fiveoclocksomewhere

Lumberton down Hamshire Fannett in an overtime game 61-60. This puts the Lady Raiders vs Silsbee at 10:30 Saturday. The winner goes to the finals, and the loser plays for third at 3:30.

Well said, Kaila! Don't let these airbags on these forums bother you. I tell you, opinions are like ears. Everybody has em, but some are just plain ugly! Kaila is a great all around athlete and honor student. She will also make all district this season for the Lionettes basketball team. We wish we still had her at Lumberton! Love ya kiddo, Mr. W

Instead of two players scoring 25 pp, look for 4 or 5 with 12 pp avg. Losing two All State players is impossible to fully replace. But this team will challenge for a playoff spot. I agree that Central is the team to beat. They are big and fast. Who knows about all the rest? Gotta play the games and see! But the Lumberton girls that will be starting this year have had some sucess in Jr High (undefeated seasons) and JV. (Dist champs) when they played at those levels. They also play some AAU ball. Oh, and watch out for that secret weapon at post, Hayley Miller. ;D Hey! I gotta brag on my own kid, don't I? Really, all kidding aside. I have watched Hayley and her friends work very hard to get ready for this season of ball. They have worked harder than I have ever seen. They know that there are no more Pick and Wilson to lean on. This is their team now. GOOD LUCK LADY RAIDERS! ( I know yall look in here sometimes)

Kelly beat OF and Lumberton? Give me some of that Kool Aid! Kelly played both of those teams in Summer league.... And let's just say they didn't fare too well against the bigger schools. Of course, I am biased myself, I admit. My daughter plays for the Raiders. We lost two All State players, but have some talent ready to go. Instead of two players scoring 25 per game, look for 4 or five with 12 pp avg. Lumberton should challenge for one of the three playoff spots with Central, Ozen, and maybe Dayton. Central is the only one you can look at and say that they are VERY talented. Everyone else will have to step it up against them. In Summer league, Lumberton played with them pretty evenly til we had to sub in some Freshman players. Then the Lady Jags ran away with the game. Should be an exciting district to watch this year!

The Lumberton girls that will be Juniors this year also had undefeated 7th and 8th grade seasons. They also won the JV District as Freshman. So, they are a solid bunch, also. No doubt Central is the team to beat this year, but the Lady Raiders will compete for the top 3 spots. In Summer League and AAU play I have seen some players really step up their game. They should be solid at the post with Katie Green and Hayley Miller. Nicole Kemp can play inside or on the wing. Guards Alyssa Valastro, Stacey Ayers, Mykal Romano, Kellie Schreck, and Janie Long(if she plays) will make a much more balanced team. Instead of two players scoring 25 points a game, you will have 4 or 5 girls scoring 10-13, etc. Coach Charlie Wilson will have chance to earn his 4th Coach of the Year award. This just represents my two cents as a players' Dad, and as someone who has coached all of these players at some time or another. (i.e. Little Dribblers, AAU, Summer League) It will be fun, however it plays out!

I can give a referral for Brian. He trained my U-17 Girls team last year. I have coached soccer for 15 years myself, so I think I can qualify as being somewhat experienced enough to comment. My team had trained with Jorge Cruz and Graham "Big Cat" Harrison for several years, and progressed well with them. I loved them both as trainers. As you know if you are reading this, both of those guys are in Houston now. So, we hired Arendale last summer. I had not heard of him before then. Brian did something I thought was in the past with my bunch. He made them THINK the game. Not just drills, not just footwork, but actually THINK about what they did on the field, and why. It was very refreshing to get such a new style. I have only good things to say about the man. My team flourished with his training, as I am sure Kelly boys will do. We played our best soccer as a team last fall. And I saw my team play smarter than ever. I credit Brian with that. Now, is he a saint, and loved by everyone he meets? Not hardly. But neither were Jorge and Big Cat. If you are not afraid to state your opinion, you will tick off someone here and there. We ALL know how that works! I know we all wish Brian and the Kelly boys the best of luck this year! Willie Miller

Is Joe qualified to teach at high school level? The coaches at Lumberton also must have teaching certification, private schools do not have that requirement. They teach classes in addition to coach sports. That makes it difficult to get the best soccer coaches sometimes. (Plus they don't pay alot.) Like other sports, most times the club soccer coaches are much more educated for that particular sport than HS coaches with a Kinesiology degree, but no soccer coaching certification. Joe Fontana knows his stuff. He would be a good one to get, if everything else was there. He coaches the boys at Kelly, right? Lumberton does have a very good group of 10th and 11th graders. Only one Senior, I believe.(Keeper Binetti) So, they should challenge for district no matter who is coaching them for the next two years.

Lumberton Girls Soccer Coach Paula Droddy announced to her players last week that she would not be returning as coach next year. So I guess the search for a new coach will begin soon. Anyone have ideas?

Who is handling recruiting now in the middle of the coaching change? Or is everything on hold? Has Lamar announced any signings yet? If so, will the new coach keep those signed? There are a lot of questions up now about LU Womens program. It would be great to recruit locally. But remember that we don't need to go back to the Al Barbe days completely. He got alot of foreign players here also, but the way he got them here ultimately brought down the program... (Edited for spelling)

Congrats ladies!

Congrats Kaila Johnson, New Comer of the Year! We miss you at Lumberton! Mr. W

The "officials" certainly didn't help the Lady Raiders any.(Fouls 18-6 in Crosby's favor was pretty lopsided) Crosby got away with some stuff that Lumberton was whistled for. BUT, having said that, the Raiders did enough things to earn the loss. Got beat down the court numerous times giving up the layup. Crosby shot the ball great. I don't know the percentage, but it had to be up there. You just can't let a team get that many wide open shots like they were getting. And just my opinion, but maybe Lumberton could have gone to the press earlier. Crosby tried to give the game back in the 4th quarter when Lumberton pressed, by missing shots and turnovers, but Lumberton went cold too. As a Lady Raider fan, it was still an exciting game to watch. Our girls should be proud of themselves. They never quit and never got down on themselves. Next season we have some good players coming back and some good JV players moving up. None as dominating as Pick and Wilson, but we will put a solid team on the floor, and should still challenge for the district crown. As for now.... on to softball! Let's get out of the gym for a while!

The score was 46-33 final. It was really closer than the 13 point diff shows. Ozen was up at halftime by 5. They were ready to play. The post, #33 had a good game inside, but the Raiders kept working and slowly built up a lead. Then hit the free throws when it mattered down the stretch. That clinches the 22AAAA district championship for them. Congrats to the team.

Sorry, Bleedorange, but that sounds alot like whining to me. There are many calls during the course of that game that both sides could argue with. Your team was down six or so late, and got back to a tie by fouls called, and clutch free throws made by your team. Those fouls happened 10 feet from where I was sitting, and I could argue about them even being called. I was not close to where Chelsea and the OF player got tangled up, but the ref called the foul. But the OF fans wanted intentional. Anyone that watches bb should know that you are not going to get intentional very often. Usually only if it prevents a score, and this happened in the back court. The OF fans reaction to that foul call in their favor, was to stand up and loudly boo the officials. Not a real classy display. But back to the point, the refs are gonna blow calls both ways during every game. I thought that the game could have gone to either team. Both teams played well enough to win. Lumberton just got the last shot. The refs did not decide the game either way. OF and Lumberton will both go far this season. Games like this make champions!

My daughter is a new player on Lumberton.(10th grader) I have to coach a soccer game, and will be late! This game will be a battle for both squads! Coach Wilson has lined up the toughest teams he could find for this year. That is the best thing a coach can do. We travel to #2 Dickinson next week. And we scrimmaged Houston Dulles, Westside, and Dobie 2 weeks ago. Coach Wilson has 3 new starters, and lots of new faces off the bench. Of course, my favorite player off the bench will be post player #45! Good luck to your teamSaturday, Cat22!

Well Lumberton and Orangefield play saturday afternoon at Lumberton. So, we will see!

Lumberton girls will have a good team for a few years. There are a few years of good classes coming thru. It speaks well for our Little Dribblers program. We now have our basketball program starting at age 5-6 in instructional league. We try to make it fun for them by doing "Basketball Olympics" , which is competition drills, then a short game. Every player puts points on the board for his team, and every player is involved in the game. (Dribble Dog Relays, Around the World, Lay Ups, Pass Pivot, etc) Kuddos to Mark Griffin, who thought this up when he was on the Lumberton Little Dribblers board. The kids have fun learning basic basketball skills. w