scoopno1

Speaking of DI and D2. I believe Silsbee was the largest D2 school with Carthage being the Smallest D1 School. I believe there was about ten kids separating the two schools. Silsbee just reported an enrollment increase of about 50 to 60 kids. They also have four classes in a row that will be coming into the high school with more than 200 kids in each class. What are the chances that Silsbee jumps back up to D1. Maybe Carthage could go to DII at the same time. We will have to wait 1 1/2 years to find out.

That was my thinking exactly. I even talked with Coach Green about it. He said it would not happen. I don't like transfers unless the parents move. Over the years we have had too many transfers from Silsbee to Kountze and from Kountze to Silsbee. A large portion of the athletes at Evadale actually live in Silsbee. I would prefer that the kids play sports in the district where they reside. Of course we know that never happens (meaning no transfers without moving) at places like Yates.

We've been doing that for years at The Silsbee Bee. It is a lot of fun but it is a lot of work because you have to go take most of those pictures and interview all those people.

The Silsbee Tigers were actually invited to two national tournaments. One was in Florida and the other was the Sugar Bowl Classic. This year district play starts before Christmas and the Sugar Bowl Classic was the only one that they could work into the schedule. This year Silsbee will have a much improved schedule over previous years. They have been really short on home games for several years but this year the promise is that they will have several good home games in the preseason.

I've known coach Joubert ever since he has been in Kountze. I guess I never thought about him being black. Not that it matters. I've always found him to be courteous, very responsive to my questions and a heck of a good guy. I would hate to see him leave Kountze but if he did I would certainly wish him the best. By the way as I understand it after playing football and graduating from Hardin Jefferson he played football at West Texas A&M and then in the Canadian Football League for several years. Even after he returned to Southeast Texas he played for the Beaumont Drillers. I think he likes coaching football but I can tell you this.... if coach Sigler decided to retire from SHS I would be calling the Superintendent asking them to consider Joubert as the next coach. He is a fine man and a great person to have around kids. If he were to leave Kountze and go to HJ it would be HJ's gain and Kountze's loss.

I like the idea of only having five on the first team and a different five on the second. When you do that someone is going to be left out. That's the way it is in real life. Jordyn is a great player. However Bush and McCain were stronger this year during tournament time. Next year could well be different. I have no complaints about the people who received first team honors and I doubt he does either.

I look for Draelyn Taylor to play quarterback until one of the younger players is ready to fill the role.

I am and will be praying for you. I certainly appreciate your comments and your objective opinions. I don't know who you are and don't know what is afflicting you but I do know that God has the power to meet any challenge.

I believe that Silsbee will win back to backs but they better play the games one at a time. I think this is the 17th time I've had a team to cover at a state tournament. I think that in basketball size does matter. To me in most instances it is a much bigger factor than depth. LaMarque almost beat Lincoln two years ago with size. They had a big lead and if Lincoln had not mounted a huge come-back Silsbee would have probably already had its back to back state championships. Depth becomes a factor when people get in foul trouble. At this point in the season most of these kids can play a whole game with little or no relief. They are in shape. Fouls are a bigger factor than being tired. I think the team most likely to pull off an upset is Seminole. They appear to have outside shooters, bulk and height. If things fall right for them they could give someone trouble. I haven't seen any film on Carter but the coaches tell me that they are a team to be feared.

I 've always been very impressed with Coach Louis and hope he has a long and successful career at the new school. He has always seemed to be a very fine man to me.

I've seen them play about three times this year. I suspect the coach has tried hard to get the player to play on the blocks. Sometimes doing what you want to do is more important than winning.

I hear that there will probably be six road games this year and no neutral site games. The good thing about that is that next year we should have six home games. Things could change though. Keep us away from Lufkin by all means. Our record there must be something like 1 and ten. The beating we took there last year was so bad you want to think about forfeiting the next time you have a play-off. (no not really_.

I hope everything works out for Kirbyville. I have attended their games off and on for the past 12 years. To me they don't have the athletes that they had in the past. I always thought that good coaches seem to have good athletes but that is not always the case. There is an old saying something about sometimes it is not the X's and the O's but it is who has the Jimmies and the Joes. I had a good relationship with Jack Alvarez, and Greg Neece and also thought Couch Doughty was an all right guy. I wish him the best in the future.

The first play-off game I wrote about in Colorado was at Nederland. They probably had a couple hundred students and had a team good enough to make the play-offs but not to win. The whole area is different. Unfortunately Colorado is beautiful but the state has become overrun by people from California and it is not the place that it was when I moved there in 1979.

How many offensive and defensive linemen do the Tigers return? It seems like they have rebuilt the offensive line every year since Patrick Hudson graduated.

Jasper football seems to be following the same pattern as Jasper Basketball. Play in small school tournaments, Evadale, etc. Then wonder why you can't compete when you meet the top schools in your class. Well..... it looks good on the coaches coaching record. Maybe that's all that matters. I have always enjoyed watching games against Jasper even when Jasper dominated the series and even when the lights went out, and all the other strange things that have happened. By the way I wasn't there last year when the late hit happened but I was there when the Jasper fans attacked the Silsbee basketball team after the game.

Last go round Jasper did not want to play WOS anymore and reportedly did not want to play Silsbee but the administration made them play Silsbee. I hope they end up in Silsbee's District. Overall I believe they still have a winning record against Silsbee. This year they say their not playing Silsbee in anything. For years Jasper has played a small school schedule in Basketball but still was highly competitive in Football. I hope they don't go to a small school schedule in football. That makes the coaches record look good but does not create many state championship situations. Jasper is one of those schools that could jump in there and beat a WOS which would make them a statewide contender. This year Silsbee played three schools that went all the way to the state finals. They did not win any of the games but you have to compliment their willingness to compete.

I'm not talking about this year. I'm talking about during my 45 years of writing. Several of them did win state championships. The 2A and 3A teams that I have seen this year are right around here and I don't believe any of them could beat a team like Silsbee.

One of the things that makes basketball so much fun is that it really only takes a few people to play the sport. I think it is realistic that two top notch players and a few role players who can do their job can win a state championship in 4A. Not many teams have ten or more players like Silsbee did last year. There are more than twice the number of basketball schools in this state that there are in football. Right now there are probably about ten teams that can win a state championship. There are at least ten who can beat anyone else in the state on any given night. It is pretty hard to repeat in basketball. This team has a chance but they must figure out how to play with six to eight players instead of ten or more. They must also figure out a way to replace Willie Jones. There are not many teams have a player of that caliber to come off the bench. I have seen a number of small schools (2A and 3A) that could play with or beat a team like Silsbee but it is hard for them to string together the six or seven wins that are required to advance all the way to the state finals.

There was a lot of scoring in this game. Silsbee went on a 14-1 run after trailing 33-29 early in the second quarter. The Tigers held a lead of about ten to 13 points throughout most of the game and then Lumberton rallied at the end to narrow the gap to 99-94.

Our scheduling in 4A Division ! has been tough. Part of the reason for this has been that there are ten teams in the nearby 5A district and they only need one non district game. On the other hand 4A schools need 5 games in a six team district. The 5A schools can't play us after week one and the smaller schools don't want too. This should get better with the division in 5A. If 5A Division 2 had eight teams then they will need three non district games and they should be able to work some of our teams in. The 5A Division I teams might find themselves in the same shape our district has been in. It scares me to a degree that Huffman and Cleveland might move to 5A. This would leave us with only four teams. There is no one to the east so we might be doing some very serious traveling either north or probably west for district games.

Does anyone know how badly Thomas was hurt Friday and if Silsbee lost any other players? The injuries have killed the Tigers this year.

Kountze has more than 20 players.... They have a JV team in addition to the 20 players on varsity. I have seen both teams play. Kountze may or probably has more speed. I would guess Kirbyville has the superior linemen. Kountze has added three or four players. It will be interesting to see if they can upgrade the team.

Silsbee now has a one game winning streak. We're happy if we get to 3. I can only remember a couple times we reached nine maybe once we reached 10.

I saw half the game. It appears to me that Kirbyville is beginning to figure out their new offense. During the scrimmages there was a mess of confusion when they attempted to run the ball. Now there appears to be some well defined running lanes. On the other hand Westwood was not very good.