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Sports

Maxing his opportunities by rising to the occasion

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JT Mackey has taken a road less traveled to education and football, and with a year to go in college, is ending up farther than many predicted and enjoying the fruit of hard work.

Lockhart inks deal with Steelers

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Former Ennis All-State defensive end James Lockhart was signed as an undrafted free agent within a day after the seven round NFL draft ended. A total of 255 players were chosen by teams. Then it was like shooting fish in a barrel with Lockhart going quickly to the blue-collar Steel-town that is Pittsburgh. They indicated he would play outside linebacker.

Koko White heads west to UT-Permian Basin

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Following a second noteworthy season of junior college basketball, former Ennis standout Nokoia White signed a scholarship offer from the University of Texas-Permian Basin. The NCAA Division II school has an enrollment of 3,730 in Odessa and is a member of the 18-team Lone Star Conference.

The Falcons were 10-18 overall and 7-15 in conference games this past season, their best in six years. Still, the team was riddled with injuries, were reduced to eight players and had virtually no inside game. An upgraded recruiting class should change their fortune this winter.

Big 5 baseball teams seasons abbreviated, ended by UIL

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Capping one of the most unusual, surreal seasons in the modern history of high school athletics, teams that participate in spring sports across the nation had their schedule circumvented by the coronavirus pandemic. Locally, baseball teams had completed three or four weeks of action and were about to start the most meaningful games against teams in their district.

Clark Harrell named HC at New Diana

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They are not taking over the world, it just seems way. Divide and conquer, Sam Harrell, the Hall of Fame High School Coach at Ennis, had yet another son, Clark Harrell, rise to the top as a football head coach. Cream has a way of doing that.

On Monday, April 13, New Diana Independent School District named him to succeed former HC Travis Chrisman, who resigned after two seasons to become the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Class 5A Boerne Champion (13-2).

Diana is 15 miles north of Longview 60 miles northwest of Shreveport.

Waxahachie QB accepts coaching gig in Kansas

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Venique Benton, who quarterbacked Waxahachie to a 13-0 start in 2009, has been named the new Special Teams Coordinator at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe (Kansas City), Kansas. The NAIA team went 7-4 last season as a member of the 13-team Heart of America Conference.

Benton spent the past two years as Defensive Backs Coach at NCAA Division II, Western New Mexico

University. Prior to that he was on the Southwestern Assemblies of God University coaching staff under HC Frank Tristan, the current WNM head coach.

Mascots and marketing go bananas!

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Depending on who you ask, the name of a mascot for a team can vary. I recall nearly a decade ago when SAGU was turning the corner as a nationally recognized NAIA men’s basketball program.

They had just experienced the largest turnaround in the country in all of the NCAA and including the NAIA, having improved from 10-21 to 27-11 when HC Donnie Bostwick arrived to steer the program. In his second year at the helm the Lions improved to No. 6, went 33-5 and advanced to the championship game in the NAIA. They appeared on CBS and ESPN.

NFL basement draft could call pair of Lions

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Eligible football players from the area await the hope of hearing their name announced during the April 23-25 National Football League draft. The event will have an entirely different look than the one held at AT&T Stadium last year.

Waxahachie’s Reagor should go in rounds 1-2

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Former Texas Tech star and second round pick Montae Reagor is days away from possibly being one-upped by his son, Jalen, who is leaving Texas Christian University a year early. Both enjoyed stellar careers at Waxahachie H.S.

SAGU’s Smith casts wider recruiting net

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Southwestern Assemblies of God University had introduced a fresh wave of incoming transfer students as well as a talent freshman class when, like the rest of the nation, was hit with a foreign virus that has brought schools and athletics to a cease fire.