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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, February 11, 1998
Eagles get last shot at 5As in regional
PECOS, Feb. 11 -- The Pecos Eagles have had a swimming
program for 16 years, and in all that time and despite eight
District 4 titles, the Eagle boys have yet to send a swimmer
to Austin from Region I competition.
That's because in all that time the Eagles and their other
District 4 rivals have always had to swim against Class 5A
schools from across West Texas, with only the winner of each
event assured of a spot in the state finals.
All that will change next year, when Class 4A and below
schools finally get their own regional and state meets. So
while the chances for state berths next year looks strong,
this weekend will be the final shot for Pecos to send anyone
to state against Class 5A competition, and going in, the
Eagles do have one swimmer seeded first in his event.
Junior Kevin Bates will go into Friday's preliminaries with
the best time by .02 seconds in the 50 yard freestyle, after
swimming a 22.07 at the District 4 meet in Pecos on Jan. 30.
San Angelo Central's Billy Patterson has the next-best time,
though coach Terri Morse said, "I don't remember him. The
one from Central Kevin swam against was James Stultz, who's
seeded sixth."
"I would guess there's going to be some 21s (seconds), so
Kevin will have to improve his time," Morse said.
Swimmers below first place can still go to state on an
at-large basis, based on times from all regions, and that's
where two of the boys' relay teams, the 200 medley and 200
freestyle, plus Bates in the 100 free will try to qualify,
based on their seedings going into regional.
"I'm almost positive Kevin's going to go 48 (seconds) in
the 100," Morse said of Bates, whose seeded fifth there. "If
our relays can cut I know we'll do good. We're seeded
fourth, but we're going to have to cut our times a lot to
keep up with the others."
Tye Edwards is the other Pecos swimmer seeded among the top
swimmers. He's sixth in the 100 butterfly and seventh in the
100 backstroke.
Advancing to state will be tougher for Pecos' girls, based
on the seedings. "Liz (Parent) is seeded the best, and the
400 free relay," Morse said. Parent is seeded 10th in the
500 freestyle and 12th in the 100 fly, while the girls' 400
relay team is seeded ninth.
The top eight finishers on Friday advance to Saturday's
12:30 p.m. finals, and Morse said she hoped the girls could
catch Monahans, seeded eighth going in. "The 400 free might
get in if Monahans doesn't stack their relay. They have a
better chance in the medley and he (Monahans' coach Doug
Ward) may not stack his 400 like he did at district."
The next highest seedings for the girls are a 12th by the
medley relay team and by Briar Prewit, 13th in the 200 free.
"The medley being seeded 12th is not bad. I was kind of
surprised," Morse said.
Friday's preliminaries will begin at 1 p.m. and Morse said
if none of the Eagles wins their race, she should know by
Sunday night if their time was good enough to earn an
at-large berth.
Gloves to feature 12 area teams
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Feb. 11 -- Twelve teams, including four local boxers
from the Pecos Warbirds, will be mixing it up this Friday
and Saturday at the Reeves County Civic Center, in the fifth
Annual West of the Pecos Golden Gloves Tournament.
"We should have between 15 and 20 matches Friday and
Saturday," said tournament organizer Fred Martin. "It's
about the same as last year. We've got three teams coming
from Lubbock, two from San Angelo, and Odessa's got a couple
of them."
The tournament will begin both night at 7 p.m., with the
winners out of the Open Division advancing to next month's
State Golden Gloves Tournament in Fort Worth.
"We've got 15 Open Division fighters, three in the
heavyweight division and three at 132 pounds. The rest will
be like the other years, with one fight in each division.
"The kid who won state last year from Lubbock (Joseph
Rosendo) will be back, and I think he'll repeat again, and
there are three more who were at state last year who'll be
here in this tournament," Martin added.
The Warbirds' fighters will all be in the Junior Olympic
Division, which does not advance to Fort Worth. Manager Roy
Juarez said he'll have two returning boxers from last year,
and two new ones entered.
"We'll have Joel Martinez and Tony Reyes. They'll be
fighting for the first time. Tony will be at 87 pounds and
Joel at 115, then Michael (Vasquez) will fight at 112 pounds
and Peter Juarez will be at 122," Juarez said. Vasquez and
Juarez lost in the finals of their divisions last year, to
Derek Heredia of Amarillo and Johnny Vasquez of Snyder.
"I can't tell you for sure who they're going to have. All
season long I haven't been to any fights and I can't tell
you who's at what weight," said Juarez, who has only one
other fighter, 8-year-old Aaron Martinez, in training right
now.
That's down from the past two years, and Juarez said for a
while this year he didn't know if he was going to
participate."I was telling these guys I was planning to take off for
about a year, but I changed my mind and decided to finish
this season. Next year, I want to have five to eight boxers
and that's about all," he said.
"The ones who quit who said they were going to go play
baseball I will let back in, but the other ones that just
quit, I won't accept back," he said.
Martin acquired the Golden Gloves Tournament for Pecos back
in 1992 when Odessa let it go, and he said the community's
support is needed this weekend if it's to stay at the Civic
Center.
"Hopefully we'll have good attendance. We should have some
good bouts among the older boys,"
The Pecos Chamber of Commerce is helping to put on the
tournament, and were still looking for volunteers earlier
this week to help with the drink and food stands at the
Civic Center. Martin said he was also hoping to get one of
the local doctors to help out at ringside, to go along with
physician's assistant Michelle Cser, who will be there in
case any of the fighters are hurt.
"We should have about 15 to 20 fights a night, which is
about right," said Martin, who was going to wait until today
to begin pairing fighters for the tournament. "I'm hoping to
get some more entries. I hope Amarillo comes in by noon
tomorrow (today), if not, I'll start matching them up then."
Romney proposed for top Salt Lake post
By KRISTEN MOULTON
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 11 -- Massachusetts venture capitalist
Mitt Romney is on the verge of taking over as the new head
of Salt Lake City's scandal-scarred Olympics organizing
committee.
Romney, the choice of Gov. Mike Leavitt and Salt Lake
Organizing Committee chairman Robert Garff, met with members
of a hastily organized selection committee Tuesday night.
That came just hours after the SLOC ethics committee
released its report saying bid committee executives engaged
in unethical conduct in spending more than $1 million to
curry favor with 24 International Olympic Committee members
and win the right to host the 2002 Winter Games.
Romney met Wednesday with members of the SLOC board, which
was to be asked today to hire him as president and chief
executive officer.
Also before the organizing committee today was a
restructuring proposed by Leavitt and Garff. It would expand
the board of trustees from 33 to 50 and strip it of its
decision-making authority, making it an advisory board to a
new management committee of 20.
One person familiar with the discussion said Frank Joklik,
who resigned as CEO last month, and board members Spence
Eccles, John Price, Don Cash and Gerald Sherratt were among
those being considered for the management committee.
Joklik and Eccles have been among those criticized for their
roles in Salt Lake's bid effort, but the ethics panel, while
saying the bid committee trustees failed to oversee senior
management, attached no particular blame to the two.
Romney, 51, a Republican who unsuccessfully challenged Sen.
Ted Kennedy in 1994, is the son of the late George Romney,
governor of Michigan.
He lives in Belmont, Mass., and also has a home in Park
City, Utah. He graduated from Mormon church-owned Brigham
Young University in Provo, Utah, and has been a Mormon
bishop (lay leader of a congregation) and stake president
(leader of a group of congregations) in Massachusetts.
Romney's Boston company, Bain Capital Inc., specializes in
buying companies and turning them around. Domino's was a
recent acquisition.
``He has the perfect business background. He knows how to
take major businesses in trouble and turn them around,''
said Henry Marsh, one of a handful of board trustees asked
by Garff on Tuesday to peruse applications for the top SLOC
job.
A week ago, Garff conceded a search could be short-circuited
if a universally approved candidate were found. Romney
already was the clear choice by then, but Garff and Leavitt
have declined to say so.
``We looked at stacks, dozens of resumes,'' Marsh said.
One businessmen who had been a potential candidate -- Jon
Huntsman Jr. -- backed out after it became clear there would
be no real search, he told The Associated Press. Huntsman,
vice chairman of the $5 billion Huntsman Chemical Corp.,
said he also rejected Leavitt's request that he serve on
SLOC's new management committee.
The SLOC ethics report linked an additional 10 IOC members
to the scandal, bringing to 24 -- a fifth of the total
membership -- the number of Olympic delegates accused of
accepting excessive benefits.
The IOC said the ethics report was being forwarded to its
own six-man panel investigating the Salt Lake City case.
The decision-making IOC executive board expects to receive
``the earliest possible recommendations'' from the panel,
the IOC said in a statement from Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nine members have either resigned or been expelled by the
IOC executive board. Three others remain under
investigation, one received a warning and one has died.
Further expulsions are likely before the special IOC
assembly in Lausanne, March 17-18.
``If you find something that's a real breach, we basically
have only one sanction, and that's expulsion,'' said IOC
vice president Dick Pound, head of the internal inquiry.
IOC executive board delegate Jacques Rogge, a member of
Pound's panel, said the commission will likely meet soon to
review the report.
Rogge said he was not surprised that more members were
implicated.
Rogge said a key issue for the IOC panel will be to
determine whether members were guilty of actual ethical
violations.
``You have to differentiate between what is a breach of the
line, and what is so-called `lavish treatment,''' he said.
IOC marketing director Michael Payne, on a trip to the
United States to meet with Olympic sponsors, said the IOC is
doing everything in its power to stamp out corruption and
institute reform.
On Tuesday, the head of Olympics sponsor John Hancock
insurance criticized the IOC's handling of the crisis and
suggested that IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch's tenure
may be running out.
But Payne rejected the continuing calls from outside the IOC
for Samaranch to resign, saying the 78-year-old president is
needed to lead the house-cleaning efforts.
``If the president stepped down, you would have a
presidential election with all the instability that would
bring,'' Payne said. ``That's the last thing you want at
this stage. You need a firm hand at the top to drive through
the changes.''
Despite John Hancock's move, Payne said there was no crack
in support from the Olympic sponsors who pay tens of
millions of dollars to help finance the games.
``The sponsors are standing, first of all, behind the games,
and, second, behind the steps and action the IOC, Samaranch
and the executive board are taking,'' Payne said.
In other developments:
--The IOC promised Wednesday to consider expelling more of
them to restore its damaged credibility and assuage
big-money sponsors.
``We will act decisively,'' said Anita DeFrantz, an IOC vice
president from the United States.
--Leavitt and US West denied there was a connection between
a $5 million Olympic contribution by the phone company and
Leavitt pushing telecommunications deregulation. However,
Leavitt said he was dropping deregulation from proposed
legislature to wire Utah government and schools for fast
Internet service.
--The Salt Lake bid committee's outside auditors, the
accounting firm Ernst & Young, denied the ethics report's
allegations that it had failed to call attention to
undocumented expenditures by Olympic bid executives.
It said that it did identify and discuss undocumented
expenditures with senior management and the chairman of
SLOC's audit committee. However, James Beardall, chairman of
the audit committee, was quoted in a copyright article in
The Salt Lake Tribune as saying ``I was not made aware of
undocumented financial expenses.... On the contrary, I was
assured by the bid committee's auditors that there were no
items of special significance not previously reported which
should be brought to the attention of the audit committee or
the board of trustees.''
--Australia's Phil Coles, one of the 10 new IOC members
implicated in the Salt Lake case, stepped down from the
Sydney Olympic organizing committee board, pending an IOC
inquiry. He denied the Salt Lake report's allegation that he
made four visits to the United States at Salt Lake
organizers' expense.
--Barbados IOC member Austin Sealy, implicated in the Salt
Lake report, denied any wrongdoing. Bid records showed
$3,000 a month passed through a company affiliated with a
consultant to Sealy. ``The bottom line is that I know
nothing about any payments,'' he said. ``I'm completely in
the dark about this.''
--The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that
Stockholm's unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Olympics paid for
the medical care of IOC members or their relatives on five
occasions. The newspaper said each of the payments amounted
to more than the $150 limit for gifts.
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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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