper fell from second place heading into the bowl games. He held a one-game lead on Niles' assistant principal Molly Brawley and trailed Upton by two games. Cooper went 14-14 in the bowls.
Brawley, meanwhile, had the second best bowl record behind Rider at 19-9. Her performance pulled her into second place, just a game behind first, at 123-45.
Overall, the Forecasters didn't fare well during the bowl games. Only five of the 11 prognosticators finished with winning records in the bowls: Rider, Brawley, Niles football coach Dave Janicki, director of public works for the City of Niles Neil Couston and Niles Police Department Captain Jim Merriman.
Despite his success, Merriman finished in 11th place. Niles Daily Star sports editor Adam Fisher finished next to last, tied with Niles volleyball coach Jami Foster at 111-57.
Janicki and YMCA senior program director Andre Gresham tied for fifth place at 116-52. The other football coach in the bunch, Buchanan's head coach and athletics director Joe Austin, finished in eighth place with a record of 112-56. Coulston jumped two spots in the rankings on the strength of his 17-11 bowl record.
He finished in seventh place with a final record of 114.54.