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Warde's Wheelhouse

Volleyball is order on the court

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One of my favorite sports to watch live is volleyball. Like hockey, seeing it in person is far better than on the screen.

High school football is much bigger than other amateur sports and Texas is perhaps larger than any state in America, though a few come close, like Florida, California, Pennsylvania and Ohio. But the attraction to volleyball has its own appeal, though competing against football in the fall is a challenge.

High school sports persevere pandemic

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Precautionary measures against the coronavirus - by high school athletics, varied from state-to-state during the 2020-21 year. Some safeguards seemed reasonable while others bordered on paranoia. Here are some examples.

Many schools no longer allowed for the sale of tickets at the gate. This prevented the exchange of money or credit cards and lessened human contact. Instead, fans had to purchase tickets online by using a debit or credit card. Entry was often given away for free to accomplish the same.

Monreal is the real deal

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Fans of the Mac-Gyver TV character would love the baseball coach version on display in Kellen Monreal, the Ennis manager of the baseball Lions. He leads a unified team known for fundamentals, a never-say-die attitude and the guile of MacGyver.

Possessing a genius-level intellect, proficiency in old school baseball, superb psychological skills, surpassing knowledge of increased productivity, techniques for manufacturing runs with

or without base hits and a preference for minimizing gripes with four men dressed in black (umpires).

Calling out Midlothian

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Softball nor baseball are known for the presence of cheerleaders. They don’t need them either.

Winning it all in football

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Class 5A, Division II football entered Week 5 of the six-week odyssey known as the playoffs. It’s not easy to reach the final, though Ennis done in five times in 32 years of making the playoffs. This year’s Lions, ranked No. 1 all season, were considered one of, if not the best ever to don the maroon helmets.

As explosive as Ennis was, they won their nine games by an average of 42.5 points per game, they were the first ranked team to lose, and it came after just one postseason win. It is no wonder the sting of coming up short has been so hard to bear.

Destined outcome

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The sting of defeat is sharp and the instant heartbreak can be overwhelming. When it occurs in the playoffs, the sudden finality to what was expected to be a greater outcome carries an even deeper pain.

Knocked out by the ‘Rona

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Friday Night Lights have been burning brightly since August 28 for schools in Class 1A-through-4A and for Class 5A and 6A since Sept. 25. That’s 8 weeks of action for the first group while this weekend marks four Friday’s for the larger schools.