Last week Lake Highlands High School put the hurt on Mesquite High in a 49-28 victory. Cory Mageors will head back to Hanby Stadium in Mesquite on Friday night 9/3 to chat live right here during the LHHS vs. Horn High School game. Cory will be available for chatting and questions at 7 p.m., and kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.

In the September “Live Local”, columnist Erin Moyer shares news about several LH businesses including a new Thai restaurant, a wooden sign company, an image consulting business that offers a special deal for Advocate readers, and a Smoothie Factory, which is also enticing readers with free frozen treats.

The LH Media Center, which we told you about in weeks past, is now open at 9090 Skillman, right next to Burger Spot. The business, owned by Cindy and Scott Causey, will offer website design and hosting as well as full-service computer repair, upgrades, etc. and they are hoping to include workshops, classes and other services as they grow, Cindy says. For now, you can get a daily technology tip via their Facebook page.

Cindy Causey says about opening the storefront in the Lake Highlands area, “As an LHHS grad and longtime residents, we strongly felt it was important to stay in the neighborhood and be a part of its rebirth.”

Lake Highlands football coach Scott Smith acknowledges that he has youth at some important positions. He also points out the experience at other positions. But overall, Smith thinks he saw good signs from his Wildcats in the 49-38 win against Mesquite.

“I think it was a great start to the season,” Smith said. “There were some negatives but there were just as many positives. At quarterback we were really pleased with the progression of both sophomore quarterbacks. I think we are fortunate to have two guys we think we can rely on.

“We’re young on the offensive line. But there were times when I think we saw the light bulbs pop on for them. And I think it all started to come together for those guys.”

Sophomore quarterback Michael Ketchmark was 10-14 with 178 yards and two touchdowns.

And sophomore Trent Jones led the Cats to two touchdown drives.

With Mesquite Horn slated for Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Hanby Stadium, Smith says he would like to see more from his team.

“I think we would love to see more consistency,” Smith said. “We started out slow last week, then came on strong and then fell back a little. I just want to see us to be more consistent in our play.”

Former LHHS teacher, Mark Adams, has died. Adams taught at Lake Highlands for 32 years before his retirement in 2007, guiding students through biology, anatomy, physiology, oceanography, environmental science and aquatic science. Adams leaves behind wife, Amanda, and three children.

Adams attended Jesuit High School before going on to SMU on a soccer scholarship. His entire teaching career was spent at LHHS. You can read more in his obituary here.

The LHHS College and Career Center is located in the school library and designed to help Wildcats find the right university, gain admission and afford tuition.

The LHHS College and Career Center will be hosting representatives from great colleges all over the US this fall to consult with students and educate them on the admissions process. Recruiters from places like The University of Southern California, College of Charleston, George Washington, Xavier, Alabama, Arizona and all points in between will share materials and insight with students during lunch.

Dr. Brenda Prine, Director of the Center, encourages parents and students to stop in to her office in the school library to receive assistance with applications and financial aid forms. She’s also visiting with students during their Senior English class time and stressing that applications for admission should be sent before Thanksgiving. Best of luck seniors!

The Lady Wildcats faced a tedious tournament schedule in the early portion of the 2010 season, and expect things to simmer down as they take a week off  and head into matches against Coppell and FM Marcus on Sept. 7.

“Right now I want them to physically recuperate,” Melissa Crown, head coach said.  “They had such a tough preseason and played such hard teams. They’ve been so engulfed in the things they’ve done and played as competitive a schedule as it gets.”

Crown feels that Lake Highlands has already faced three of the states top teams in Lovejoy, J.J. Pearce and Hebron. Despite a 2-8 game record against those teams she said the competition has been beneficial, and will be during District 9-5A play.

“We’re 11-14 after 25 games,” Crown said. “I’m hoping they won’t get overconfident from their district schedule. They are a humble team. But we want to win it.”

I overheard a conversation the other day between a boy and his father as they walked away from the boy’s athletic contest. As the lad spewed venom about his team’s performance and his perceived insufficient playing time, the dad strode along beside him quietly. When the boy launched into his coach, the father quietly asked one question – “Are you coachable?”

The boy was taken aback and, suddenly, speechless. It was a brilliant question and it got me thinking. Am I coachable?

Participating in youth sports without opening yourself up to the mentoring of coaches is like attending school but refusing to open your books. Worthless. A waste of time.

But doesn’t becoming more coachable make just as much sense for adults as it does for young people? More, maybe? How many of us dread the visit from our boss and roll our eyes at his suggestions? (Not you, Rick, never you.) Do we soak up words of wisdom like a sponge or are we sealed up tight as a mason jar? Shall I admit here I’m not always revved-up about receiving reader comments here on the blog? (Yeah, I know, I’m a weak sports reporter. Point taken. As Howard Cosell famously confessed, “I never played the game.”)

So I’m inviting friends and loyal readers to hold me accountable in my pledge to become more coachable. Suggestions and advice hereby happily accepted. Unless, of course, it’s negative.

Here’s an interesting juxtaposition of headlines from this morning’s DMN:

“Natural gas taxis going to the front of the line at Love Field.”

“Solo drivers may be able to buy way onto Dallas HOV lanes.”

On the one hand, our government leaders are busting the chops of small, individual-owned taxis by requiring them to purchase a natural-gas fueled vehicle in order to get priority at the airport. The reason: Improved air quality from the few natural-gas cabs that will be converted, probably primarily by large corporations with available funds.

And on the other hand, our government leaders are willing to sell off what were originally billed as traffic- and pollution-busting high-occupancy-vehicle lanes to the highest bidders. Potentially, if you’re willing to pay a higher price to ride in the HOV lanes, you won’t need another person in the car. Another “innovation” in the works, thanks to cash-strapped DART: If the HOVs will be clogged with single-occupancy vehicles, then the number of regular HOV people required to ride for free in the HOVs is going to increase from two to three or four to reduce the number of those drivers in the lanes.

So we’re beating up on small taxi owners at Love Field in the name of cleaning up the air, but we’re selling off the “clean-air” HOV lanes to anyone willing to pay, particularly solo drivers who naturally pollute more.

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Ann Jaggars was a beast at the net, as shown is this photo by Rob Reed.

The Lady Wildcats fought and dug for everything they had, but they couldn’t pull out a victory in their home-court double-header last night. (Check out the photo slideshow by team dad Rob Reed here.)

Senior captains Emily Hillman and Hollyn Adams kept the girls energized (I was exhausted just watching the hours-long contest) and Matalee Reed was brilliant at the net, but the Cats chalked up two non-district losses despite help from announcer and DJ-dad Curtis Jaggars, who played the Jackson Five’s “One More Chance” over the loudspeaker at breaks whenever the team got down. Sophomore Katie Bott was impressive at Libero, and sophomore Jamie Crawford was an effective bookend for Matalee, blocking shots at the net.

McKinney Boyd

26-24, 25-27, 19-25, 25-16, 13-15,

Rowlett

21-25, 25-22, 9-25, 23-25