Schools & Sports

Last week, I had a catfishing trip planned with my friend Lake Tawakoni guide Tony Pennebaker. Tony has been sending his clients on their way home with several gallons of those tasty snow white blue catfish fillets on a daily basis. The ‘big fish’ bite for trophy blue catfish has slowed as always this time of year but now is a time of plenty for anglers wishing to target the ‘eater’ fish weighing between 2 and ten pounds. I love to catch big fish but if given the choice, I honestly prefer fishing when the bite is strong for fish that will ultimately wind up in my cast iron skillet.

*The following “Lucky 13” people picked “THE TEAM.”-----Sonya Bannister, Weston Themer, Neal Weaver, Corby Jones, Waylon Themer, Charles Beason, George Venner, Will Themer, Marty Rouvaldt, Richard Jones, Harry Power, Don Themer, Mike Medlin*

May 5: “Viv, I want to take you to the Rangers ballgame and ‘out to eat’ on (preferably) May 7 as your ‘Mother’s Day Outing,’ since we have full days on Saturday and Sunday. I know you have been saying you want to get back out to the PARK.”

*Now, 1st of all before the “meat of the article” begins, I must give credit to Duane Penny for all the information, which I have edited somewhat and submitted. He read my original article and offers this “continuing education” for Forney Folks!*

FACT: Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks GRINS!

I was never a fan of Syracuse, because I just did not know anything about the college or any of their sports programs, until….. when I was in Jr. High or early high school, I saw my Dad watching a football game on television one Saturday afternoon and noticed a “backfield runner” of weight under 200 pounds and shorter than 6 feet height. He was running over, around, and through guys quite a bit larger than he! Floyd Little was his name, and his team was Syracuse, not a household name at any of the homes I usually visited!

This article was inspired by a feature I read awhile back about the DALLAS DERBY DEVILS League, which consists of five home teams that play each other at the NYTEX Sports Centre in North Richland Hills to crown a champion each season, and they are a branch of a nation-wide governing body, called the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which provides a universal set of rules and guidelines. The top players from the five Derby Devils teams make up an all-star team of sorts, called “The Army of Darkness” that competes against other WFTDA teams across the country. Apparently, their “seasons” are on hold now until 2022 due to the pandemic, but they plan to come back with even greater competitions!

Nine members of the Angelo State University Rambelles soccer team, including Cassidy Hill of Forney, have earned Lone Star Conference postseason awards after finishing the spring season undefeated and claiming the LSC title. Head coach Travis McCorkle was also named Coach of the Year.

The 2021 Toyota ShareLunker collection season will go in the books as one of the best in the history of the program. Anglers landed 23 ShareLunkers at 10 different lakes across the state, the most during a January through March timespan since the 1995 season which produced 27. Five new lake records were established, four lakes made their mark on the program with a first ever entry, and milestone ShareLunker 600 was caught in this year’s group.

While I was looking though old JACKRABBIT yearbooks, I had a shock when I could not find any track photos until the 1960s! Now, I know that we did not have a true RUN- NING TRACK at Forney High School when I was growing up, but someone (probably from the Booster Club) would take a “grader” of some sort and form a make-shift track around the Legion Baseball Field each spring so that we could practice running; however, the oval was never a full 440 yards that was needed for a regulation track!

For the second consecutive week, the North Forney Falcons had their district 13-5A series split into two separate weeks due to inclement weather. This time, the Falcons would face off against the Crandall Pirates in a home game to complete their two-game series on Monday, April 26, before taking on the Greenville Lions in games scheduled for Tuesday and Friday to complete the regular season.

At the very beginning of 2021, I heard that Paul Westphal had died at the age of 70, and I don’t especially like to dwell upon my own mortality, despite the fact that my buddy, Lawrence, seems to not want me to forget that I am “70.”

One of my favorite quotes about Terry Gambill came when he was the freshman basketball coach at Forney at the end of the 1990s and someone after a game was criticizing him for yelling too loudly and too much at the boys on the team (who, by the way, were winning all their games). My son, Waylon, who was one of the players, heard and replied to no one in particular but to all who could hear.