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True, there is a difference, but sometimes it's how it is perceived. One person can see something as the truth while another may see it as total fabrication. I just didn't want to set a precident on this board where folks bicker back and forth. Sports talk is great and a passion for alot of us on here, but because of it's passion it can cross the line rather quickly into name calling and even threats. I've seen it on the "Attack" board (which is why I don't post there anymore). It will inevitably happen here too, I just didn't want to be the one to kick-start it. :blackeye

Think whatever you want we were cheated and you know it! I'm done with this subject! Let's move on and talk about how Ozen will dominate next season. Come on now, PN-G lost a few key players and you know it. Nederland , Lord who knows with that bunch. Nederland's head Coach hand picking Refs no one has a chance at their place.

Sportslover, You want to talk about our fans being rude. Atleast when HJ beat us in Sour Lake our fans did not boo after the game like yours did in the game at LCM. See there are rude fans in HJ too.

I do agree with Mr. Gostangs and 92. It's not good to talk bad about kids like that or singers. I can say though that Ozen will beat PNG and Nederland and Mid County's butts will be sitting at home come playoff time!! Vidor and LC-M will beat PN-G and maybe even Nederland this year!! Take it to the Bank!!

I agree, let's talk Football!! Good luck to both teams next season..

Let's talk about fans who need to stay off of the juice: BH fans started the "hating," not WO-S fans. BH is a team to which we, otherwise, never would have paid a lick of attention.

www.panews.com Race second to quality in coaching hire Would the Port Arthur school district hire a white head football coach? It's a question plenty of white coaches have asked me in the past few weeks. Seems a valid question, too. Texas Education Agency reports say only 6.3 percent of Port Arthur's students are white, compared to 62.2 percent who are black. Should the Port Arthur school district hire a white head football coach? Odds are it will, since 60.0 percent -- three of five -- of the finalists for the job are white. But if the PAISD trustees vote to hire a black coach from among the finalists, then it appears that interim athletic director Michael "Shane" Sinegal is the man who'll get the call in a vote that has been postponed until at least next Thursday. Marvin Sedberry, the only other black coach to garner an interview, earns an annual salary of $92,000, plus a car, from the Bryan school district. That's $20,000 more than the upper reaches of the salary range ex-superintendent Willis Mackey put on the job when he posted it on the website of the Texas Association of School Administrators. It doesn't seem likely a coach with Sedberry's record (134 wins and 15 playoff berths in 20 years) would take a paycut at a time in his career when most school employees are looking to max their income and fatten their teacher retirement checks. A good argument could be made that paying Sedberry -- or any other of the applicants -- an obscene amount of money would be worth it if that coach could turn Memorial High into an all-sports powerhouse that would boost the spirits and uplift a community that was still struggling to overcome the 80's oil bust when a hurricane came and piled on. But it's easy to speculate that Sedberry is just angling for a pay raise from Bryan. Wednesday, Sedberry told a reporter for the Bryan Eagle he hadn't pulled his name out of consideration in Port Arthur. But there appeared to be an implied 'Yet.' He appeared contrite and surprised that he'd upset school board members and other backers by shopping around. "I would just say that I am not leaving Bryan High," he said, "at least I hope I'm not. I'm concerned that people think I'm unhappy. I'm not unhappy. "Maybe I made a mistake." A sampling of movers and shakers in Port Arthur reveals it would be a mistake to assume that the coaching decision will follow racial lines. Asked if he thought Port Arthur should hire a black coach, Rev. Randy Vaughn said, "I don't have an opinion on that. Not now." Vaughn is the pastor of Mount Sinai Baptist Church and one of the Port Arthur ministers who called for a student boycott to protest Mackey's departure. Lonnie Linden is one of the seven school board members who will make the final decision. "If the question is whether I have the preference of hiring a black or white coach, the preference I have is hiring the very best coach we can hire for this district," he said. "It's important to hire somebody who can bring us success." Linden used the cases of local coaching legends to make a point that race is immaterial in this instance. "Alex Durley (the black coach of West Brook's 1982 state champions) was at an integrated school, probably one primarily of Anglo descent, and they were successful," Linden said. "Dan Hooks (the white West Orange-Stark coach) was probably in the opposite situation, and he was successful. "What's important is, 'Is this person a good fit for our children?' " City councilman John Beard echoed Linden. "Color does not make a difference to me. I want us to hire the best coach that can deal with and work with our children, that can possibly, through athletics, bring the community together," he said. "It would be good in a perfect society if we didn't need to talk about color. We need to get behind him and support what he's getting done." Greg Flores, another school board member, said he didn't even know what race the coaches were when he voted to hire David Suggs for Lincoln and Dean Colbert for Thomas Jefferson in 2001. "The superintendent recommended them and we hired them," Flores recalled. "I wasn't interested in what color they were. I'm still not interested. "As long as he treats our kids good and teaches them respect, teaches them how to be good sportsmen, that's all I care about. I'd have no regrets if we hire a purple coach." Former Port Neches-Groves and Kelly High standout Lauren Parker, a freshman at Baylor, has won the starting shortstop job for the No. 11-ranked Bear softball team. Parker, an all-stater both in the UIL during her three years at PN-G and in TAAPS for her play for Kelly's state champions last spring, had been expected to begin her college career at second base. But both middle infield positions were open and she landed at shortstop, her primary position in high school. Baylor finished 51-14 last season and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals, coming within one win of the Softball College World Series. Lauren's brother, Jace Parker, a former PN-G standout and scholarship pitcher at Lamar, has transferred to Baylor and is a manager for the softball team. Jace Parker suffered a rotator cuff injury at Lamar and never was able to recover. Speaking of PN-G alums, former Rock-A-Noo hitter Sirena LaBurn scored a big double for her new school. LaBurn, a freshman at Division I Wagner College (Staten Island, New York), led her team in hitting percentage and was second in total kills and in service aces in the fall. She also made the dean's list with a perfect 4.0 grade point average for the fall semester.

Talk about luck.

BH fans started the "online rivalry." Why would WO-S fans pick on a team that we've never played and rarely heard of? Puhleeze... talk to your boys Jody and Rbarker. They started this. We just laugh at y'all.

There's been alot of talk about what everyone thinks about Dayton coming into our district.And how our teams feel about it.But what if you were Dayton's coach? You are sitting there waiting to hear the news and hoping everything works out for you and your team. And then all of a sudden you find your team will be playing with Ned.,PNG,Ozen Central,Vidor, and LCM. I think he left there scratching his head,wondering what just happened

GoStangs: What a great place to hang out huh? What a great website. GS i want to get together for lunch soon with you guys. I told kerry tell me when and where and lets all meet. I open for a bbq somewhere and lets talk some FOOTBALL.

bleedorange...oh, how do I agree with how the game has changed in at least 15-20 years. There is way too much contact and that usually leads to one of two things...either you get refs who take the stance that they will call a very stringent, tight game and then those who just "let them play". It's hard to find a happy medium and even harder to make sure to call a "even" game because no matter the outcome, somebody is going to talk about how the game was called. There are always fans in every crowd that are unruly and unsportsman-like. You can support your team without all of the extras. I don't particularly care for the shirtless OF guys painted and standing on the "fence" because when the Mustangs played at OF the first round, they were really obnoxious and rude to our players, but you have to applaud their spirit (it just needs to be toned down). And, as I stated before, when a team is not playing well, the fans usually get whiny about the officiating.

Hardin Jefferson played hard and deserve to win. My daughter plays for Orangefield and her and I have many freinds from HJ that we have met from little dribblers. I have the up most respect for them. But I would like to say something about some comments that were said on both sides. First of all I want talk about the officiating. Officiating did not change the course of the ball game. Anytime a visiting team comes to an oposing gym after the game they wine about that they just got hosed by home town officials. HJ you are no different. Most of the officials are not even from the community of the games they call. Now I will say the officials let the kids play way to ruff. Back in my day you could not even touch the oposing players. Back in the day we played real defense. Sportslover you need to get a clue. There are rude and obnoxiouis fans everywhere even HARDIN JEFFERSON. When yall came to our gym Christy Sanders got hurt and one of your fans yelled why she was helped off, " Whats wrong things are not going your way", Then she clapped because she got hurt. There is something wrong with parents that are glad when a kid gets hurts. That my friend is crossing the line. Believe me I agree we have syco fans, but so do yall.

The refs were very inept. If you got to the game early and saw the JV game, that was a big clue how the varsity game would go. The refs couldn't even keep up with the JV. One called OF for out of bounds when he was 15-20 ft BEHIND the girls, and OF was clearly inbounds. They also let the HJ coach stand in the court DURING PLAY. At one point she was standing in between an OF player and the girl she was guarding. The refs never told her to get off the court. During the varsity game, they called back court on OF on an inbound pass. The foul calling came fast and early. It's pretty bad when you are sitting starters out in the first quarter for foul trouble. I guess that's one way to make sure OF loses, take out the starters. We seemed to have two starters on the bench all through the game. The only way to beat that type of uneven play calling is to make every shot that is taken. Unfortunately, OF is still in somewhat of a scoring slump. Each time they would begin to put a run together, the refs would start calling fouls. They also stopped the game to have a "talk" with Paige and the girl who was guarding her. Come on! The girl was laying across her back, and Paige was "talked" to. Sure enough, PAIGE was called for a foul because she apparently got tired of wearing the guard over her back and shoulders like a shawl and pushed back on her. Why can other teams be aggressive and OF can't? Hopefully, our girls can get their shooting game going so the refs can't decide the game.

I am on here as a fan..I give credit where credit is due.If i get whipped like Vidor does alot of the times ,that doesn't stop me from me being a fan.If we get whipped we get whipped.BUT if it is a good game then I will say we lost but it was still a good game.That's all.I am not on here to argue with anyone or make fun of anyone's school.When the playoffs are here or there is a certain southeasttexas team playing a team form out of town then i root for that team.No matter who it is.I don't want this forum to turn into a bunch of crazy talk and Insults..I will from now on ,just talk football and how much I love the sport and whatever the local topic is..

One of the "qualifiers" on any post is that it is just a parents opinion. For this years Bears team to be compared to the '96 Bears (alot of things have to go perfect) is an honor. As one of those parents that have watched these young men grow up, I am extremely proud of them. They are a close group of young men who push each other to perform their best. SE Texas is a hot bed of baseball talent, this makes for some great baseball rivalries. I have enjoyed watching some really great HS baseball games over the last several years. I said all that to say that if some parents didn't feel the need to put others down to try and make their child appear better we would all be better off. Every parent tends to believe their child is better than they are at some point. If I have learned anything from Griff it is let your play speak for itself. These young men have also taught me that if you pick each other up when you're down you become better you're self. You can talk it up all you want but at the end of the day the score speaks for itself. Bears in your post you point out that the middle infield has to get alot better, and you may be right to compare to the 96 team, however ever aspect of the team will have to improve from last year in order to hold a candle to the 96 team. I've watched your posts for several years now (agreed with some disagreed with others) and the one thing that has been disappointing is your consistent need to point out flaws in the bear team except for "one" player. If you expect anyone to take your post serious be honest about all the players performances. Remember their are 9 guys on the field but it takes the entire teams support to be successful.

Your right they do. Coach McCarter said 2 have been out but will be back Friday. Next time i talk with him i'll ask..

From KOGT Sports: Talk about your storytellers! Texas football coach Mack Brown visited WOS coach Dan Hooks Tuesday and thanked him for producing players like Deon Beasley. Brown said he told his coaches yesterday, "It's time to go to work, we've only won one game all year!"...

Well I am from Vidor ,and you guys did take it to us that night.But I wouldn't get carried away about what you would have done to mid-county.It's funny about how you talk after going 1-9 a year ago.And now you have a half of a season played this past year and you are thinking yall are some sort of Football powerhouse. Remember that alot of teams had only 3 days to prepare and yes there were games played,but it just wasn't a true ,pure football season played.Central was talented and yes they won some games,but don't pat yourself on the back too long because football season is just 7 months away.And I don't know about Central,but in Vidor there is no off season..

I had a longggggggggggggggggggggg talk with the interim AD last night. Trust me, Mackey's ducking and dodgin' to keep somethings under wraps so those clowns on the school board won't have a leg up on what's going on. I offered some suggestions everywhere from potention HC's to maximizing existing buildings at the current campus. My man listened and I hope people in the community will stand behind him while he tries to right the ship and stand against stupidity in the name of Julia Samuels......

Sports review for Mackey's ears only Nearly a year ago, Port Arthur schools superintendent Willis Mackey told The News that he and athletic director Dean Colbert were working on a thorough evaluation of the district's athletic program. He said last February, "as soon as the season is over," presumably the school year ending last spring, "I'm going to get an evaluation of all the programs and the coaches ... We (Mackey and Colbert) will sit down and talk about the future of athletics in this district." The News, in a Texas Public Information Act request in December, sought "a copy of paperwork generated by the superintendent's 2005 review of the district's athletic program under coach Colbert." In late December, Mackey reported that he was waiting for Colbert to assemble all the information he needed. This week, Mackey informed The News there was no paper report or paperwork for the newspaper to review. He said Colbert delivered his report to the superintendent orally. "That's with coach Colbert," Mackey said. "He kept all his information. He just verbally shared it with me. We don't have the stuff you're asking for." That was just one of many non-revelations in a 30-minute Tuesday interview with the city's top educator that yielded little to educate this newspaper's readers on specific plans to improve what everyone agrees is an under-achieving athletic program. A man who earns $208,575 a year from PAISD taxpayers (counting allowances and other benefits), Mackey did offer up a few non-specific opinions. He was asked his opinion of Memorial High's boys' and girls' basketball teams. Both teams currently stand in the middle of the District 22-5A pack, facing an uphill battle to make the playoffs: "I feel like they're working hard," he said. "The kids have been aggressive. I think they're going to continue to improve." Asked his overall opinion of the district's athletic program, Mackey again was positive but non-specific. "I think we stand great. We have great kids. We have some good coaches. And we're going to work towards next year," he said. The superintendent started the tape-recorded interview by bringing out his own tape recorder. And his tape will show what The News' does: that he consistently failed to offer specific answers to questions but peppered his comments with educational buzzwords that mean little to the general public. He also passed the buck, telling the interviewer that he should seek answers from the various campus principals, from the district's information director and even from Colbert, who is mostly calling in sick at Memorial while waiting to start work in his new job at Humble next month. Here is a partial transcript of the interview: The News: Where do we stand on the athletic program? Mackey: I think we stand great. We have great kids. We have some good coaches. And we're going to work towards next year. The News: What about athletic periods? That was something the coaches have brought up that have not been consistently scheduled and don't have at the middle schools. Mackey: I don't know about that. They haven't shared it with me. The News: Would (assistant superintendent for administrative services) Mrs. Gatson be able to answer that question about athletics? Mackey: No. I can. The answer hasn't been shared with me. The News: Who has the answers? You say it hasn't been shared with you. Do you mean there are no answers coming out of the Port Arthur school district to that question? And probably some others I'll ask too? Mackey: I feel like our principals are doing an adequate job on their campuses taking care of their campus for their course requirements and periods that need to be taken care of. The principals take care of their own campus. They set their own schedules. The News: So if coach Fonteneaux (girls' basketball coach Joe Fonteneaux), for instance, said for instance he doesn't have an athletic period in the ninth grade, you're not concerned about that? Mackey: I'm concerned about all of our kids, all of our programs. I think if the coach has a concern, he needs to visit with that principal on that campus. The News: Do you see there's a difficulty putting the desire for better academics together with a strong athletic program? Mackey: I think we can have both, strong academics and strong athletic programs. I think that's what we're going to work and strive for. The News: Do you foresee any particular changes to it (the status quo), the way it's coming about? Mackey: Well, we're looking forward to it, to making the necessary changes. The commitment we started 2 1/2 years ago in helping and encouraging a strong academic and a strong athletic program. The News: Can you cite anything that's happened in 2 1/2 years to make it better? Mackey: Yes. We're working on it. We're working on our curriculum in all our programs. The News: Can you cite some specifics? Mackey: Curriculum in all our programs. Staff development. Workshops. And things of that sort. The News: Can you explain that to my readers, who don't understand (educator jargon)? Mackey: Strong curriculum program, that's what I would tell them that we're building on, a strong curriculum program. The News: That's going to help athletics how? Mackey: That sure will. The News: How will it help athletics? Mackey: There's a number of ways. It'll help athletics. The News: Can you explain them to me? Mackey: A strong curriculum program helps athletics. The News: I don't know if you think I have an agenda or what. Maybe it's not me .... I'm just trying to find somebody in the school district that I can talk to for straight answers. Mackey: Well, you're talking to the superintendent. I'm as straight as I can be. The News: You're just dancing around answers ... Mackey: No, I'm not dancing. I'm answering your questions and I said what I wanted to say: A strong academic program, building up curriculum and staff development, that's how we build a program, that's where we start.

22-5A PA Mem WB Lee Sterling Kingwood Humble (altho' the next realignment when Kingwood and Humble each split will be really interesting) From there, UIL has several options: Lufkin was considered last time but rejected because of travel. Spring and Westfield wll probably go elsewhere (they appealed the last realignment because they didn't want the travel to PA and Bmt). You might see some combination including Deer Park, North Shore and/or La Porte. The talk is that some districts are going to because larger because of the extra playoff team. You could have some districts combined (22, 23 and 24 reduced to only 2 districts). Or they could leave 22-5A as it is, and add 2 teams (North Shore?). Talk about a football district!!!!

Great article by Jdawg. It's amazing that no School in SE Texas has Turf. I can see BH getting it eventaully with the growth there. There has been talk of Silsbee getting it. In Beaumont is was brought up one time at a School Board meeting about building a new Stadium at Ford Park with Turf for all the Beaumont schools to play on but that fell through with the Money problems Jefferson County has. WOS is pushing for it but doubt it will happen either.

Imagine if Central, Ozen, and West brook combined schools!! That would probably be around 4,000 kids but man talk about some talent.

Yes, it is a nice and refreshing site. 100 and counting and should be around the 1000 real soon. Good luck and thanks for another site to talk football and other sports.