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Thrills, excitement, sadness bring 2008 to a close
  
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By MIKE TENNEY
The year 2008 was a great one for sports in the Examiner newspaper readership area.
From participation sports for the older crowd to youth leagues, the games so many people play have been filled with dramatic moments, highlights and fun times as the calendar gets set to turn over.
We know we’ve left out some solid candidates, and there were many nominees that were just near-misses in joining the featured list.
But here below are, we believe, the top sports stories of the year:
1. Becky Bereswill. The West University resident and Episcopal High School student is currently an international ice skating champion, winning the ladies competition in December at the SBS ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Goyang City, South Korea.
Bereswill, who also runs cross country and track for the Knights, was in fourth place when she took the ice for her final skate, but scored 98.01 points with her outstanding performance and took over first place.
“She’s a phenomenal athlete,” said Episcopal head cross country coach Dick Phillips. “She’s a tremendous runner and an international skater and she’s just a real competitor. We miss her when she can’t run for us, but we totally understand.”
Bereswill completed her competition in South Korea, caught a little rest and then took an 18-hour plane ride home to take her semester finals before the current holiday break.
2. Brian Orakpo. The former Lamar standout was the first hometown football player to receive the Lombardi Award in November from the Houston Touchdown Club after a standout career at Texas was capped off by a brilliant senior season for the Longhorns.
Besides the Lombardi Award, Orakpo was also the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, a first-team defensive All-American, and he received the Ted Hendricks Award for the top defensive end in the nation.
Orakpo finished with 10.5 sacks this season for the Longhorns and had 15 tackles for losses during the regular season.
The Longhorns, finished the season ranked No. 3 in the country, will play tenth-ranked Ohio State Monday night in the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona.
3. Cory Whitsett. The Memorial junior was one of six golfers named to the American Junior Ryder Cup team for the competition in Louisville, Kentucky to gain national attention and he was the medalist last year at the 5A state golf tournament, garnering him state-wide attention.
Whitsett shot a two-day total of 141 to win the individual competition by two strokes, leading the Mustangs to a third place finish as a team.
The Mustangs finished regulation play tied with The Woodlands for second place, but the Highlanders won the playoffs on the second hold to finish with one less stroke than Memorial.
Plano West won the tournament with a team score of 595 shots while Memorial and The Woodlands finished with a 597..
4. Ryan Craig. The Stratford graduate, who first made the bowl-bound Rice University football team as a walk-on in 2005 when Ken Hatfield was still the head coach was nominated for the prestigious 2008 Rudy Award.
The award is nominated to college football players around the country who display relentless desire and effort to get on the field and an amazing commitment and courage to their team.
Craig is a starting special teams player for the Owls and despite being called a defensive rush end, he has been seeing quite a bit of action at linebacker after injuries caused a need there.
“I’ll play where ever I’m asked,” said Craig. “I just want to be on the field. That’s why I’ve worked as hard as I have. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve been with three head coaches now and I’ve tried to do what each of them has asked me to do. I’m just grateful coach (David) Baliff has given me an opportunity to show what I can do. ”
5. The Hurricane Ike effect. For nearly three weeks, just about all area scholastic and youth sports were put on hold due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
Area stadiums suffered minor damage, but some football teams like Lamar and Bellaire had to play day games for a while at Butler Stadium because a couple of light poles came down.
Teams were separated with some families fleeing and not returning to Southeast Texas until power was restored. Just about all the area football teams lost two games and a couple of cross country matches and several volleyball matches were also canceled.
“We lost 11 whole days,” said Bellaire head volleyball coach Ap Clarke. “That includes games and practices. That’s just not something you never really make up.
We say just about every team lost games for two weeks, because on Friday, Sept. 19, exactly one week after Ike rolled ashore with about half of Harris County still without electricity, Second Baptist was able to play a varsity football game.
Dodging trees and downed power lines on the highway, the Golden Eagles trekked to Victoria where they fell to St. Joseph, 24-12, for one of their two regular season losses. They had held a light workout Wednesday and Thursday before playing the game that Friday night.
No other team in the Examiner readership area was able to play until the following week at the earliest.
6. St. John’s girls win SPC field hockey championship. For the first time since 1981, when they were known as the Rebels, the St. John’s girls field hockey team won the Southwest Preparatory Conference championship.
The Mavs defeated defending champion Hockaday in the finals in the strokes competition after the teams finished regulation and two overtime periods still tied.
St. John’s finished one of its finest seasons in the history of the school with 25 victories.
Head coach Craig Chambers said the victory was one of the sweetest he’s ever had as a coach and credited his players for their hard work and resiliency in the championship game.
7. Former pros join St. Thomas coaching staff. In a matter of one day, St. Thomas High School grabbed national headlines.
That day came in early May when Athletics Director Mike Netzel announced that former Houston Astros great Craig Biggio and former NFL quarterback and Rice standout Donald Hollas were joining the Eagles coaching staffs.
Biggio, who had openly expressed his desire to coach his sons, was named as the new head baseball coach and Hollas was named as the new head football coach.
Biggio’s son, Conor, is on both the football and baseball teams for the Eagles.
St. Thomas has won two consecutive TAPPS state championships and has won 20 since 1950. The Eagles were also state champs eight consecutive years from 1989 to 1996.
Biggio collected 3,060 hits during his 20 years with the Astros and was a seven-time All-Star.Hollas spent seven years in the NFL after being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1991. He spent five years with the Bengals and then two with the Oakland Raiders before retiring in 1998.
8. Bellaire girls basketball team. The Cardinals, nationally-ranked at one point, didn’t win a 5A state championship, and they were ousted in the Region III-5A playoffs by Cinco Ranch in the quarterfinals, but only five other 5A teams in Texas can say they won 37 games last year.
“You’re not supposed to win 37 games when you’re playing the people we play, but my girls last year did just that,” said head coach Mike Kramer. “And that’s what made that team so special. Ultimately, we didn’t get where we wanted to go ... That’s why losing in the playoffs hurt so bad, because we had played nearly 40 games and hadn’t really experienced what it was like to lose.”
The team fell, 50-48, to Cinco Ranch after trailing by 12 at one point in the second half.
Seniors Jasmine Hartman, Tamara Marion, and Tamara Torru were some of the top seniors on the team.
The Cardinals were also district champions and have not lost a district game in four years now.
9. Memorial-Stratford girls soccer teams. The squads were co-district champions to cap what has always been an intense rival.
The teams finished with the same district record and both of their games ended deadlocked, necessitating the use of tiebreakers to determine the seeding for the playoffs.
After all the tiebreakers were involved, the teams were still even. It came down to the dreaded coin toss.
Memorial lost the call and was seeded second, while Stratford was declared the district champion and got to play the fourth-place team out of Houston ISD in the first round.
“We remember it well,” said current Memorial head coach Lindley Amrantos. “We lost the coin flip. You hate to see a coin flip determine something so important, but that’s what it came down to and we lost the flip.”
10. The Rice football team. The Owls went 9-3 and earning a trip to the Texas Bowl for its second bowl berth in three years after a 43-year absence.
The Owls played Western Michigan Tuesday night in the Texas Bowl at Reliant Stadium.
From participation sports for the older crowd to youth leagues, the games so many people play have been filled with dramatic moments, highlights and fun times as the calendar gets set to turn over.
We know we’ve left out some solid candidates, and there were many nominees that were just near-misses in joining the featured list.
But here below are, we believe, the top sports stories of the year:
1. Becky Bereswill. The West University resident and Episcopal High School student is currently an international ice skating champion, winning the ladies competition in December at the SBS ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Goyang City, South Korea.
Bereswill, who also runs cross country and track for the Knights, was in fourth place when she took the ice for her final skate, but scored 98.01 points with her outstanding performance and took over first place.
“She’s a phenomenal athlete,” said Episcopal head cross country coach Dick Phillips. “She’s a tremendous runner and an international skater and she’s just a real competitor. We miss her when she can’t run for us, but we totally understand.”
Bereswill completed her competition in South Korea, caught a little rest and then took an 18-hour plane ride home to take her semester finals before the current holiday break.
2. Brian Orakpo. The former Lamar standout was the first hometown football player to receive the Lombardi Award in November from the Houston Touchdown Club after a standout career at Texas was capped off by a brilliant senior season for the Longhorns.
Besides the Lombardi Award, Orakpo was also the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, a first-team defensive All-American, and he received the Ted Hendricks Award for the top defensive end in the nation.
Orakpo finished with 10.5 sacks this season for the Longhorns and had 15 tackles for losses during the regular season.
The Longhorns, finished the season ranked No. 3 in the country, will play tenth-ranked Ohio State Monday night in the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona.
3. Cory Whitsett. The Memorial junior was one of six golfers named to the American Junior Ryder Cup team for the competition in Louisville, Kentucky to gain national attention and he was the medalist last year at the 5A state golf tournament, garnering him state-wide attention.
Whitsett shot a two-day total of 141 to win the individual competition by two strokes, leading the Mustangs to a third place finish as a team.
The Mustangs finished regulation play tied with The Woodlands for second place, but the Highlanders won the playoffs on the second hold to finish with one less stroke than Memorial.
Plano West won the tournament with a team score of 595 shots while Memorial and The Woodlands finished with a 597..
4. Ryan Craig. The Stratford graduate, who first made the bowl-bound Rice University football team as a walk-on in 2005 when Ken Hatfield was still the head coach was nominated for the prestigious 2008 Rudy Award.
The award is nominated to college football players around the country who display relentless desire and effort to get on the field and an amazing commitment and courage to their team.
Craig is a starting special teams player for the Owls and despite being called a defensive rush end, he has been seeing quite a bit of action at linebacker after injuries caused a need there.
“I’ll play where ever I’m asked,” said Craig. “I just want to be on the field. That’s why I’ve worked as hard as I have. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve been with three head coaches now and I’ve tried to do what each of them has asked me to do. I’m just grateful coach (David) Baliff has given me an opportunity to show what I can do. ”
5. The Hurricane Ike effect. For nearly three weeks, just about all area scholastic and youth sports were put on hold due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
Area stadiums suffered minor damage, but some football teams like Lamar and Bellaire had to play day games for a while at Butler Stadium because a couple of light poles came down.
Teams were separated with some families fleeing and not returning to Southeast Texas until power was restored. Just about all the area football teams lost two games and a couple of cross country matches and several volleyball matches were also canceled.
“We lost 11 whole days,” said Bellaire head volleyball coach Ap Clarke. “That includes games and practices. That’s just not something you never really make up.
We say just about every team lost games for two weeks, because on Friday, Sept. 19, exactly one week after Ike rolled ashore with about half of Harris County still without electricity, Second Baptist was able to play a varsity football game.
Dodging trees and downed power lines on the highway, the Golden Eagles trekked to Victoria where they fell to St. Joseph, 24-12, for one of their two regular season losses. They had held a light workout Wednesday and Thursday before playing the game that Friday night.
No other team in the Examiner readership area was able to play until the following week at the earliest.
6. St. John’s girls win SPC field hockey championship. For the first time since 1981, when they were known as the Rebels, the St. John’s girls field hockey team won the Southwest Preparatory Conference championship.
The Mavs defeated defending champion Hockaday in the finals in the strokes competition after the teams finished regulation and two overtime periods still tied.
St. John’s finished one of its finest seasons in the history of the school with 25 victories.
Head coach Craig Chambers said the victory was one of the sweetest he’s ever had as a coach and credited his players for their hard work and resiliency in the championship game.
7. Former pros join St. Thomas coaching staff. In a matter of one day, St. Thomas High School grabbed national headlines.
That day came in early May when Athletics Director Mike Netzel announced that former Houston Astros great Craig Biggio and former NFL quarterback and Rice standout Donald Hollas were joining the Eagles coaching staffs.
Biggio, who had openly expressed his desire to coach his sons, was named as the new head baseball coach and Hollas was named as the new head football coach.
Biggio’s son, Conor, is on both the football and baseball teams for the Eagles.
St. Thomas has won two consecutive TAPPS state championships and has won 20 since 1950. The Eagles were also state champs eight consecutive years from 1989 to 1996.
Biggio collected 3,060 hits during his 20 years with the Astros and was a seven-time All-Star.Hollas spent seven years in the NFL after being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1991. He spent five years with the Bengals and then two with the Oakland Raiders before retiring in 1998.
8. Bellaire girls basketball team. The Cardinals, nationally-ranked at one point, didn’t win a 5A state championship, and they were ousted in the Region III-5A playoffs by Cinco Ranch in the quarterfinals, but only five other 5A teams in Texas can say they won 37 games last year.
“You’re not supposed to win 37 games when you’re playing the people we play, but my girls last year did just that,” said head coach Mike Kramer. “And that’s what made that team so special. Ultimately, we didn’t get where we wanted to go ... That’s why losing in the playoffs hurt so bad, because we had played nearly 40 games and hadn’t really experienced what it was like to lose.”
The team fell, 50-48, to Cinco Ranch after trailing by 12 at one point in the second half.
Seniors Jasmine Hartman, Tamara Marion, and Tamara Torru were some of the top seniors on the team.
The Cardinals were also district champions and have not lost a district game in four years now.
9. Memorial-Stratford girls soccer teams. The squads were co-district champions to cap what has always been an intense rival.
The teams finished with the same district record and both of their games ended deadlocked, necessitating the use of tiebreakers to determine the seeding for the playoffs.
After all the tiebreakers were involved, the teams were still even. It came down to the dreaded coin toss.
Memorial lost the call and was seeded second, while Stratford was declared the district champion and got to play the fourth-place team out of Houston ISD in the first round.
“We remember it well,” said current Memorial head coach Lindley Amrantos. “We lost the coin flip. You hate to see a coin flip determine something so important, but that’s what it came down to and we lost the flip.”
10. The Rice football team. The Owls went 9-3 and earning a trip to the Texas Bowl for its second bowl berth in three years after a 43-year absence.
The Owls played Western Michigan Tuesday night in the Texas Bowl at Reliant Stadium.
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