James Gamble Award Winners

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Mr. Inside - Willie Jefferson

Mr. Outside - Tramain Thomas

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Congrats to both!!!

[Guest abovetherim]

Congratulations to both! Thomas must be some freakish athlete as did he win one of the football awards too?

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He does it all!

[baller001]

congrats to both men very well deserved noone can argue with either of the two selections

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Thomas completes Gamble, Smith sweep

By Cody Pastorella

The Port Arthur News

In what was his final outing as a high school athlete, East Chambers' Tramain Thomas was exactly what he has been for the last four years — impressive.

Thomas won the sixth annual Port Arthur News/James Gamble Mr. Outside Award,making him the first player to receive both a Gamble Award and the Willie RaySmith Award.

Thomas said he figured he had a pretty good chance to win before arriving atthe awards banquet in the Parker Center on Saturday night.

A pretty good chance was quite a modest statement, however.

The Mr. Outside Award will be one more impressive accomplishment that Thomascan pack in his bags before he leaves for Arkansas, which is where he will beplaying college football.

There was also a good chance a player from Ozen would win the Mr. Inside Award since the Panthers had two finalists.

But Willie Jefferson did not think he was going to be the man. Jefferson said he thought his teammate Jacoby Joseph would get the honor.

Jefferson was wrong, making him the fourth Panther to win either the Mr. Inside or Mr. Outside Award.

His selection was boosted by being named the 22-4A Defensive Player of the

Year for the second time, after a season in which he averaged 11 points and 12 rebounds for a 28-3 Ozen team that advanced to the regional semifinals.

He joins 2003 Mr. Inside Kendrick Perkins, 2005 Mr. Outside Roderick Bellard amd 2006, 2007 Mr. Outside Kris Richard as winners from Ozen.

Also from Ozen, head coach Andre Boutte was the keynote speaker for the evening.

Boutte talked of his rich history with coach James Gamble whose illustrious career is the sole purpose and inspiration for the yearly awards and event. Boutte, who has more than 520 wins in 20 years of coaching, led Port Arthur Lincoln to two state championships in the 1990s.

Gamble led the Bees to four state championships while accumulating 670 wins with the team.

But, as he has been for Winnie for the past four years, and as he has been for most of Southeast Texas for the last year, Thomas was the man of the hour.

"It feels amazing to be the first player to win both," the senior said of winning the Willie Ray Smith Award and the Gamble Award. "It hasn't really settled in yet. I haven't really been able to think about it but I am truly honored to be the first. It really means something."

Winning the Willie Ray Smith Defensive Player of the Year Award and Mr. Outside Award is just some of the highlights of Thomas' year.

In football, the EC standout accounted for 35 touchdowns while rushing for 1,352 yards and passing for 863.

Then in basketball, the 6-2 guard posted an average of 22 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and four assists per game.

Thomas won MVP honors in District 24-2A for both sports this year.

To go along with everything else, the young man was also a Class 2A All-State selection in both sports. Thomas also made the Port Arthur News Super Team in football two years in a row.

Then, in his final high school event as a prep athlete, Thomas scored 19 points, grabbed nine boards, made four steals and four assists in Friday night's fifth annual Port Arthur News/Gamble Awards game.

The Awards team fell 97-94 to a treetop tall group from Houston known as the Franchize All-Stars, which is a team directed by Port Arthur Memorial's Terrul Henderson.

This was the first time Gamble's Awards team suffered a loss (now 4-1) in the annual event, but the 10 players who made up this year's finalists put on quite a show spite being horribly undersized.

Perhaps the best news is that seven of the 10 players on this year's Awards team are juniors.

The 2008 Mr. Insider nominees were junior Jamar Gulley of Central, junior Chris Hammond of Nederland, senior Jacoby Joseph (a two year honoree), senior Marcus Malbrough and the winner Willie Jefferson is a 6-7 junior.

Gulley, who suffered a broken wrist early in the second half of Friday's game, was the Mr. Inside runner up.

The 2008 Mr. Outsider nominees were junior Jarvis Bernard of Hardin-Jefferson, junior Donte Lopez of West Brook, junior Shannon Robinson of Silsbee, junior Breon Johnson of Ozen and the winner Tramain Thomas.

Bernard was the Mr. Outside runner up. He had 13 points in the first half of Friday's game.

Jefferson joins Perkins, Ashton Hall (2004 and 2005 of Kountze), Dominique Keller (2006 of Memorial) and Richard Netherly (2007 of West Orange-Stark) as the Mr. Inside Award winners.