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A DVANCE-MONTICELLONIAN
Wednesday,
June 19, 2013
| mymonticellonews.net
SPORTS
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Harold Coggins,
Sports Editor
870-367-5325
[email protected]
Local prep basketball teams
get early tuneup at UAM camp
BY HAROLD COGGINS
[email protected]
Harold Coggins/Advance Monticellonian
EASY TWO Monticello’s Bralin Daniels (50) goes up for
a basket in UAM’s team camp.
It’s only June and high school basketball is the farthest thing from most fans’ minds. After all, the 2013
football season is closer.
But both Drew Central and Monticello high schools
took part in a 12-team high school basketball team
camp, sponsored by the University of Arkansas at
Monticello, on Thursday that left both C.J. White and
Wayne Sherrer impressed in some areas and knowing
some areas need more work.
“The UAM team camp basically validated the projected strengths and weaknesses of the 2013-14 Billies,” said Sherrer, who will enter his 36th season at
wMonticello.
“This will be a very young team and the faster the
maturation process the quicker we will become a high
quality team. And make no mistake about it, I expect
this to be a highly competitive team.”
The Billies were 3-1 during the one-day camp, losing to Bastrop, La., on a last-season shot before beating Monroe (La.) Wossman, Dermott and Kilbourne,
La., in 40-minute scrimmages with running clocks.
Three-minute halves separated two 20-minute periods.
Drew Central was 2-2 during the day, winning over
Dermott and White Hall but falling to Watson Chapel
and Junction City. Pirate coach C.J. White said the day
was as mixed as the results.
“We did okay,” the Drew Central coach said. “It was
a good opportunity for some of my younger players to
play. I liked a lot of what I saw but also disliked a lot
Team depth
helps Marlins
finish second
Disqualifications are
still problem, though,
as bigger meets loom
BY HAROLD COGGINS
[email protected]
Coach Aaron Jost warned about
it the week before. Disqualifications prevented the Monticello
Marlins from picking up their second consecutive swim meet title
but depth kept the Marlins in second place.
The host Warren Waves summer
only program nipped the Marlins
summer only team 889-884 at the
11-team Pink Tomato Festival
Swim Meet in Warren on Saturday
but Jost said he saw some things he
liked, even with the disqualifications. The Marlins year-round team
finished eighth with 96 points.
“The meet went well,” Jost said.
“There were more disqualifications
than I wanted, especially since we
worked on it last week, but our
swimmers will continue to work
hard. It was a close meet and we’ll
be ready next week.”
The Marlins captured 36 first
places at Warren (down from 53 the
week before) but finished first and
second in five events and showed
depth by placing five swimmers in
the points in three events and four
swimmers in five events. Only 16
points from winning the meet, the
Monticello swim team had seven
individual disqualifications and
three relay mishaps, costing the
Marlins at least three event victories.
“Because of that experience, I
hope our swimmers will be more
tested for the championship meets
(both the Arkansas AAU State
Championships coming up in El
Dorado on July 5-7 and the South
Arkansas Swim Association Championships in Arkadelphia on July
20),” Jost said. “And I also expect
to have several swimmers qualify
for the (AAU) Junior Olympics (in
Detroit on July 26-29).”
Saturday, the usual swimmers
came through again for the Marlins. Eight-year-old Heather Shrum
won four individual events and was
part of two winning relays to again
pace Monticello in wins with six.
Her sister, Brooke Shrum, was part
of five wins and Raven Broome
and Clay Shrum were part of four.
Heather Shrum was first in all
four strokes in the 8-and-under division: the 25-meter butterfly in a
time of 24.95 seconds; the 25-meter backstroke in 28.72; the 25-meter breaststroke in 27.09; and the
25-meter freestyle in 21.56. She
also teamed with Nicolette Thornhill, Olivia Tumlinson and Riley
Kate Derryberry to place first in the
8-and-under 100-meter freestyle
relay with a time of 2 minutes,2.91
seconds and with Thornhill, Derryberry and Maddie Newton to win
the 8-and-under 100-meter medley
relay in 2:16.11.
Brooke Shrum placed first in the
12-and-under 50-meter fly (38.14),
the 12-and-under 50-meter back
(37.65), the 12-and-under 50-meter free (32.32), the 12-and-under 100-meter individual medley
(1:28.46) and moved up a division
to help Nora Catherine Saffold, Dailyn Johnston and Mallie Mullins
claim top prize in the 14-and-under
200-meter free relay (2:35.36).
Broome finished first in the 1518 200-meter free (2:56.15), the
15-18 400-meter free (5:54.23),
See DEPTH Page 2C
of what I saw. It is just June and the goal for the camp
was for everyone to get some playing time and grow
as a team, and I think we did just that. We have a lot of
work to do but have a lot of hard workers. We will get
where we need to be by the start of the season.”
As far as individuals, both coaches said they saw
some good things. One negative for Monticello is that
Christian Robertson, the lone starter back from last
year’s Class 4A, District 8 champions, broke his wrist
in the early minutes of the Billies’ first scrimmage with
Bastrop. Sherrer said Robertson will be in a cast for a
month but should be ready by the time school starts
this August.
The bad news for Drew Central is Tremaine Newton, who will be counted on as one of the Pirates’ mainstays in 2013-2014, didn’t even play because of an injury. Newton should be fine by the time school starts,
though, White said.
“Dilly (Binns), Edmond (Hunter) and Tremaine
know they are going to have to step up and be leaders
on the floor,” White said, “and I was very pleased with
the leadership that Dilly and Edmund showed during
the camp.”
The person Sherrer singled out was junior Sadaeys
Miller. “I was happy with the competitiveness of Sadaeys,” the Monticello coach said. “Moving forward,
I think he can provide the energy for others to feed off
of. Overall, I expect our team to be better offensively
than last year.”
So while thoughts may be more toward football now,
both coaches are chomping at the bit for the 2013-2014
basketball season.
Chance Wright/Advance Monticellonian
CONCENTRATION Edmund Hunter (4) of Drew Central
focuses on making a shot over a Dermott defender.
MONTICELLO HIGH SCHOOL’S ALL-STARS
Ashleigh White photo courtesy of Eric White/Conway Log Cabin Democrat; Will Naron photo courtesy of Scott Harvey
ALL-STAR SWINGS Monticello’s Ashleigh White (left) and Will Naron get their swings during Arkansas High School Coaches Association
All-Star Game festivities Tuesday in Conway. White had a two-run single that scored two runs in her East team’s 10-8 victory over the West in
the first game of the All-Star doubleheader. White’s RBI hit gave the East the lead for good in Game 1. The West salvaged a split by winning
the nightcap 8-1 at the University of Central Arkansas’ Farris Field. On the other side of the UCA campus at Bear Stadium, Naron’s East team
didn’t far as well. The West won both baseball games, 2-1 and 6-1.
UAM cowboy finishes 29th at College NFR
BY HAROLD COGGINS
[email protected]
It was not to be for Eric Manos.
The University of Arkansas at
Monticello cowboy who qualified
for the College National Finals Rodeo in steer wrestling, finished out
of the running last week in Casper,
Wyo.
Thanks to a slow 16.0 second
first go-round that had him in 25th
place after one day, Manos improved to 9.7 second in the second
go-round and entered the final goround in 20th place, with an outside
shot at reaching the top 12 and going to the finals.
But in Wednesday’s third goround, Manos joined 16 other
cowboys of the 46 competitors that
didn’t post a time, dropping the
UAM senior to 29th overall, with a
23.4 second average.
The University of Nevada at
Las Vegas’s Corey Rogers finished
only fourth in the short final round
but his average of the four rounds
was enough to give him the event
win. Panhandle State University
won the men’s team title with 820
points, while Idaho State University’s 520 points was enough to win
the women’s title.
The top Ozarks Region of the
National Intercollegiate Rodeo
Association (of which UAM is a
member) men’s finisher was the
University of Tennessee at Martin,
which scored 390 points and finished 10th.
Southern Arkansas University’s
women scored 110 points, good
enough for 16th place and the top
Ozarks Region finisher among the
women.
The University of West Alabama’s Zac Wilson won the national championship in tie-down roping, bringing an individual crown
to the Ozark region. The College
of Southern Idaho captured three
individual championships: Spencer
Wright in saddle bronc riding, Orin
Larsen in bareback riding and Timmi Ward in barrel racing.
Lety’s second-place finish at this year’s U.S. Open doesn’t define him as a person
One man’s elation is another man’s
heartbreak. So it was for Phil Mickelson
on Sunday at the golf’s U.S. Open and,
unfortunately for
Mickelson, it’s a feeling he’s experienced
before.
Lefty, who finally
shook the mantra of
“the best player never
to win a major” in
2004 with the first
of his three Masters
HAROLD
championships (he
COGGINS
was 0-for-41 in major
COG’S CORNER
golf tournaments up to
that time), was second
for the sixth time in
our national championship and eighth
runner-up finish in any major.
It seems like when the breaks fall, they
seem to avoid one of the most likable
golfers of our time but it’s not like
Mickelson’s the only good golfer to finish
second. Jack Nicklaus did it 19 times in
majors, Arnold Palmer did it 10 times and
Mickelson’s eighth Sunday tied him with
Greg Norman, Sam Snead and Tom Watson for third on the bridesmaids list. Only
Nicklaus, with seven runner-up finishes,
has more second places in the U.S. Open
than does Mickelson.
Still, golfers and fans of the game everywhere will tell you it’s hard not to like
Mickelson. While Tiger Woods’ extramarital affairs, Sergio Garcia’s rantings and
Rory McIlroy’s love life have gotten more
attention lately, Lefty has always been a
role model.
Putting family before the game he
plays as his job is something Mickelson
does with ease. He carried a now-famous
beeper during the last round of the U.S.
Open in 1999 because his wife Amy was
pregnant with the couple’s first child,
Amanda, and the birth was imminent.
Mickelson had vowed to leave the course
immediately, even if he was leading, if
Amy went into labor.
The labor came but the call didn’t until
Lefty lost by one stroke to the late Payne
Stewart. Amanda was born the next day.
One of my all-time favorite memories
of watching golf was that of Stewart
consoling Mickelson on the 18th green
at Pinehurst with Lefty’s head in Stewart’s hands. Mickelson later said Stewart
told him there was something far more
important than winning a golf tournament
about to happen to him: fatherhood. That
occurred, ironically, on Father’s Day 1999.
All that was made more poignant by the
fact that, four months later, Stewart died
in a plane accident, leaving a wife and two
children, 13 and 10 at the time.
Then, in 2003, Mickelson was by
Amy’s side when she almost died from
serious complications of childbirth while
giving birth to the couple’s third child,
Evan. Six years after that, Mickelson
put golf on hold and was by Amy’s side
again when she was diagnosed with breast
cancer in 2009. The Mickelsons have
successfully fought that obstacle.
In 2011, he had to deal with his own
problems when he was diagnosed with
psoriatic arthritis, a potentially debilitating
condition that could have ended his golf ca-
reer. He’s so far overcome that hurdle, too,
and turned his thoughts back to his family.
Shoot, he even attended his daughter’s
eighth-grade graduation in California the
night before a 7:11 a.m. Eastern Time tee
time for the first round of this year’s Open
in Pennsylvania. He promptly went out
and shot a 3-under-par 67, claiming the
first-round lead.
Heading into Sunday’s final round as
the only player under par on Merion’s
brutal East Course, Mickelson—on his
43rd birthday—looked like the man to
beat. Double bogeys and the third and fifth
holes derailed Lefty’s thoughts of a fifth
major championship, though. An eagle on
the 10th hole briefly gave Mickelson the
lead by himself but three bogeys coming
in allowed Justin Rose to slip by him and
become the first Englishman in 43 years to
win our national golf championship.
“Heartbreak,” was the way Mickelson
described Sunday. “This is tough to swallow after coming so close. This was my
best chance of all of them. I was playing
well, I had a golf course I really liked
that I could play aggressive on a number
of holes. I felt like this was as good an
opportunity I could ask for and to not get
it ... it hurts.”
I would imagine it does—for the
moment. But for the player who’s won
41 PGA titles, four major championships,
gone through almost losing his wife twice
and fought through his own illness, better
days are most likely ahead.
While more high-profile players like
Woods (who was 13-over for his worst
major finish of his professional career),
McIlroy (who shot a 6-over 76 Sunday,
bent one club, threw another down the
fifth fairway and finished 14-over) and
Garcia (who was even worse than those
two, at 15-over) will continue to get more
press coverage, Lefty will continue to put
family first as he moves forward in his
golf career.
There couldn’t be a more suitable
example of what all fathers should strive
to be than Mickelson, whose eighth major
second-place finish occurred on Father’s
Day 2013.