El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 25

Miner football ready to make splash in new league. Monday Sunday, July 31, 2005 Sports Editor Sam Aselstine 546-6170, sports alpasotimes.com www.elpasotimes.coni Sam Aselstine Anthony invitational Two-time champion in match-play events final four By John Erfort El Paso Times ANTHONY, N.M. When he saw the way the 16-man bracket was drawn up, Jamey Boone, the defending champion at the annual Anthony Invitational golf tournament, knew he had his work cut out for him. One of the best young players in the field, Trevor Sauntry, was on his side of the bracket in the match-play event at Anthony Country Club. "I thought Trevor would have to be the guy I'd have to beat to win it," Boone said Saturday after advancing to today's semifinals of the championship flight with a 3 and 2 victory against Sauntry.

"I had been playing pret ty good all summer, but I knew there were some kids playing who can hit it pretty good. "Experience might have played a little bit of a part. Match play is just a little different than medal play." Boone trailed by three after eight holes, but rallied to win the next five holes to pull ahead. "(That run) kind of put me in a different frame of mind," Boone said. "I made a couple bogeys early and got down, but then I birdied 9, 12, 15 and 16.

I really made some coming down the stretch to put some pressure on him. "But he's a good player. He hits it a long way and it's tough to beat him. In fact, he beat me in the semifinals two years ago." Boone has won the tournament twice in the past six years, including a handful of second-and third-place finishes. He said, speaking as a veteran, that it's not easy to hold off the younger challengers but when you do, it's nice.

"It feels pretty good to beat the young kids," he said. "Most of them play college golf, and they play a lot of tournaments and they play good golf courses every time out and they know how to play." Another past champion who overcame a deficit to win Saturday was Javier Delgadillo. who won the tournament in 2001 and 2002. Delgadillo was down two holes at one point Please see Anthony 11C Mar Lambie El Paso Times Jessie Valdez lines up a putt. SOCCER: EL PASO 2 LAREDO 0 r- HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL This is the third of 28 installments from the El Paso Times ranking area high school football teams.

The city's No. 1 team will be revealed Aug. 25. when Franklin begins the local schedule against Las Cruces. PATRIOTS WIN AGAIN BlOBSaBBNl iNHHtB 7iiF SAN ELIZARIO EAGLES By Darren Hunt El Paso Times San Elizario High School may be ranked No.

26 in the El Paso Times 2005 prep football preseason countdown, but the Eagles have a weapon few know about. Manny Alvarez, entering his 12th year at San Eli and fourth as head coach, has added former Animas (N.M) seven-time state champion coach Billy Henson to his staff as offensive coordinator. "He's really changing things around," Alvarez said. "He coached in Clayton and Silver City after Animas, then he decided' to go into administration. He was looking to get back into coaching and wanted to come to a small town where he could make a difference.

That's why he is here." Alvarez's best season was last year, when the Eagles finished 3-7, going 3-5 in District 2-4A. There are 12 starters returning, including several seniors at the skill positions. "We've got the quarterback and the receivers to run his offense," Alvarez said of Henson's run-and-shoot. "We'll spread things out and go four-wide, maybe five-wide. The only thing we're lacking is the line.

We lost basically all of them." Senior quarterback Sammy Hernandez can't wait to take over the new offense. "You don't see this offense in El Paso that much," Hernandez said. "It's no huddle, a lot more passing. I like it a lot. It's a lot more comfortable for me." Hernandez has seniors Marco Torres, Hector Vargas and Willy Martinez to throw to.

Darren Hunt may be reached at dhuntetpascrnes.com; 546-6168. It's just like Christmas for football fans With all the passion of Will Feirell's character in "Elf" when he hears of an impending visit from Santa Claus, grown men around the country are heralding the arrival of football season. Well, not quite football season, officially, but the beginning of training camps that leave us just a month or so from the real thing. NFL camps got in gear the past few days, many of the high schools start Monday and the Miners' much-anticipated debut in Conference USA starts when the team reports to camp Wednesday. UTEP will practice Thursday (10 a.m.) and Friday (9 a.m.) in El Paso before heading to Socorro, N.M., on Friday to begin nine days of workouts beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Saturday. Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy! Fans can get an up-close look at the team many national "experts" predict nothing short of a Conference USA title and a second-consecutive bowl appearance. They might even be seen pointing at program savior Mike Price, and like Ferrell's character, Buddy, begin frantically proclaiming, "1 know him! I know him!" And they'd know him because Price seemingly is everywhere. Does this man sleep? Fine formula Price understands the value of a hard day's work. But not only does Price put in the time, he follows a smart blueprint for success, one he continually tweaks in ways any leader would do well to mimic.

The other aspect of the longtime coach people are drawn to is his magnetic personality. The man genuinely likes people. Saturday alone, two journalists, normally the most cynical creatures alive, commented, independently and at different times, something along the line of: "Mike Price must be about the nicest guy on earth." So Price has a personality that lights up a room. Equally important, however, as it's what he is paid to do: The man knows how to win football games. He not only knows how to win football games, but he makes the process extremely enjoyable for his boys putting in all the hard work.

Price, the master motivator, knows just when to sprinkle in a dose of humor be it through a joke or dressing up in a duck-hunting outfit to take the edge off what might otherwise be a stressful time. Football fun It all adds up to happy times in El Paso for Miner fans and anyone who takes pride in this city. It also means exciting and quality football in El Paso, words not linked very often during the Miner program's 91-year history. And it all begins in four days. Following is the rest of the Miners' practice schedule at New Mexico Tech in Socorro: Sunday, Aug.

7, 4 p.m.; Monday, Aug. 8, 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 9, 9 a.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 10, 9 a.m.

and 4 p.m.; Thursday, Aug. 11, 9 a.m.; Friday, Aug. 12, 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 13, 3:30 p.m.

(scrimmage); Sunday, Aug. 14, 11 a.m. The El Paso Diablos continued their strong play with their third consecutive defeat of first-place Fort Worth in as many games Saturday night at Cohen Stadium. El Paso goes for the sweep in a rare 2:05 p.m. start today.

Fort Worth's Dan Grybash (4-1) will face El Paso's Jose Garcia (0-0) on the mound today. Sam Aselstine may be reached at saselstineelpasotimes.com; 546-6170. Debra Gulbas El Paso Times El Paso Patriot Rodrigo Morin, top, took possession of the ball Saturday as the Laredo Heat's Ernesto Contreras fell during Saturday night's Premier Development League playoff match at Patriot Stadium. El Paso advances in PDL playoffs By David Vasquez El Paso Times The El Paso Patriots are champions of the Premier Development League's Southern Conference. The Patriots defeated the Laredo Heat 2-0 in the conference final on Saturday at Patriot Stadium, their second home playoff match wins in as many nights, the first-ever in team history.

"It's a reward for all the hard work we put in this season," El Paso coach Jesus Enriquez said of the victory. "This team has worked very hard and they deserve this championship. I feel very proud of this team. It feels very good to be Southern Division champions." The Patriots got a pair of goals from (13-3-2) lead. Saturday's win follows El Paso's 2-1 victory against Central Florida in one of Friday night's semifinal matches.

Laredo (10-8) upset Southeast Conference champ Cocoa Expos (11-4-2) on Friday night to earn a berth in Saturday's final against El Paso. "We're heading for the national championships," Enriquez said of advancing in the playoffs. "We are already prepared for the next level, we just need to continue to work hard and do the things we've done all season. Hopefully we can win this for the people of El Paso, because they have been here to support us the whole way." David Vasquez may be reached at spoftselpasotimes.com; 546-6153. See Patriots stories from the past week Online the league's two-time leading scorer, Daniel Frias.

In the game's 20th minute, Frias took the deflection of a shot by Laurenco An-drade and put it in the back of the net for a 1-0 Patriots lead. Just three minutes later, Frias beat three Laredo defenders and lofted the ball over the head of Heat goaltender Ryan Shaughnessy for a 2-0 Patriots otimcs.com MM Rankings updated daily SPORTS DIGEST WNBA Detroit 75 San Antonio 68 Connecticut 66 Houston 63 ft Gamble Crocker AMERICAN LEAGUE N.Y.Yankees 8 LA. Angels 7 Chicago White Sox 9 Baltimore 6 Oakland 9 Detroit 5 Seattle 3 Cleveland 2 Texas 3 Toronto 2 Tampa Bay 7 Kansas City 3 Boston 6 Minnesota 2 NATIONAL LEAGUE Arizona 3 Chicago Cubs 2 St. Louis 9 LA. Dodgers 4 Houston 2 N.Y.

Mets 0 Florida 3 Washington 0 Milwaukee 7 San Francisco 1 Atlanta 9 Pittsburgh 6 Philadelphia 8 Colorado 7 Cincinnati 9 San Diego 1 CENTRAL LEAGUE El Paso 6 Fort Worth 3 The camp will be available in two sessions, from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Players may attend either session or sign up for both sessions. The cost is $150 for one session and $250 for the all-day camp.

Registration will begin at 7:30 a.m. Monday in Memorial Gym. Big league call-up: Former Socorro Bulldog Omar Quintanilla was called up from Triple-A by the Colorado Rockies on Saturday, taking the spot of Desi Relaford, who was cut. Quintanilla was acquired by the Rockies in a trade with Oakland earlier this season. Times wire, staff reports El Paso runner sixth at national track meet Tia Gamble finished sixth Saturday in the 800 meters in the midget girls (age 11-12) division at the USA Track Field junior nationals meet in Indianapolis.

Gamble ran a time of 2 minutes, 21.20 seconds. Two more local athletes are scheduled to compete in today's finals: Gamble in the midget girls 400 meters and Kaiser Wade in the young men's 400-meter hurdles. Visit DOC: UTEP coach Doc Sadler and his staff will conduct a basketball camp Monday through Thursday in Memorial Gym. The camp is for boys and girls, ages 8-18, and the emphasis will be in developing the basic fundamentals of basketball shooting, dribbling, passing and defense. Players will be grouped according to age, height and ability levels, and league games will be a part of the daily schedule.

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