Friday, August 30, 1996

A modest proposal on boundary issue

By AL PICKETT
Sports Editor

Here's an idea:

Instead of football players at Abilene High and Cooper wearing numbers on their jerseys, why don't they wear their street addresses?

That would help our sports writers in producing their stories, which might read something like this: "Abilene High tailback Joe Blow, who lived in the Cooper district before the boundaries were changed, swept right end for a 23-yard gain before being dragged down from behind by Cooper safety John Smith, who would have been in the Abilene High district before the boundary lines were changed."

If all that seems a little cumbersome, here's what we'll do instead: Anyone who lines up wearing black and gold, we'll cover them and call them Abilene High Eagles. And anyone who lines up wearing red and blue, we'll cover them and call them Cooper Cougars.

We don't mean to be flippant about a controversy that has stirred such passion like the school boundary issue, but, as far as the sports department is concerned, the issue is that simple. It makes no difference to us who is attending school on which side of town.

We plan to cover both as equally and fairly as we possibly can, which has always been our policy even though we are often accused by both sides of being biased toward the other.

The boundary issue may continue to be a controversial news story in the coming months as the Abilene school board wrestles with the fine-tuning process of the boundaries. But as far as the sports department is concerned, the boundary debate is a non-issue.

* The school boundary issue will be a topic of discussion next Wednesday from 5-6 p.m. on SportsLine, a daily sports call-in show heard on Sports Radio 1340 AM. AISD superintendent Charles Hundley will be in the studio to discuss the issue. The program will also be aired simultaneously on Easy 106 FM.

Dave Martin, who hosts SportsLine, said that written or faxed questions or concerns will be answered first. During the second half of the one-hour program, Hundley will take phone calls.

Questions should be sent to Sports Radio, 4542 Loop 322, No. 102, Abilene 79602. Questions may also be faxed to 691-1016. These will be answered on the air.

* Change in policy: Although we are continuing Fan Feedback and allowing callers to ask questions and make comments by only giving their initials rather than their name, we are going to discontinue running comments which make personal attacks.

We have tried to monitor this in the past, but we feel it has gotten a little out of hand with some recent comments. We still feel the anonymity of using initials only promotes more dialogue, but we will exclude all comments which we deem to be improper.

* Texas A&M's performance last Saturday in the Aggies' 41-37 loss to Brigham Young was in sharp contrast to the two previous meetings between Big 12 and Western Athletic Conference schools.

Last year, Kansas State beat Colorado State, 54-21, in the Holiday Bowl, and Texas Tech outscored Air Force, 55-41, in the Copper Bowl.

A&M coach R.C. Slocum gave his defense an F for their performance in the loss to BYU.

"Without a doubt, it was the worst performance we've had in a long, long time. The worst I can remember," he said.

Slocum said first-string jobs are now wide open.

"We plan to take the guys we have and continue to work, see who makes the most progress in the next three weeks," he said. "Our starting jobs are pretty much up for grabs."

* Finally, some baseball trivia. Jim Thome (101), Kenny Lofton (106) and Albert Belle (104) give the Cleveland Indians three 100-run scorers for the first time since Larry Doby (104), Bobby Avila (102) and Al Rosen (101) in 1952.