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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
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Sports

Friday, January 8, 1999

Eagles teams face Panthers, Lobos


PECOS, Jan. 8 -- Pre-district basketball play closes tonight
at home for the Pecos Eagle boys, while Pecos' girls begin
their District 2-4A schedule with the first of five straight
Friday trips to El Paso.

The boys will make their third attempt at beating the Fort
Stockton Panthers this season, when the Eagles host the
Panthers, starting at 7 p.m. It's the only game tonight for
the boys, as the junior varsity and freshmen teams will wait
until Tuesday to host Fort Stockton.

The girls, meanwhile, will be traveling 180 miles west to
face El Paso Mountain View, starting with the freshman game
at 5:30 p.m. The JV game will start at 6 p.m. and the
varsity at 8:30 p.m. CST.

The Eagles closed out pre-district play on Tuesday with a
59-35 homecourt loss to Andrews, which left them with a 3-14
season record. Mountain View, meanwhile, comes in with a
10-8 record, and figures to be one of the teams battling for
the final bi-district playoff berth, behind Clint and Fabens.

"Andrews played Clint a couple of weeks ago and Clint beat
them by about 25 points," Eagles' coach Brian Williams said.
"I told them (Pecos) that this is not going to be an easy
district, and we've got to pull together.

"I told the girls everybody is 0-0 right now, and we played
the pre-season games to see if you can handle the pressure,"
he said.

Shaye Lara has been the Eagles' only player to get into
double digits in most of the games this season, though she
was held to just four of her 15 points in the first half on
Tuesday.

Mountain View has been led by post Monica Acosta, who was
averaging about 14 points per game before the Christmas
break. Acosta and guards Susy Alva and Christine Aguilar
also are averaging better than two steals per game for the
Lobos.

Pecos' boys come into tonight's game with an 8-10 mark, and
0-2 against the Panthers. They dropped a 49-40 decision at
Fort Stockton back in November, then lost by a 39-35 score
in the semifinals of the West Texas Shootout in Crane in
early December.

The Eagles come into the game off a 61-58 overtime loss at
Greenwood on Tuesday. A 3-point shot in overtime did in
Pecos, but coach Mike Sadler also said, "We got mashed on
the backboards. We lost a lot of rebounds.

"Everybody's got a height advantage over us, so we've got to
do a better job positioning on the boards," Sadler said.
That will include tonight against 6-foot-5 post Luke Groth.
Fort Stockton had a big rebounding advantage in the first
meeting with Pecos, while the Eagles did far better at Crane
due to the return of post Fernando Navarette, but couldn't
hit their shots in the second half, a problem that has
plagued Pecos in several losses this season.

Elks' "hoop shoot" Saturday


PECOS, Jan. 8 -- The Pecos Elks Club will hold their annual
hoop shoot at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Pecos High School gym.

Sign-up will be at 9:30 p.m. and the event is open to boys
and girls ages 8 to 13.

Certificates will be given to the winners in each division
and the top finishers will also advance to the district hoop
shoot competition, set for 12 noon on Jan. 16 at the PHS
gym. The State meet will be held in Odessa.

Flutie's NFL return nets comeback reward


By BILL PORTER
Associated Press Writer
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Doug Flutie has been through Boston,
New Jersey, Chicago and Canada in his career. He never
traveled so far so fast as he did this season.

His kindest critics said Flutie might make an acceptable
backup when he signed with the Buffalo Bills last year. To
others, he was a joke.

Some considered him a downright disaster, and questioned the
sanity of those calling the shots in the Bills' front
office.

These days in Buffalo, crow is more popular than chicken
wings. Simply put, Flutie salvaged a season and saved a
team.

He restored respectability to the Bills and made football
fun again in a football-crazy town.

His selection as The Associated Press NFL Comeback Player of
the Year is a no-brainer, according to Flutie. And he's as
self-effacing as they come.

Flutie admits Randall Cunningham and Vinny Testaverde had
better years throwing the ball. And there was no shortage of
compelling stories -- Reggie White, Jerry Rice.

``But people lost sight of Doug Flutie and what he was doing
for eight years,'' Flutie said. ``I had to really come back
from a long way away. I wasn't even in the stadium. They
were sitting in the bleachers and jumped back down. I was
outside selling popcorn and had to come in.''

Flutie came in from the cold. After capturing the Heisman
Trophy and taking a short cruise with the ill-fated USFL, he
tried his luck with the NFL's Bears and Patriots.
``America's Midget,'' Jim McMahon called him. Soon Flutie
was on his way to New England, where he went 6-3 as a
starter.

In eight seasons in the Canadian Football League, he won the
league's Most Outstanding Player Award six times, led the
CFL in yards passing five times and led his team to three
Grey Cup Titles.

``I really didn't miss the NFL,'' Flutie said. ``But the one
thing that did aggravate me was hearing the comments come
back to you, people saying `Well, you couldn't get it done
down here, that's why you're up there.' That wasn't the case
at all.''

After signing Flutie, the Bills traded two draft picks and
shelled out millions for untested quarterback Rob Johnson,
and named him the starter.

``Once I knew Rob was the starter, I was just hoping to be a
part of the team and get into a position to contribute,''
Flutie said. ``My first goal was just to make the darn team,
because that was not a given.''

Flutie made his first NFL appearance since Dec. 3, 1989 -- a
hiatus of eight years, nine months -- replacing the injured
Johnson in the third quarter of the season opener at San
Diego. Flutie led the Bills back from a 10-0 deficit to a
14-13 lead before the Chargers won 16-14 after Steve
Christie's 39-yard field goal missed.

The pivotal game for Flutie was a 31-24 win over the
Indianapolis Colts in which he played all but the first
series after Johnson went down with a rib injury.

Flutie, a Pro Bowl selection, went on to win seven of his 10
starts.

``He had a great season,'' offensive lineman Joe Panos said.
``The starter got hurt, and he played so well the starter
couldn't get his job back. That says a lot right there.''

Flutie threw for 2,711 yards and 20 touchdowns in the
regular season and teamed with Eric Moulds to form one of
the most dangerous duos in the league. Moulds caught 67
passes for a team-record 1,368 yards, and went on to set an
NFL record with 240 receiving yards in Saturday's playoff
loss to Miami.

``Doug carried this team all year,'' Moulds said. ``And he
believed in me to make plays.''

The Flutie-engineered turnaround sparked an outpouring of
enthusiasm -- and money -- just when the team approached
owner Ralph Wilson's December deadline for selling $11
million in premium seating. The team beat the deadline, and
will stay for at least another five years.



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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 1999 by Pecos Enterprise