News Around the Region . . .
Kilgore is pick of coaches to win SWJCFC championship in 2008
LINDALE — Defending Southwest Junior College Football Conference regular champion Kilgore is picked by the league coaches to return to the top in 2008.
League coaches met on Thursday for the annual SWJCFC Media Day at Garden Valley Country Club.
Kilgore, which is ranked 14th in the preseason NJCAA/JC Football.Com poll, returns much of its offensive firepower this year. Kilgore received five first place votes and one second-place vote.
Blinn, ranked second in the NJCAA/JC Football poll, was tapped for second by league coaches, just one more vote than No. 6-ranked Navarro.
Blinn opens 2008 season ranked second in the nation
BRENHAM — The Blinn College football team will open the season ranked second in the nation.
And it will start the 2008 campaign with a bang, matching up against the preseason No. 1, Butler County Community College on Aug. 28 at Wichita State University’s 24,000-seat stadium.
The rankings, released by the NJCAA on Monday in conjunction with jucofootball.com, serve to confirm the hype Butler County has placed upon the season debut for both teams, dubbing the contest the “Battle of the Champions.”
Butler has won seven consecutive Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference titles and head coach Troy Morrell is 85-10 (.894) in just eight seasons with the program and has taken home four KJCCC Coach of the Year awards.
More importantly, Butler has won five national titles, including last season’s split title with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College after going a perfect 12-0.
Blinn, which won the 2006 national championship before going 7-3 last season, returns six starters on both offense and defense. Quarterback Terrance Cain, an honorable mention All-American last year, will lead the offense again for the Bucs. Cain’s 71.1 percent completion rate set a NJCAA record last season.
Bulldogs ranked sixth in preseason, 2 players All-American
CORSICANA — Navarro cracked the top 10 of the NJCAA/JC Football.com preseason rankings released Monday.
The Bulldogs were picked No. 6, after finishing the 2007 season ranked No. 4 in the final NJCAA poll.
“I didn’t have any expectations for where we should be in the preseason polls,” Navarro coach Nick Bobeck said. “It is all kind of fluff until you play your first game.”
Butler Community College (Kan.) took the top spot while Nov. 1 Bulldogs’ opponent Blinn College was picked No. 2.
Navarro will face another team seeded above them when No. 5 Georgia Military College comes to town on Sept. 6.
Navarro finished with a 9-3 record in 2007, defeating Georgia Military 24-21 in the Pilgrim’s Pride Bowl.
Two Bulldogs received preseason first-team All-American selections, with offensive lineman Roy Watts and defensive back Ryan Clark making the list.
-- Corsicana Daily Sun
Top-ranked Baytown rolls past 4th-rated NCTC in tennis
TYLER— Brownsboro’s Keaton Parsell figures to be a menacing presence on the Mike Carter Field mound the next two years.
The former ace pitcher for the Brownsboro Bears signed with Tyler Junior College on Friday at Wagstaff Gymnasium.
“It’s just a great program,” Parsell said of the 2007 NJCAA Division III national champion. “It’s local, I know the area, and the coaches with what they’re doing with this program is just amazing. TJC is a really fine school.”
Parsell easily stands out in a crowd. He’s 6-foot-5 and weighs 210 pounds and brings with him some menacing stats from high school.
2006 All-Southwest Junior College Football Conference
2007 All-Region XIV Women's Basketball Team
2007 All-Region XIV Men's Basketball Team
2007 Baseball Statistics/Standings
2007 All-Southwest Junior College Football Conference