You’ll be excused if keeping up with the coaching changes in Llano is a bit difficult. My paperwork looks like a baseball scorebook when a 12-12 game is in the 15th inning.
So, no surprise that the latest move involves someone who came here for one job and then got one that wasn’t expected.
The Lady Jackets, it appears, are lucky he was available to raise his hand and be seen.
FRISCO—“I think losing has to be awful! It’s not just, oh, well, we’ll get them next week. No! This is like the sky-is-falling-type-stuff.”
Did Texas fans want a motivator? Someone burning with enthusiasm, or just a “plain ol’ winner?” Well, they may not have been at the Ford Center at The Star—Cowboys’ headquarters—but I’m here to tell them, Tom Herman’s pep talk number, July 18, would have made Bobby Knight look like he had taken a sedative.
FRISCO—Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said it was getting “a little tiresome” hearing negative words about Big 12 football. It was indeed the right thing to say, July 17, because he delivered his annual keynote address at the Big 12 Football Media Days.
“We know we’re the {best} when it comes to balance in the league,” and, “the schedule is the toughest because every team plays everybody.
Daniel Sparks is a welcome addition to the Llano High football team. He’s a 6’3", 230-pound, two-way lineman. The senior is the son of the Jackets’ new co-defensive coordinator, Ricky Sparks.
The UIL has for many years treated high school coaches at summer-league games like kids have been treated in “oldfashioned” days: They should be seen but not heard. Coaches are allowed to see their kids play in the offseason, but they cannot coach them.
That might be changing, as the UIL is considering allowing coaches to coach in the offseason.
What a rarity for the Llano football Jackets: linebacker Ian Fletcher has been named preseason Defensive Player of the Year in 13-4A by the “dean” of high school gridiron journalism, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine.
“Kind of puts extra pressure on me,” Ian said. “I like being the underdog; now, it’s just expected.”
It probably would have been “expected” anyway, considering Fletcher enters his senior year as one of the young men Jacket coaches and fans are counting on ...
SAN SABA—High school girls and boys say, “Good job, good job, good job,” or, “Good game, good game, good game,” in—I think—that ridiculous handshake line following a game, but if Armadillo players delivered those expected words to the Llano basketball boys, on the last Thursday in June, they would have been correct, on the money.
The Jackets, with new head coach Chris Armstrong in the stands, whipped the host five, 54-40, in the last game of the San Saba Summer League.
“More in ...
MARBLE FALLS—A year and a half ago, he had not competed in a bodybuilding event since 1969, but on July 22 in Pittsburgh, Pa., Ed Thompson of Horseshoe Bay will show what he’s made of—literally—as he takes a perfect record into the Masters National Championships in the 70-and-over division.
“It’ll be tough,” he acknowledged at the Marble Falls Athletic Club where he trains.
Okay, I’m not opposed to raising money and fighting for worthy causes, honoring our forefathers on Independence Day and year ‘round.
But I’ve had it with changing the color of the Major League uniforms. I don’t even watch baseball that much, but my son-inlaw is an Astros’ fan, and it seems like whenever I’m at his house, the Astros are on and too many times wearing odd colors.
I think Houston’s Blue and Orange is just fine; I think the Red and Blue of the Cubs is nice; and I like ...
The Jackets didn’t just get a head football coach from Marble Falls—but because of Matt Green—they also collected two assistant coaches for the varsity and a coach for the middle school. When traveling north on 281, don’t wear Black and Orange or Green after you cross the bridge.
Defense Witness
Ricky Sparks comes to LHS as defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator with Clint Easley.
