KFDM COOP

Thanks Coach!

Saturday the 20th i think at Nederland. 4 PM. PATITAN will know.

Nederland wraps up 22-4A team tennis title, tops PN-G 17-2 The Port Arthur News NEDERLAND -- When those Nederland racket swingers departed their campus late Tuesday, they excused themselves with a 15th district team tennis title in the last 17 years. The 22-4A title clincher came on the NHS courts with a 17-2 victory over Port Neches-Groves. The Nederland team tennis squad of standout coach Jorge Lopez has a two-week preparation time before it competes in the 4A regional tennis tournament at Friendswood on Oct. 26-27. Lopez had excellent leadership in his boys team which roared through a perfect 22-4A record. Grant Lopez and Jimmy Hoang led the Nederland boys effort during the regular season with perfect singles and doubles records in team tennis. Lopez defeated PN-G's Brad Lemaire, 6-2, 6-3 and Hoang downed Caleb Flanigan 6-3, 6-2 in this week's feature boys singles affairs. Ben Wiedenfeld defeated Thompson Pham 6-1, 6-1 followed by Nick Duplan's 6-2, 6-2 win over Alex Larcade, Aaron Elizondo's harder-earned 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 decision over Ritesh Patel and Cody Mays toppled Austin Vensel 7-5, 6-3. The three Nederland boys doubles tandems worked through straight-set triumphs against PN-G teams. Lopez and Hoang claimed a 6-2, 6-3 verdict over Flanigan and Lemaire. The identical score worked for Wiedenfeld and Duplan in their victory over Larcade and Pham. Mathew Engelbrecht and Adam Weaver completed the sweep in a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Ritesh Patel and Darshan Patel. A perfect mixed doubles district record reached its completion for the Nederland team of Spencer Cole and Sarah Simiskey in a 6-2, 6-3 win over Austin Vensel and Jessica Lawrence. Not quite so equally dominant was Lopez's girls singles and doubles competitors. Yet the NHS girls only lost once in singles and once in doubles to their Mid-County rivals. Nederland's No. 1 player, Rachel Binagia, continued her steady labor in a 6-4, 6-2 decision over Angel Mitchell. No. 2 Elaine Nguyen did the same in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lauren Anderson. Holly Hodge was in command of a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Hayley English. Nederland's lone girls three-set win belonged to Kayla Ferguson -- 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 over Leah Duplantis. Jordan Chandler downed Kayla Tran 6-3, 6-4. PN-G's lone singles win of the day belonged to Carla Salgado with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Kelsey Meade. All three girls doubles decisions required straight-set matches with Nederland taking two out of three. Binagia and Nguyen defeated Mitchell and English, 6-4, 6-3 and Meade and Chandler topped Tran and Courtney Gilbert 6-4, 7-6. The lone PN-G doubles win belonged to Lauren Anderson and Leah Duplantis, 6-4, 6-3 over Ferguson and Hodge. — Tom Halliburton

No senior letdowns, no losses to PN-G for Dogs' Dravannti By Tom Halliburton The Port Arthur News NEDERLAND — Dravannti Johnson has never lost to Port Neches-Groves. He doesn't know the feeling. He doesn't plan to discover the feeling now either. The first University of Texas football pledge from Nederland in decades, the 6-2, 225-pound defensive end may find all sorts of ways to paint the Indians purple on this Friday night at Bulldog Stadium. Dravannti may block a punt. Dravannti may run from his left end spot clear across the field when Josh Wright may try to run away from him. Dravannti may gobble up Harrison Tatum for dinner midway in the second quarter. Dravannti might retreat into coverage and intercept a pass. Heck, he might even catch a pass for the offensive unit. Whatever his role in the 84th Mid-County Madness confrontation, Johnson does not particularly give a flying Indian. He just wants the Nederland side of the scoreboard to have at least one more point than PN-G's side of the board. That approach has worked five out of five times this year for Johnson, who has preferred to focus more on Nederland's unbeaten record than on any personal attainment. "My main concentration has been on the team and on trying to stay undefeated," Johnson said. If the thought of senioritis ever crossed the minds of any Nederland fans about Dravannti's 2007 season performance level, Dravannti can guarantee senioritis never has trotted across his mind. Oh yes, when a guy pledges with A&M and then UT in the off-season, it leads to the question of a possible letdown. This rangy three-year standout just has refused to allow any part of it to sneak into his gameplan. His mentor, advisor and friend, Nederland head coach Larry Neumann, was the first to admit a concern about that letdown during the summer and prior to the season. Neumann confessed such a concern in his office on Wednesday afternoon. "We have had some frank conversations and he's a mature young man," the Nederland head coach said. "I think the normal thinking when you make an early major college commitment like that is you worry how it might affect the mental preparation for each game. It was a concern of mine on whether it was going to go to his head. "To his credit, he's having the kind of senior year that I would hope that he would have." So far, that would include 39 tackles, 26 first contacts, four sacks, four hurries and one fumble recovery for a touchdown... among other things. But DJ never ever entertained the idea of a letdown in his mind. That's just not DJ. "No, that's not who I am," Johnson said. "That's not what I do. I'm going to play hard no matter what." When Johnson examines his senior year, he's really not so sure that he's the best player on Nederland's defense, either. His best friend, middle linebacker Chris Gutierrez, deserves that accolade in Dravannti's mind.

When the Legislative Council meets on the 22nd it will either get approved or not. If it doesn't not much is going to change. The smaller Schools in their districts will still be matched up with some schools with alot higher enrollments. If it happens then the small and smaller schools will benefit greatly, except for some travel issues. If it passes then the smaller schools will then be with other schools closer to their enrollment. Go ask some smaller school coaches if they want it to pass! I know their answer because i've talked to many of them.

Can't wait to see the list!

I'll interview one of them that's for sure!

Me either!

I agree!

Central Heights Pitcher commits to Rice CH Pitcher Trey Haley has verbally committed to Rice University to play baseball for the Owls in 08-09. Early signing will take place in November.

Almost here!

[Hidden Content] Click on sports on the right and watch the Wednesday Sportscast. Previewing Mid County Madness.

I'll be interviewing the winning coach after the game for the Tailgate Party.

Congrats Ruckdad.

50/50 on opinions on it.

UIL drawing criticism Story last updated at 2:16 a.m. Tuesday, October 9, 2007 UIL's realignment drawing criticism GEORGE WATSON AVALANCHE-JOURNAL One thing is certain about the realignment proposal the University Interscholastic League displayed at the most recent Texas High School Coaches Association coaching school, and that is the feedback has been of high volume. But that feedback, according to UIL athletic director Charles Breithaupt, has been "half and half" in terms of schools and districts being in favor of it or against it. And that equal split could result in the plan being struck down by the UIL's Legislative Council, which is scheduled for its 67th annual meeting Oct. 21-22 in Austin. "We're getting negative feedback, but we're not abandoning (the plan)," Breithaupt said Monday. "We'll present it to the council on the 21st and it's up to them. I admit that anytime you have a proposal with only a 50 percent approval it's not always wise to move forward. I'm not sure how the council will line up. We'll just throw it out there and try to present the study item to the council and let the dice roll." Normally, Breithaupt said, the UIL doesn't make public the proposals for realignment, the next of which comes up in February. But because of the interest in the next realignment and the multiple issues involved with school size, travel and budgets, the UIL put forth its current plan in front of coaches and administrators to get their feelings about it. The proposed plan would divide schools - for football only - in all classifications into large (Division I) and small (Division II) schools to determine playoff representatives. That in itself is nothing new, but this plan would make those divisions at the beginning of the year instead of at the end of the regular season. Frenship athletic director Brad Davis, who is on the THSCA board of directors, was able to review the plan and said there is still a lot of confusion as to how teams in the West Texas region would be classified. "They showed us the map but they didn't have any schools on the map," Davis said. "They just had areas of the map in colors, and teams with possible 5A Division I teams were in red all over the state. There might be red in Amarillo or Lubbock but you didn't know which school it was. So nobody knows the direction they're going or who they're going with. They weren't specific about it on the model." That, however, isn't Davis' biggest concern with the plan. He said that while, for competition's sake, the proposal levels the playing field, it is about the only positive in the entire plan. His main concern comes with travel, not so much for varsity games but with possible road trips to Wichita Falls and Abilene that sub-varsity teams would be forced to take and then try to make it to school the next day. "I studied it a little bit and really don't like it," Davis said. "I think there are several factors involved that I don't think are good. Our position at Frenship is for our junior varsity and freshmen teams to play the same schedule as the varsity, so then you're talking about Thursday night sub-varsity teams getting in at three or four in the morning and getting up and going to school on Friday. There are things there on the sub-varsity level that are just not feasible. The negatives just outweigh the positives in the overall picture." While travel has been one of the concerns expressed, Breithaupt said others have expressed discontent with further division of the schools. School districts in Dallas and Houston would have multiple teams in two different divisions, which could cause further problems with districts that share stadiums. "It started out with a lot of people heavily in favor it until they looked at where they fell," Breithaupt said. "That's the way it always goes and that's the problem with realignment proposals. Ninety percent of the people look at it and some like what happens to them, and for a period they are all for it. Then they see where they fall and they are against it. The council will talk about it when it goes on the ballot." Lubbock ISD athletic director Gary Gaines said he hasn't studied the proposal very closely but is concerned about being lumped into a super district, as has been rumored, with the Midland and Odessa schools. "We're still not clear whether they're talking about having one district with big schools and small schools or a district with small schools and a district with big schools," Gaines said. "It's hard to do out here so that's why we'd heard it was iffy with the legislative council. I wouldn't be surprised if it failed." More from the UIL Breithaupt also said Monday that the UIL feels confident the new steroid testing program will be in place by the end of this month. "We're moving ahead step by step, but we're moving in small increments so we can cover all our bases," Breithaupt said. "We have 14 bids and we're looking at getting down to picking the vendor to carry out the testing. We've got our procedures in place and we could start as quickly as a vendor is selected. We've said all along that it would be toward the end of October and that still looks realistic." UIL legislative budget planners have set aside $6 million over the next two years to cover the cost of all the planned testing, taking the expense out of the hands of the schools. Initial plans are to test 400 schools during the 2007-08 school year, which is expected to involve more than 23,000 students. The new mandatory testing program comes as a result of the passage of Senate Bill 8 requiring a testing program for Texas high schools. All extracurricular activity participants must sign a form at the beginning of the season allowing themselves to be tested, and anyone who refuses will be barred from that activity. A positive test, or refusing a test, carries a 30-day suspension for the first offense and requires a negative test before the student is allowed to participate again.

High School Volleyball Results from Tuesday Oct. 9th, 2007. District 22-4A Lumberton Lady Raiders-- 2 (Lumberton 6-5 in 22-4A) PN-G Rock-A-Noos-- 3 (PN-G 11-0 in 22-4A) Dayton Lady Broncos-- 1 (Dayton 4-7 in 22-4A) LC-M Lady Bears-- 3 (LC-M 7-4 in 22-4A) Ozen Lady Panthers-- 3 (Ozen 7-4 in 22-4A) Nederland Lady Bulldogs-- 2 (Nederland 4-7 in 22-4A) Central Lady Jags-- Vidor Lady Pirates-- You can Report Scores by calling 895-4674 District 21-3A Bridge City Lady Cards-- 3 (Bridge City 9-1 in 21-3A) Kirbyville Lady Wildcats-- 1 (Kirbyville 3-7 in 21-3A) Hardin-Jeff Lady Hawks-- 0 (H-Jeff 3-7 in 21-3A) Silsbee Lady Tigers-- 3 (Silsbee 9-1 in 21-3A) Ham-Fannett Lady Longhorns-- 1 (H-Fannett 7-3 in 21-3A) Orangefield Lady Bobcats-- 3 (Orangefield 6-4 in 21-3A) District 24-2A Deweyville Lady Pirates-- 0 Kountze Lionetts-- 3 (Kountze 7-0 in 24-2A) TAPPS District 4-4A Galveston O'Connell Lady Bucs-- 3 Legacy Christian Lady Warriors-- 1 (Legacy 5-6 in TAPPS)

Since people are talking about scheduling Permain and Carroll i thought i would start this thread. Who would you like your team to play beginning next year in Non District? Name your team and the teams you would want to play.

Like the Helmet James.

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Post it again and we'll post it..