Friday, Sep. 26, 2008

Sports Digest

Marcus Football Boosters Holding Raffle

The Marcus football booster club is selling raffle tickets for a chance to win $1,000 gift cards to Wal-Mart.

Tickets are $20 each, and the 10 winners will be announced at halftime of the Marcus vs. Hebron game on Nov. 7.

According to a news release, the cards "can be used at any of their stores or online for such things as electronics, food, prescriptions or gasoline."

Contact Mary Matheson at podfixx@verizon.net or Lisa Rose at home2homefurniture@sbcglobal.net for more information.

Tickets can be purchased from any booster club member, and only 1,000 will be sold.

Coram Deo Wins Big

The Coram Deo football team was impressive last Friday against Dallas Prep Academy, winning 54-0 to move to 3-0 on the season.

Blake Santschi proved to be a double threat for the Lions, rushing for 130 yards and three touchdowns and returning an interception 40 yards for a touchdown.

Trevor Smith rushed for two touchdowns in the contest, and Marcus Dingler completed a touchdown pass to Cooper Newlan and rushed for another one.

Coram Deo will play at 7:30 tonight at Frisco Legacy Christian.

Liberty Loses Tough One

The Liberty Christian football team went to 2-2 on the season with a 40-23 loss to Fort Worth Nolan last Friday, a game the team actually led by three points at the half.

Adam Smith caught two touchdown passes for the Warriors, and Reid Fitzgerald rushed for over 150 yards.

Kendall Edmondson also caught a touchdown pass and Trevor Simms kicked a 20-yard field goal, while quarterback Bailee Brown threw three touchdown passes.

Liberty will play at 7:30 tonight at home against El Paso Cathedral.

Tejas Volleyball Forms Boys Team

The Tejas Volleyball club has formed a boys volleyball team that will compete against private schools this year, and Director of Operations and head boys coach Dan Sedgwick said his goal is to return the sport back to its glory days in the state of Texas.

Sedgwick said boys volleyball had a strong following in Texas back in the early 1990s with 25 teams across the state and a number of Division I recruits, but has since dwindled to five teams.

Sedgwick said Tejas volleyball is looking for players from all over the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

"From 1991 to 1997, boys volleyball in the state of Texas was really good," Sedgwick said. "A bunch of guys came out of the programs here that went on to play collegiately, and even in the Olympics."

Sedgwick, a former part-time coach at an area private school, said he is not sure why the sport died out in popularity, but said it is his goal to try to get it back to where it once was.

Jim Estes, whose son, Andrew, is a student at Northwest High School and a setter of the boys team, said he would like to see the sport grow in Texas as well.

"We just moved here from Illinois, and up there, it is a popular sport," Estes said. "It was huge. Our son has played club since he was 10. He’s 15 now.

"Coach Sedgwick has decided he really wants boys volleyball back in Texas ... and we think that’s great. They’re donating gym space; they’re donating coach time. All the kids have to do is pay for their own insurance."

Andrew played on a team in Addison last year that competed in the Junior Olympics and finished 20th in the nation.

Club Tejas has been an exclusively girls club for years, but created its first boys team, which is made up mostly of players within the Keller school district, this fall.

Sedgwick said the club is still accepting players and said anyone interested, regardless of athletic ability or previous volleyball experience, is welcome.

Visit www.tejasvolleyball.com for more information.

— John English, Contributing Writer