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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Eagles hoping quickness overcomes shortness
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Pecos Eagles' coach Joe Flores will be counting on defense and speed to
make up for the Eagles' usual lack of height in basketball when the
2003-04 season gets underway a week from Friday against the Lovington
Wildcats.
Pecos waited until the final game of the season last year to get
their first District 4-3A win, an 18-point victory over Fort Stockton.
It gave the Eagles a 1-9 district record and an 11-17 overall mark.
This season, the Eagles will be even shorter than usual on the front
line, and return only one post player, in senior Justin Lara, who is
still recovering from an pick-up accident two weeks ago.
"We're going to be undersized, but as long as we can look
presentable against Permian's JV this weekend, we'll be OK," Flores
said.
This is Flores' second year as head coach, and he'll be trying to
get the Eagles their first winning season since 1994-95. Pecos has had
winning pre-district records several times in that span, including a
year ago, but have not won more than two district games in a season in
the past nine years.
Of the non-senior varsity players from a year ago, Flores said,
"Everyone is back except for John Parent. I guess he decided to heal up
from football." That leaves forward Oscar Parada and guard Bino Barreno
as the Eagles' top two returning scorers.
Parada was bothered by illness for much of last season. "He could
have been a big part of the team, but he lost 20-25 pounds and was ill
half the year, so he couldn't reach his full potential," Flores said.
"But he's back and is about 100 percent for this weekend. Hopefully
he'll be a big part of our offense."
Jose Reyes is the Eagles' other returning varsity player. "He was
one of our few consistent outside shooters last year, but over the
summer Bino and Oscar improved their outside shooting quite a bit," he
said.
Aside from needing to shoot better from the outside to make up for
their shorter front line this season, Flores said the Eagles will also
have to create more turnovers on the press this season.
"I've got two juniors coming up from the JV last year, Rashad
(Terry) and Saul Pina. Both of those guys bring athletic ability and
quickness, which we're going to need with our full-court defensive
game," he said.
Saturday's scrimmage in Odessa will begin at 10 a.m., while the
Lovington game will be the first of four pre-district home games for
the Eagles. They'll host Andrews two days before Thanksgiving, but then
only have one home game in December, against Alpine, and one against
Crane just prior to the start of District 4-3A play in January.
The Eagles will also have road trips for games against the Mustangs
and two other former district rivals, Big Spring and Lamesa, along with
a post-Christmas holiday trip to the Lamesa Tournament.
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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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