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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
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Sports

Friday, November 13, 1998

Ex-coach Millsaps has to back Burges


By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Nov. 13 -- Pecos High School alumni who were members
of the Eagles' last playoff football team 23 years ago
showed their support for the Eagles' 1998 football squad
Thursday night, at a pep rally for this evening's
bi-district matchup between the Eagles and the El Paso
Burges Mustangs.

However, the coach of that 1975 team that reached the state
semifinals was a little bit less enthusiastic about Pecos'
playoff success for a good reason -- he's Burges' athletic
director.

"If you ask which team I'm pulling for I definitely have to
say Burges," said Jerry Millsaps, who has been athletic
director for the El Paso Independent School District for the
past eight years. Millsaps, who coached in Pecos from
1967-78, moved up to that job after serving as Burges' head
coach in the late in 1980s.

"I coached a long time in Pecos and I still have a definite
interest," he said. "My wife and I still own a house in
Pecos, and when I leave this job, we're coming back."

As coach and athletic director for the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah
ISD, Millsaps hired the current athletic director, Bubba
Williams, and also coached Danny Rodriguez, currently PHS
principal.

Eight members of the 1975 team that lost to Ennis in the
state semifinals were on hand for Thursday's pep rally in
the PHS gym, and two of them, Robert Abila and Johnny
Terrazas, have players on the 1998 Eagle squad.

"I remember most of the players, but I can't remember
exactly which team they were on," said Millsaps, who coached
at Odessa High and Howard Payne University between his
coaching stints at Pecos and Burges, which he pointed out
also wears purple and gold on their uniforms.

But he did have memories of some players off the '75 squad.

"Of all the players I coached and all the kids I coached,
Johnny Terrazas was probably the best free safety I
coached," he said. "Robert was also a very good player for
me.

"Tony (Dawdy) made one of the biggest plays I had made by
one of my kids. We threw up a ball I didn't think he could
get to, but he stretched out and made the catch for about a
30 yard gain," Millsaps continued. "Randy (Reynolds) didn't
have great speed, but you couldn't knock him down. I
remember against Ennis he got the ball and just bulled his
way through a bunch of players."

The District 2-4A co-championship trophy and a University
Interscholastic League certificate were also presented to
Pecos' players and coaches at Thursday night's pep rally,
though head coach Dan Swaim had to miss the ceremonies to be
Odessa with his wife, who gave birth to a baby boy earlier
in the afternoon.

Swaim was headed back to Pecos this morning, in time to
leave with the team for the 210-mile trip to El Paso.
Tonight's 8:30 p.m. game will be at Mustang Stadium, located
four blocks behind the Cielo Vista Mall in central El Paso,
with the winner advancing to next week's Class 4A, Division
II area round matchup against either the Borger Bulldogs or
the Canyon Eagles.

Cavemen, Loboes swimmers to test Eagles


PECOS, Nov. 13 -- Carlsbad and Monahans are expected to be
the main competition for the Pecos Eagles swimming team this
weekend, when they host 12 other schools in the annual Pecos
Invitational.

Diving competition gets the meet underway at 6 p.m. today,
while the timed swimming finals will start at 11 a.m. on
Saturday. All six of Pecos' District 4 swimming rivals will
be at the meet, along with swimmers from the four Lubbock
ISD schools, Carslbad and Hobbs.

Pecos' boys come off a win two weeks ago at the Big Spring
Invitational, while the girls placed seventh. The Eagles
were without senior Liz Parent that day, which coach Terri
Morse said hurt Pecos' relay squads, but said the Eagles
will also be shorthanded this weekend.

"Some of (the entries) will be changed because they're sick
and won't be able to swim," Morse said. The girls are seeded
third in the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relays and second
in the 400 free relay, while Parent is the Eagles' lone top
seed, in the 100 freestyle.

"Right now on the girls' side it looks like Monahans will
be the strongest competition, if things go the way they put
down on the (pre-race) sheet. Then it should be real close
between Pecos' and Carlsbad's girls for second and third."

"On the boys' side Pecos is favored to win," she said. "But
we'll have to do what we're capable of doing to hold
Carlsbad off." The Cavemen are seeded first in all three
relays, while Morse said the 50 freestyle, where Pecos'
Kevin Bates will be challeged by Carlsbad's Shane O'Brien,
should be one of the best races Saturday.

Eagle girls to scrimmage at Permian


PECOS, Nov. 13 -- The Pecos Eagle girls basketball team
will play their only pre-season scrimmage Saturday, when
they go to Odessa to face the Permian Panthers and Monahans
Loboes.

Coach Brian Williams said the teams will run 20 minute
scrimmages starting on the varsity level at 9 a.m., followed
later by timed halves.

Williams said he has post players Linsey Hathorn and
Monique Levario and guards Shaye Lara and Katrina Quioz
back, but the other spots are unsettled. "We're going to be
young. We'll find out Saturday how we're going to do
offensively," he said.

Pecos hosts Odessa High in their opener on Tuesday, while
the Eagle boys begin play that night in Monahans.



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Pecos Enterprise
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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 1998 by Pecos Enterprise