KFDM COOP

[move]SETXSPORTS.com will broadcast this series!!![/move]

Good writeup! I was wondering if you were going to break out the ole Random Thoughts. ;D

They should offer it though!! We need the top of the line as far as coaches go.

They may have to if this doesn't pass.

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Come on Boston!

Stros win again!! [Hidden Content]

LU, LSC-PA close to announcing names of coaches Bob West column for Sunday, May 11 The Port Arthur News If all goes well when Lamar University president Dr. Jimmy Simmons meets with his board of regents the latter part of this week, an announcement on a football coach shouldn’t be far behind. The top three candidates, according to my sources, are Navarro JC head coach Ray Woodard, West Brook head coach Craig Stump and former North Texas offensive coordinator Ramone Flanagan. Woodard, who was a teammate of Todd Dodge at the University of Texas, seems to have the inside track to getting the job . . . Cardinal basketball coach Steve Roccaforte is looking for two assistants for next season. Brandon Aldrich left a few weeks ago to take a job outside coaching and Don Skelton was announced Friday as the new head coach at Jones Junior College in Ellisville, Miss. While Skelton will certainly be missed, there is an upside to having him back in the Mississippi JC ranks that have been such a productive pipeline for Roc and the Cardinals . . . Lamar State College-Port Arthur AD Bill Worsham said Friday that he’s hopeful of naming a basketball coach prior to June 1. Worsham and his nine-person committee have narrowed a list of some 50 applicants down to 10. He said he’s hoping to have that trimmed to five on Monday and to be able to bring three finalists on campus the following week. Roccaforte, who has gone over the list with Worsham, says there are some coaches he knows and really likes. Port Arthuran Jana Barnes got some exciting news this past week that bodes well for the Gulf Coast Pop Warner League. Barnes, who has been diligently pursing a big name Dallas Cowboy as part of a Pop Warner fund raiser, landed a whopper. That would be Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, who will be coming to Southeast Texas to speak Thursday, Oct. 2. Barnes is still formulating plans for the event and looking for sponsors willing to help underwrite the cost of Smith’s appearance. She can be reached at 728-9045 . . . Speaking of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones has added another member of the Garrett family to the organization. To go along with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and tight ends coach John Garrett, a third brother, Judd Garrett, has been named assistant director of pro scouting. It’s a good thing Wade Phillips is not insecure, and he really isn’t. With both the Dallas media and the national media calling Jason Garrett the Cowboys head coach in waiting, an insecure guy would be even more insecure with a third Garrett on board . . . I can’t wait to see if NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has the cojones to really hammer New England’s Bill Belichick after seven more Spygate tapes dating back to the 2000 season were delivered to him by former Patriot employee Matt Walsh. Included were tapes of defensive signals the first time New England played division members Miami and Buffalo after coaching changes, and games against Cleveland, San Diego and Pittsburgh. Don’t believe for a second that Belichick wasn’t gaining an advantage. If he wasn’t gaining something, he wouldn’t have bothered to break the rules. He should be suspended for a significant number of games. Don’t think I’ve ever had a better telephone interview that the one with Florida Atlantic’s Howard Schnellenberger last week. I was hoping for five or 10 minutes of discussion on what it’s like to start a football program from scratch and wound up getting 55. What I really enjoyed was that he’s not political, that he just comes out and says what he thinks. Like, for instance, he can’t understand why schools able to recruit the way Texas, Michigan and Alabama can are fooling around running spread offenses. Beyond not liking the offensive philosophy, he said it’s difficult to develop defensive toughness practicing against the spread . . . Former Texas A&M offensive coordinator Les Koenning, who was swept out in the Dennis Franchione purge, will be part of a start-up football program next season, just not the one he wanted. Koenning, the one-time Hamshire-Fannett star, had hoped to land the Lamar job. Instead, he’s the offensive coordinator at South Alabama, which is on the roughly the same timetable as Lamar. It’s Koenning’s second stop in the state of Alabama. He was with Franchione at the University of Alabama from 2001-03 . . . . . . Here’s why you shouldn’t be too impressed with the NCAA’s new academic performance guidelines that mainly penalize schools at the mid major level. The Ann Arbor News did a study on University of Michigan athletes and what degrees they were pursuing. The study, which zeroed in on 74 players on scholarship in 2004, found that 58 of them were majoring in something called general studies. They also found that only 176 other students out of 26,000 at Michigan were majoring in general studies. Can you say basket weaving? And don’t think for a minute think Michigan is alone in “athlete friendly†academic programs. Let me strongly encourage everybody to read George Vecsey’s column on today's front sports page about former Arizona Cardinal safety Pat Tillman. Most of you know the story of how Tillman gave up a high dollar pro football contract because he felt an obligation to fight for his country. You need to know how his country deliberately deceived his parents over how he died in order to use him as a propaganda tool, and the extreme measures taken by our so-called leaders to sell a coverup . . . George Fischer of Groves got my attention last year by twice winning the “I Beat Bob West Contest.†One of his wins was with a remarkable 20-5 effort in the bowl games. Later, I learned George was battling Lou Gehrig’s disease and went to visit him at Magnolia Manor. Not only did I discover him to be a fascinating guy, I learned he was Wade Phillips’ catcher when Wade pitched at PN-G. I encouraged Wade to call him and he did. Sad to say, George passed away on Wednesday. Visitation is Sunday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Broussard’s in Nederland . . . Another death last week had local sports ties. Port Arthuran Baltazar (Junior) Flores won three straight Texas Golden Gloves championships (1953-55), then compiled a 23-4 record in five years as a professional boxer. In 1955, he was part of a bout at the fairgrounds in Beaumont that strained the loyalty of Port Arthur fight fans. Flores, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army, lost that fight to fabled Port Arthur featherweight Paul Jorgensen. He was laid to rest on Friday. Dale Davis, who will be 79 on his next birthday, authored what was arguably the best story in sports last week. Davis who has limited peripheral vision but can’t see straight ahead, bowled a perfect game at the Century Lanes in Alta, Iowa. Enhancing a truly remarkable feat, it was the first 300 game at Century Lanes in over 34 years. According to the AP report, customers in the establishment’s bar and restaurant got word of what was going on, came streaming out to watch and erupted in wild cheering when the final pin fell . . . Looks like the Cotton Bowl is maneuvering to again become a major player in the bowl scene. After too many years of playing at 10 a.m. on Jan. 1, next year’s game has been moved to 1 p.m. on Jan. 2. The following year, of course, the Cotton Bowl will relocate from the Texas state fairgrounds to JerryWorld in Arlington. As soon as the BCS gets around to adding another game, the Cotton Bowl will be well positioned . . . Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie raised more than a few eyebrows last week when he reached out to an 8th grader and a 9th grader for verbal scholarship commitments. The 8th grader is Michael Avery, a guard from Thousand Oaks, Calif. The 9th grader is Vincent Zollo, a forward from Greenfield, Ohio. Kentucky president Lee Todd, by the way, endorsed the move, “telling USA Today, “I can’t fault coach for trying to build a pipeline.â€

Titans fill holes in spring drills By Cody Pastorella The Port Arthur News Muhammad Ali used to say his fights were always won long before he "danced under the lights." Basically meaning that his fights were won in the weight room, running or in practice. Barring the outcome of the 2008 football season, the Memorial Titans may look back on the spring just as Ali did with his preparation. Despite a 4-6 overall record and a 3-4 District 21-5A slate, the Titans were 3-3 heading into the last week of the season and still had a chance to make the playoffs. Memorial fell hard to Humble in the finale, however, and the Titans season was over. Now in his third year with Memorial, head coach Ronnie Thompson says the idea for spring workouts is to check the status of the program. "Our conditioning is great," Thompson said. "That's always very exciting to know. We're very excited about what we're doing this spring and the effort we're getting from the players." Thompson added that the most important thing in spring workouts is to find the players who can fill open positions. Offensively, the biggest concerns are offensive line and receiver. The Titans top receiver, quarterback and running back from last year were all seniors but offensive coordinator Kenny Harrison says the future quarterback and running back are already in place. Jareal Alexander, who threw for 182 yards on 14-of-20 passing in limited time last season, will be the Titans next quarterback. He is replacing Harry Brown. Brown led the district with 1,985 yards last year. The Titans were second to West Brook in total offense. Alexander spent a portion of the season sidelined from an ankle sprain and a thumb injury. The soon to be senior also ran for 385 yards on 80 carries and scored three touchdowns. Against Baytown Lee, Alexander had a break out game, as he rushed for 199 yards on 30 attempts. DaLeon Sinette is the top choice for running back. He carried the ball 20 times last season, gaining 100 yards and scored two touchdowns. Solomon Jones is the most productive receiver returning for the upcoming season. Jones caught 17 passes for 218 yards and one touchdown. Memorial's offense also needs to replace four lineman from the starting roster and will need to replace four receivers as well. Overall, the offense is losing nine of 11 starters. Harrison added that there is also the task of finding backup players in the spring. Defensively, the Titans have several key players coming back. For a team that ranked second from last in total yards allowed last year, defensive coordinator Curtis Viola says it's nice to have familiar faces on the field. Memorial returns six starters to its defense and has one other player who played a number of minutes last season. The catch, however, is that Viola is sculpting the defense. Memorial used shades of a 3-3-5 last year but rarely stayed in that alignment. "We're going to that defense 100 percent this year," he said. "I know it works and with the speed we have, this defense is perfect for us." Viola said the bad news is that a couple of his starters will have to learn new positions. "The good news is that we have several players with a lot of Friday night experience." In the defensive line, Memorial returns Raderman Scypion who had 89 tackles and three sacks. Earl Hines, Terry Coleman and Cody Hebert are all returning from seasons at linebacker. Coleman led that trio with 133 tackles and five sacks. And Desmond Gardner accumulated 42 tackles and four interceptions, including two picks that were brought back for touchdowns, at cornerback last year. Gardner and Hines are both returning as all-district selections from last year. Gardner made first team while Scypion and Coleman both received honorable mention. Memorial's spring game is scheduled for Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Stros lead in game 2!!!

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Thanks for all the work Aggies!

Teams usually have a bad game or two in a series.

Guess they were due for a bad game!

No Turf! [Hidden Content]

I'm still shocked with the outcome. I predicted BH to go to Austin this year with the pitching they had.

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Sisk Outstanding In 9-2 Win Over Northwestern State Jeff Vickers belts his fourth home run of the season in the Cards' 4-run fourth inning NATCHITOCHES, La. - Lamar scored four runs in the fourth inning and that was more than enough of a cushion for Brian Sisk as he struck out five in eight innings to lead the Cardinals past Northwestern State 9-2 at Brown-Stroud Field in the first game of their three-game Southland Conference series Friday. Lamar (29-19, 17-8 Southland) scored four in the fourth and two each in the fifth and sixth innings as it opened up an 8-1 margin en route to extending its lead in the SLC East Division to 2.5 games with five to play. Sisk (9-2) threw a season-high 122 pitches while scattering five hits and walking just one. Four of the hits were singles with his only mistake coming when he gave up a solo home run to Anthony Jones to lead off the fifth. But the senior then retired the next seven and nine of ten before leaving after eight full innings. Lamar opened the scoring in the fourth with four runs on on three hits. After loading the bases on a bunt single, fielder's choice and a walk, Brian Taylor scored on David Moore's sac fly to left. Steven Tucker then scored from third on a double steal when Travis Dunson drew a throw when he broke from first to second. Jeff Vickers crushed his fourth home run of the season high into the pine trees in left to put the Cardinals up 4-0. LU loaded the bases again an inning later thanks to a Logan Pace single and a pair of hit batters. Pace and Taylor came home when Travis Dunson hit a single back up the middle to make it 6-1. Two more runs scored in the sixth thanks to RBI singles from Pace and Taylor. Pace finished with three hits and two RBI - both of which tied his season-highs. The Cards added an unearned run in the eighth when Jeremiah Sammy reached on a error and scored on a double by Pace. Northwestern State (25-24, 14-10 SLC) managed just five hits and only two base runners advanced past first base. Jimmy Heard (6-4) allowed six runs on four hits with five strikeouts and two walks for the Demons. The teams will continue their series with game two on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Predictions? TBA on the site

Game 1 Thur. 7pm Barbers Hill Game 2 Fri. 5:30 Barbers Hill Game 3 will follow game 2