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Van Horn Advocate
Booster club members met Monday night at the PHS cafeteria, where club president Dennis Thorp talked about plans to hold a watermelon feed next Monday to introduce members of the Pecos Eagles' fall athletic teams, and to hold a burger cookout the following night, during an evening workout by the Eagles' football team.
Thorp said the watermelon feed would take place in the cafeteria, and would involve players and coaches for the early-season (August through October) sports -- football, volleyball, tennis, cross-country, rodeo and swimming). The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. next Monday, and the meeting Thursday will be to discuss assignments for that event and for Tuesday's cookout.
Workouts for the Eagles' varsity, junior varsity and freshman football teams begin Wednesday morning. Next Tuesday's practice will be held at night in order to avoid a conflict with teacher inservice at UTPB in Odessa, Thorp said.
Pecos' first football scrimmage, and the first volleyball and tennis matches of the 1997 season, will begin the week of August 18.
Club members also are planning to sell the remaining Pecos Eagle T-shirts and caps from 1996 during Tuesday's workout, before sales of 1997 shirts and caps get underway. The remaining shirts will be priced at between $10 and $15, while the 1997 denim and knit shirts with the Pecos Eagle engraving will be sold for between $25 and $30. Terri Terrazas will be in charge of the shirt sales for the club.
The booster club will be seeking to sign up new members during next week's events, and Thorp said they are hoping to institute a fundraising program similar to the one in Fort Stockton. Under that program, club members would help each other raise money for specific sports, with 25 percent of the money raised going back into the booster club fund.
Parental liaisons to each sport would be in charge of coordinating those activities, members decided.
AUSTIN, Aug. 5 -- When Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer has made mistakes in the past, owner Jerry Jones was always there to defend him.
Not this time. At least not yet.
When asked if Switzer's arrest for carrying a loaded pistol into the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Monday could cost the coach his job, Jones said, ``That's not something that I'm going to comment on at this time.''
Switzer was detained Monday morning, his .38-caliber weapon was confiscated and he was released about two hours later on his own recognizance, said airport spokeswoman Angel Biasatti.
Switzer, after returning to Austin to join the team at training camp, said he had inadvertently left the gun in his travel bag after putting it there with the intention of hiding it from three young children who were guests at his home over the weekend.
``I am embarrassed for (Dallas owner) Jerry Jones and the Cowboys organization for an innocent, honest mistake that I made,'' Switzer said at a news conference.
He was clearly shaken by the incident and refused to take any questions.
Switzer has been roasted for on-the-field decisions that hurt the Cowboys in the past.
The most notable example was his call to go for it twice on fourth-and-1 deep in Dallas territory late in the game with the score tied 17-17 against Philadelphia in 1995. The Eagles stuffed both attempts, took possession and kicked a field goal to win.
``Unless he is hit by a truck or gets shot, he'll be coaching the Dallas Cowboys a long time,'' Jones has said of Switzer in the past.
That ready support was absent after Jones learned of Monday's incident.
Switzer's arrest came on the heels of months of tireless work by Jones to put players on notice that off-the-field incidents won't be tolerated.
In the past three years, the Cowboys have had five players suspended for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy, including two of their biggest stars, wide receiver Michael Irvin and defensive tackle Leon Lett.
Of Switzer's transgression, Jones said: ``It's a very serious matter. This is not something that Barry intended to do. However, the oversight cannot be ignored.
``It's a very disappointing mistake on Barry's part relative to what we are trying to accomplish.''
In recent months, Jones has made several nightclubs off-limits, reportedly cut a player who violated that edict, and installed security cameras in the dorms at St. Edward's to discourage curfew violations. He also hired former Cowboys star Calvin Hill as a consultant to help players deal with the fame and fortune of professional athletics.
``It's unfortunate,'' Switzer said of his arrest. ``It's embarrassing to me. But I can live with it because I was more concerned about the safety of those children.
``If I have to live with what happened, I'll live with that because I'd damn sure rather have that than those kids get ahold of it.''
Carrying a weapon into an airport is a third-degree felony, punishable by two to 10 years in jail and up to a $10,000 fine.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Switzer is not licensed to carry a gun. State law says carrying a handgun without a permit is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
``There was no criminal intent,'' Biasatti said, pointing out that 38 handguns have been confiscated at the airport this year. ``We have to arrest individuals. It's the law. Most of the time they forget that they have them at the airport. ... It's an unfortunate situation for Barry Switzer.''
According to NFL policy, all league employees are prohibited from carrying firearms while on NFL premises or while conducting NFL business. A violation is subject to discipline by the commissioner.
Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, 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 1997 by Pecos Enterprise
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