Highlands Star - Crosby Courier • P.O. Box 405, Highlands, TX 77562 • Phone: 713-266-3444 • Fax: 713-977-1188 • Email: grafikstar@aol.com
Congratulations to Hargrave High School Varsity Softball team. State 4A Champs! Katy Janes pitched two shutouts, winning 4-0 vs. Fredricksburg and 11-0 vs. Anna. Janes was also the MVP. This is the second state championship for Hargrave in the last five years.
Last Saturday, a parade down Main St. and thronged ball parks signaled the beginning of baseball and softball season in Crosby and Highlands.
TYLER, Texas – Chapel Hill Independent School District named Jeff Riordan as successor to lead their football program and athletic department next year.
Riordan will serve as new head football coach and athletic director.
Riordan will replace Jason Hooker who resigned on February 11.
Riordan’s 16 years of experience; including seven at Crosby ISD with a mark of 66-18 at Crosby. He led the Cougars to six playoff appearances and four district championships.
Just prior to Crosby he was at Sulphur Springs. He began at Garland Lakeview Centennial High School for four years and was the wide receivers coach at Texas A&M-Commerce in 2001.
Riordan will officially begin his duties on March 18.
CROSBY – It is no secret that the financial condition of Crosby ISD has cost the district some fine people and most knew that would happen when the laying off of over 100 teachers was announced.
The district had to layoff a bunch of coaches and cut the budget for athletics by 60% in 2018.
Riordan was known to have been upset in October of last year when it was announced that Michelle Trotter, later chosen to be Coach of the Year, was to be laid off in spite of her diligence with the Lady Cougar’s Basketball Team. She had been Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator and her last day was going to be Dec. 20. That was prior to the intercession of local parents.
Coach Jeff Riordan, Athletic Director and Head Coach of Crosby Football has indicated he will be leaving after Spring Break but that is unofficial and all await approval of the school board. He has indicated an offer came for an opportunity to return closer to where his extended family lives.
Lady Cougars Girls Basketball Coach, Michelle Trotter was named girls basketball coach of the year by the Southeast Texas Coaches Association.
By Allan Jamail
Crosby, TX. – Friday, October 5, 2018 there was a rumble in “The Jungle” as the Crosby Cougars and Dayton Broncos displayed a thrilling offensive performance with 14 touchdowns to the near capacity crowd for bragging rights as it’s been billed as, “The Highway 90 Showdown.”
As you enter the new two year old Cougar stadium their welcoming message reads, “Welcome to the Jungle.
The Broncos came out ready to rumble scoring first, using just three plays in two offensive drives to lead 13 – 0 early in the first quarter.
At the end of the first quarter Dayton led 13 to 7. But then Crosby gained their composure, scoring four touchdowns in the second quarter to lead at halftime 35 – 20.
In the third and fourth quarter the rumble continued with both teams scoring three touchdowns each. A 97 point high scoring game ended with the Cougars remaining undefeated having 15 more points than the Broncos 56 – 41.
The rivalry matchup began in 1923 between the two Highway 90 rivals. Last year Crosby won at Dayton, again a high scoring game of 96 points, Crosby won 69 to 27.
Crosby’s Coach Jeff Riordan who in 2012 came from Sulphur Springs High School as offensive coordinator and now serves as both head coach and athletic director of the Cougars said, “We are 6 – 0 and not near where we can be,” Riordan said. “We have lots to fix and improve on. We are a really good football team that will only get better.”
CROSBY – The Crosby Cougars won a come from behind last minute Hail Mary innovation to defeat the perennial state contenders Manvel Mavericks last Friday by a score of 49-47.
It was looking dangerously light near the end of the first quarter with Manvel up by three touchdowns when Crosby quarterback Jaiden Howard found Mathew Fagnana in the clear and launched his first strike to grab 6 points with 46 seconds left. Normally, the extra point is an also but in this game each was critical.
The Cougar defense deserves some high praise for holding the giant player laden Mavericks in the second quarter to a single touchdown while the Cougars snatched another touchdown and a field goal. Honorable mention should go to Noel Wright, Hunter Bailey and Zack Simon in those efforts.
PORTER – It may be poor revenge to steal away with the season opener, against shutting down someone’s season. But it looked sweet when the Crosby Cougars defeated the New Caney Eagles at Texan Stadium 28-14 last Friday.
So, Jaiden Howard has returned with a penchant for converting third downs personally as quarterback. His attack would net a TD on the first drive. He would go seven of thirteen for 114 yards with two touchdowns and an interception passing last Friday. He would dash 130 yards in the game.
The Cody Stephens Go Big or Go Home (GBOGH) Foundation is going big! The foundation is absorbing the Texas non-profit Who We Play For (WWPF) in order to directly screen young students’ hearts with electrocardiograms (ECG). The GBOGH foundation has been funding WWPF heart screening for a number of years, so this move just made sense to reduce duplication of efforts. Together, more than 100,000 students have been screened, with a large portion funded directly by the GBOGH Foundation.
The GBOGH Foundation will have five employees immediately with the charge of screening all of Texas. For the first year of participation, school districts new to the screening program, are offered a free and optional ECG heart screening to those students that are required to have a sports physical. Thereafter, there’s a $20.00 charge for an ECG.
“This program is not about stopping students from playing their respective sports, but just allowing them the opportunity to make sure their hearts are healthy before participation,” said Scott Stephens, Cody’s Dad and co-founder of the GBOGH Foundation. “The current sports physicals use a stethoscope to check the students’ hearts. This technology is 200 years old. We can do better by testing our students’ hearts with computers (ECG machines) and allowing the advances made in modern medicine find these unknown heart conditions.”
The current history and physical and stethoscope is said to find about 3% of the conditions that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest whereas by adding a 5 minute, $20 ECG we can find about 86% of the causes of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).
It is the goal of the Cody Stephens Go Big or go Home Foundation to be the largest Non-profit screening organization in the USA. Currently, we are the largest in Texas, but in order to honor Cody Stephens words to his dad before he left us we believe we should be the largest in the USA.
In order to achieve this goal we are having a fundraiser at the Crosby American Legion Hall on August 25, 2018 at 7 pm. Tickets are $50 per person (tables of 8 for $400) at www.codystephensfoundation.org.
CONROE It was a good night for the Crosby Cougars, as they blanked the Caney Creek Panthers by a score of 64-0.
The Cougars jumped off to an early lead and never looked back. The Crosby offense showed some amazing plays, with a 55 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mannie Netherly to Terryl Wiley.
Still in the first quarter, this score was followed 3 minutes later by a 58 yard touchdown run by Carlos Grace.
Fans were thrilled by the strong offensive play. Another outstanding play occured in the second quarter, when Netherly hit Gray-Brooks with a 95 yard TD pass.
The Cougars took a 42-0 lead into the second half, and didnt wait lo0ng to score again, with a 50 yard run by Terryl Willey.
Crosby is now 3-1 in District 21-5A play, and 4-2 overall. Next Friday they play Dayton in Crosby.
CROSBY Houston Heights Bulldogs 6-A walked into The Jungle fully looking an average six inches taller and filling their pads out more than the Cougars but the first quarter taught everybody who was dominant.
The Bulldogs opening off-side easterly kick resulted in the Cougars taking possession on their 48 yardline.
Quarterback Mannie Netherly marshaled a 22 point first quarter before being finally injured in the opening of the second. It only took about half a minute and two downs for the Cougars to score first. Netherly screened to Terrence Wiley for 45 yards. Mannies second play of the game scored because he put a runner, Carlos Grace, where there were no defenders. The sprint to the goal stunned everyone following the backfield dazzle.
The Cougars defense was phenomenal, swiping a goal line pass, shutting down the run – playing keep away for four quarters minus one minute exactly. Thats when a Bulldog pass finally got their only score and with no extra point. That pass was very much like the interception in the third quarter, straight over the center. Plus, the Cougars snatched up four fumbles. The first fumble set up Netherly to Craig Williams on a 12 yard touchdown. However, the Bulldogs were ferocious now and it looked like they were holding the Cougars but Netherly showed why LSU pick him early. From fourth down and long yardage, Netherly sprinted 44 yards to touchdown. Cougar runners were reading the plays and taking advantage of mistakes and the Cougar defense did the same. There was four and a half minutes left in the first quarter after that scoring spree and a long time to go.
The Bulldog offense were as frustrated as the man with his new bride stuck in the hotels revolving doors. But, they had a defense, too, in spite of the implications of the first quarter.
I feel good, said Coach Jeff Riordan, I had figured we would struggle the first quarter and a half because they really are a good team, like Manvil-very good on defense. We executed some plays early, plays we had been working on from film, that we knew we could get. Had some injuries then. Some guys stepped up and played solid. I am really excited for the team, excited for the defense. Last week too; our defense has put us in a spot to win some ballgames.
Half the third quarter elapsed without incident when Crosby got a midfield goal.
When asked about the injuries to his first two quarterbacks Riordan said, The thing about this team is that we have guys that can step up. Mannie went down and Jake Howard came in and then Jake went down and Alex Louis came in stepping up. We do what we have to do. Its good to have kids that prepare so that if their number is called they are ready to go.
Barbers Hill Eagles come to town Friday at 7:00 p.m. bringing District play after swatting Santa Fe 54-13.