Schools & Sports

The 2021 Toyota ShareLunker collection season will go in the books as one of the best in the history of the program. Anglers landed 23 ShareLunkers at 10 different lakes across the state, the most during a January through March timespan since the 1995 season which produced 27. Five new lake records were established, four lakes made their mark on the program with a first ever entry, and milestone ShareLunker 600 was caught in this year’s group.

While I was looking though old JACKRABBIT yearbooks, I had a shock when I could not find any track photos until the 1960s! Now, I know that we did not have a true RUN- NING TRACK at Forney High School when I was growing up, but someone (probably from the Booster Club) would take a “grader” of some sort and form a make-shift track around the Legion Baseball Field each spring so that we could practice running; however, the oval was never a full 440 yards that was needed for a regulation track!

For the second consecutive week, the North Forney Falcons had their district 13-5A series split into two separate weeks due to inclement weather. This time, the Falcons would face off against the Crandall Pirates in a home game to complete their two-game series on Monday, April 26, before taking on the Greenville Lions in games scheduled for Tuesday and Friday to complete the regular season.

At the very beginning of 2021, I heard that Paul Westphal had died at the age of 70, and I don’t especially like to dwell upon my own mortality, despite the fact that my buddy, Lawrence, seems to not want me to forget that I am “70.”

One of my favorite quotes about Terry Gambill came when he was the freshman basketball coach at Forney at the end of the 1990s and someone after a game was criticizing him for yelling too loudly and too much at the boys on the team (who, by the way, were winning all their games). My son, Waylon, who was one of the players, heard and replied to no one in particular but to all who could hear.

APRIL 5 at 3:05 p. m.— 1st time that “real live” fans were permitted to be in the stands at Globe Life Field. All of the Rangers 2020 “home” games were played in front of “cardboard fans” due to the COVID Pandemic. For the first time there was very much in evidence the major thing that was so missing from baseball— THE FANS, and all the big and little things they bring to make the atmosphere right!

After sweeping through the first four weeks of the District 13-5A season, the North Forney Falcons suffered their first loss two weeks ago. Although the 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Highland Park Scots left both teams with matching 8-1 records, based on head-to-head record, the loss dropped the Falcons into second place, just behind HP. North Forney would stay there exactly six days as the Falcons came back to beat HP 5-2 in the return game and leapfrog back into first place with just four games left in the district season.

The Trinity Valley Cardinal cheerleaders are champions after winning the national title today in Daytona Beach, Florida.

I am not the smartest or the most intelligent person, but I do consider myself an above average “noticer.” Shakespeare would have termed the skill as being “observant.”

Yes, those of you who really know me know that “DR. J.” is my all-time favorite professional basketball player and that Brad Davis is second on my list—for differing reasons! And though Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were each “something else,” in their own ways, they were not my favorites; Wilt Chamberlain was my “number three.”

By Don Themer Staff Writer

Anglers added two more Legacy Lunkers to the 2021 Toyota ShareLunker season totals over the weekend. The run at O.H. Ivie powered on, reaching double digits with 10 Legacy Lunkers this year courtesy of ShareLunker 603 Friday. On Saturday, Lake Tyler made a huge splash with Share-Lunker 604, recording the first ever entry for the lake in the ShareLunker program.

As guide Chris Moody eased the throttle back on his big guide boat last week, I could make out the mouth of a wide feeder creek entering Richland Chambers Reservoir. Once inside the creek, we were in a totally different world; a world I expect few people experience. No other fishermen had ventured into the remote area. The shorelines were lined with giant trees and plants of all sorts in bloom. The spring woods were just coming to life with pale green colors, the morning air was crisp and fresh; it was a great morning to be alive and Chris and our friend Larry Weishuhn and I were absorbing every minute detail of our adventure. Chris shut the big engine off, using the trolling motor to ease us along from one brushy area to the next, the only sounds were an occasional wood duck or heron taking wing or the chatter of a squirrel, spooked by our intrusion into their tranquil world. We were here to catch spawning crappie that had chased huge schools of shad into the slowly moving current.