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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, March 10, 1999
Eagles face OHS in Snyder tourney
PECOS, Mar. 10 -- Last week wasn't a very good one for the
Pecos Eagles baseball, but it was still better than what the
Odessa High Bronchos had to endure.
The Eagles went 1-2 and finished seventh in the Monahans
Sandhills Tournament, while Odessa High had an 0-5 week,
dropping an 8-0 game on Mar. 2 to Andrews then getting
losing four game at the Austin Westlake Tournament, the
final three by a combined 41-3 score to Round Rock, Spring
and Round Rock Westwood.
After that sort of week, the Bronchos figure to be happy to
see the Eagles Thursday morning, when the teams open play at
the Snyder Tournament with a 9 a.m. game in Ira.
"They're going to be looking towards us for a win, but
we're going to give it our best shot and look at improving
our defense," said Eagles' coach Bubba Williams.
Pecos' defense fell apart in the Sandhills Tournament
opener against Alpine, allowing four unearned runs in a 6-5
loss to the Bucks, who went on to win the tournament title.
The Eagles were then beaten by Kermit, 7-3 before bouncing
back with a 13-4 win on Saturday over Presidio, raising
their record a 3-2 on the season.
Joshua Casillas, 2-0, got the victory and also hit his
first home run of the season, a two-run shot, for Pecos'
final runs. Williams said Casillas would probably start
Thursday's game against the Bronchos.
Like Pecos, OHS was hurt by walks and errors in their
losses last week. This is the first time in four years the
Eagles have faced the Bronchos, who are the only Class 5A
team in the tournament.
If Pecos wins, they'll play again at 7 p.m. Thursday
against the winner of the Dumas-El Paso Ysleta opening round
game. The winner there come back and plays a 9 a.m. game
Friday against either Sweetwater or Perryton.
A loss to OHS would drop the Eagles into an 11:30 a.m. game
Friday in the consolation bracket. As was the case last
year, the Snyder bracket allows first round losers to still
advance to the third place game on Saturday. Pecos lost
their opener to Dumas a year ago, then came back to win two
games and then defeated Dumas in a rematch for third place.
Pampa faces West, Fort Stockton takes on Monahans and the
host Tigers play Lubbock Cooper in Thursday's other first
round games.
NCAA seeks to halt judge's test score ruling
By DOUG TUCKER
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK, Mar 10 -- Sixteen years after Penn State football
coach Joe Paterno told the NCAA, ``We have raped a
generation of black kids,'' a judge outlawed the solution
Paterno championed, saying it was unfair.
Scrambling to deal with the latest twist in one of the most
enduring controversies in college sports, the NCAA prepared
to hurry into court today and ask for a stay of a decision
by U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter.
Buckwalter, ruling in favor of four black athletes, on
Monday stopped the NCAA from using minimum test scores in
freshman eligibility requirements. If the court does not
issue a stay, chaos could result from 302 Division I schools
setting their own standards. The controversy could even
extend to the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments
which tip off this week.
Many of the 64 teams in each tournament have athletes who
are sitting out their freshman years because they failed to
reach the requirements. As long as Buckwalter's ruling
remains the law of the land, those players could play in the
tournament without fear of penalty.
Elsa Cole, the NCAA's general counsel, said the NCAA would
appeal ``the entire ruling,'' while at the same time
preparing new requirements that would meet the court's
requirements and go into effect on an emergency basis.
``We are encouraged by the court's acknowledgment that the
initial eligibility standards ... serve a legitimate
educational goal,'' said Charles Wethington, president at
Kentucky and head of the NCAA's executive committee.
``In addition, the judge has not precluded use of the SAT or
ACT as a part of an initial eligibility rule. The challenge
for the NCAA remains as it has always been: to develop
standards to meet that goal.''
Cole said Tuesday she expects a response on a request for a
stay ``within a day or two.''
The rule, known as Proposition 16, required athletes to have
a minimum score of 820 on the Scholastic Assessment Test
regardless of their high school grades. The ruling did not
rule out some use of the tests, which many educators have
long said are racially and culturally discriminatory.
Its forerunner, Proposition 48, resulted from a tumultuous
NCAA convention in 1983 when a group of reform-minded school
presidents began pushing for toughened academic
requirements. Paterno urged delegates to adopt the rule,
including test scores, to stop schools from recruiting
athletes they know are not prepared to do college work.
Without Proposition 16, the 302 Division I schools would be
on their own in determining which freshmen would be
academically eligible to play sports. Some administrators
and officials worried that could create chaos.
``It means that there is no standard to guide the schools,''
Cole said. ``Each school will have to decide itself whether
a student can play the first year.''
Buckwalter was hailed as courageous by Temple basketball
coach John Chaney.
The test score requirement, Chaney said, was ``a denial of
opportunity and access for youngsters and targeted 80 to 90
percent black, Hispanic, poor and disadvantaged
youngsters.''
If upheld, the ruling might restore a lost year of
eligibility to athletes like Temple senior guard Rasheed
Brokenborough, who sat out his freshman year due to the SAT
cutoff and ran up $15,000 in debt because he could not
qualify for a scholarship that year, Chaney said.
``Who wouldn't like to get another year back?'' said
Brokenborough, who said that although he is graduating, he
would use the additional year of eligibility to pursue
graduate studies. ``I only got to play three years of
basketball and I'd like to come back a fourth year.''
One of the Philadelphia plaintiffs, Leatrice Shaw, is now
competing in track for the University of Miami as a junior,
said her foster father, Robert Massie.
Though she practiced with the Miami track team as a
freshman, she wasn't allowed to compete, said Massie, head
track coach at Simon Gratz High School, where Shaw and
fellow plaintiff Tai Kwan Cureton were high school stars.
Cureton was able to compete as a freshman by going to
Wheaton College in Massachusetts, a Division III school
where the SAT minimum did not apply.
``Tai Kwan was president of the Student Government
Association (at Gratz) and president of the senior class,
but he didn't have the SAT scores,'' Massie said. ``Leatrice
was a member of the National Honor Society. She took the
test three times. She came up 10 points short.''
Softball tourneys set in Pecos, Midland
PECOS, Mar. 10 -- Softball tournaments have been scheduled
for both Pecos and Midland during the final two weekend of
March.
A men's open softball tournament will be held in Pecos the
weekend of March 20-21, with an entry fee of $110 per team.
The will be no home run limit in the tournament, which will
be played under A.S.A. rules. Deadline to enter is 8 p.m. on
March 18.
For further information, call 447-9652 and ask for either
Lupe Herrera or Keith Windham, or call 445-4413 and leave a
message.
On March 27-28, a USSSA national and state qualifying
tournament will be held at the Bill Williams Softball
Complex in Midland. The tournament will be for Class B, C, D
and E division teams.
The tournament will be for both men's and women's teams,
and there will be six state and two national berths
available in each of the four division classes.
Entry fee is $125 per team, with a deadline of 6 p.m. on
March 24. Entry fees can be sent to the Midland Softball
Association, P.O. Box 2862, Midland, Tx., 79702. For further
information, call (915) 683-8741 or (915) 699-5559.
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
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