High school confidential

Girls basketball all-star game covers wide range

The DFW Metro All Star girls basketball game will be held at Burleson High School on May 17 at 4 p.m. Director Rusty East, who is also the head coach at Burleson, anticipates numerous college coaches on hand at this unsigned-senior event, which he thinks will consist of two 20-minute halves. ``We are trying to built this up to promote these kids from a broad range and give them exposure," he said. The contestants have been selected from throughout a 60-mile radius and cover every classification. ``There are a few all-star games that go on and a lot of them limit themselves to classifications or areas," East said. "This one is scattered around DFW in about a 60-mile radius. We’ve got kids coming from East Texas, the Forney area and the Waco area. Also we have them from 1A to 5A. ``We expect ours to be a learning process in the first year. But we also expect our to be, I don’t want to say better, but we are going to do some things. We are going to have a 3-point shooting contest at halftime. We’ve got an announcer that does TCU games. We are going to make it as first-class as we can.’’ East said there might even be two or three games played due to the amount of interest they’ve received.

All-star games set for Thursday

The fifth annual DFW All-Star Game is scheduled for Thursday at Thomas Coliseum in Haltom City. The girls game is scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m. with the boys set for 8 p.m. The Tarrant County girls won the inaugural game last season over Dallas ISD. The Dallas ISD boys, on the other hand, lead the series, 3-1, over Tarrant County. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students.

Stephenville chooses Gee as girls basketball coach

Stephenville has hired Eastland's Rodney Gee as its girls basketball coach, athletic director Joseph Gillespie said Tuesday.
Gee led Eastland to the playoffs eight of the last 10 years (three in Class 3A and five in Class 2A), including five straight trips from 2003-07. The Lady Mavs missed the playoffs last season after going 18-13.
Gee replaces Ron Berry, who left Stephenville in March to coach Class 2A Cisco.
-- Drew Davison

Nolan Catholic coach resigns

Nolan Catholic girls basketball coach Joey Simmons, whose teams went 100-45 over his four years at the school, resigned March 10. This season the Vikings were 28-11 and lost in the TAPPS Division I regional final. Simmons, 53, said he wanted to watch his daughter, Jodi, play her senior year of basketball at Bryan St. Joseph.
Simmons said his family moved a year and a half ago to the Bryan/College Station area. “I hated to leave because I’m walking away from a state championship team,” Simmons said. “We have everyone coming back. But I felt like I owed it to my daughter to be there for her senior year.” The Vikings basketball team graduates just two and all five starters will return next year. “It was a really tough decision for me,” Simmons said. “It had been on my mind all season long. But I’ve already missed two years of my daughter's career. Whoever gets the job over there is going to step into a great situation. The kids are great.” The Vikings advanced to the playoffs all four years Simmons’ coached. They advanced to the regional finals twice and the state semifinals twice. Nolan Catholic athletic director Steve Prud'homme said he hopes to find a coach to be a full-time Nolan employee, but finding the best candidate will be paramount. “Our first preference is to a get a full-time position,” Prud’homme said. “That would be the best of both worlds. But we have the option to bring in someone part-time. We want to fill it as soon as possible but we’ll try to get the best person available.” Prud’homme said it’s important that the next Vikings coach is ready to take on a team that has already proven it’s capable of a deep playoff run. “It’s going be one of our best teams ever,” Prud’homme said. “It’s really important to get someone good.” On Simmons’ departure, Prud’homme said “he’s done everything he could. He couldn’t have shown any more class.”
--Stefan Stevenson

Area basketball standouts honored

North Crowley’s Willie Warren, Fort Worth Dunbar’s Brooklyn Pope and Kennedale’s Destini Hughes were chosen in February as 2008 McDonald’s All-Americans will be honored Thursday night by the McDonald’s Owner/Operators of North Texas with a congratulatory send-off ceremony at 7 p.m. tonight. The send-off will be at the McDonald’s at 3200 SE Loop 820 in Fort Worth at the intersection of I-820 and Wichita St.
School and community guests, as well as parents and McDonald’s representatives will join Warren, Pope and Hughes.
Warren, who led North Crowley to its first state championship, is the lone Texan playing in the boys game, while Pope and Hughes are two of the four players from Texas on the girls’ West roster. Both games will be March 26 in Milwaukee, Wis. and will be nationally televised.

Lake Country recognizes state champs

Lake Country scheduled a Tuesday ceremony at the school to honor its girls basketball team, winner of this year’s TAPPS 4A state title.

Tom Etchison, who led the Lake Country boys to a state title in 2006, said the girls title was unexpected. Lake Country needed to beat Carrollton Christian, a team it lost to three times in the regular season, in the regional round to advance to the state tournament.

The Lady Eagles, who finished third in TAPPS 4A District 1, defeated Austin Hyde Park, last year’s TAPPS 4A state runners up, 51-42 in the championship game.

``Our practices before the playoffs started, I saw a real difference in them,” Etchison said. ``They had more confidence and intensity.”

Defense proved pivotal throughout the Lady Eagles’ playoff run. Lake Country, a man defense team, went to a triangle-and-two defense against Carrollton Christian. The Lady Eagles practiced it for the first time the week before the game.

In the championship game, defense again proved pivotal. Lake Country held on to a one-point lead entering the fourth quarter. Senior 6-foot-5 post Chrisan Petrovanie held Hyde Park’s Ashlyn Brown to zero points in the quarter after she had 15 of her 21 points in the third quarter.

``I just looked at Chrisan and told her to play defense,” Etchison said. Petrovanie had two of her four blocks in the fourth quarter. Four players averaged double digits in scoring during the playoffs.

The Lady Eagles have advanced to the TAPPS state finals five out of the last six years. Etchison said the players have already decided what their state ring will look like.

``It’s pretty nice,” he said. ``There’s a blue LC going though diamonds.” Since Etchison graduates just two seniors (Petrovanie and Raegan Bailey), he is excited about the program’s future.

Kennedale advances to 3A title game

It was close, but Kennedale (30-4) held off Corpus Christi West Oso 60-59 in the Class 3A state semifinals in Austin, moving on to Saturday's championship game at the Frank Erwin Center. West Oso (34-1) called timeout with 10 seconds left to set up a play, but a last-second shot missed and the Lady Kats moved on.

"When you get two teams like that," Kennedale coach Vance Hughes said in a post-game radio interview. "It's got to be one of the classics."

Kennedale stars Destini Hughes and Samantha Mahnesmith each finished the game with four fouls. Mahnesmith scored 15 points, but it was Hughes that was the difference. The LSU signee scored 27 points on 13-of-20 shooting with seven rebounds. Novella Thomas led West Oso with 27 points.

Dunbar survives Christian-lead Aledo to reach regional semifinals

Hannah Christian did all she could to will Aledo past Dunbar on Tuesday. But there was only so much she could do against Brooklyn Pope and the Lady Wildcats. Christian finished with 23 points in dazzling fashion but Pope countered with 26 points, 13 rebounds and 13 blocks to lead Dunbar to a 63-51 win in the Region I Regional Quarterfinals at Colleyville Heritage High School on Tuesday. The defending 4A state champion Lady Wildcats, who have just three seniors, will play either Amarillo Palo Duro or Lubbock Estacado in the regional semifinals on Feb. 22 at Stephens Arena at Angelo State University at 7 p.m. Dunbar trailed the entire way until Pope’s layup with 3:21 put the Lady Wildcats up 54-53. Taylor Hays hit two free throws with 4:01 left to give Aledo (31-5) a 53-48 lead, but the Ladycats wouldn’t score again. Dunbar stepped up its defensive intensity, forced the ball out of Christian’s hands, and ended the game on a 13-0 run. Sophomore Taylor Collier had 14 points and freshman Jazmin Wiley added eight points for Dunbar (30-5). Aledo held a 21-16 lead after the first and went into the locker room up 38-32. Christian had 17 points in the half. The Ladycats scored just 15 points in the second half.
- William Wilkerson

Crowley girls advance

The Crowley girls' basketball team is making a return trip to the regional semifinals after defeating Joshua, 49-39, on Monday night at Burleson High School. The Lady Eagles (31-4), led by Megan Dell and Tayla Vaughn who each had 12 points, made it to the regional semifinals last season too, the deepest run in school-history. "Joshua came out and played a heck of a game," Crowley coach Alan Neff said. "In a lot of ways they played better than us. It was a hard fought battle. It's an awesome feeling to make it back there though." The Lady Eagles will face the winner of Plainview / Frenship in San Angelo on Saturday. It marked the end of a fairytale season for Joshua (24-11), which made the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. Freshman standout guard Brady Sanders led the Lady Owls with 12 points.

-- Drew Davison

Late free throws key Aledo win

After surrendering the lead in the final minute, Aledo hit four free throws in the final 21 seconds to pull out a 56-55 victory over Denton Ryan in the second round of the playoffs. That sets up a Class 4A Region I quarterfinal matchup with Fort Worth Dunbar. No one was more relieved after Aledo's win than coach David Walker, whose technical foul with 52 seconds left helped Ryan grab a 53-52 advantage. Hannah Christian and Logan Mittie each hit two free throws to put Aledo up 56-53, then Ryan's Alex Ray missed the potential tying 3-pointer. Emily Paramore's putback at the buzzer left the Lady Raiders (21-12) a point short. "Thank goodness they kept their composure because I didn’t,” Walker said of his players. “They had my back tonight.” Christian and Taylor Hays had 17 points each for the Ladycats (31-4), and Mittie added 14.

-- Lori Dann