gdickert

Find the District 24-2A all-district teams at The Silsbee Bee [Hidden Content]

Kountze girls lead 59-40 near end of first half

Kountze leads 19-16 end of first quarter.

Guess I'll be re-writing this story now!! Warren beats Hardin ... who would have figured it ...

Here's an early preview of a story that's going to run in The Bee this Wednesday ... Gerry Tie-breaker could come down to three-way coin flip By GERRY L. DICKERT The Bee The biggest showdown of the District 24-2A basketball season might just take place in a Whataburger next week. A coin flip likely will decide who will play whom in a 24-2A playoff scenario that will settle which teams will represent the district as champion, runner-up and third place finisher. According to the district’s University Interscholastic League representative John Ferguson of Kountze ISD, should all three teams win the remainder of their games this season, the possibility of a two-game playoff could take place in order to clear up the three-way tie that currently exists. Each team has faced the other twice so far this season with each team winning one face-off, then losing the next, leaving each program’s record currently at 7-2. East Chambers plays at Deweyville on Tuesday night and hosts Warren on Tuesday. Hardin travels to Warren on Tuesday night and plays at home against Anahuac on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and Deweyville next Friday, Feb. 12. The Kountze Lions travel to Anahuac this Tuesday and play in the Lions Den on Feb. 8 against Buna and Feb. 12 against Warren. If all three teams win out, they will meet most likely at an area restaurant to flip a coin. In the first coin flip, there will actually be three coins flying through the air. “All three coaches will flip the first time with the odd coin sitting out while the other two teams play,†said Ferguson. “After that game is over, we’ll have another coin flip between the winner of that first game and the team that sat out after the first coin flip.†At that point, Ferguson said, the two coaches could simply decide to flip for the right to advance as the first-place representative from the district, or they could flip for location of yet another game to determine who heads to the playoffs as the district champion. “They could flip for the title. They could flip for the site. Heck, they could flip to see who gets to call heads or tails,†Ferguson said, chuckling at the entire process. Regardless, the three teams would be considered tri-champions of District 24-2A with all of the coin-flipping and game-playing taking place to establish who goes where in the first round of the Class 2A state basketball playoffs.

Check out The Silsbee Bee's photos from the Lumberton-Smiley game ... There are 78 photos altogether ... Gerry [Hidden Content]

Check out The Silsbee Bee's photos from the Lumberton-Smiley game ... There are 78 photos altogether ... Gerry [Hidden Content]

Check out The Silsbee Bee's photos from the Lumberton-Smiley game ... There are 78 photos altogether ... Gerry [Hidden Content]

Check out The Silsbee Bee's photos from the Lumberton-Smiley game ... There are 78 photos altogether ... Gerry [Hidden Content]

Check out The Silsbee Bee's photos from the Lumberton-Smiley game ... There are 78 photos altogether ... Gerry [Hidden Content]

I joined The Enterprise sports staff in 1993 as a sports writer. My job was to cover small schools -- Class A through 3A. Also on the staff was Kenton Brooks, who covered 4A; Pat Turner, who covered 5A; and David Widener, who helped out with coverage where we needed it on Friday night. Joe Heiling was sports editor. We had no fewer than four staff writers covering games on Friday nights. In addition, we paid stringers to call in stats on games from Class A up to 5A. We made sure we covered Beaumont schools ourselves, or had one of our more experienced stringers cover for us. At the time, we had West Brook and Central. WO-S, Jasper, Lumberton ... all those 20-4A teams at the time were the responsibility of Kenton. For those of you who remember him, nothing got past him. His life was The Enterprise and he got everything. He worked Saturday and Sunday to get stats ... he was an interesting personality and I often questioned his journalistic practices, but he got the job done. After I became sports editor in 97, we had various writers ... Kenton, Brad McBride (who is a coach in Lumberton now), Chris Gulstad, Michael Peters ... quite a few really good writers ... guys who knew what community journalism was about. We instituted a beat structure that had one writer responsible for Beaumont schools, one for Orange County school, Brad was our MidCounty writer, and we had a writer who covered small schools. Again, on Friday nights, we had a room full of people taking call-ins and paid stringers out in the field ... (One of the best was -- and I presume still is -- Coach Gordon Long in Lumberton.) Even though we covered Lamar sports, Astros, Cowboys, Oilers, horse racing at Delta Downs, Rockets, etc. ... we still made sure high schools were our bread and butter. That was the only thing we could guarantee that we could have that no one else would have. If you wanted to find out who won the Evadale game, we had it. If you wanted to read about Orangefield's pole vaulting wins, we had it. If you wanted to know more about West Brook's track or Lincoln basketball or Burkeville football ... we had it. In exchange, I went through my first divorce ... I was never home. There were always people going on about how we didn't do enough on one school or another. But I can tell you, there was never an unfair judgement made about which schools to cover. We were accused of racism and favoritism ... I was accused by one person of being a West Brook graduate, then less than an hour later, accused of being a Central graduate. There are not enough hours to do everything all the time. But we tried. I can't say what's going on at The Enterprise now. I'd hate to judge a situation of which I have no intimate knowledge. I know the current sports editor Michael Peters is a good guy and is a dedicated journalist. I will tell you that working for a corporation like Hearst leaves you little room for making your own decisions sometimes. I understand their circulation has dropped and their dedication to hometown news as far as sports is concerned is definitely lacking. I would say that those two things are connected. If you want to spend your money on a good news product, look at subscribing to a small daily or a weekly paper. Van Wade is still doing a good job ... as always ... at the Orange Leader. The Silsbee Bee, where I work, dedicates nearly half of its second section to sports news in Silsbee, Kountze, Lumberton, Spurger and Evadale. Read the Vidorian, the Vindicator, the Hometown Press or the Kirbyville Banner and you'll get good stories about games, kids and maybe even an inside scoop on what's going on down at the high school. A small paper is where I started my career and after too many years working for The Enterprise, I found my way back to a small paper. It's where I thrive and where I'll retire.

Anyone care to hear the point of view from a former sports editor of The Beaumont Enterprise?

How DID Kountze get overlooked for Week 9 Team of the Week? Lowly, basketball-playing Kountze beat undefeated, state-ranked EC ... THE East Chambers ... c'mon ... What do we have to do to get some props?

Here are nearly 80 photos from the Kountze vs. East Chambers game from this past Friday night in Kountze. [Hidden Content]

Kountze and East Chambers fans can find nearly 80 photos from this past Friday night's game between the Lions and Buccaneers. [Hidden Content]

Wow ... this was one fantastic game. These Lions are for real. They've been proving it every week. No one believed it and I'm sure there will still be doubters out there. But I'll tell you ... when you come to the Lions Den, expect to play ball. The Lions defense was especially sparkling ... EC won the coin toss to open the game and elected to receive the ball. Kountze squibbed the kick, recovered it and scored four plays later. It set the tone for the entire game. The momentum belonged to the Lions ... and they rode it all the way to victory. This was senior night for Kountze ... my son among them ... and I can tell you now, when these guys get together 20 years from now, this is the game they'll be talking about.

Ok guys ... here are my pictures from Friday's game between Lumberton and PN-G ... Click on this link to go to the gallery ... there are more than 40 photos from Friday night!! [Hidden Content]

Ok guys ... here are my pictures from Friday's game between Lumberton and PN-G ... Click on this link to go to the gallery ... there are more than 40 photos from Friday night!! [Hidden Content]

Ok guys ... here are my pictures from Friday's game between Lumberton and PN-G ... Click on this link to go to the gallery ... there are more than 40 photos from Friday night!! [Hidden Content]

Ok guys ... here are my pictures from Friday's game between Lumberton and PN-G ... Click on this link to go to the gallery ... there are more than 40 photos from Friday night!! [Hidden Content]

Ok guys ... here are my pictures from Friday's game between Lumberton and PN-G ... Click on this link to go to the gallery ... there are more than 40 photos from Friday night!! [Hidden Content]

I'll be at Friday night's game between Lumberton and PNG taking pictures for The Silsbee Bee. If anyone out there wants me to shoot photos of a specific player -- from either team -- please just email me and let me know and I'll concentrate on getting that player in action. You can check out my photo web site to see the kind of pictures I'm talking about ... www.gld-designs.smugmug.com Thanks guys and good luck! Gerry My email is [email protected]

I'll be at Friday night's game between Lumberton and PNG taking pictures for The Silsbee Bee. If anyone out there wants me to shoot photos of a specific player -- from either team -- please just email me and let me know and I'll concentrate on getting that player in action. You can check out my photo web site to see the kind of pictures I'm talking about ... www.gld-designs.smugmug.com Thanks guys and good luck! Gerry My email is [email protected]

I'll be at Friday night's game between Lumberton and PNG taking pictures for The Silsbee Bee. If anyone out there wants me to shoot photos of a specific player -- from either team -- please just email me and let me know and I'll concentrate on getting that player in action. You can check out my photo web site to see the kind of pictures I'm talking about ... www.gld-designs.smugmug.com Thanks guys and good luck! Gerry My email is [email protected]

I'll be at Friday night's game between Lumberton and PNG taking pictures for The Silsbee Bee. If anyone out there wants me to shoot photos of a specific player -- from either team -- please just email me and let me know and I'll concentrate on getting that player in action. You can check out my photo web site to see the kind of pictures I'm talking about ... www.gld-designs.smugmug.com Thanks guys and good luck! Gerry My email is [email protected]