june 23, 2013 sunday ports a9preseason manual for football fans in the lone star state, hit...
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SUNDAYJUNE 23, 2013 SportS [email protected]
BRENT [email protected]
Happytimes atDenny’sTwo things surprised me in the NBA finals, which con-cluded Thursday with the Miami Heat’s 95-88 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7. But only one of those things actually hap-pened on the court. The surprise during the game was LeBron James’ clutch perfor-mance. He came up big for the Heat in the fourth quarter, which was a problem two years ago in his first season in Miami. I loved all the fourth quarter jokes as much as the next guy, but after his per-formances in the finals last year and this year, they’ve got to be put to rest. The other thing that surprised me involved a decision that was made off the court. It hap-pened after the celebra-tion in the locker room and after all the post-game press conferences. It was a decision made by a rich athlete who proved championship parties don’t have to happen in fancy night-clubs. Miami’s Shane Battier sent out a tweet late Thursday night/early Friday morning displaying exactly what his personal victory party included. The photo showed Battier sitting in a booth at Denny’s with four other people. Menus were strewn on the table and everyone had a glass of water. The tweet said “Denny’s. a cham-pionship tradition. #Grandslam.” It’s refreshing to see an athlete celebrate the same way I would envision an average American to celebrate. Even though he raked in more than $3 million this season, in addition to the other millions he has accumulated in his 13-year career, he and his loved ones still went to a simple spot like Denny’s. Compare that to LeBron, Dwyane Wade and some other play-ers and executives. Those guys reportedly took their celebration to a well-known night-club in South Beach, where they racked up a $100,000 tab. I’m not bashing LeBron or Wade’s choice of lifestyle. They make more money than I could ever dream of making, and it’s up to them to decide how they want to spend it. My point is that it’s a breath of fresh air to see an athlete show the world that athletes aren’t required to get drunk and spend loads of money in a club to have fun after reaching the peak of their profession. Plus, I fully endorse the Grand Slam break-fast option at Denny’s. So not only do I agree with his lifestyle choice, but I also agree with his taste buds.
Pigskin predictions
Cain inHall ofFame
Jones hired as Chisum softball coachHIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL
Sam Craft / The Paris News
Paris linebacker Brickey Reed (32) tackles a Denison player during a game last sea-son. Reed was selected by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine as the preseason Defensive MVP of District 13-3A.
It’s only June, but the release of the 54th annual edition of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine has given high school football fans a reason to look ahead to the start of the regular season. Texas Football, an essential preseason manual for football fans in the Lone Star State, hit newsstands this past week. As usual, it features a bevy of coverage and predictions for high school districts and college football conferences throughout the state. This season, the maga-zine’s staff has predicted both the Paris Wildcats and North Lamar Panthers to make the playoffs. This would be the sec-ond consecutive season for that feat to be accomplished, after the Wildcats won the district title last year and the Panthers
entered the postseason as the second-seeded team. Paris is predicted to finish in second place in District 13-3A this season, behind first-place Liberty-Eylau, which returns
seven starters on offense and seven on defense. Atlanta is picked to finish third, with North Lamar finishing fourth. This year marks the first for the UIL to allow four teams in each district to qualify for the postseason. Pittsburg and Pleasant Grove round out the district’s predicted finishes. Paris senior linebacker Brickey Reed was selected as the preseason Defensive MVP, while L-E senior running back/receiver/safety Davion Hall was picked to be the preseason Offensive MVP. Hall, last year’s District 13-3A MVP, has already received scholarship offers from schools such as Baylor, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.
CLASS 2ADIVISION I
Prairiland’s Patriots endured
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazinereleases annual high school forecast
Paris native to beinducted into
Semi-Pro Hall of Fame this week
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Bob Cain carries the ball during a football game in the 1960s. Cain will be inducted into the Semi-Professional Football Hall of Fame later this week.
Ryan Jones, who spent the past two years coach-
ing girls basketball at Detroit, was recent-ly approved by the Chisum ISD school board to become the
new head softball coach. She takes over for Jeremy Moss, who will remain at the school as the head boys basketball coach. Jones is a familiar face to the Lady Mustang
softball senior class. She was a student-teacher at Chisum three years ago and spent time around those players, who were in their freshman season. Jones said she wanted the chance to coach those athletes again. “I know their work ethic is there and they have the motivation I’m looking for in a group of athletes,” she said. “I know they will hopefully exceed all expectations they have set for them-selves, which are pretty high. “They’ll have under-classmen coming up who are just as motivated to
learn the game. As a coach, that makes you feel good when you have younger players who want to get better and pick up where those older girls left off.” Jones, a Honey Grove High School grad, pitched for the Warriors for four years before playing shortstop for two years at Grayson County College. Her passion for the game made her stand out to Chisum athletic director Bo Wasurick. “In meeting with her, her passion for the sport of softball just came through,” he said. “I was impressed. With the
group of girls we have now, the group of girls we have coming and the type of program we’re trying to build, we need people to have that pas-sion for whatever their head coaching responsi-bility is.” Jones inherits a team that returns all of its starters from 2013. The coach and athletic direc-tor are on the same page when it comes to goals for the softball program: Get to the playoffs and win. A pair of one-run losses to Commerce in the area round knocked Chisum out of the play-offs last season.
“(A goal) short-term would be developing their skills even more and taking them to the next level,” Jones said. “I know they’ve had their hopes come up short the past couple of years, playoff-wise.” “I think physically we have a really talented team,” Wasurick said. “We’re going to address all of our needs in the offseason. We’re working on their quickness, which is something I thought we lacked in softball, and the other part is bringing in Coach Jones to try and put us over the hump, that next level.”
Bob “Bobby D.” Cain, a Paris native, will be inducted into the Semi-Pro Football
Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, on June 28. Cain was a three-time Central States League all-star at wide receiver for the Manitowoc County Chiefs in Manitowoc,
Wisc., from 1967-70. “I was actually shocked a little bit,” Cain said. “I got a call from one of my old play-ers from Manitowoc, (saying) that I had been selected as a nominee, and I really couldn’t believe it in the beginning.” Cain played one year of high school football in Paris, for coach Raymond Berry Sr., as a running back and safety. He moved to California early in his sophomore year, where he eventually enlisted in the Marine Corps at Treasure Island in San Francisco. He competed in eight-man foot-ball for the Navy and made the all-star squad. Word about his skills got out and it would carry him to a semi-pro career. “The Marine Corps heard about me, so they invited me down to San Diego to try out for the football team,” Cain said. “I was selected, they transferred me to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and I played football there for two years (1963-64). Then I got a scholarship to Brigham Young University.”
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL
Courtesy photo
The cover of Dave Campbell’s 2013 Texas Football magazine features Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.
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BOBCAIN
RYANJONES
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