gdickert

Southeast Texas 5A-3A Stat Leaders (Through October 2, 2009) Rushing Leaders (at least 200 yards) Player, Team: Carries, Yds, TD Quinton Jackson, Livingston 124-908-11 Caleb Harmon, PNG: 111-775-7 Payton Ploch, Dayton 104-738-10 Shane Pittman, Vidor: 90-645-7 Corey Huckabay, Ofield: 74-590-8 Donel Towers, New Caney 70-540-5 Kevin Tate, Vidor: 62-507-8 Ronzell King, PA Memorial: 66-485-8 Matt Menard, BCity: 73-483-3 Keith O'Neal, Central: 67-476-7 Jacoby Turner, HJ: 61-474-4 Jacob Peevey, Vidor: 62-438-3 Sam Alvis, Jasper 62-418-6 Evan Guidrey, Ofield: 68-415-6 Ben Armstrong, Jasper 82-414-3 Britton Lindsey, WO-S: 71-381-4 Tyler Palermo, Kelly: 60-363-6 Keke Johnson, Livingston: 43-359-5 Austin Simmons, HF: 45-336-3 Nijel Daw, Central: 45-318-3 Blake Venable, HJ: 69-311-6 Melvin Adderton, Kelly: 37-274-1 Ryan Asher, Lumberton: 57-271-5 Damon Heard, Central: 31-270-3 Tevvin Jones, LCM: 48-251-2 Ryan Hughes, Lumberton: 54-248-1 Jeremy Cooper, WBrook: 45-238-1 Nick Cardenas, Nederland: 56-237-3 Bruce Reyes, WBrook: 70-228-4 Delean Sinette, PA Memorial: 35-221-2 Myles Johnson, HF: 60-218-1 Derrick Evans, Ofield: 12-209-3 Greg Johnson, Livingston 28-208-4 William Sullivan, Ozen: 54-202-1

Southeast Texas 5A-3A Stat Leaders (Through October 2, 2009) Passing (at least 200 yards) Player, Team: Att-Comp-TD-INT Yards Cole DeBerry, Huffman 82-162-17-7 1,395 Jeremy Johnson, Silsbee: 74-131-11-7 1,190 Dakota Eddins, Kelly: 68-148-3-9 891 Bruce Reyes, WBrook: 68-125-4-5 873 Ryan Hughes, Lumberton: 53-90-7-3 868 Alex Jones, Shepherd 73-105-10-2 831 Hunter Gonzales, LCM: 76-135-3-7 825 Brennan Doty, PNG: 57-110-7-6 801 Payton Ploch, Dayton 37-76-11-2 657 Reggie Garrett, WO-S: 44-93-7-5 617 Corwin Keal, PA Memorial: 45-88-1-1 502 Charles Durio, Ozen: 36-85-4-5 498 Blake Venable, HJ: 33-68-2-3 402 Donte Wilkerson, Central: 34-66-5-3 388 Jush Lemoine, BCity: 33-81-7-4 373 Sam Alvis, Jasper: 19-40-2-0 311 Blake Burman, Livingston 13-34-4-2 254 Tyler Smith, Nederland: 19-41-2-3 247 Nick Dozier, Vidor: 10-14-2-0 239 Corey Huckabay, Ofield: 10-23-1-2 224 Adam Atterbery, Nederland: 27-50-1-2 223

Here are a couple of photos from Friday night's game in Jasper. The first one is of Prentice Lane going up for a catch in the third quarter. The second one is of Jasper's interception in the fourth quarter that led to the game-winning touchdown. The third one is a Silsbee pass broken up in the end zone late in the game. Leaving early to go see the Texans tomorrow ... will be back with more pics from Friday night on Monday. Gerry

I guarantee we'll see the Lumberjacks' sophomore runningback playing on Saturdays at some major college in a few years. He's powerful through the line, makes tacklers miss and can turn on the afterburners when he gets in the open. He's a stud at 16 ... can you imagine what he'll be like with two more years experience and physical maturity? As for Silsbee, the Tigers were within one touchdown of tying the game late, which shows me that in spite of difficult odds, they never gave up. That's a team skill that can't really be taught. It's an attitude that starts with Coach McGallion and his staff and rolls all the way down to the water boy. The Tigers have a lot of wins ahead of them for sure. I don't think people have fully realized the viability of Silsbee's passing game just yet. Once the Tigers' offensive line comes together, not only will the rushing game become more of a factor, but Jeremy won't have to scramble out of the pocket ... unless he decides to ... And when Silsbee has full control on offense, the defense will have the opportunity to shine as well without the pressure of a come-from-behind, must-have stop on nearly every possession by the opponent. What you're seeing right now in Silsbee is the raw version of a championship team in the making.

Find photos of Silsbee's game at Diboll at ... GLD Photography

Here are some pictures from Friday night's game between Silsbee and Houston Davis. CLICK HERE

The entire Silsbee Bee Fall Sports Special Section is available for your perusal at The Silsbee Bee Web Site

That was a low blow ... even for you Coop. ;D

If I could, I would! I won't sleep until it's off the press ... and that's Wednesday afternoon!

Thanks ... I suffered over this cover ... got eaten alive by ants in Evadale, but I got the shot I wanted of Shelby. We're 48 pages this year ... four more than last year. Lots of hard work by our publisher and his wife selling the ads. The whole thing looks great. I'm excited to have it done, but I'm more excited that it's something we can be proud of ... hope our readers are proud of it too.

Here is this year's Silsbee Bee Fall Sports Special Section cover. It features Jeremy Johnson and Brittany Burrell of Silsbee, Shelby Stanley of Evadale, Ryan Hughes and Holly Richard of Lumberton and Jarrod Howard of Kountze. The issue publishes on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

Here is this year's Silsbee Bee Fall Sports Special Section cover. It features Jeremy Johnson and Brittany Burrell of Silsbee, Shelby Stanley of Evadale, Ryan Hughes and Holly Richard of Lumberton and Jarrod Howard of Kountze. The issue publishes on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

What a ridiculous way to win a regional final. With as much talent and height as New Waverly has, they couldn't go in and win this game legitimately? How proud can you be of a regional title won with stall-ball? Wonder if they'll try to win state with the same nonsense?

What happened to the third-place team in Yoe's district?

I know it's not the same as having the game covered in the local daily paper, but we run a weekly story on the Silsbee Tigers in The Bee. We don't miss a game ... boys or girls. I don't know if we were able to get in the door to take pictures or not, but we'll have a story for sure. The Enterprise has cut staff to the point of almost killing any possibility of community coverage outside of Beaumont. Why do they cover games in Nederland or Port Neches? Because that's where the money is. When I was a sportswriter for The Enterprise, they used to have a writer who did nothing but cover MidCounty sports. The advertising base is stronger in MidCounty than in another other "suburb" of Beaumont. Why would they cover games for Silsbee or Sour Lake when all those towns offer as far as advertising is small mom and pop stores? WalMart doesn't advertise beyond sales inserts ... It's a monetary thing ... and it's sad.

Can anyone guess which shot will run big in The Silsbee Bee next Wednesday? ;D

I don't want to suggest anything out of the ordinary ... but the ref from Hardin sure did call the technical quick on that didn't he? :-)

Here are some pics from the Kountze-Anahuac game this past Friday night in Kountze. GLD Photography

Help yourself to what you need Coop ... the pics aren't right-click protected this time ... :-) Consider it a late Christmas gift! Gerry

Here is a link to a few photos from Silsbee's game against Clear Creek in the Barbers Hill Tournament ... SILSBEE PICS

Who else would they rely upon for stats? Are you saying that coaches minimize stats to keep their kids off all-state teams? Or that coaches are not giving stats to reporters to keep their kids off all-state teams?

Just a note about the process guys ... coaches have nothing to do with these teams. Sportswriters nominate players, a chairman puts together a ballot and sportswriters vote. If you don't have local guys on the team it's because the local sportswriters didn't vote or didn't nominate. And only newspapers that are members of the Associated Press Sports Editors organization can vote. As far as I know, The Enterprise, PA News, Examiner and Orange Leader are the only local dailies who are members. In addition, kids from bigger metropolitan areas are going to get more votes simply because they are covered by a greater number of newspapers. When I worked for The Enterprise, we had a name for sportswriters who were "fans" of the teams they covered. ... We called them "homers." A sportswriter's job is to cover an event fairly in impartially. Apparently The Enterprise's approach to community journalism these days is to not cover events at all. It's MUCH easier to flow in a 40-inch story from the wire rather than going out and interviewing and writing about local teams. And the irony, my friends, is that The Enterprise is planning a huge increase in its subscription prices.

Plus ... the only sportswriters who vote are those whose newspapers are members of the Associated Press. Weekly papers, like the Silsbee Bee, Kirbyville Banner, etc., can't vote.

Back in the 1990s, I was in charge of putting together the Associated Press Sports Editors Class A all-state football team. It was back when Burkeville was running all over everybody ... Basically, all the sportswriters nominated players from their area and I combined all into a ballot. Ballots would then go out and everyone would vote. At the time, I covered local Class A teams for The Enterprise, so I made sure that our local guys were nominated and represented. In the end though, when you have 10 writers in Dallas or Houston or Austin or San Antonio all voting their local guys, it's tough to compete when you've got only three or four voting from the newspapers in Southeast Texas. And on top of that, if a local sportswriter doesn't nominate a kid, he doesn't even get considered in the voting. The Enterprise does such a poor job covering local sports. They likely didn't even see Kirbyville play until the 12th or 13th week. I'm fairly certain that the nominees from Kirbyville came from a heads-up Class 2A chairman who thought "surely we should include someone from the second-place team in the state!"