Catching Up

What a historic day for our country, it is an amazing day when you see something that has never happened before. I hope President Obama is ready for the huge undertaking of getting our country back in order.

I apologize for taking so long to update my blog. Sometimes things just start flying by and you forget some things. It amazes me that it is already the 20th of the month.

Not only has it been a historic day for our country, I was telling coach Briggs earlier today that she made some history – not really her but her team. In particular the starting five of Haylee Allen, Lindsey Newcombe, Bo Warm, Kristen Harris and Mollie Brawner all have GPAs of 3.55 or above and this morning I nominated all five for Academic all-American. That is a first for me to nominate the whole starting lineup. No wonder they have been doing so well on the court, they are a smart group.

If you have not seen the Cowgirls play, they are really an exciting team to watch. They play extremely well together as a team and do not care who is the leading scorer. In fact four players average more than 12 points per game and the team is averaging close to 87 points per game over the last 10 games or so. They have so many ways to beat you on the offensive end. This team really, really has a chance to do some damage in March. They are 11-3 with two 1-point losses. In case you haven’t noticed, the ASC continues to be a brutally tough league. Outsiders don’t see how tough it is, especially the top eight or nine teams.

As for the men’s team, the Cowboys snapped a seven-game losing streak on Saturday against Texas Lutheran. Casey Riddle was great down the stretch and willed the team to victory with 13 straight points in the final five minutes, then Carlos Singer hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 13 seconds to play. I must admit I was particularly happy for Casey’s performance. I have always admired the underdog and Casey has persevered his way into the starting lineup and took advantage of it. I also like seeing kids from small towns succeed. So many times the kids from small schools are overlooked and all they really need is a chance.

The Cowboys continue to work really hard and is getting better and better. The good thing is that at least three of the spots for West teams are up for grabs and the Cowboys are right in the mix for one of those three spots.

Thursday night HSU hosts Howard Payne and everyone needs to come out and support the teams. They really appreciate it when you come to the games and make noise.
Congrats to the track team on their first meet last weekend at Texas Tech. They will run two of the next three weekends at Texas Tech to conclude the indoor season.
Spring sports are firing up practices over the next few days and will be going before we know it.

Just a note of condolences to Sul Ross State on the loss of Jermaine Swearington, an All-ASC running back. He was killed in Midland earlier this week. Ironically, it was on the one year anniversary of the death of our own Brentdrick Walker.

Another person I would like for you to keep in your prayers is David Bates. David was the longtime bus driver for the Cowboys and Cowgirls and he was the team's number one fand and official's number one nightmare. He always was so good to our coaches and players and always got us to places safe and secure. Dave has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and we really need to keep him in our prayers.