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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, January 27, 2000
Eagles' goals set higher entering district
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Jan. 27, 2000 -- The Pecos Eagle swimming teams collected 15
of the 20 boys and girls District 4 titles during the 1990s. But when it
came to regional competition, the Eagles were a lot like Wile E. Coyote
chasing the Road Runner -- with the Road Runner in this case being the
Class 5A schools from Midland, San Angelo, Lubbock, Amarillo and El Paso
that dominated the regional meets.
The Eagles often got close, but only managed to advance one swimmer
to the state finals in Austin during the past 10 years. While that's better
than the coyote ever did, it still made the regional meets a bit of an
anti-climax for the swimmers in all the area's sub-5A schools.
This year, however, the rules have changed. The creation of regional
and state meets for Class 4A and below schools gives this weekend's District
3-4A meet at Fort Stockton High School both added and lesser meaning for
Pecos' swimmers, according to coach Terri Morse.
"It seems the kids are staying more focused now than in the past," said
Morse, while adding the focus for some has moved slightly past Friday and
Saturday's competition.
"Before district was the main focus, because they knew they would have
to face all those 5As in Lubbock (at regionals). This year, the kids who
have a shot at state are excited about district, but they're reserving
some of that because this is just the first step in what they want to achieve,"
she said. "They know they have to get better and faster as we advance on."
The top six finishers in each event will advance to regionals in Lubbock
on Feb. 11-12. Going into Saturday morning's swimming preliminaries, Pecos'
boys are seeded first in all 11 events, though Morse said, "That doesn't
mean we're going to get that. I don't want to go into the meet thinking
we've got it made in the shade because that's when we start making mistakes."
A mistake in the 200 medley relay at the Lubbock Invitational two weeks
ago cost Pecos a possible second place finish in the event and a second
place finish overall in the meet. "You can't expect to make mistakes at
this level when you're competing against the rest of the state," Morse
said.
Seeded first are Kevin Bates in the 50 and 100 freestyles, Tye Edwards
in the 100-yard butterfly and backstroke, Randall Reynolds in the 200 and
500 freestyles, Jason Lopez in the 100 breaststroke and Grant Holland in
the 200 individual medley, along with the Eagles' three relay teams.
Morse said the 200 freestyle relay would be the closest of those races,
and she would hold Bates out of the prelims in that event to see how Pecos
did against Monahans. "If I have to swim Kevin in the 200 then I will,
but I want him to swim in the 400. The kids are trying to set the district
record in that event," she said.
On the girls' side, Monahans is the favorite to win their second straight
district title, and Morse has moved around some of her swimmers to try
and score as many points possible.
The only girl seeded first is JoAnn Wein in the 500-yard freestyle.
She also had been swimming the 100-yard backstroke, but Morse said, "I
took her out of the backstroke, which left us open in that event. But I
moved her to the 200 for the reason that I felt and JoAnn felt there was
no chance for her to beat Candace Teague. I moved her to the 200 (freestyle)
because she had a more realistic chance of beating the two girls there."
Aside from Wein in the 500, the Eagles' best seedings are in the 200
medley relay, where the girls are second behind Monahans, and from Sarah
Flores, who is seeded No. 2 in both the 200 individual medley and the 100
breaststroke.
Competition begins at 6 p.m. Friday with the 1-meter diving competition.
Prelims begin Saturday at 9:30 a.m., with the finals set for a 5 p.m. start.
Jones puts Campo in hot seat as Cowboys' coach
By JAIME ARON
AP Sports Writer
IRVING, Texas, Jan. 27, 2000 - For 11 years, Dave Campo has had an
up-close view of what it's like to be head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Now, it's his turn to feel the heat.
Campo became the fourth person in eight years to hold one of the most
high-profile jobs in pro sports when Cowboys owner Jerry Jones promoted
him Wednesday from defensive coordinator.
His insider's perspective is that things aren't as bad as last season's
8-8 record suggests.
"We have in place some outstanding football players," Campo said. "I
just think we need to get refocused on what it takes to win, the discipline
and the attitude needed to be successful.
"In my mind, this football team has a nucleus of players that with a
little tweaking here is going to give us a chance to be successful.
"My top priority is to restore the championship attitude. We didn't
get it done this year. We have to look at the entire team and take it from
there."
Campo arrived in Dallas in 1989 as part of the crew Jimmy Johnson brought
with him from the University of Miami after Jones bought the team and hired
his old college teammate to be head coach.
Campo was in charge of the secondary for six seasons, then Barry Switzer
promoted him to defensive coordinator in 1995. He held that job through
the C4-36 hours and had a very detailed plan of how he would run the team,''
Jones said. "I knew we were on the same page."
"When I went to Jerry," Campo said, "I wanted to make sure he had a
pretty good idea what I was all about. We discussed a number of things,
but the biggest thing was that I felt I had a working knowledge of this
team."
Campo, 52, is the first of the five coaches in Cowboys history to come
from within the staff. Like his predecessors, he came with no NFL head-coaching
experience.
Campo - whose small size, glasses and graying blonde hair make him look
more like a college professor than a coach - hasn't been a head coach at
any level. He was an assistant at 11 colleges over 18 years before joining
the Cowboys.
At first, he used to be a bit short-tempered with players, but he's
refined that over the years. Yet there's still the chance his fuse will
blow - just enough to keep guys on edge.
"He may only be 5-6 or 5-7, but he really gets after guys," safety Darren
Woodson said.
Now Campo has a five-year contract worth $800,000 to $1 million per
season. That's the same length Gailey got, but for more money.
Although Campo has never coached on offense, he believes he knows enough
about it from all the years he's spent studying how to stop it.
"I want to attack," Campo said. "That's my philosophy. I want to be
aggressive. I want to go after the jugular vein as many times as possible."
That's exactly what quarterback Troy Aikman wanted to hear.
"We proved you can run the football pretty good and not score points
and not win games," Aikman said. "You've got to be able to make big plays
to score points and win games."
Campo could have new coordinators on offense and defense as soon as
today.
New England quarterbacks coach Jack Reilly, who had the same job in
Dallas in 1997, is the front-runner to lead the offense. He's expected
to bring back the system Dallas used during its championship years.
The top candidate for the defensive job is secondary coach Mike Zimmer.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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