The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 28

tfi3 Ark-La-Tex leader in higfi school sports coverage She (Sinus GH SCHOOL mm Log on every week to talk about your team, answer poll questions, see scores and a lot more. MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2003 CONTACT BRIAN MCCALLUM 459-3298 or sportsshreveporttlmes.com um3 shrcuenort I SI Football Standings 1 SI Players of the week Keith O'Neal, Captain Shreve receiver Keith O'Neal caught five passes for 172 yards and three touchdowns In Captain Shreve's 44-7 win at Natchitoches Central on Friday. O'Neal caught scoring passes of 24, 27 and 95 yards in the game along with a pass for a 2 point conversion. His reception of 95 yards was the longest touchdown catch in Gators football history. Hfil ONeal Vf i a x.

A7 Roderick Calhoun and Pelican have been regulars at the Top return to Lafayette's Cajundome with a new look in 2003. Athens star ready for breakout season. By Brian McCallum The Times Remember the name of Ausheiiterria Mitchell. Difficult to spell, perhaps, but it will be a name under consideration for plenty of honors this year in girls basketball. Mitchell was a member of The Times All-Area girls basketball team last year, and it's the time of year where athletes will begin to work for that kind of recognition once again.

Small-school basketball, at least. Class and basketball teams, will work toward playing in games that count this week as they participate in jamborees around the area. Athens will make ils first ap-pearance in a jamboree at Gibsland-Coleman on Friday. Not a bad place to start for an Athens play er likely to inherit the spotlight held by Gibsland-Coleman's a i a Johnson the last few years. Coach Paul Mitchell Smith has a team with two seniors and young in the middle, so he will look for Mitchell to come up big at her guard position.

"She's a team leader," he says. "I think her focus is better now. Ijst year, she thought she had to lake everything tijMin herself. She's looking to distribute the ball more." Smith's team had what he calls a "very disappointing" run in the girls iMistseason tournament last year, losing in the second round. "I loiK-fully, we have more of a seasoned group this time," he says.

"We were relatively inexperienced last year." Inexperience is something the Doyline boys will have to deal with. Seniors Turmaine Rice, Jesse Williams, J.W. Jackson, Stanley White and J.R. Hardy led Doyline to the state title game last year but are gone. DJ.

Gill was the top underclassman on the team, averaging 12 points and 7.3 rebounds. The Gibsland-Coleman girls, who won a state title in Class last spring, should be led by an underclassman this season. Sophomore, Louvenia Gipson played behind Johnson last year and is the top returning player on the team, having made first-team Is I District 1-5A District Overall Wl 42 32 24 42 23 Huntington 10 Evangel 10 Natch. Cential 00 Southwood 01 Ruston 01 Friday' retultt Evangel 37, Ruston 17 Huntington 41. Southwood 33 Captain Shreve 44.

Natchitochos Central 7 Thundiy't ginwt Ruston vs. Huntington (Lee Hedges) 8yid vs. Southwood (Independence) Friday' garnet Natchitoches Central at Evangel District 2 5A 10 Airline West Monroe Capt. Shieve Byrd Ouachita 60 51 42 23 15 10 00 01 01 Friday' mutts Airline 46. Byrd 33 Friday' results West Monroe 37, Ouachita 20 Captain Shreve 44, Natchitoches Cential 7 Thursday's gams Byrd vs.

Southwood (Lee Hedges) Friday' game Airline at Ouachita West Monroe at Captain Shreve District 1-4A 10 Bastrop Neville Woodlawn Fair Park Minden Northwood 50 51 41 15 06 06 10 10 01 01 01 Friday' result Woodlawn 32. Minden 14 Bastrop 59. Fair Park 22 Neville 45. Northwood 0 Friday's games Minden vs. Fair Parti Bastrop at Northwood Woodlawn at Neville District 2-4A Haughton 1 0 Bossier 1 0 Parkway 00 West Ouachita 00 Wossman 00 Friday's results Parkway 14.

GUV 6 Haughton 12. Wossman 7 Bossier 14. West Ouachita 0 Friday's games Benton at Bossier West Ouachita at Haughton Wussman at Parkway District 1 3A Benton 00 Green Oaks 00 Mansfield 00 BTW 00 Friday's results Parkway 14. BTW 6 Benton 38. McCall 28 Mansfield 34.

Many 28 (OT) Green Oaks 28. Red River 0 Friday's games Benton at Bossier Green Oaks at Many Mansfield at St. Edmund 42 42 24 15 15 51 51 51 24 District 1-2A Loyola North Caddo Springhill Lakeside Homer North DeSotO 10 10 10 01 01 01 60 60 33 33 2-4 15 Friday's results Loyola 35. Homer 7 Springhill 21, Lakeside 0 North Caddo 39. North DeSoto 12 Friday's games Homer at North Caddo North DeSoto at Lakeside Springhill at Loyola District 2-2A Lakeview 00 5-1 Jonesboro-Hodge 00 4-2 Many 0-0 42 Red River 00 3-3 Friday's results Mansfield 34, Many 28 (OT) Green Oaks 28.

Red River 0 Lakeview 28, Newellton 6 Jonesboro-Hodge 14, St. Frederick 7 Friday's games South Beauregard at Jonesboro-Hodge Green Oaks at Many Lakeview at Block District 1-1A Boys to watch Girls to watch Roderick Calhoun, Pelican Monesha Bell, Summerfield DJ. Gill, Doyline Tinisha Bell, Bienville Ryan Gipson, Dubach Lacey Cordova, Stanley Dustin Rivers, Ebarb Louvenia Gipson, Gibsland-Coleman Trevin Scott, Gibsland-Coleman Aushenterria Mitchell, Athens Justin Williams, Stanley Cheryl Patterson, Simsboro Katrina Robinson, Athens The following earned honorable mention for their performances last week: 1. Jamarkus Fobbs, Huntington running back 2. Dennis Morris, Woodlawn receiver 3.

Gerald Oliver, Plain Dealing returnerrunning back 4. Calvin Dawson, Airline linebacker 5. Zach Schreiber. Evangel defensive lineman 6. Kendrick Hill, Logansport quarterback 7.

North Caddo offensive line 8. Harry Johnson, Loyola quarterback 9. Benton offensive line 10. Steven Thoma, Captain Shreve quarterback Coaches are invited to nominate athletes from any sport for performer of the week. Nominations are due by noon each Saturday and can be e-mailed to sportsshreveporttime3.com or faxed to 459-3301.

Include all statistical material supporting the nomination, Including length of scoring plays. Send to the attention of Brian McCallum. High school notebook: Coaches fired after taking runners on questionable California road trip KANSAS CITY. Mo. Two high school cross country coaches have been fired from tlteir coaching jobs after it was discovered they took a group of students to California to run in a competition that never occurred.

Jim Hinson, suxrinUiulent of the Independence school district in suburban Kansas City, said the two Truman High School coaches timed the students during the practice run and represented those times as official meet results, which were rexrted in the local paper. Hoys coat Tom Billiiiglon and girls coach Chris Earley were removed from their coaching positions last Thursday alter questions arose about the Sept. 17-21 trip to a Jolla, Calif. 1 linson said. Both are tenured teachers and have been allowed to keep their teaching jobs for now.

a Jolla cross country coach Chuck Boyer was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but La Jolla IYincipal Dana Shelbunie said Boyer told him Tuesday that the students participated in a practice run but "they didn't keep time, they didn't have a marked course, they didn't have a start of any sort or a finish line of any sort, that the only thing they did was to do some running together." There is no indication that any improprieties or wrongdoing occurred during the trip. Hinson said. Students anil parents raised money for the trip but no district money was used, he said. Champs create own trophy CORINTH. Miss.

The 1935 Corinth football team was pretty good. It finished 8-2, won the Big 8 Conference North and beatTuK'lo 14-12. Many of the players also tasted success on the basketball court and the baseball diamond. The 1956 baseball team, in fact, won the state championship. For all their success, though, the football players never received a trophy for what they achieved.

So they decided to create their own after their 40th class reunion in 19. Tie close ties led the remaining seniors from the team to organize their own annual reunion the 2003 version was this weekend and create their own symbol of success, the Wine Trophy. A different former player or manager is chosen each year to be Keeper of the Wine, to hold the trophy with its bottle of wine and two glasses until the next year's reunion. "We have 10 senior players and managers left," said '56 senior Ijex Rhodes of Tishomingo County. "We're scattered from Biloxi to Idaho.

When there are only two of us left, they'll open the bottle of wine and drink a toast to the others." The reunions are seldom limited to the seniors and their coaches. Often special guests are invited, with the members of the championship baseball team invited to the festivities this year. Hie trophy goes to each dinner as a reminder of the good days and friendships that were forged around a football. The Times seeks schedules The Times asks high school coaches to send schedules for volleyball, cross country and all winter sports. Schedules should be sent to the attention of Brian McCallum via fax to 459-3301 or by e-mail to Coaches in Class and basketball, soccer and wrestling are encouraged to send schedules now.

From Staff and Wire reports This week's top ticket Big-game hunting in Northwest Louisiana BEST BET: High school football options were a little short on Friday, but a number of teams return home this week to face some tough opposition. Captain Shreve has one of the bigger challenges, facing West Monroe at Ix'e Hedges Stadium. Other key district games in the area have Springhill visiting Messmer Stadium to face Loyola and North Caddo playing host to Homer in Vivian. Benton and Bossier meet in a big non-district game at Bossier, while Green Oaks travels to face an explosive Many team. "It's not going to be an overnight thing.

Toward the end of the year, I'm hoping everything will come together to where we get some wins." Nathan Collinsworth, first-year Stanley boys basketball coach 1 Pi Brad Kmp. Louisiana Gannett News 28 lately, and they will try to "Defense, rebounding and free throws," he says. "You can't win if you can't do those things." His top scoring threat should be Justin Williams, a 10th grader who made the all-district team and averaged 11.6 points last season, but Collinsworth isn't expecting a miracle with a team that was winless last year. "It's not going to be an overnight tiling," he says. "Toward the end of the year, I'm hoping everything will come together to where we get some wins." bench? Flannery doesn't disagree.

He thinks it's pressure from the outside that is causing most of the problems. "Coaches aren't always blameless, but the stakes have been raised across the board. All of us are exposed to sports on TV and in the papers and plenty of the people involved have played at some level. What that's yielded in too many instances are either coaches or parents who want a girls' freshman volleyball program to be run like the Green Bay Packers." This mess won't go away anytime soon. Not when parents recall that LeBron James drove a Hummer to school his senior year or don't feel a bit of shame asking a court for $100,000 because their 15-year-old was denied a tryout with an all-star team.

The day when high school sports requires a lawyer on every bench at every game may be just around the corner, but at least there's a chance now for some consolation. If it happens, the people who turn kids' sports into a train wreck for everyone else won't always be listed as "plaintiff." Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Contact him at: jlitkeap.org tad a lawyer on every all-district tlong with Johnson, the district MVP and an all-state player. Another girls player who excelled as a freshman last season was Tinisha Bell of Bienville, who was the VT of District 4-C and led the Bobcats to the Sweet 16, Like the Gibsland-Coleman girls, the Pelican boys are coming off a state championship season. But, like Doyline, most of the key players were seniors.

And coach Richard Simmons is gone. In his place is Cleve Craig, and Roderick Calhoun, now a senior, returns after making second-team all-district and averaging 7.2 points. Dubach would like to have played in the state title game last season in Class but it didn't quite happen for the high scoring team. Ryan Gipson, an honorable-mention all-state player last year, will be a senior this sea- "Personally, 1 hope it doesn't, but I think coaches across the country are going to see this and say, said Tim Flannery, assistant executive director of the Indianapolis-based National Federation of State High School Associations." Flannery said in a telephone interview Wednesday he could recall only one other instance where a coach resorted to legal action against a meddlesome parent. In that case, he said, the parent's original claim and the coach's countersuit were dismissed as frivolous.

"But too many coaches have run out of ways to effectively deal with problem parents," Flannery said. "Maybe now, instead of resigning, some will view this as a way of fighting back." The principals in the suit are all referring calls to their lawyers. But something said by James Creekmore, who represents Hamilton, probably applies to everyone involved: "He's just sorry that it went this far." He shouldn't be surprised. After winning just three games in his first two seasons and seven last year, Hamilton must have expected some flak. What he got, according to the lawsuit, was "a system son.

The good news for him, and the rest of Class is that Zwolle, which has rivaled Dubach for a Top 28 spot the last couple of seasons, is now competing in 2A. Stanley has a bright past in boys Class basketball, but not lately. A new coach is in town in Nathan Collinsworth, who played his high school ball at Saline and is starting his first coaching job. He was a defensive specialist as a player, and defense will be one of his keys as a coach. atic pattern of public attacks." They began last fall, first with a letter from Koehler to Rockbridge County High principal Andy Bryan citing a "lack of team play." Next, Koehler complained the offense was too guard-oriented.

Then he got nasty. In subsequent missives to the school or the board, Koehler charged the coaches were running kids off the team and violating out-of-school practice rules. In a February letter to Bryan, he claimed that after a practice, his daughter, Heather, was physically restrained by Clark against her will. Koehler then threatened to file criminal charges if the school didn't remove the coaches. Bryan declined comment Wednesday, but an investigation by the Virginia state association cleared Hamilton of any rules violations, and the school's decision to retain all three coaches for this season speaks volumes.

"So many times over the years, coaches just say, 'We don't need and they quit," Flannery said. "But this looks like an example where someone finally said, 'Why should we Argue all you want about a lack of qualified coaches. Ringgold 01 2-3 Arcadia 10 23 Haynesville 10 2-4 Plain Dealing 1-0 2-3 Cotton Valley 0-1 0 6 Sarepta 01 06 Out-of-control parents in the stands at high school games have become a cliche. Finally, one of them has become a defendant A girls basketball coach in western Virginia and two of his assistants each have Jim Litke Opinion filed a defamation lawsuit seeking $1.35 million in damages from a parent they claim staged a "vendetta" against them. Tired of seeing their reputations, strategies and tactics ripped by the father of a junior athlete, Rockbridge County High School coach Mike Hamilton and assistants James Clark and Stephanie Tyree hit back with a lawsuit against Roger Koehler.

Until now, the legal traffic has been one way. Parents with too little sense and too much time and money invested in broken dreams have sued coaches and their employers over everything from dress codes to playing time. Don't be fooled by the man-bites-dog quality of this latest lawsuit, and don't bet it won't catch on. lit Friday's results Haynesville 28, Ringgold 0 Plain Dealing 47, Cotton Valley 8 Arcadia 28, Sarepta 12 Friday's games Ringgold at Arcadia Cotton Valley at Haynesville Sarepta at Plain Dealing Other Friday results Oak Grove 34, Cedar Creek 0: Logansport 49, Rosepine 20; LaSalle 45, Montgomery Mangham 61, Grambling St. Mary 23, Northwood Lena Claiborne Academy 26, Tallulah Trinity 25, Glenbrook 18; Huntington Academy 52, Plain Dealing Academy 0.

Other Friday games Cedar Creek (2-4, 0-1) at Mangham Grambling (0-5, 01) at Bernice; Montgomery (2-4, 01) at Logansport (4-2, 10); Rosepine at St. Mary (3-3, 1-0); Glenbrook (71, 3 0) at Claiborne (7-1, 4-0); Plain Dealing Academy (07, 04) at Grawood (2-4, 1-1); Riverdale (15, 1-3) at River Oaks. Class 5A-4A-3A Class 2A-1A 1. Airline 6-0 1. Loyola 6-0 2.

Evangel 3-2 2. North Caddo 6-0 3. Huntington 4-2 3. Many 4-2 4. Southwood 4-2 4.

Logansport 4-2 5. Benton 5-1 5. Springhill 3-3 6. Captain Shreve 4-2 6. Lakeview 5-1 7.

Haughton 4-2 7. Lakeside 3-3 8. Bossier 4-2 8. Homer 2-4 9. Mansfield 5-1 9.

St. Mary 3-3 10. Green Oaks 5-1 10. Red River 3-3.