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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000
Netters seeking more balance
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Aug. 17, 2000 -- Pecos Eagles tennis coach Bernadette Ornelas is hoping
a more balanced team will be a better team this season, as the Eagles prepare
to open their fall schedule next weekend.
The Eagles got the majority of their victories from the boys'
side two seasons ago, when they captured the District 2-4A
team title. Last year, with most of that team having graduated,
Pecos relied on its girl's team to pick up the bulk of their victories, as
they placed second to Clint in the 2-4A standings and earned another
trip to regionals.
This season, Ornelas loses about half her girls team, but
gets back almost all of her boys, and said she has about two
dozen players overall on the varsity and junior varsity teams.
"Right now we're stressing a lot of conditioning workouts
and consistency," she said. "Next week, we'll send part of the
team to Fort Stockton for a JV tournament and the rest will go
to Odessa to play in a three-way meet."
The varsity opens its season at Odessa High against
OHS, Seminole and Brownwood on Aug. 26 and will play their entire
pre-district schedule on the road, before opening 2-4A play on
Sept. 30 at home against Fabens. The Eagles do get two of their
three district matches at home this season, and will also
host Monahans and Fort Stockton in October, before the District
2-4A tournament Oct. 20-21 at San Elizario.
"I'm trying to get that changed, because it would be the
same weekend as the (area) band competition," she said. Last
year, several Pecos players had to miss the final district match against
Clint after Pecos won a regional berth by beating Fabens, as they had to
drive 250 miles from Fabens to Odessa for regional band competition.
This year the travel won't be as far, since the area band event will be only
10 miles away, at El Paso Socorro Stadium.
Before then, the Eagles will try to improve on their results from
a year ago, especially on the boys' side. "I've got back all the
boys, plus I've got some freshmen who are pretty strong, and that
should make the team more solid," Ornelas said.
Trent Graham was the top player on the boys' side in junior high
last year, while on the girls' side, Ornelas' daughter Natalia was
the No. 1 seed for the eighth graders this past spring.
The girls did lose their top two seeds from last year, in
Teresa Minjarez, Vanessa Miranda and Rachel Pharoah, but get
back junior Rebecca Wein, the No. 4 singles seed last season
who teamed with Minjarez to earn a regional berth in doubles this
past spring.
"Our girls are pretty solid, and I think we'll go into district play
with some strong teams on both sides," Ornelas said.
Romanowski denying making racial remark
By JOHN MOSSMAN
AP Sports Writer
DENVER, Aug. 17, 2000 — The last time linebacker Bill Romanowski was involved
in a controversy that threatened to fracture his team, the Denver Broncos
won their first of two straight Super Bowls. Can it happen again?
On Wednesday, Romanowski was again at the center of a
potentially divisive issue.
Responding to a report in a Sports Illustrated article that he made a
racial slur, Romanowski angrily called the story "an absolute lie."
One of his attorneys described the article as "terrible, baseless journalism."
The magazine reported that Romanowski, already
under indictment on charges of fraudulently obtaining a diet drug, might
have distributed drugs to teammates and suggested that a white
teammate take the drug as the only way to compete with black players.
The unidentified teammate told SI that Romanowski used the "N-word."
Sports Illustrated spokesman Joe Assad said the magazine had
no reason to question its account. "We stand by our story, we're
confident in our reporting and our sources," Assad said Wednesday.
Romanowski addressed his teammates during a team
meeting Wednesday morning. Later, at an emotional news conference at
which he appeared near tears, in contrast to his tough-guy image,
Romanowski shared his message.
"I told them that I had had a relationship with someone
I considered a friend, and for reasons that I will not get into, the
friendship went sour," he said. "And, for
some reason I don't know, that person went and told Sports Illustrated
something that I supposedly said to him.
"I told my teammates that is an absolute lie. I did not make
the statement that they quoted me as saying in Sports Illustrated."
Three people close to the situation, including one of
Romanowski's teammates, told The Denver Post they know the informant to be
Martin Harrison, a former teammate of Romanowski's in San Francisco
who was in Denver's training camp in 1998. Harrison was identified in the SI
article as having given prosecutors a written statement saying Romanowski
had offered him pills as pregame stimulants.
Determined to prove his innocence, Romanowski said he
took a polygraph test Tuesday night and passed it.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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