A former state champion football player and a former state champion coach walked away with the prizes in Week 12 of the Dyer Group Playoff Payoff football pick’em contest. The two individuals were among three tied for the top spot and former standout Anthony Maholic was the winner of the blind draw.

 

Maholic will need to send his contact information (street address included) to Ben Queen at ben@benqueenphotography.com. He’ll also need to let Queen know if he wants a gift certificate from Buffalo Wild Wings or Almost Heaven Desserts. Maholic, Gainer and Patsy Sabatelli all tied with 38-3 marks for the week.

 

Gainer was the winner of the second blind draw. Gainer will need to send his contact information to Queen as the above email address as well to receive the prize not taken by Maholic.

 

The rest of the top 25 for the week consisted of two large groups of ties. Eight individuals were even in the fourth spot with Aaron Mann, Dwight Bullough, Michael Ferrari, Eric Allen, Patrick Coberly, Vernon Louk, Amy Mehr and Alex McLaughlin coming in a 37-4.

 

Fifteen members of the field were all even at No. 12 to close the top 25. Brandon Price, Peter Jougras, Clayce Spurlock, John Hart, Joe Teter, Jeff Alastanos, Stacy Greely, Scott Price, Jeff Toquinto, Robert Marra, Stephen Cromwell, Jamie Guy, Joseph Pecarro, Chris Byrd and Ron Sandreth all finished 36-5.

 

Former champion Jason Hartman remains in the overall lead, but his gap at the top spot shrunk. And it was another former champ that did the honors.

 

Hartman leads the pack with a mark of 272-65. Former BHS educator and championship coach Hugh Gainer is not far behind with a mark of 27-67.

 

In third place is Clayce Spurlock at 268-69. Jimmy Stutler is alone in fourth place with a mark of 267-70, while Aaron Williams by himself rounding out the top five with a mark of 266-71.

 

The first tie comes in at the sixth spot. Jeff Muller, Michael Mann and Aaron Mann all stand at 264-73. Adam Holbert, Brian Martin and Scott Price are all tied for ninth at 263-74. Six individuals are even at No. 12 as Patsy Sabatelli, Louis Aragona, David Gillot, Kalie Kossar, Stacy Greely and Timmy Thompson show up at 262-75.

 

At No. 18, Gary Romano and James Burton II are even at 261-76. Three individuals – Adam Starkey, Jason Jimmie and Chad Reppert – are knotted at No. 20 with a mark of 260-77. Michael Wilhelm is at No. 23 at 259-78. Rounding out the top 25 is Jeff Weimer, Amber Gaines, Frank Blake and Anthony Maholic, all coming in at 258-79.

 

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.