A retired Harrison County educator and Bridgeport resident appears to be ready to teach others about football as they walked away as the week eight winner in the Dyer Group Playoff Payoff Football Pick’em competition.

 

Sharon Stutler won the week and the blind draw with an 18-2 record to give her the choice of a gift certificate from Buffalo Wild Wings or a small cheesecake from Almost Heaven Desserts. She needs to email Ben Queen at ben@benqueenphotography.com with the choice and contact information including an address.

 

The runner-up by draw this week is another city resident in Mike Bullough. Bullough went 18-2 and needs to contact Queen via email with his contact information.

 

Joining Stutler and Bullough with solid weeks were Andrew Roush and Jeff Wright to finish at the top of the weekly leader board.

 

The group was followed by a 10-way tie for the fifth spot. Jeff Weimer, John Hart, Aaron Gilnes, Clayce Spurlock, JT Hilton, Marcus Derosa, Bob Greer, Rob Stallman, Ron Sandreth and Dana Arbogast.

 

One of the biggest ties ever rounds out the top 25. Incredibly, 39 individuals are tied for the No. 15 spot. The group includes Billy Joe Pecarro, Chris Moore, Tanner Hill, Adam Plyler, Jeremy Cook, Katie Skidmore, Gary Romano, Selina Herod, Patsy Sabatelli, Michael Mann, Grant Burton, Ryan Chandler, Delbert Leatherman, Adam Heaster, Amber Gaines, Michael Ferrari, Jeff Toquinto, Jason Jimmie, Steven Hastings, Scott Strosnider, Curt Burner, Gary Griffith, Jason Dodd, Hugh Gainer, Jeff Alastanos, John Satterfield, Russ McIntyre, Frank Cherubino, Greg Strogen, Eric Winans, Michael Wilhelm, Chris Bowman, Duke Ware, Jeff Yoho, Jennifer Starkey, Gilbert Kelley, Eric Carpenter, Chris Cleghorn and Joe Spatafore, all went 16-4.

 

In the overall standings, Jason Hartman maintains the overall lead. Hartman is 178-41, but his lead shrunk by one game as Aaron Williams is in second with a 175-44 mark.

 

The pair is followed by four tied for third place. Brian Martin, Jimmy Stutler, Hugh Gainer and Clayce Spurlock are all knotted up 174-45. In seventh place is Tom Surock at 173-46 and tied for eighth is Louis Aragona and Michael Mann at 172-47. There is a four-way tie rounding out the top 10 at No. 10 as Lenora Montgomery, Pat Boyles, Gary Romano and Timmy Thompson are all 171-48.

 

Six in the field are even at No. 14 as James Burton II, Adam Holbert, Jeff Muller, Jason Jimmie, Chad Reppert, and Amber Gaines all stand at 170-49.  Nine players are even at No. 20 to round out the top 25 with Aaron Mann, Chris Skidmore, Michael Wilhelm, Chris Bowman, James Hayes II, Scott Price, Jason Young, Stacy Greely and Zakery Bart all with the same 169-50 mark.

 

The prize packages are still being put together for the year. However, one of the top prizes include a $500 gift certificate from the Meadowbrook Mall. The top three pickers will be awarded prizes at the end of the contest, which usually goes into December. The overall winner has their choice of the three prizes, while the second-place winner will have their choice then of the final two remaining prizes.

 

What makes the Dyer Group Playoff Payoff competition unique is that once the contest is over you don’t necessarily know who the winner is even though you will see your weekly overall ranking and Connect-Bridgeport will post the weekly and overall top 25 throughout the contest. At the end of the year, everyone that competes has their two worst weeks dropped and then the winner is announced based on the highest winning percentage.

 

If you haven’t entered at this point, you won’t be able to win any of the grand prizes. However, you can still enter and be eligible for weekly prizes and bragging rights with friends.

 

If you are a registered member of Connect-Bridgeport's Web site, all you must do is make sure you're signed in and the click the Playoff Payoff icon on the home page that can be found by scrolling down to the left. If you're not registered, go to the top of the home page and register. It takes less than a minute.

 

Another unique aspect of the competition is that you can make changes to your picks leading up to games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Individuals can make their picks for Friday’s games and can change them until 6 p.m. Friday. Games that are listed on Saturday and Sunday can be entered and changed as many times as necessary until 11 a.m. each day of the picks.

 

Unfortunately, there are occasional schedule changes - usually on the prep football side - that staff does not catch; usually games moved to Thursday or a time change bumped up. There are also occasional mistakes with the proper teams playing each other. As has been the case in the past, each person will either be given a win for those games when there are schedule changes we miss or a mistake on our end or a or they will simply not be counted for the weekly and final standings.

 

You must use your actual name to compete. Nicknames or aliases will not be recognized for weekly or overall prizes.