Sunday, September 20, 1998

Ex-Cooper athlete's college stats and other tidbits

By Bill Hart

Senior Sports Writer

Sports smorgasbord, while wondering whatever happened to former Rotan football standout Steve Herron:

-- Dominic Rhodes, who led Cooper to the Class 5A finals two years ago, has rushed for 119 yards and one touchdown on 26 carries in the first two games for Tyler Junior College.

He is sharing time at tailback with freshman George Fisher of South Garland, who has picked up 142 yards on 34 carries and has scored twice. They are the main reason that Tyler is 1-1 and has the best offense in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference....

-- North Crowley High School has been added to District 6-4A in all sports except football for the next two years, making nine members in that district. The new school opened its doors this fall and is playing non-honors football and volleyball in District 11-3A, which means it is not competing for the championship or for the playoffs.

This means that next spring the district must find a nine-lane track or run preliminaries or heats in the 400, 800 and 1,600-meter relays to eliminate at least one team.

The reason for the change came after members of 11-3A inquired about the enrollment figures turned in by North Crowley. When Crowley ISD resubmitted numbers, it exceeded the range for Class 3A membership, so 6-4A was the logical district to place the new school....

-- Former Cooper and Texas Tech football player Jay Pugh is currently on the Red Raiders coaching staff as a graduate assistant. That's two coaches in the Kirby Pugh family because Scotty is an assistant football coach and head baseball coach at Cooper.

Speaking of the Red Raiders, running back Shaun Carr of Sweetwater is being redshirted this year -- unless injuries deplete the depth at the position.

And wedding bells will be ringing on June 11 for Red Raider wide receiver Donnie Hart and Cheryl Gardner, the former Albany and Texas Tech high jumper....

-- The Stephenville connection is still going strong at New Mexico State. Linebacker Jobe Lewis has been named one of the Aggies' four captains for this season.

And Jeffrey Thompson is starting at free safety for the second straight year. He and Lewis were outstanding secondary players for the Yellow Jackets' in their state championship seasons of 1993 and '94....

Charles Hearne, who coached Huckabay to the Class B boys state basketball championship in 1974 and later coached several Graford boys teams to the Region II-A tournament at McMurry, is the new head coach at Class 4A Mineral Wells. He spent the last three years in retirement.

The town recently passed a $23.9 million dollar bond to build a new high school, which includes a state-of-the-art gymnasium.

Charles is a brother of Cisco Junior College basketball coach Ronnie Hearne and Darrell Hearne, who at one time coached at Wylie and is now an assistant girls basketball coach at Rio Vista....

-- In a previous column, former Breckenridge High and Hardin-Simmons University quarterback John "Model T" Ford was to be honored by Lakewood, Calif., High School for community service.

The honor turned out to be the school was going to name the football field after him. Ford coached at Lakewood from 1963-1979....

-- R.J. "Pop" Kidd of Snyder recently scored his 10th hole in one when he used a 5-iron to ace the 160-yard, par-3 hole at Snyder Country Club. One of his witnesses was Dutch Stehley, a former track coach at Snyder High School....

Bill Hart can be reached at 676-6773 or at sports@abinews.com.