Security Boost Too Late For Titans

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Security boost too late for Titans?

With arrangements being made for extra security in light of last week's parking lot shootout, Port Arthur school officials decided Monday to allow their baseball team to play its remaining five home games as scheduled.

But Memorial High's District 22-5A competitors were balking at coming to Port Arthur.

West Brook baseball coach Jacob Walton said Monday afternoon that he'd been told by principal Rodney Cavness the Bruins definitely aren't coming to Port Arthur to play a game scheduled for Tuesday night.

“My principal told me we're not going over there,†he said. “After what happened last week, we're not going to take a chance.â€

Walton was referring to the bus crash that killed two West Brook soccer players on their way to a playoff game.

“The other schools are pretty much refusing to come down there,†added Cavness, who is chairman of the 22-5A district executive committee.

Memorial baseball coach Wayne McKeller said later Monday that he was notified by Port Arthur athletic director Ronnie Thompson that the Titans would travel to West Brook for Tuesday's 6 p.m. games. West Brook-Memorial subvarsity games, which are usually played at the homefield of the visiting varsity team, were canceled, McKeller said.

He said a meeting of the district executive committee would decide where to play Memorial's remaining home games.

Friday, Thompson announced a ban on home games in Port Arthur for the rest of the season after members of two rival gangs exchanged about 15 rounds of gunfire in the parking lot during a game between Memorial and Spring.

Some of the bullets reportedly hit structures inside the ballpark, which is surrounded by a chain-link fence, but no one was injured. As of Monday night, Port Arthur police had arrested five people in connection with the incident.

McKeller switched all remaining home games to the opponents' site Friday at Thompson's request. Monday, he was trying to call those same coaches and get the games moved back to Port Arthur.

The switch in thinking by PAISD officials came after pledging over the weekend to rethink Thompson's prohibition of home games. At a Monday meeting, new security arrangements were settled on.

“We re-evaluated the situation,†Thompson said. “We got with the UIL, got with the umpires association, got with the superintendent, got with the principal, the chief of police and sat down and put our heads together to see what we could do.

“We're going to reprocess this thing back to the original schedule, but there will be security at every game. There will be enough security, or more than enough security, at every game.â€

Port Arthur police chief Mark Blanton said the new PAISD security plan calls for a minimum of two off-duty policemen working security at every baseball game. Three were scheduled for Tuesday night's game, he said.

Because of a communication mixup, no policemen was present at Thursday's game.

“I don't think that having a policeman there would have stopped them,†Blanton said. “From what I learned, it (the ball field lot) was just a place for them to pull over. It could have been a grocery store parking lot. They were just looking for a place to light.

“It (the shooting) had nothing to do with the baseball game.â€

Dennis Sedtal, vice president of the local chapter of high school baseball umpires, took exception to a statement by Thompson that the chapter had refused to work Memorial games.

He said the necessary vote by chapter leadership never took place. He noted that individual umpires have the right to refuse to work for particular schools, but said finding umps for games at Memorial would not be a problem.

“If they're having a game there tomorrow night, we'll be sending officials,†he said. “I can tell you that.â€