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    Congratulations to Woodville senior pitcher and Hit Away 3B/SS Cayla White who verbally committed today to play for Coach Ashley Johnston and the Trinity Valley College Lady Cardinals!     Cayla is a three-time First Team All District player at third base in 2010, shortstop in 2011 and pitcher in 2012. She will be returning to the circle for Woodville this spring for her senior season.     A special thanks to coaches Val Weldon, Kirk Hall and Shawn Mixon for their time, help and support!     Geaux Lady Eagles and Lady Cardinals!!!

Woodville wins 54-49

48-43 Woodville with 2:15 to go

33-33 start of the fourth quarter

Woodville wins 51-39

  Since I'm not the biggest basketball fan in the world, I started to let this alone but I've got daughters that play (varsity and 8th grade), enjoy watching their games and have seen some good calls, some bad calls and some that it could be said affected the final outcome of the game.   Now, although there are multiple differences in the sports, I have coached both league and select/travel softball teams for the past 8 years. Local, district, state, regional, A, B, C levels, different associations, and in all of those, too, seen all kinds of officiating. In all those hundreds of games I can say that I have been involved in only one game where I believe an umpire should have recused himself from officiating due to his family relationship with a player but he didn't and it did affect the game. He was behind the plate and the player was a pitcher and his grand-daughter. When it became apparent, the UIC intervened and, to be brief, the issue was resolved the best way possible. I was on the wrong end of that situation and I honestly don't think an intent to help the other team was involved.   Again, I understand there are differences in each sport but one common thread in the officiating of any sport is that those officials on the court or on the field are all human. They make mistakes, sometimes big ones. Coincidentally to this post, in an effort to improve some of our local league umpiring and also to look into possibly supplementing my income, I attended an ASA umpiring clinic. Believe me, if a person had no interest in the sport, any sport, there is no way they would go through whatever it takes to become certified to officiate that sport. To want to genuinely learn the rules and understand why they are what they are you have to love the sport. It takes strong personal ethics. To put yourself in such a position of individual scrutiny, you must also be a person that can exercise a high level of self-honesty and demonstrate a rare ability to handle sometimes intense personal criticism without allowing it to affect your focus. Officiating on any level is a tough and demanding task. I love my sport and I definitely could always use some extra money but after my brief intro to umpiring, I don't know if I really want to be out there on that island. I do know that this season there won't be many appeals or protests coming from my dugout!   As I said and was taught, even the best officials make mistakes. When I was playing it was part of the game (it is a game after all) and, on the teams I coach, we treat it that way. Allowing your players or parents to focus on bad calls usually just gives them an excuse to blame somebody else for failing. When you're dealing with young people it can get out of hand in a hurry. Instead of accepting that mistakes will happen and learning to overcome adversity, an attitude of "Once again," can develop.   Didn't mean to ramble, just some of my two-cent thoughts.        

In a perfect world,,,,,. I've been on the wrong end of the stick several times when the "unwritten rule" was forgotten and it ain't fun because the rest of our girls and therefore their parents usually knew before I did and it was a call from one of them that clued me in. The girls sometimes take it like a slap in the face, worse I think with the younger ages, and that takes some dealing with to keep it from hurting morale, especially at the next practice when the pick-up returns. It wasn't her fault - she wasn't out there fishing for a spot, but there are some coaches (and parents) out there that just don't look at anything but their own agendas. The last two years it's a topic we discuss at team/parent meeting before we crank up a new season. Like 7x2 said, we're hopefully also teaching sportsmanship, values and integrity. Now, that said, anybody got a 12U, tobacco-chewin' third baseman that might be unhappy?!!!

Congrats to both teams. Know the 12's and John's group is a class act so sure the 14's are, too. I could use a few players like his catcher, too!

Anyone have any experience using the Swingbuster "Stay-Back Hitting Trainer"? Supposed to help break lunging at the ball and get better power. Saw a team using one in warm-ups at a tourn this past fall but didn't get a chance to talk to coach as we we had once again decided to play back-to-back all day in the loser's bracket! I don't jump on gimmicks (I still like the old ball on a rope!) but this looked like it might work. Anyway, would appreciate any info anyone has. Thanks.

Also beat Hudson by double digits in semifinal

Wasn't OU first school to offer a Masters in Suckology?

USFA site says Liberty City Park, 200 Cook Road. If you Google that on the satellite map it shows it, not exactly but close enough. Turn off 146 (north Main Street) onto Cook Road and follow it to park.

The girls looked great boarding the bus this morning and sounded confident, too! They were obviously excited but the ones I spoke to seemed well focused on what they were going to do. Thanks to the Woodville Police Department, Tyler County Sheriff's Department and the Woodville Fire Department for a super drive-through town send-off complete with all the horns and sirens!!! Go get 'em, girls and bring back the GOLD!!!

First semi-final game - Woodville vs. Salado, 8:30 AM Friday

As a Woodville fan, I would like to give Kountze's Kayla Hargraves a big shout for playing the way she did, especially after Johnson fouled out. It was almost painful for me to watch her but she gave it all up. It would have been good for these teams to play with her at 100% and for Woodville's Ashley Mitchell to be on the court but that is not the way it was. As a high school sports fan, I would like to congratulate both teams for giving the effort they did. They played hard, they played on despite perceived bad calls and neither backed down when it got tough. As a parent, I hope that any of girls from either of these two teams understand that the posts on this forum are just that - opinions. Biased, needless to say, and sometimes posted without much forethought. As a girls youth sport coach, I really hope that Ashley and Kayla rehab well and are able to get back on the track, softball field and/or court with all that they have to bring as soon as possible. And, finally, as a Southeast Texan, I hope that the Woodville Lady Eagles will get all the support they need and deserve to go to Austin and, win or lose, represent us well.