KFDM COOP

Biffle's girlfriend chews out Busch's fiancee Greg Biffle's racing day came to an early and frustrating end Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway when he was nudged from behind by Kurt Busch and spun out control. And that didn't sit too well with Biffle, or Biffle's girlfriend, Nicole Lunders. After the accident, Lunders climbed off Biffle's pit box and marched down pit road to angrily confront Busch's fiancee, Eva Bryan, over what happened. The confrontation was brief, and it's not clear what point Nicole Lunders was trying to make. But as the two women had it out under the hot Texas sun, Tammy Wynette was likely smiling down to see Lunders "Stand By Her Man." "That just shows her professionalism," Busch said of Lunders in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Biffle, who won the Nextel Cup race at Texas last April, was running well again. He had already led 49 laps, and was working back toward the front of the field when he was knocked out of the race on the 83rd lap. "When you're the guy that all you have to do is lift on the gas pedal a little bit and elect not to run into the car in front of you on the straightaway, that's pretty unforgivable," Biffle said. Busch said he was only trying to get out of the way. "He checked up on the straightaway," said Busch, who was a lap down at the time. "I had no place else to go." Busch managed to finish the Samsung/RadioShack 500, but had to make several stops because of damage to his front end. He was 34th, 48 laps behind winner Kasey Kahne. Biffle was 42nd. Biffle had an early 7 1/2-second lead over Kahne before he pitted during the race's first caution and dropped to ninth. Biffle was headed back to the front when his car slammed into the wall so hard that the race had to be stopped for 10 minutes to repair the safer barrier. Other than a scrape on his forearm, Biffle wasn't hurt. Biffle also had a promising start at last fall's Cup race in Texas before running into disappointment. He went seventh to first in only 37 laps, but then had to go into the pit under green because of problems with the car. He ended up finishing 20th.

Guest...Can you register?

Which one in Orange? If it's the one i'm thinking about i never had any luck there?

Me either. I usually stick with Lizards this time of year and in the Summer plastic worms, Spinnerbaits and Buzzbaits in shallow areas.

Franks will be the Punter. Still looking for a Kicker.

Welcome...Alto seems to always be good!

With Hill Junior College..Congrats.

Love Buzzbaits in the Sping in Shallow water..Wooo, Where you at Jody.

Class 5A Memorial...Practice begins Monday April 10th and ends with game May 9th. West Brook..Practice begins April 24th and ends with game May 20th 10:00 AM Class 4A Central.....Practice begins April 24th and ends with game on May 20th at 10:00 AM Ozen.........Practice begins April 24th and ends with game May 20th at 10:00 AM

He had a HR. I thought he was 4-4?

Huge Games...Very big game for Lumberton and Vidor Tuesday. Pn-G and LC-M should be a Barn Burner as always and LC-M at Nederland Thursday that is probably the Game of the week in the State.

Woodville 15 New Waverely 1

I'll go this Summer, I know Toledo pretty well..

I vote for #7 HJ player for player of the week. Awesome game. HR and 4/4...Nathan Rocossa This is from Carolyn

OUCH!

Yes he was.

:iag :ROFL

HS Baseball score of 36-5 Waco Robinson beat Waco Connally 36-5 Friday night hitting 5 HR's with the help of a 50 mph north wind. Robinson scored 15 runs in the 2nd inning, 14 runs in the 3rd inning and 7 runs in the 4th inning. They even intentionally stepped on home plate while bunting for their 3 outs in the 4th inning. Ouch! It was brutal! Both teams are tied for second in district play. Saw this on oldcoach

I always thought Texas, Florida and CA lead the pack.

Raising Kahne Kasey Kahne may not have led the most laps Sunday in the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 on FOX, but he still walked away with the checkered flag in the end — ahead of Tony Stewart (who led for the most laps) and Matt Kenseth, respectively. The win was Kahne's second of 2006. Greg Biffle didn't get the chance to defend his Texas title from a year ago after spinning out on the backstretch on Lap 83 as Kurt Busch lifted him up. Biffle was running eighth and led twice in the first 64 laps. Kyle Petty went straight to the garage after blowing an engine on Lap 250. Ryan Newman, Brian Vickers and Derrike Cope are all off the track, too. Three rookies finished in the top 10, the first time that's happened in five years in the Nextel Cup, including Denny Hamlin.

Texas gets first-ever flounder stocking ROCKPORT - The flounder population in the Aransas Bay complex has increased by about 1,500 specimens. That is because Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials stocked them into the waters near Rockport Beach Park last Tuesday. These captive raised flounder only range from 40mm to 101mm in length but for some anglers they represent big hope for recovery of the highly pressured species. “To see a stocking of flounder of any size in any bay in Texas is a truly big thing. Hopefully we will see a full-blown stocking program in the future because as just about everyone who fishes for them knows, flounder face the biggest problems of the ‘Big Three' inland species, which includes speckled trout and redfish,†said veteran flounder guide Capt. Skip James. “The harvest of these flounder and their subsequent stocking went very well. We are excited about the results and what it could possibly mean to flounder hatchery production in the future,†said Rodney Gamez, manager of the TPWD ran CCA/CPL hatchery in Corpus Christi. “The harvest from the rearing ponds took a little longer than it does for red drum but we lost very few fish from the hatchery out to the stocking site. The mortality was very low and that is a very good thing,†he added. This ‘experimental' stocking is the result of research conducted by Dr. Joan Holt of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in cooperation with TPWD. “There is obviously an issue with flounder populations and we decided to look into what we could do about it after communicating with TPWD. Two years ago we began work on spawning flounder in captivity and growing the eggs into juveniles large enough to stock,†Holt said. This process ran into a few snags along the way, but Dr. Holt and TPWD officials seem to have worked that out with this recent batch of fish. “It's very exciting to see the research we have done pay off and for them to be able to grow and stock the fish we hatched,†Holt said. TPWD officials will not say if a full-blown stocking program is a lock yet, but with the Texas Coastal Fisheries Bay Team program, they are soliciting live donations of flounder from a variety of bay systems via recreational anglers. “If we end up being able to stock these fish we want to have fish from each bay system. We will have to stock fish into the bay system where their parents came from just as we do with speckled trout,†said Robert Adami who organizes the Texas Coastal Fisheries Bay Team events. “We have six of these events on the calendar and four of them are directed at southern flounder. We are hoping to get enough fish to fill the tanks we have for them at the hatcheries along the coast.†Diehard flounder angler Gerald Burleigh said TPWDís current interest in flounder is a logical extension of the work they have done with redfish and speckled trout. “They have taken redfish and trout conservation about as far as it can go or at least it seems that way. Flounder are right behind them in popularity and they are a fish that can be easily caught from the bank, so this is a good thing for all anglers, including those who might be economically disadvantaged and not have boats,†Burleigh said. “If we see an all out captive breeding and stocking effort for flounder it could really turn things around for the species and do what a lot of anglers have been requesting for quite awhile. That is help the flounder populations, which are hit hard by everyone from shrimpers to commercial fishermen and recreational interests, a chance to get back to where it was years ago when catching a limit on rod and reel was commonplace.†“That would be a wonderful thing to see.'

#7 Nathan Ricossa HJ...Went 4-4 Friday Night with a HR.

www.panews.com Ronnie Thompson and a photographer from the Port Arthur News were actually in the same place one day last week, but it was hardly an "on the job" picture you'd envision for the new Memorial High football coach. Thompson was surrounded by policemen and principals at Tuesday's baseball game at the school district's athletic complex. They were there to guard against a repeat of the gang shooting that occurred March 30 in the ballpark parking lot. Since Thompson was hired six weeks ago to be Memorial's second head football coach and athletic director, a lot has gone on in the Port Arthur school district. Very little of it has had anything to do with football. "If you want a photo of me that shows what I've been up to, this is what you need," Thompson said early last week. Then he pretended to hold a telephone to his ear. That was after Thompson was interviewed for the job with one temporary superintendent, recommended for it by a second fill-in superintendent and fired a soccer coach for alleged UIL roster violations. And after increased campus security enforcing a media lockout chased off a newspaper photographer assigned to take a "happy-news" photo of Thompson and some of his players. But it was before the school board eliminated the athletic coordinator's job and the softball coach resigned. This week, though, Thompson's routine should get a big change. Spring football practice begins at Memorial Monday at 3 p.m. and will continue through a spring game May 9. The Titans, who won just two times last year in their fourth and final season under Dean Colbert, have a lot of holes to fill and a new offense to learn. But the new coach, who hasn't led a for-real practice since the 2001 season when he retired after nine years as head coach at South Garland, likes what he has found in Port Arthur, both in the players and the coaches he inherited. "They're very enthusiastic, all of them," Thompson said of the players. "There's a lot of hustle and they move really well. They're flat covering some ground out there." The Titans' work until now has been limited to 45 minutes a day in their fourth-period athletics PE class. "And the good ones come in after school," for weightlifting, Thompson adds. In the athletics class, Thompson and the assistant coaches have been working to instill the basics of a wide-open passing offense that resembles the Run-and-Shoot used 20 years ago by the USFL's Houston Gamblers and, later, the University of Houston. Among the players who have caught the coach's eye early on are free safety Anthony Cockrell and defensive linemen Darius Leviege and Charles Jacobs. Freddie King was atop the wide receiver bunch, Ronald DeJohn the most impressive offensive lineman and Davon Lewis showing he's recovered from preseason knee surgery that kept him from being the Titans' starting quarterback last year. Of course, Lewis was the player who spoke out against Thompson's hiring at the Feb. 16 school board meeting and promised to skip spring training and this summer's 7-on-7 competition. But he and Thompson patched things up overnight. "Lewis is really far out in front," at quarterback, the coach says. So's the Titan defense. "Really and truly, our defense is making all their adjustments to what they're doing from what they did," Thompson said. "They're ahead of the offense because they've got a base to go back to. They're still playing the same technique, the same holes." And the offense? "We've got to stay healthy, but Lewis will have a chance to throw the ball, and he will put it where it needs to be. The question is if we'll catch it. "This has not been a throwing club. It's been a power running club. That's to be expected, not accepted." Thompson's "my way or the highway" brand of thinking extends to his assistant coaches. "I've found some pretty good people here," he said of the assistants hired by Colbert. "They're hard workers. The main thing (for an assistant coach) is 'Are you able to change philosophy? Or are you stuck in what you're doing?' " The head coach said he has been impressed by the coaches. After Colbert's January resignation, offensive coordinator Kenny Harrison and defensive coordinator T.K. Harrison (no relation) were asked by then-superintendent Willis Mackey to run an off-season program strong on weight training and football skills. "When I got in here, they had them going pretty good," Thompson said. "They do a lot of things right. They get a lot of things covered." Because of restrictions on teaching contracts -- having to match coaching hires with teaching vacancies -- wholesale change of coaching staffs when a new head coach is hired -- doesn't happen today like it did when Thompson coached at Port Arthur Thomas Jefferson from 1978-81, leading the Yellow Jackets to the 1980 state title game. But change is expected. Some current coaches could wind up reunited with Colbert at Humble Atascocita. Others could go elsewhere. Thompson won't comment on any changes he may be planning. He says he will use spring training to help him make decisions regarding his coaching staff. "In spring training, I'm going to try hard to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate," he said. Under UIL rules, Class 5A and 4A teams are allowed to practice after school in the spring for 15 workouts over a 30-day period. Ideally, Thompson would like his spring practice to include workouts Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with a scrimmage Friday. "We need Wednesday off to teach, to look at the (video) tapes and see what we're doing wrong and correct it," the coach said. Unfortunately, that option is available only during the fourth of the five weeks of spring training. This week, for instance, the team is taking off for Good Friday, meaning three days straight of practice with a scrimmage Thursday. Next week the team will work out only on Monday because of TAKS testing. The week after that, the regional track meet curtails Friday practice. "I'm finding out that our coaches are all over," Thompson said. "They all teach on different campuses all over town and it's hard for them to get to fourth period. I want to get that fixed for next year. And most of them are busy after school with a spring sport. A lot of them are involved with track." Thompson says spectators are not only welcome, but encouraged, to come to Titan practices, which are scheduled from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. "Every kid's daddy is welcome," he said. "When kids' daddies are here, they work a lot harder. I hope they line the sidelines." Now it's up to Ronnie Thompson the athletic director to make sure Ronnie Thompson the football coach gets to practice on time. "Being AD," he acknowledges, "is going to take up a chunk of time."

Mr. Inside.... Dominique Keller / Memorial Mr. Outside....Kris Richards / Ozen

Kurt Busch wins O'Reilly 300 Kurt Busch celebrates by doing snow angels on the infield grass after winning the O'Reilly 300. Kurt Busch felt like a rookie and delivered like the former Nextel Cup champion he is. In the process Saturday, he showed he could handle the NASCAR Busch Series and fueled more debate about star drivers dropping down in class. Busch became the fifth driver to win his first Busch Series start and the first since Terry Labonte in 1985, taking the checkered flag at the O'Reilly 300 Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway