From left to right: (Front) Andrew Arredondo, 6-3 freshman, Dallas; Jemarea Samples (22), freshman, Pontiac, Mich.; Sheldon Yearwood (25), freshman, Dallas; David Tucker (20), freshman, Dallas; Mike Harmon (5), sophomore, Houston; Antonio Arnold (4), sophomore, McKinney; Anthony Adams (10), sophomore, Pontiac, Mich.; Courney Austin (31), freshman, Mansfield, Texas; Chris Jones (11), freshman, Arlington, Tenn.; Antione Ross, freshman, Mount Pleasant, Texas. (Back) head coach Chuck Taylor; manager Jay Rosser, manager; Delvin Dickerson (21), freshman, Houston; Morris Mitchel (32), Atlanta, Ga.; Will Ransom (44), freshman, Fort Worth; Marcus Holt (30), sophomore, Aurora, Colo.; Lamar Walker (24), freshman, Highland Park, Mich.; Henry Buckley (50), sophomore, Houston; Eddie Leal (23), sophomore, Dallas; Maurice Heade, assistant coach; Derek Taylor, assistant coach. (PJC Photo)
Navarro can clinch the No. 1 seed in the Region 14 men’s post-season tournament with a victory Saturday over Kilgore, and just everybody else is hoping to improve their position.
The Bulldogs’ potential prize is the greatest, because with the No. 1 seed goes not only a first-round bye into the tournament but an automatic berth in the NCJAA national tournament March 18-23 in Hutchinson, Kan.
But across the league, teams are jockeying for positions in the regional tournament scheduled from Tuesday, March 5, through Saturday, March 9, in the Region 14 tournament at UT-Tyler’s Herrington Patriot Center.
Paris goes into the weekend in 10th place. Depending on how various games come out the rest of the way, the Dragons could end up with anywhere from the No. 6 seed to the No, 11 seed. Paris will end its regular season at home against Panola on Wednesday.
The only teams now above the Dragons but assured of being seeded above them are Navarro, Kilgore, San Jacinto, Jacksonville and Lee.
Here are Saturday’s match-ups:
Only the 12 teams in the 14-team men’s league with the best records will qualify for the tournament.
Panola (8-19, 0-17) will be one of the two teams that won’t make it. The other hard-luck team will be Bossier (9-16, 2-14) or Blinn (11-17, 3-14).
If Bossier can pull even with Blinn, the Cavaliers would nose out Blinn for the No. 12 seed by virtue of having beaten Blinn in their inter-zone matchup back in late November.
The two teams in each zone with the best records get a first-round bye.
That figures to be Navarro (22-5, 14-2) and Kilgore (23-4, 13-4) in the North Zone, and San Jacinto (20-5, 11-5) and Jacksonville (20-7, 11-5) in the South Zone.
But a lot of things can change over the span of three game days.
A Navarro win over Kilgore not only would mathematically eliminate Kilgore, but Jacksonville.
The Jaguars’ hopes hinge on the Jaguars winning their last three games, Navarro losing its last three games, and Kilgore beating Navarro but losing to Tyler a week later. That would result in a 3-way tie among the teams – all with 14-5 records.
The 2-way tie in the North Zone would be resolved first, with the tie-breaker going to Kilgore because of a better record against the five other North Zone teams.
Then Jacksonville would win the tie-breaker against Kilgore because the Jaguars beat Kilgore in their heads-up match-up.
San Jacinto (20-5, 11-5) also could get to 14-5 by winning its last three games, and the Ravens have the tie-breaker over Navarro.
But it Navarro loses its last three games, one of them would be to Kilgore, which then would finish either 14-5 or 15-4. Either way works against San Jacinto, which lost to Kilgore in the regular season.
As in past years, the winner of the Region 14 tournament will go to Kansas. If the No. 1 seed goes on to win the tournament, the tournament runner-up will also go to the NJCAA meet.
With the parity throughout Region XIV, that could be just about anybody.
In the tournament, seeds 5 through 12 will play on Tuesday, March 5, with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 7, against the top four seeds.
The men’s quarterfinal will look like this:
The men’s semifinals will pair the winners of the first two quarterfinal matches at 6 p.m., followed at 8 p.m. by the winners of the third and fourth quarterfinals.
The championship games will be on Saturday, March 9, with the women’s game at 3 p.m. and the men’s game at 6 p.m.
By CHARLES RICHARDS
eParisExtra.com
Charles Richards Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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