By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Last month Palestine-Wheatley head basketball coach Beverly Bass won her first-ever state championship, when her Lady Patriot team won the Class AA state title.
Yesterday, Bass earned another "first" in her 25-year coaching career -- the chance to coach one of the two high school girls' All-Star basketball teams.
The Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star basketball and football games will be played July 26 & 27 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Bass will coach the East All-Stars which will include the just-named Arkansas Player of the Year and standout senior forwards for Bass' Lady Patriots, Erica Smith and Melanie Baker.
Bass also picked up LeAnn Upshaw of Jonesboro, Amber Gean of West Memphis and Blytheville's Wendlyn Jones among her draft picks.
Bass will be joined on the sidelines by assistant coaches Michelle Birdsong of Jonesboro; David Moon of Osceola; Jason Smith of Valley View and Steve Ross of Rural Special.
Frankie Gathen of Osceola will be the head coach for the East boys team.
Jim Pennington of Emerson was named coach of the West boys team, and Sherry White of Harrison will coach the West girls team.
The girls All-Star Game begins at 6 p.m., and will be followed by the boys game on Thursday, July 26, at the Farris Center.
The All-Star football game will be played Friday, July 27, at Estes Stadium, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Cabot's Mike Malham will head coach the East All-Stars and will be assisted by Cabot's Randy Black; Johnny McMurry of Monticello; Tim Branum of Marked Tree; Lanny Dauksch of McGehee and Clay Totty of Rison.
Kenneth Rippy of Booneville will coach the West squad and will receive help from Dale Mann of Booneville; Billy Dawson of Sheridan; Ronnie Peacock of Greenwood and Bryan Law of Farmington.
The 2001 Arkansas High School Coaches Association clinic will be July 25-27 in North Little Rock.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
CLARENDON--Kanetra Pendleton continued her hot hitting streak Thursday belting a fifth-inning home run over the outfield fence to help put the cap on Forrest City's 18-0 win over Clarendon in girls' slow-pitch softball.
One day after clinching the 6-East softball conference title, the Lady Mustangs stepped out of league play to take on the Lady Lions, minus three regular starters.
"We had three of our starters involved in other school activities so we just compensated by plugging those holes with junior varsity players," said Forrest City Coach Sue Jayroe. "They stepped up and provided the spark we needed."
The Lady Mustangs scored eight runs in the first inning and sent 13 batters to the plate to break on top quickly.
They added two runs in the the second, third and fourth innings and closed out the shutout with four runs in the fifth.
Katie Murry led the Lady Mustangs in scoring with three runs while Natalie Nelson, Krystal Weaver, Leslie Jayroe, Abby Townsend, Pendleton and Jessica Long scoring two runs each.
Clarendon managed just three base runners during the five inning game.
Forrest City improves to 8-5 for the year with two regular season games remaining next week against Little Rock Central (Tuesday) and Little Rock McClellan (Thursday).
The Lady Mustangs will open Region 4 Tournament play on Saturday, April 28, when they take on the fourth seeded team from the 5-East conference at 11:30 a.m., at Pine Bluff Region Park.
The top two teams from the regional will advance to the state tournament.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Palestine-Wheatley Lady Patriots improved to 9-1 for the year Thursday by turning back DeValls Bluff 5-2 at Palestine.
The Lady Patriots will close out regular season today when they host Barton.
Palestine-Wheatley will open District Tournament play Monday, April 23, at Hazen.
With a bye past the first-round game, the top-seeded Lady Patriots will play the Elaine/Carlisle winner at 7 p.m. in one of two semifinal games. The championship game will be played at 8:30 p.m.
The top four teams from district will advance to the Region 3 Tournament to be played at Pocahontas beginning Saturday, April 28.
Libby Martin scored the first of her two runs in the first inning Thursday to put P-W in front 1-0. Beth Varvil added a single run in the second inning. P-W closed out the scoring with a three-run fifth inning, highlighted by Amanda Riffle's two-RBI base hit.
DeValls Bluff scored twice in the sixth inning.
By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
PINE BLUFF -- For the first time this track season, the Forrest City Mustangs and Lady Mustangs will be taking full squads to a meet.
Having fought their ways through nagging injuries, discipline problems and cancelled meets, Forrest City will join the state's best teams at today's Wendy's-Andrew Butler Relays at Pine Bluff.
For Lewis Etheridge and his Lady Mustangs, today is just their fourth meet of the year.
"It's been a strange year," Etheridge said. "We had a couple of early meets cancelled because of the weather and on Tuesday we only took a few to Jonesboro because we had some sidelined with injuries. But today we should be very close to full strength."
The same can be said for the Mustangs, under first-year coach Jeff Hudson.
"Basically we will be taking a full squad to Pine Bluff today, something we haven't done in the last several meets," Hudson said. "We've had our own set of problems but as far as I know everyone will suit up today except for our distance runner, Mark Hines, who is out for personal reasons."
The Mustangs finished well back in the pack at Monday's Hoffman Relays at Jonesboro.
Ray Dixon, Nick Anderson and Howard Collins are expected to lead the Mustangs in the shot and the discus.
On the track Hudson is looking to Floyd Shivers, Daniel Echols, Travis Hurst, Jason Jones, Terrance Wilson, Montrell Ashcraft and Evan Haggins to provide valuable points.
The Lady Mustangs have been led this season by Verika Robinson, Stephanie Hancock, Chasna House and Tricia Newborn.
Newcomers Oscie Lockett has provided some help in the hurdles while Akissi Robinson has helped to bolster the relay teams.
Pine Bluff is the eighth meet of the year for the Mustangs. The team's best finish this season has been third.
Meanwhile the Pine Bluff Zebra squad is ready to defend their title.
Pine Bluff's Jeffrey Weaver has finished in the top three in the 800 meter run in every meet the team has competed in this season, winning some and getting points above those the team scored in that event last season and Cedric Taggert has performed well in the 100 meter dash, picking up a few wins.
The Zebras expect to dominate in the 1,600 and the mile run.
Texarkana and West Memphis will also provide some stiff competition at the meet.
The Butler Relays begin with the field events at 4 p.m., followed by the running events.
Today will provide the final test for the Forrest City teams before the AAAAA-East conference meet cranks up next week at West Memphis.
Rose Kalisak, a former NCAA Division I fast-pitch softball coach, will host a fast-pitch softball clinic on Saturday, May 12, at the Forrest City Sports Complex.
The clinic is open to all participants, ages eight and up, and will run from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The primary focus of the clinic will be hitting, bunting, base running and pitching.
Kalisak has more than 20 years experience in fast-pitch softball, having most recently served as an assistant coach at Ole Miss.
Registration will be held the morning of the clinic beginning at 8:30 a.m. and the cost per person is $10.
For more information about the clinic, call Bill Baxter at (870) 633-0780 or Karen McQuirt at (870) 633-8537.
A coaches clinic will be held on Friday, May 11, at the FCHS indoor athletic complex from 7 until 10 p.m.