Marty

Awesome! I was hoping it was him. Congrats Jason.

read in paper where AFL Nashville Kats signed kicker Jason Ball. Is this the former NT kicker?

Ponder won 61-41.

Mean Green honor CHS’ Franklin By Adam Boedeker Herald Democrat DENTON — After finishing his first round of chemotherapy Thursday, Tyler Franklin got a pleasant surprise Monday night at the Super Pit. Franklin attended the Celina-Ponder playoff game, sitting on the front row with his friends dressed in assorted Celina garb, but Franklin trumped them all. At halftime of the game, North Texas football coach Darrell Dickey presented Franklin with an official Mean Green jersey, his No. 50 and all. The back of the jersey sports his nickname, “T-Frank.” Franklin, a senior and a member of the Bobcats’ state champion football team, is suffering from osteosarcoma in his femur. Franklin wasn’t the only person in the arena wearing the No. 50. The Celina coaches, cheerleaders and even the players sported shirts dedicated to Franklin as their warmup tops. Dickey gave a speech before presenting the jersey, bringing the Celina and Ponder fans to their feet. “I just want everyone to know that everyone at North Texas is keeping Tyler Franklin in our prayers during this bout,” Dickey said. Then as a testament to Franklin’s toughness, Dickey offered his prognosis. “With a guy like Tyler, you might as well just consider it done,” he said. Franklin said he feels good after his chemo and said he “didn’t even throw up, which was a plus.” He appreciated the jersey, even though he had a bigger task at hand. “It feels amazing to get that,” he said. “That’s not why I came here, though. I came to support my boys and help them progress through the playoffs.” Celina basketball coach Troy Davis, who coaches Franklin’s little brother, Troy, knew about Dickey’s presentation, but wasn’t able to see it. “I know that means a lot to Tyler,” Davis said. “He needs all the encouragement he can get. It also means a lot to our close-knit community to know someone outside of Collin County is thinking about him.”

Not much....pretty good player at Sherman, may have made one of the all-state teams.

DeAnthony Chamberlain, DT (6'2", 270 lbs) of Sherman signed with Tyler Junior College. In an article in the Sherman Herald Democrat a couple of weeks ago stated that he would eventually end up at UNT. Maybe a case of "stashing"!

Howe’s Mangrum will miss playoffs Knee injury leaves Bulldogs short vs. surging Bobcats By Bill Spinks Herald Democrat The question being asked in both Howe and Celina is: Will Collin Mangrum play tonight, or won’t he? According to Howe head coach Tim Rose, the Bulldogs’ standout senior guard will miss tonight’s game at McKinney High School as he continues to recover from a knee injury and is likely out for the rest of the playoffs. But Celina head coach Troy Davis is preparing his team as if it’ll face the North Texas early signee and McDonald’s All-American nominee in the area round of the Class 2A Region II playoffs. “We’re planning for him,” Davis said Thursday. “That kind of kid, if there’s any way possible, I know he’ll be out there.” Mangrum, who missed several games in midseason with an ankle sprain, suffered a knee injury two weeks ago in practice and hasn’t played since. He is averaging 28.9 points, 12.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.4 steals for the Bulldogs, who reached the Class 2A state tournament a year ago. “It’s an injury that requires 2-to-4 weeks,” Rose said. “This is the second week, and he’s got two more weeks to rehab it. With him, we’ve got a good chance, but without him, we lose 30 points a game, and that’s tough to make up. “But our kids play hard, and if the other team has an off night, anything can happen,” Rose added. “It’s a tribute to the kids to get to where they are now.” Without Mangrum, the Bulldogs will have their hands full against a team making a rare push into the boys’ basketball area round after staying in football deep into December. Celina has plenty of hoops talent, despite the dismissal of leading scorer Alan Jones from the team a month ago. Without Jones, the Bobcats have won eight of their last nine, and ran the table in the second half of a brutal District 13-2A slate to tie Krum for second place. “All the kids here love Alan, everybody in school loves Alan, and no doubt we’d be a better team with him,” Davis said. “But we’ve also come together. Like Celina kids do all the time, they get a little adversity, and they work through it and they wind up better for it.” In the past, Celina’s football success has been at the expense of basketball. The Bobcats’ hoops season didn’t start until Dec. 19, two days after their football team wrapped up its seventh state title with a 28-12 win over Omaha Paul Pewitt. “Usually we get a late start in basketball, and we don’t have basketball players, we have football players playing basketball,” said senior Nathan Tune. “Celina’s never been past the second round, so if we can do that, that’ll be something new for the school.” The Bobcats (14-6) rely heavily on the 6-foot-4 Tune, who averaged 17.1 points per game in the regular season. Tune hit for 25 points in Celina’s 79-48 bi-district rout of Italy. “When Nathan’s on a roll, he’s hard to stop,” Davis said. “The other guys do a good job getting it to him. Our guys are good about finding the hot guy.” Besides Tune, the Bobcats have other scoring options. Sophomore Seth Davis and juniors Jamie Blatnick and Dru Prosser — all of whom, like Tune, helped lead Celina to the state football championship — all reached double figures in the scoring column on Tuesday.

Mangrum nominated for McDonald’s team By Herald Democrat Howe senior guard Collin Mangrum was recently recognized among the finest basketball players in the country through his nomination to the 2006 McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Team. As a nominee, Mangrum is among the top 1,500 prep basketball standouts in the nation nominated by the McDonald’s All American Basketball Team Selection Committee, a group of nationally prominent basketball experts. Each player nominated will be considered for one of the 24 positions on the final 2006 McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Team that will compete in the 29th anniversary of the McDonald’s All American High School Game, to be played March 29 in San Diego. The final team members will be announced later this month. In 16 games this season for the District 15-2A champions, North Texas-signee has averaged 28.9 points, 12.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.4 steals.

Hibbett's is opening a store in Gainesville, hopefully they'll carry NT gear.

Good luck to the Chaps! Anna and Farmersville should be the only competition in that district.

Leonard linebacker Kail Krider is headed to the University of North Texas after spending the second half of his senior season on the sideline with a broken leg. He becomes the first Leonard football player and second athlete in school history to sign with a Division I program. “It’s a pretty recent development,” Krider said. “I took an official visit this (past) weekend and they offered the scholarship.” The interest from the Mean Green came after Krider sent in a video tape about a month ago and the coaching staff got in contact with him. “We kept looking at him as a linebacker, and thinking he wasn’t fast enough, but all of a sudden it jumped on (defensive coordinator) Kenny Evans that if he gained a little more weight, he’d make a heck of a defensive end or defensive tackle,” said UNT head coach Darrell Dickey. “We like everything about him.” Krider had 58 tackles, two sacks and an interception in his abbreviated season and had offers to play tight end at Southeastern Oklahoma State and Texas A&M-Commerce. But the chance to play for the Division I program, which he will do as a defensive end, was too good to pass up. “I wanted to play at the highest level,” Krider said. “They liked what I did playing at linebacker and said they could move me around.”

Kail Krider – DE – 6’3” – 245 lbs – Leonard High School Was named to the All-District 15-2A team the last three years as a linebacker ... Also received all-district honors as a tight end the last two seasons ... Only played in five games as a senior before breaking his fibula ... Leonard was 4-1 with Krider in the lineup and finished the season 6-4 ... In the five games before the injuries he registered 58 tackles, two forced fumbles, one interception and two sacks ... Also had six catches 64 yards ... Led the team in tackles as a sophomore and junior ... Currently a starter on the Leonard varsity basketball team Not a starter for Leonard's basketball team. Watched them play last night.

DE Kail Krider Leonard . Wasn't Ray Renfro from Leonard? It's also the birthplace of the great J.T. Smith.

Most Valuable Player It’s always Miller Time By Jason Della Rosa Herald Democrat GAINESVILLE — Michael Miller spent much of his high school career as a linebacker. He started as a sophomore for Gainesville’s state championship team and two years later he became more involved on the offensive side of the ball. He began at receiver but was moved to running back after a rash of injuries. The switch went without a hitch, as Miller rushed for 1,426 yards, 23 touchdowns and seven two-point conversions as Gainesville lost only one game — the 3A Division I state title tilt. “I hit people on defense and I do the same thing on offense,” Miller said. “I just have a ball in my hand.” Defensively, he finished with 89 tackles (71 solo) to go with 14.5 sacks, 16 quarterback pressures and six forced fumbles. His play earned him the accolade as District 6-3A's top player as well as the Herald Democrat All-Texomaland Class 3A-4A Most Valuable Player.

DCTF has him listed as 6'4", 210 lbs, 4.7. 1st team all state LB as a junior and district 22-2A MVP. Was named 2nd team all state LB on yesterdays TSWA 2A team.

Mart quarterback Roddy Green committed to play football at the University of Houston during his visit to the school last weekend. That commitment seems to have touched off a whirl of activity in Mart. Roberson kept busy Tuesday night at the Mart-Hearne basketball game by hosting an assembly of college coaches. Scouts from Abilene Christian, North Texas, Houston and MCC were in attendance to see the Panthers hoops showdown with Hearne. More specifically, they were there to see Green, Ryan Kyle and Jacob Baker. Baker, a linebacker, is scheduled to visit North Texas this weekend. Angelo State has offered him a scholarship, but he hasn't committed there, and Abilene Christian is starting to show interest. “He's gotten to be a hot commodity,” Mart coach Tommy Roberson said about Baker. “I'm glad for him because I think he deserves it.” Roberson said Kyle, an offensive and defensive lineman, is leaning toward signing with the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, though he still might visit Hardin-Simmons, which has also shown interest in Mart utility back/defensive back Squirt Scott. “I think we'll have three that will sign and possibly four on signing day,” Roberson said.

I was at the game last night. Mangrum can definitely score, he was putting shots up from everywhere! Not too impressed with him defensively, looked at times like was was wandering around but then his ankle may still be bothering him. He eventually fouled out with about 1:30 left in the game.

Prince stats this past season: 150 attempts, 89 completions for 767 yards with 8 TD's and 6 interceptions.

http://www.springhillpanthers.com/nationalsignings.htm

Awesome!

Seems small to me also but in the paragraph above it lists the LB from McKinney that committed to BYU as 6' 215 lbs. Not much difference in the two players.

Back in the mid 70's (Blakely era) you could win the use of a AMC Pacer for a year if you hit a half court shot at halftime.

Howe 65, Whitewright 56 Whitewright 12 17 13 14 - 56 Howe 13 15 16 21 - 65 Whitewright (12-9, 2-2): Josh Benedict 7, Aubrey Cox 5, Fred Bowen 14, Jeremy Ballard 3, Shawn Green 4, Joel Luper 11, John Davis 2, James Heather 2, Matt Smith 8. Howe (12-8, 2-2): Steven Richardson 10, Zack Hodge 6, James White 2, Sean Stanley 2, Michael Mariano 2, Collin Mangrum 43.

I've touted Miller and Franklin on here before. Franklin was all-state LB as a soph, then was out almost all of last season with a broken leg I believe. Looks like he came back in full force this year. I would love to have both of them.