My assignment for Ronna K Ross

Ronna Pennington, who was Ronna Ross when we went to school together at Henderson State and worked side-by-side at the Daily Siftings Herald in Arkadelphia, issued a writing challenge via Facebook. The challenge is sort of a New Year's Resolution type deal where we blog about something we love for the upcoming year. Or, something like that. I was never really good at following directions. Anywho, I suppose in 2013 I get to focus on one of my new loves and that's penning novels. Before you ask, I'm not on anyone's best seller's list. I don't have any books in print although I've sold one or two ebooks. And, yes, I mean literally, one or two. ("Damn, so-called friends too cheap to donate a lousy $2.99 to boost a starving writer's confidence," he thought to himself.) I admit, I'm not the greatest at shopping my books around to agents or publishers. To be honest, I enjoy the writing process a lot more than I do the after process of writing query letters and trying to convince others to please read my stuff. I hate that and I'm not good at it. As an author, I'd say I'm an acquired taste. I've written some things I really like and some things of which I'm not so proud. But, I enjoy the process of writing. I love creating characters most of all. I suppose it's the lingering affects of being an only child for the first seven years of my life. All these years later, those imaginary friends are coming to life on the pages of my books. In the future, it would be great if other people saw my books as a source of entertainment. But, even I don't sell enough books to buy a pizza, writing them is a source of enjoyment that I truly relish. I'm not a best-selling author but I am a happy writer. It ain't Stephen King but I'll take it.

The year 2012 was special for sports in Union County. Looking back, we had state championships in multiple sports with several students earning scholarships to Division I schools. In the end, though, it was easy for me to select the two top individuals from a glorious year of competition. My Male and Female Athletes of the Year are: Strong's Kenneth Dixon and Junction City's Courtney Lowe. Dixon's high school football campaign was actually in 2011. But, it was so good, it bled all the way through into 2012. He led the Bulldogs to the 2A state championship and set a state rushing record along the way. Dixon finished with 3,153 rushing yards and 39 touchdowns. He also started for Strong's basketball team before setting the collegiate world on fire at Louisiana Tech. As a freshman, he set NCAA records for touchdowns, rushing touchdowns and points. He was named Freshman of the Year recently by Louisiana Sports Writers. Lowe led Junction City's softball team to its first ever 2A state championship, earning MVP honors along the way. She recorded an 18-3 record in the circle with a 1.50 earned run average and 245 strikeouts. Offensively, she swung, by far, the biggest bat at the state tournament and finished with a .522 batting average with six home runs. She also signed with Louisiana Tech and, of course, recorded a hit in her first at-bat during the Lady Techsters' abbreviated fall season. Team of the Year for 2012 goes to Junction City football. The Dragons went 14-1 and claimed the 2A state championship in dramatic fashion against Bearden 27-26. After a season-opening loss at Earle, Junction City won 14 straight, including two victories over the state runner-up Bears. Sports Writer of the Year for 2012 goes to, once again, Tony Burns. This is my twenty-something straight year to win the award. It never gets old, though. I'd like to thank myself for creating this award and myself for choosing the winner and send a special shout out to myself for thinking so highly of myself to bestow the honor upon myself. Also, thanks to Michael Orrell of the El Dorado News-Times for the photos of our top athletes. Happy Holidays Everybody!

Do the right thing

From ESPN.com Three-star quarterback Tyler Cogswell (Plantation, Fla./American Heritage) was set with Arkansas since his commitment in May. When the Razorbacks went through coaching turmoil off the field and struggles on the field, Cogswell was still excited to be with Arkansas. But after a conversation with new coach Bret Bielema, Cogswell will have to find another school. Bielema informed Cogswell he no longer has a scholarship offer from the Razorbacks. “Yes, it’s true,” Cogswell said. “I know God has a plan for me, even a better plan. Knowing that, I know I will be OK.” Cogswell, who is 6-foot-5 and 228 pounds, had offers from Nebraska and Hawaii at the time of his commitment to Arkansas. He is not sure if those offers still stand because Cogswell has never looked at any other school since pledging to the Hogs. “I loved Arkansas and loved everything about the fans,” Cogswell said. “I’ll be looking for that same type of situation.” *** I'm excited about Coach Bielema being at Arkansas but I don't like the sound of this. I understand college football is big business and I also know Arkansas has a lot of young quarterbacks, including El Dorado's Taylor Reed. I wondered why they were about to sign a 3-star when they had both Reed and a 4-star recruit in Austin Allen. Still, the school offered this kid a scholarship and he eagerly accepted. He didn't look anywhere else because he had committed to Arkansas and was told the school was committed to him. I hate to see an athlete who loves the Razorbacks have the red rug pulled from underneath him through no fault of his own. I wish they'd find a way to keep him in Fayetteville, whether he plays a down at quarterback or not. Is that practical? Perhaps not. I just think it's the right thing to do. But, I guess doing something because it's the right thing is an out-dated concept.

107-2? Really?

A high school girls basketball game in Indiana, which ended with a score of 107-2 recently, has drawn the ire of fans throughout the country. The most common complaint is, “why would you beat someone 107-2?” I agree with the outrage. My question however, “why would anyone ever put a team on the court that could get beat by a score of 107-2?” The winning team in this situation used all nine of its players and ran a, reportedly, “aggressive” 2-3 zone defense. Indiana doesn’t have a mercy-rule situation. I don’t understand why the winning team is always at fault in these mismatched contests. What are they supposed to do? I’d rather lose badly than have an opponent feel pity on me and stop playing. I’ve never understood why it’s the fault of the team that has obviously put in the time and effort to perfect its skills and honed itself into a well-oiled machine. Hey, shame on you for out-working all the other teams. It’s about time someone focused on the “2” instead of the “107.” You see, I know what it takes to accomplish the “107.” It takes dedication and grit and desire and teamwork and persistence. What I don’t understand is how a team can be so incompetent to only score a mere “2” points in a regulation basketball game. That takes a lack of dedication, a lack of grit and desire and heart and competitive spirit. That’s a team that shouldn’t be on the floor in a competitive game. High school sports is about competition. If you can’t compete, practice until you can but don’t put a non-competitive group on the floor and expect players who have worked their tails off to be good to not put their skills on display. Sportsmanship and pity are two different things. It’s about time we got back to basics and started using the rules of the playground. If you can’t play, get the hell off the court.