Schools & Sports

What with the political scene, the Covid Virus, the shortened season, my regret at the desertion of a “young park”, and no fans in the new park, I said: “I am not going to watch the opening game for the Rangers and their new stadium!”

High school football in the state of Texas is religion. And, like many people of faith who have or are waiting for their places of worship to reopen, football coaches, players and fans alike have been waiting to see what would happen with the 2020 season. Earlier in the month, state sanctioning bodies around the country began declaring their intentions: some states would delay a few weeks; some were moving the season to spring. One state, Alabama, announced they would begin “on-time.”

I can remember several years ago, hearing my boys and their friends talking about a baseball player named “Jason Jennings.” Periodically, I would hear more about him, read about him in the Dallas paper, see him on television, or hear his name mentioned when discussions about “local” players came up among us “Forney baseball fathers” and other local experts!

Part of a successful fishing trip with kids is knowing which fish to target. That’s especially true when taking kids on their first fishing trips. Exactly what to target depends on certain factors, including where you live. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources notes that using the right bait also can help kids catch a fish. The following are a handful of types of fish to target when taking youngsters fishing.

Only two players in the entire history of the National Basketball Association have ever won both above honors during the same season—Wesley Sissel Unseld (1946—2020) and Wilton Norman Chamberlain (1936—1999)! And now both of them are gone, and we will probably never see this “double deal” accomplished again!

During the past several years, I’ve had the opportunity to fish with my friend Trey Schmidt many times. Trey has a coveted ‘fin fish’ licenses on the Texas coast. He spends 3 nights each week ‘gigging’ for flounder, the majority he sells to Nates West End Bar and Grill, a popular ‘off the beaten path’ restaurant near just west of Jamaica Beach on the road heading from Galveston to Freeport. Trey can also harvest sheepshead (a great eating but often overlooked saltwater fish) stingray, crabs and a few other species.

My all-time favorite Dallas Cowboys players, in no certain order, are the following: Don Meredith, Don Perkins, Bob Hayes, Craig Morton, Danny White, Herschel Walker, Harvey Martin, “Crazy Ray.” And not one of these uttered my all-time favorite football quote. That was done by a man, who played a very short Dallas Cowboys career—DUANE THOMAS!

In the latest change driven by the current public health situation, the Texas Outdoor Annual Hunting, Fishing and Boating Regulations will be going all-digital for the upcoming hunting and fishing license season, starting when licenses go on sale on Aug. 15. Due to the economic impacts of the virus, the Outdoor Annual booklets will not be printed, but the 2020-2021 season regulations will be available online through OutdoorAnnual. com and the free Outdoor Annual mobile app.

When I think of this player and coach, I also think of his players, John Stockton, who still wore the standard basketball shorts instead of the “pedal-pusher” style of later years, and Karl Malone, whom I always envisioned as a “Maverick,” when the two of them were running the “Pick-and-Roll” for two points time-after-time, even when their foes knew what was coming! Yes, these three men personified some of the best days of the NBA at the end of the 20th Century, when I was still young enough to play basketball with our Church Team in Dallas and with my sons on various courts in Forney, including sometimes the Themer driveway.

There were few things better when I was a boy than going to Oklahoma for our summer vacation, because I had two Grandpas, who both really “loved” fishing, and I just knew I would get to go fishing every day that we were there—except Sunday, “The Lord’s Day,” usually spent at one set of Grandparents’ house with the rest of the extended family there for a large, luscious dinner and then relaxing until the early evening, when it would probably be time to play a card game, called PITCH.

After the events of the two months prior, the storms that rolled through the DFW area on Friday night seemed an appropriate preface to the ceremony scheduled for the following day. The drizzle that continued to fall at the Senior Baseball Celebration, held at Lake Pointe Church on Saturday, May 16, was not lost on Head Baseball Coach Tommy Sparks.

LAKE FORK- Back in the day, the drill for a crappie fishing trip went something like this: Pull up to a tree with limbs above the water, secure the boat, drop minnows down through the limbs and either catch crappie or spend 30 minutes trying and then move on to the next likely spot. Those days are long gone for Lake Fork guide Seth Vanover and other anglers savvy in the use of their “Livescope”, the latest innovation for seeing what’s below the surface of the water.

Even before they walked off the Norman High School Tigers, an exciting come-from-behind 3-1 win in a game played on March 12, rumblings of a season that would be put on hold had begun. Growing concern about Covid-19, and the spread of the novel new virus, made it the topic of the day. Earlier that day, Dallas ISD had announced that they were closing the district, meaning DISD schools would not be back for the final day of the final baseball tournament before district play began. Shortly thereafter, other districts began following suit.