Friday, November 13, 1998

Playoffs old homecoming week for San Angelo, Permian

By Jeff Walker

District 4-5A will be the only district in Texas to have four teams qualify for the state playoffs.

Technically, that's not entirely true.

Odessa Permian, Midland Lee and Cooper qualified for the three playoff spots in District 4-5A based on their district performances. San Angelo Central, one year removed from the district in football only, qualified out of District 3-5A and will meet Odessa Permian in the bi-district round tonight.

Permian head coach Randy Mayes said it will be like nothing has changed.

"It'll be just like a district game," Mayes said. "Both communities are fired up to play each other."

There is more to this matchup between the Panthers and Bobcats than just facing each other again. Central head coach Gary Gaines is a former head coach at Permian, and he and Mayes coached together at Camp Mojo from 1986-89.

Gaines said he won't approach this game any differently because he is familiar with the opponent.

"I think you approach this the same way you approach the previous 10 games," he said. "You try to prepare your players to win and it's just another bi-district game that you have to go out and win."

Gaines and Mayes have remained close since they parted ways. In fact, Mayes said both coaching staffs are friends with each other. But for a few hours tonight, he will put all relationships aside.

"For about 2 or 21/2 hours we'll put our feelings aside," Mayes said. "But other than that, I always want Gary and his kids to do well. I know some of his coaches. In fact, I know his defensive coach real well, and they know some of ours. It's because of that that makes this kind of fun too."

It may be fun for Mayes because the Panthers are expected to roll. For Gaines, however, he is aware his Bobcats have a tough task at hand to overcome Permian.

"This is not a very good matchup for us," Gaines said. "We don't match up well; they are so explosive on offense and they have so many ways they can move the football. We may be overmatched, but we're excited to qualify and we're looking forward to playing them. But on paper and pencil, it comes out pretty one-sided."

While Gaines may think the matchup is one-sided, Mayes said his counterpart does have a slight advantage.

"I think he has an advantage in that he's been here and he knows what it's like," Mayes said. "We're pretty close friends; we discuss a lot of things opposing coaches don't normally discuss. You can't really do anything novel or unique in Week 11, so we'll just keeping doing what we're doing."

The Panthers steamrolled through the non-district schedule with a 4-1 mark and won their first three games of district play before losing their only district game two weeks ago at Midland Lee. Permian ended the season by defeating cross-town rival Odessa High. But Mayes said if his team is going to knock off Central, it's going to have to regain the dominance it had earlier this season.

"Defensively we're going to have to come to the front and play like we did a month ago," he said. "Offensively, we're going to have to maintain our balance in moving the football."

Picks of the Week

n Cooper vs. Amarillo High: The Cougars have overcome adversity all season, so the loss of Adam Riddle should be nothing knew. This Cooper team may be a team of destiny. Cooper 24, Amarillo 20

n San Angelo Central vs. Odessa Permian: Abilene High beat Central by two touchdowns earlier this season, and the Panthers rolled over the Eagles. Do the math. Permian 42, Central 7

n Midland Lee vs. Lubbock Coronado: The Rebels shook off their only loss of the season to Cooper and defeated Permian and Midland High to make the playoffs. Lee is clicking right now. Lee 27, Coronado 14

Jeff Walker can be reached at 676-6711 or sports@abinews.com.