Outdoors

750 athletes from 41 schools, all gathered to run the woods behind Broaddus High School in one of the first, and one of the largest Cross Country meets in East Texas. With three heats in each of the female and male high school catagories, and boys and girls junior varsity, there was a long day of competition.

.

.

.

As anyone who has ever played high school, college, even professional sports, or belonged to a fraternity/club will tell you, hazing has been a part of the acceptance process for years. This is not meant to condemn nor defend the tradition behind the practice, but to call attention to the extremes each generation goes to in the name of being more original than those in the past. Where hazing used to be expected to stand up in the middle of math class and sing the Alma Mater, we have allowed our kids to progress to the point of causing serious physical injury and death. The most recent example is the Alamo Heights (San Antonio) High School varsity football team. This years new arrivals were expected to strip naked and run the bases on the baseball field while holding hot sauce drenched oreos between their butt cheeks. If the dropped their cookie, they were expected to eat it. While running, they were splashed with hot sauce by spectators. The “harmless initiation” resulted in one trip to the emergency room, and 21 varsity players receiving two game suspensions. The 5A school had a 13-1 record last year, making it to the regional finals. A serious lapse of judgement may have killer their season before it started.

The Lady Dragons played better defense. That's the only way to describe Hemphills 3-1 loss to Shelbyville Friday afternoon. With the Lady Hornets offense dominating play at the net, the Dragon defense managed to keep the ball in play long enough to either find an opening on the Hornet side, or to frustrate the Hornet attack into making a mistake. Bremyiah Williams had an outstanding offensive game, with Dashia Richards close behind her in number of kills. After winning the first game, the Lady Hornets fell behind by 6 points early in the second, only to come back before losing by 2. That loss seemed to take something out of the Hornets who were dominated in the third game, before showing a spark in the fourth. The Lady Hornets continue their season with matches in Kirbyville (9/6), Jasper (9/9, and Garrison (9/13). Bremyiah Williams (3) with an overpowering kill against a solid Shelbyville defense. Cami Allman (2), Laken Wilkerson (10), and Dashia Richards (7) follow the action.