KFDM COOP

Atascocita has playoffs in mind By defeating Kingwood, Eagles in 21-5A chase The Eagles used their athleticism and some tough defense Friday night, defeating Kingwood High School 52-49 on its home floor. With the win, Atascocita (14-7, 4-3 District 21-5A) put itself in the thick of the district playoff race, moving into a tie for fourth place with Kingwood (17-8, 4-3). "It's sweet," senior forward Shawn Toran said. "We wanted this one bad." Atascocita came out strong on both ends of the floor in the first quarter, jumping out to a 10-2 lead in the first five minutes and a 12-5 lead after a quarter. Kingwood used some of its trademark stingy defense to start the second quarter on a 11-2 run to take a 16-14 lead with 4:58 to go in the half. Senior guard Christian Driver scored with one second left in the first half to give the Eagles a 24-22 lead at the break. The Eagles were able to control the tempo in the third quarter, forcing the Mustangs to run and gun, and it worked. Forwards T.J. Shaw (11 points) and Toran (11 points) helped Atascocita take a 41-34 lead heading into the fourth. Their defensive effort, spearheaded by point guard Mick Hoffman (team-high 13 points) on the perimeter and Toran's shot-blocking on the interior, helped them get easy points in transition. "Being a captain, I've got to bring some energy to the table," Hoffman said. "When your senior point guard can do that, it sets the tone for everybody else." The Mustangs pulled to within two at 44-42 with 5:54 remaining after a three-point play by Jordan McGowen (17 points), but forward Austin Nickell responded with a tough shot to extend the lead to four. The Mustangs got no closer than four points until they drew to within two with 14.2 seconds left. Driver hit one of two free throws with 11 seconds left and the Mustangs had a shot to send it to overtime, but Hunter Martin's 3-point attempt at the buzzer hit the front of the rim and fell short, setting off a celebration by the Eagles. "We needed this win more than anything," Hoffman said. "I'm going to say it right now — we're going to the playoffs."

High school coach stands by former player in spite of horrific act On Dec. 29, 2002, a Sunday, Fort Bend County deputies responded to calls about a man in blood-stained clothes, carrying a knife, walking a neighborhood west of Houston. When officers approached, the man told them that he'd killed someone. He said he killed his mother. Jeff Dixon was at home with his family, putting away what was left of Christmas, when the story came on the local news. For Dixon, the horror was personal. Anansi Flaherty had been a second-string fullback on Katy's 2000 state champion football team. Dixon coached the running backs. Troubled and separated from family, Anansi nevertheless had been one of Dixon's favorites; a happy, handsome kid who needed guidance like any teenager. And now here Anansi was in jail, charged with first-degree murder and an unthinkable act. Days went by, then weeks, and the coach couldn't get it out of his head. "Here's a young man, 19 years old," Dixon said. "He did a horrible crime, and he's by himself." Coaches forge relationships with players. Or at least the good ones do. They don't just ask more than any teacher may feel a right to. They demand it. No man or woman with a conscience can reach so deep into another without it becoming personal. KYE R. LEE / DMN Anansi Flaherty is serving a 40-year sentence in Huntsville's Estelle Unit. Even when he's no longer in your charge, and he's left behind the structured environment you helped create, he's still your player. And you're still his coach. Or that's how Jeff Dixon finally made peace with his decision, anyway. "I was not wanting to get Anansi out of anything," he says. "If nothing else, I just wanted to see if he was all right. "I had a burden on my heart to go visit him." Over the next year, Dixon visited Anansi in jail at least once a week. He wrote letters and read them. He encouraged other Katy coaches to write. He talked to lawyers. He followed Anansi's guilty plea and subsequent migration through the state prison system from one unit to the next. In the five years since that awful day, he's prayed with him, cried with him, listened to him. He's raised money so Anansi could buy what the state won't provide. He's given him toothpaste and deodorant and boots and hope. "It's a spiritual thing," is how Anansi puts it from behind the glass and steel of Huntsville's Estelle Unit. "Even though he's white and I'm black, there's no color between us. "He's been down with me since Day One." Seven years it's been. A lifetime to go. ••• Jeff Dixon just finished his third season as head coach at Alvarado, a 4A school south of Fort Worth. Winning is difficult in a district that includes Everman, which made the state semifinals last month, and Stephenville, long a power. The company Alvarado keeps helps to explain a 10-21 record over the last three years. Dixon wasn't used to losing. His first job out of Howard Payne was as an assistant under Bob Ledbetter at Southlake Carroll, where he coached on its 1988 state championship team. He also worked for Mike Johnston at Katy, Dixon's alma mater, when it won state titles in '00 and '03. Working for the likes of Ledbetter and Johnston, Dixon's education in the business soon exceeded what he'd expected. "When I first got into coaching, it was for the love of the game," he says. "I loved the competition, and I had good role models. But after I'd been in it for awhile, I realized it was not for the money and not for the winning. "Bob Ledbetter told me one time, even when you go 16-0, it isn't all about the wins and losses. It's about the kids you coach and teach." Once his career path led him back to Katy, Dixon made the back-up fullback his first case. Anansi – Uh-NON-cy, named after the clever spider from African and West Indies folk tales – was 5-8 and 215 pounds with decent ability and a host of problems. Before he enrolled in Katy at 16, he'd spent time in a juvenile detention center. Before that, he'd lived with any relative his mother could find to handle him. His father lives in California. Anansi has only talked to him once. When Anansi got out of juvy, his mother and stepfather put him up in an apartment in Katy, just west of Houston. "They probably figured maybe I'd stay out of trouble out there," Anansi says. For 2½ years, Anansi lived alone in the apartment behind the high school. Summers and holidays, he went back to Houston. The rest of the time, he essentially was on his own. Dixon and Anansi didn't talk much about the arrangement. When the coach would ask Anansi's mother, Vanessa Sweetman, she'd say it was temporary while they built a house in Katy. But no house ever was built. Coaches would stop by the apartment to check on Anansi. Occasionally, they'd buy him groceries. "If it hadn't been for football and athletics, he'd have been in a lot of trouble," Dixon says. "I can't even imagine being by yourself like that." Dixon and his wife, Mandy, also a teacher, tried to give Anansi some working concept of family life. Once a week, they'd have all the running backs over to the house for dinner. Anansi got to know Dixon's children, Tyler and Maggie. Every day after school, Anansi sat on the other side of Dixon's desk and finished his homework. Dixon taught math, and Anansi needed tutoring. "If it wasn't for Coach," Anansi says, "I wouldn't have graduated." Dixon didn't go out of his way to help with Anansi's studies because Katy's football team needed him. He hardly played at all as a junior on the state championship team, not that it mattered to Anansi. "It was still fun," he says. "I was more than happy to be a specialty back, a short-yardage back, on that team." Anansi's mother came to see him play a few times. His senior year, she gave Dixon a restaurant gift card and thanked him for his help. Dixon is sure that Anansi's mother cared for her son, a judgment only he and a handful of others could make. Maybe he's right. Maybe she simply didn't know what else to do with him. Anansi had problems. If you listen to his side of the story, he'll tell you that he started drinking at 10 and smoking angel dust at 12 or 13. He was a member of a gang. Busted for assaults. Sold marijuana. When he went away to Texas A&M-Kingsville, where he walked on the football team, it only got worse. He got high every day. His story is that he went home for Christmas the fall of his freshman year and stayed stoned. Three days before New Year's, his 9-year-old cousin told him that she'd been molested. Anansi blamed his mother for not stopping it. In a fog of drugs and anger, he simply snapped. But that's not what Dixon or the lawyers say. Anansi was diagnosed with mental problems. He'd gone off his meds. He heard voices. Listening to him from the other side of the glass, you hardly know what to think. He looks and sounds like the kid Dixon describes: polite, smiling, upbeat, a young man of potential. Only when he talks about what happened five years ago last month does his mood change, and he takes a deep breath. "I went into the room . . . ," he says, and stops, gathering himself. Outside the visitation room, steel doors clang and rattle. Anansi sits back and tries again. "I just remember glimpses of it. There isn't a day goes by that I don't think about it. Nothing anybody can do to me would be any worse than living with what I saw. "I was looking at my mom, and it was like I watched her soul leave her body. I saw her life leave her. "I was 19. I lost my mother by my own hands, and now I'm in prison." His lawyer believes he probably saved his life by pleading out. He got 40 years instead. He's done the math. When will you be eligible for parole? "Twenty twenty-two." How old will you be? "Thirty-nine." Every day, he gets up early, says his prayers and goes to work in the kitchen. He spends as little time as possible in his cell. When not working, he's in the day room. He works out. Watches TV. Reads philosophy, religion, poetry. He'd like a typewriter, maybe, so he can write his memoirs. He says some of the older prisoners, the guys who will never get out, look after him. And, of course, his old coach, too. "I believe that Coach Dixon is a sign that God still has a hand on me," he says. ••• Dixon keeps every one of the letters. Anansi is 24 now, separated from their shared past by years and a couple hundred miles and a double-row of razor wire, but the letters all start the same. Dear coach In a cramped, single-spaced scrawl, Anansi thanks Dixon for the latest items sent. He writes about his workouts, money, happiness, love and what it's like living, as he once put it, "in the belly of the fish." A couple of years ago, Anansi, feeling philosophical, came as close to explaining himself as he probably could: A lot of the time when we do not understand someone or something we as humans tend to lash out or even get scared of what we can't comprehend. I'm living proof . . . In his Alvarado office, where, even with the door closed, you can hear the clang of steel weights and the shouts of kids, Dixon looks at the letter, then at the floor. "I don't write him like I should," he says, softly. "I've got more family now, and the job's demanding, but that's no excuse." He looks up. "Last Christmas, we sent him some money to buy a new pair of shoes. He called me. He was so grateful. He told me about his Thanksgiving meal. He said, how could he complain? He's got three meals and a place to sleep. "He's just so thankful for what he has. That's hard for me to understand." How does anyone comprehend the story of Anansi Flaherty? Dixon makes no attempt to justify it. But instead of asking what happened, he opts for, "What now?" He hasn't seen Anansi in a couple of years, so he's thinking he needs to get down to Huntsville. He might even take his son, Tyler, who's 15 now. He says it would do Anansi good to see how much his son has grown. He thinks it would do Tyler good, too, to see what it's like in the belly of the fish. "It's tragic, what happened to Anansi," Dixon says. "I believe God placed him in our path. I'm glad I was able to be there for him. "I'm glad I still am."

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Big game! Predictions?

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Predictions?

Jasper downs Orangefield in vital 21-3A bout Gabe Pruett The Orange Leader ORANGEFIELD — The Jasper Bulldogs could not have started any hotter and the Orangefield Bobcats could not have started out any slower Friday night in Bobcat Gym. It seemed like the Bulldogs never missed in the first half as the visitors walked away with a 72-60 victory over the Bobcats as Jasper took control of third place of District 21-3A. Jasper sophomore Dominque Bailey’s 21 points led all players as the Bulldogs are now 10-10 on the year and more importantly 5-2 in the district race. Orangefield, who was led by sophomore Zach Hayes and his 19 points, is now 16-7 on the season and 4-3 in the district loop. Hardin-Jefferson remained the front-runner in the district after a 81-40 win Friday over Hamshire-Fannett. Silsbee remained in second with a 10-2-53 win over Bridge City. The Bobcats went on a 6-0 run to close the third quarter after trailing 46-36. Orangefield’s Garrett Granger grabbed a rebound with just seconds left before entering the fourth and hit a buzzer-beater as the Bobcats trailed 46-42. Jeremy Granger, who had 14 points and six rebounds, then made it a two-score game at 46-44 with a bucket to open the game’s final eight minutes. That is when it seemed Jasper had seen enough. After a Roderick Kyles bucket, Bailey turned two consecutive steals into two lay-ups as Jasper went on top 52-44. Kyles added 13 points in the win. The Bobcats then turned the ball over for the fourth straight time and Aaron Garrett made them pay with another jumper. Orangefield could only pull to within six points the rest of the way and the Bobcats trailed 63-57. Jasper then went on a 6-0 run to take a 70-57 advantage. “Every time we would make a run they had an answer,†Orangefield Coach Rea Wrinkle said. “It always seemed it was a three-pointer off the glass or a shot with one of our defenders with a hand in the shooters face. The rest of the season is going to test what kind of team we are. We have to win the first four before taking on those top three teams to finish the year.†The Bobcats travel to Kirbyville and Bridge City next week before playing host to Hamshire-Fannett and traveling to West Orange-Stark. Orangefield finishes the year with home games against H-J and Silsbee before hitting the road to face the Bulldogs. Even with Jasper’s hot shooting in the first half the Bobcats found ways to keep the game close. The Bulldogs led 15-11 after the first period as Hayes and Tyler Angelle, who had 12 points on the night, had all 11 of Orangefield’s points. Jasper got really hot in the second when it outscored Orangefield 20-12 behind four three-pointers, two coming from Bailey. Kwame Spikes, who had 17 points in the win, had eight points in the second. Jasper hit six three-pointers in the first half as the Bulldogs took a 35-23 lead into half-time. “They were so hot in the first half,†Wrinkle said. “They are a good team and they are well-coached.†The Bobcats then outscored the Bulldogs 19-11 in the third to close the gap.

Congrats Bruins!!

subhed: Morrell busts loose for two goals in PN-G win NEDERLAND -- Just another Port Neches-Groves soccer player with the magic name of Morrell may be developing his skills. Indians' junior forward Matt Morrell scored once from long distance and once from short range as the Tribe opened the 20-4A district race with a 4-0 victory over Silsbee on Friday night at Prather Field on the NHS campus. Kicking and running on its make-shift 2008 home field for the first time -- due to construction renovations at Indian Stadium -- the PN-G boys improved to 3-1-1 and 1-0 and dominated shots on goal 16-6. Rainy weather conditions influenced PN-G coach Don Sandell and Silsbee mentor Dale Cormier to agree upon a pair of changes. The varsity game started at 5:30 rather than the scheduled 7 o'clock. The junior varsity game was postponed and probably will be reset for Jan. 29. Silsbee (1-1 and 0-1) battled to a scoreless tie until the final five minutes of the first half. Morrell made a few moves and made a 30-yard shot reach the back of the net at the four-minute mark. Tanner Worley knocked in a header two minutes later after accepting Peter Zimmerman's corner kick.

Pulidos guide Lady Titans twice at Central tournament HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER By Tom Halliburton The Port Arthur News BEAUMONT -- When Memorial coach Phil Mattingly says the family name "Pulido", he needs to clarify which of the cousins does what for his Lady Titans. Mattingly watched Friday as each Pulido played a star role in Memorial's two 4-0 victories over Ozen and Central at the Beaumont Central girls soccer tournament. The Lady Titans (3-1) would reach Saturday afternoon's championship round if they could defeat Silsbee this morning at 11 a.m. Senior two-year starter Maricela Pulido collected one goal and two assists against Ozen in Memorial's Friday morning tournament opener. Maricela followed it up with two more goals in the later victory over host Central. Freshman goalkeeper and younger cousin Brenda Pulido delivered two shutouts in the net without having to work all that hard in the two games. That's because Memorial led 17-0 over Ozen and 12-2 over Central in shots on goal. "I really thought our defense came back and played better in the second game," Mattingly said. "Our defense was a little sluggish but our midfield played really well in the first game against Ozen. "But considering that I'm starting seven freshmen right now, I'm pretty pleased." Besides Maricela Pulido, Memorial also has another senior midfield leader, Elizabeth Medina. Along with Pulido, Medina finished the day with three goals, scoring twice against Ozen and once against Central.

Third quarter does in Rangers From sports staff reports Baytown Sun Published January 19, 2008 - Updated 26 minutes ago PORT ARTHUR — A tough road trip got tougher Friday night when Port Arthur Memorial outscored Baytown Sterling 14-7 in the third period of their District 21-5A game. That gave the hosts a double-digit lead en route to downing the Rangers 73-56. The loss drops Sterling to 2-5 in district, 16-11 overall. “The kids played extremely hard and they played extremely well, but that third quarter doomed us,†coach Mark Patton said. Memorial, 5-2 and third place in district, was led by Jacovin Buckner, who scored 22 points while University of Texas signee J’Covan Brown enters the second month of his indefinite disciplinary suspension. Adrian Fontenot paced the Rangers with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Derrick Thompson added 14 points for Sterling. The Rangers led the Titans 18-14 after the first quarter, but Port Arthur pulled into a 35-29 lead at halftime. The score was 49-36 after three periods. Sterling hosts Kingwood Tuesday and Humble Friday. Humble went into Friday’s play leading the league with Kingwood tied with Port Arthur for third. “It doesn’t get any easier,†Patton said. “We’ve just started Murderers’ Row again.â€

Liberty 97 Sheperd 45

Good luck LU!

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Congrats Liberty!!!

Nederland played a heck of a game!!

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Cleveland 66 Tarkington 44

Congrats!

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