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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide for Reeves County, Trans-Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

Sports

Tuesday, February 3, 1998

New district, new problems for Pecos

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer

PECOS, Feb. 3 -- Two-hundred-mile trips are nothing new for
the Pecos Eagles. But too many 200-mile trips on weeknights
next season could cause eligibility problems for Pecos'
players by the time the Spring semester rolls around.

The Eagles' varsity coaches were generally in favor of
Monday's realignment by the University Interscholastic
League, which placed Pecos in a district with five El
Paso-area teams. But questions about non-district
scheduling, and about mid-week travel and the effect it may
have on player eligibility remain to be decided after a
meeting of the new district's officials later this week.

Pecos-Barstow-Toyah superintendent Don Love said he hoped to
get the other five District 2-4A schools -- Clint, Fabens,
El Paso Mountain View, Canutillo and San Elizario -- to
agree to let Pecos play their home games in basketball,
volleyball, baseball and softball on Tuesday nights, and
their road district contests on Saturdays.

"That's one of those things you have to look at. When you're
the only one travelling 200 miles its something you need to
work out," he said, explaining that students can only miss
10 days of school for extracurricular activities under state
law.

"The big thing you've got to look at is you can only miss 10
days. With our kids showing (livestock), and academics, band
and athletics, you've got to look at that," he said. "With
one of our three-sport girls, if you have five trips for
each one (sport), that's 15 hours and you're already over
the limit."

Love said juggling the district's early-release days can
help solve the problem some, but he said the Tuesday home
game solution would be the best. "Since we're the only one
out here, those other teams would only have to make one long
trip, while we're making five."

Fabens, at 175 miles, is the closest of the Eagles' new
district rivals. Clint is 185 miles away, Mountain View and
San Elizario are 190 and Canutillo is a 225-mile drive from
Pecos.

The one-hour time difference between El Paso and Pecos will
allow the Eagles to leave a little later for their road
games than they currently do for their 210-mile trips to
Sweetwater and San Angelo. "That will help us going out, but
coming back you're going to lose an hour's sleep," Love said.

The other option, for basketball and baseball, would be to
skip playing on Tuesday and stay overnight in El Paso, for
back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. It's been done by
other Permian Basin schools, but Love said he hopes the
other 2-4A schools will agree to the Tuesday home option.

"We'll be doing our homework to find out what's best for us,
but we need some cooperation from the other schools," he
said.

Aside from the distance, the cost of making so many 200-mile
trips figures to eat into the Eagles' athletic department
budget, and volleyball coach Becky Granado was concerned
about how the change will affect her pre-district matches.

"One thing that may affect us is if we're not allowed to
take long trips in pre-district that's going to hurt us in
trying to schedule games," she said. "We'd like to keep
playing some of the teams in our district."

Pecos has been in the current district alignment for nearly
two decades, and Granado said, "You're so used to playing
the same teams year after year. We'll miss the district and
not have the competition against Andrews, Big Spring, Fort
Stockton, Lake View and Sweetwater, but I think the change
will be good for us."

"I think the kids are excited about the realignment, but I
don't think it's going to get them until they have to do all
that traveling," she said.

Girls basketball coach Brian Williams said "I know the kids
are excited, and I hope they get to the point where they
want to get out here and get into the program. That's
already a plus right there."

The change will probably affect the girls' basketball
strength of schedule less than any other sport. Their new
district rival, Clint, already owns a early-season victory
over District 4-4A co-leader Andrews, and Williams said
"It's not like we're going to go out there and pick a bunch
of daisies. I know people think we're going to go out there
and win district, but you've got to go out and practice and
work hard no matter who you play."

Williams said he already has Andrews and Fort Stockton
tentatively set as pre-district games next season, and boys
basketball coach Mike Sadler said "I'd like to play those
people in our district if they want to play us.

"Not to take anything away from the (El Paso), but the track
record of Sweetwater, Andrews and Big Spring is they've gone
far in each of their sports when they make the playoffs.

"Against San Elizario, Mountain View and the others we're
still going to have to play hard and prepare to beat those
teams whether its football, basketball, baseball or anything
else."

The Eagles' softball program, which held its first workout
on Monday, will be in the same situation as most of it's new
district rivals. Only Canutillo has had a program prior to
this season, but Clint, Fabens and Mountain View are also
starting up varsity teams this season, while San Elizario
will play a JV schedule this spring and a varsity one next
year.

While the junior varsity teams will face long trips west
with the varsities in basketball and volleyball, Love said
the other JV teams, along with the freshman and junior high
squads, will be playing most of their games as close to home
as possible.

"Just looking at the junior high schedule, we're going to
play east (Monahans, Kermit, Fort Stockton, etc.) and we're
going to play some intramurals. The only problem comes when
district starts, because a lot of those teams will already
have games," he said.

Snyder is taking Pecos' place in the new District 5-4A, and
Love said, "I know that Andrews plays them all the time, and
so does Big Spring and Lake View." That could leave the
Eagles hunting for area sub-varsity games in October and
November.

Love said one sport that won't be affected is swimming. None
of the Eagles' new district rivals has a swimming program,
and Pecos will likely remain a part of District 4, which
already includes Class 3A schools Monahans, Seminole and
Abilene Wylie.

"We've got a district meeting Tuesday (today in Midland) to
discuss the UIL realignment, and since it's our turn to host
the district meet (in 1999) we're planning to stay here,"
Love said.

Pecos, LV close out district hoop rivalry

PECOS, Feb. 3 -- The Pecos Eagles' farewell tour through
District 4-4A officially begins at home tonight, when they
take on San Angelo Lake View in varsity boys and girls
games.

The girls close out their home schedule with a 6 p.m. game
against the Maidens, as the look to tie San Angelo for
fourth in the district standings, while the boys try again
for their first District 4-4A victory, when they face the
Chiefs at 7:30 p.m.

Monday's realignment announcement by the University
Interscholastic League, which will send the Eagles out to El
Paso starting this fall, means that outside of tournaments
and/or non-district games, Pecos and Lake View will have to
advance to the third round of the Class 4A playoffs next
season to have a shot at facing each other.

The Eagles saw their hopes for post-season play on the
girls' side ended last Friday by Andrews, while Lake View
needs to win their last two games against Pecos and
Sweetwater, and hope Big Spring loses to the Eagles and
Andrews to have a shot at the final playoff berth. Friday's
58-39 loss dropped them to 2-6 in district, but with a 12-13
mark, they still have a chance at their first winning record
in five years, if they can post victories over Lake View
tonight and Big Spring on Friday.

Last month in San Angelo, Lake View rallied in the second
half for a 62-52 victory, as Stacy Bartz scored 29 points to
lead all scorers. Lorie Marquez' 16 topped Pecos.

Marquez had 17 on Friday, but the Eagles' third quarter
scoring problems continued. They were outscored in their two
games last week by Andrews and Sweetwater 30-7 in the third
period, after staying close to the two district leaders in
the first of their games.

Lake View had their way with Fort Stockton on Friday,
winning by an 81-21 final score. Bartz and Bridgett Leifeste
each had 18 points, and Lake View took 33 of their 41 foul
shots in the first half.

Andrews took 33 free throws in Friday's boys game against
Pecos, hitting 22 while the Eagles made just 13 of 25 foul
shots. That was one of the main factors in the Mustangs'
67-56 victory, which dropped Pecos to 0-6 in district and
13-13 overall.

Lake View avenged an earlier two-point loss at Fort Stockton
with a 46-41 win, which gave them a one game lead on the
Panthers in the race for the final post-season berth. The
Chiefs are 16-8 overall.

Last month in San Angelo, Pecos held Lake View's top scorer,
Jorge Villarreal, to only four points, but the Chiefs won
out in the final period by a 56-53 score, as Kendall Jones
had a couple of late baskets, while Alonzo Robinson had 12
and Michael Williams 11 points. Omar Hinojos led the Eagles
with 22 points.

Donahue expected to get Cowboys' job

By DENNE H. FREEMAN
AP Sports Writer
IRVING, Texas, Feb. 3 -- All signs are pointing to Terry
Donahue as the next Dallas Cowboys coach after the former
UCLA coach spent a day at Jerry Jones' mansion for a third
interview.

Jones isn't saying yet who will succeed Barry Switzer as
coach, but he promised an announcement by mid-week. A team
spokesman said that announcement could come as early as
today.

The fourth week of Jones' coaching search started Monday
with three candidates still publicly on the list.

Donahue, who previously was interviewed once in Dallas and
once in California, arrived in Dallas Monday and immediately
began talks at Jones' Highland Park mansion.

Amarillo TV station KAMR reported Monday that Donahue has
the job. The report, which cited a front-office source, said
Cowboys defensive coordinator Dave Campo attended Monday's
meeting.

In terms of interviews, Donahue is one-up on former San
Francisco 49ers coach George Seifert and Green Bay offensive
coordinator Sherman Lewis, who spent several days in the
area last week and stayed overnight at Jones' home.

Lewis also was interviewed by Jones the day after the Super
Bowl. Seifert was interviewed twice in California.

Jones said Sunday night that he also has a ``mystery''
candidate.

``I'm not going to give his name, but I am very close,''
Jones said.

The winningest coach in UCLA history, Donahue retired in
December 1995 to take a job as a broadcaster with CBS. He
coached Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman at UCLA for two
years.

Donahue, 53, took UCLA to 13 bowl games in 20 seasons,
posting a record of 8-4-1 in the games.

His best years came from 1982-1991, when he led the Bruins
to eight straight bowl victories. However, UCLA played in
bowls only three times in his last eight years.

When Donahue left UCLA, he had three years left on his
contract at $367,000 per year.

Also Monday, Cowboys running backs coach Joe Brodsky said he
was leaving the team after nine seasons to become running
backs coach for the Chicago Bears.

Brodsky's departure follows that of offensive coordinator
Ernie Zampese.




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