|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, December 7, 1999
Pecos, Permian girls hunt first wins
PECOS, Dec. 7, 1999 -- With an 0-5 record through the first three weeks
of play, the Pecos Eagle girls' basketball team is struggling. But then
so are the Odessa Permian Panthers.
Permian's girls will visit Pecos tonight for junior varsity and varsity
games, with the Panthers looking for their first win after 10 straight
losses to start the season. The teams will meet at 7:30 p.m., following
the 6 p.m. JV contest.
The Eagles have had a week off after dropping their road opener in Crane
by a 91-51 final score. Permian meanwhile, dropped three games this past
weekend at the Polk Key City Classic in Abilene. They come off a 67-56
loss on Saturday to Andrews, following losses to Belton and Electra on
Thursday and Friday.
Turnovers, poor shooting and rebounding problems have hurt Pecos in
their first five games. Last Tuesday, the first two problems were the ones
that cost the Eagles the most, as coach Brian Williams said his team averaged
better than 1 ½ turnovers a minute in their loss to the Cranes.
Williams won't be at tonight's game, and missed this past weekend's
Pecos sub-varsity tournaments due to a death in the family. Freshman coach
Becky Granado will handle the varsity tonight, which is made up mostly
of players off her varsity volleyball team.
"We'll just go out there and hopefully they'll do a better job," Granado
said Saturday.
Andrews is the only common opponent so far for the Eagles and Panthers.
Pecos lost at home to the Mustangs on Thanksgiving weekend by a 78-33 score,
but were down by just a 36-20 margin at the half. In Saturday's game, the
Panthers' scoring problems were in the opening quarters, when the Mustangs
grabbed a 36-13 halftime lead.
Pecos' boys are idle tonight. They'll return to action with a 4:30 p.m.
game Thursday against Lubbock High at the Monahans Sandhills Tournament,
which will be followed by the Eagle girls against the Loboes at 6 p.m.
Permian coach Mayes is reassigned
ODESSA, Dec. 7, 1999 (AP) - The coach at Permian High School, long a football
juggernaut, has been reassigned to a teaching position.
School officials said Monday they're moving Randy Mayes to an academic
slot starting Dec. 17 because of a lagging record and dwindling support
during his six-year tenure as the Panthers' head coach.
Superintendent of Ector County Independent School District Vernon Stokes
said expectations on the coach are high, in part because of the pressure
to maintain Permian's legendary football program. Permian has won the state
5A Division I championship six times since 1965 and won the national championsihip
in 1989.
Mayes has a 45-21-5 record and the Panthers failed to make the playoffs
this year. His teams reached the quarterfinals in 1998 but missed the playoffs
in 1997.
This year's team finished with a 4-6 record and the 1997 team went 3-6,
two of the three worst records in school history.
"In a lot of places that would be great, but here it's not because it
is a long-established program," Stokes said. Members of a committee appointed
to review the football program also thought now is the right time to remove
Mayes, he said.
Calls to the school for Mayes and to a phone number listed for him were
not returned late Monday afternoon.
"He's hurt and you can respect that," said Don Wright, an athletic director
at the school. "All of us are hurt because there's a human element involved.
Randy is a big man and he'll come out of it."
Permian High School football gained nationwide fame through H.G. "Buzz"
Bissinger's book "Friday Night Lights," an insider look at the 1988 team.
Bissinger's candid portrayal of the Panther football program has enraged
Odessa residents for a decade.
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
|