A few years back, there was much hoopla over a girls basketball game in which The Covenant School of North Dallas beat Dallas Academy of the White Rock area 100-0.

The publicity even resulted a funny stunt by a The Ticket radio team to play a basketball game against the Lake Highlands High School girls team.

A few weeks ago, The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools instituted a “mercy rule” for football and basketball that will come into play in the 2012-2013 season.

According to an ESPN.com piece, the Covenant-Dallas Academy game was cited as the main reason for the change.

The new rule requires that any game which reaches a 40-point difference after halftime will be subject to a running clock for the remainder of the game. This includes plays that end out of bounds and play stoppages for fouls in both sports.

As much as I dislike bullying, especially in the form of a coach and parents urging players to humiliate a weaker team, I’m not sure that rules are the answer in cases like this. If someone is employed as a football or basketball coach, especially at a pricey private school, shouldn’t part of the job requirement be good judgment, good leadership skills and sportsmanship? Sure, not all of them will demonstrate these things at all times, but when they don’t, they can be reprimanded as anyone else who fails at a job.

Is putting mercy rules in place tampering with the integrity of the game? Might it backfire and embarrass the losing team more than a blowout? Rob both teams of valuable learning opportunities?

Dallas Lutheran coach John Bronkhorst told ESPN that he has declined so-called mercy or clock rolling in the past.

“It’s not to be cruel to my team because it’s a teaching opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to learn in life you’re not going to get bailed out. We need to learn how to overcome adversity, and I can tell you right now, we grew from that game.”

I watched one of my kids’ public school basketball teams get beat by more than 40 points a couple weeks ago. The other team never let up on defense (they did let up on scoring, it seemed) and the winning teams’ parents, cheerleaders and coaches continued to root their team on to massive victory — no mercy on their end.

Our losing team walked away feeling OK that they had fought to the end. I heard them commenting about how impressed they were by the talent on the other team. They did not seem devastated or broken by the experience. (If I remember correctly, neither did the Dallas Academy girls).

On the other hand, last night’s game was lost by a single point. Now that was more heartbreaking than any blowout.

The UIL announced their district realignment this morning amid much fanfare, but the Wildcats will have the same opponents in District 9 5-A that we’ve faced the past two years save one – J.J. Pearce added enough students to bump to 5-A. (They’ll replace Samuell, which moves to 4A). We haven’t had Pearce with us in 5A since 2006.

The biggest change for us will be playoff pairings. For the past two years, our first round opponent came from the Garland schools. This time, we’ll face the tougher Plano and Allen  teams. With their much larger enrollment, they have a bigger pool of talent to choose from, and it shows in their playoff success rate. (The cutoff for 5A was about 2,090. LHHS currently has 1,663 students and LHFC has 718, for a total of 2,381. Plano East has over 6,000.)

Of course, going head-to-head against the Plano schools is nothing new for LH. We faced them in district play for years and matched up well. Here’s a look at our district opponents since the year 2000. Go Cats!

 2012-14:

• Lake Highlands
• Berkner
• Richardson
• JJ Pearce
• Skyline
• WT White
• Sunset
• Jesuit

 2010-12:

• Lake Highlands
• Berkner
• Richardson
• Skyline
• WT White
• Sunset
• Samuel
• Jesuit

 2008-10:

• Lake Highlands
• Berkner
• Richardson
• Skyline
• WT White
• Sunset
• Carrollton Creekview
• Molina

 2006-08:

• Lake Highlands
• Berkner
• Richardson
• Plano
• Plano East
• Plano West
• Allen
• Wylie

 2004-06:

• Lake Highlands
• Berkner
• Richardson
• JJ Pearce
• Carrollton Creekview
• Newman Smith
• Turner
• Jesuit

 2002-04:

• Lake Highlands
• Berkner
• Plano
• Plano East
• Plano West
• Allen
• Rockwall
• McKinney

 2000-02:

• Lake Highlands
• Berkner
• Richardson
• Plano
• Plano East
• Plano West
• Allen
• Rockwall

This morning, ten athletes from Lake Highlands High School signed letters of intent to play college sports next year, and ten sets of parents breathed big sighs of relief.

“This is the day I’ve been waiting for,” said Noel Walling, as she alternated between hugging her husband, Craig, and taking photos of her son, Chase. The Wildcat offensive line standout will play for the SMU Mustangs in the fall. He admits his decision was a tough one; he also liked UNT.

The normally perky Brinkley Field was a little droopy for her big day. “I was up late last night after the [Wildcat soccer] game doing homework,” she told me. “Brinks” as she’s known to the LH senior class, will play soccer for the University of Texas.

“I’m really relieved and excited to start this new chapter of my life,” said Mason Miller, who’ll play soccer at the University of Central Florida. “It’s far from home, so that might be hard at first, but I’ll get to experience some new things and meet some new people.” Miller, the youngest of four, says he looked at four schools before deciding on UCF. “I loved it because they have a good football program and I’ll get to experience regular college life in addition to being a college athlete.”

Congratulations to these LHHS students, who’ve made us proud and will play college sports in 2012-13:

• Matalee Reed, Pepperdine, volleyball
• Chase Walling, SMU, football
• Mark Powell, University of Mary Hardin Baylor, football
• Brinkley Field, UT, soccer
• Maggie Olvera, Trinity University, soccer
• Madison Vessel, University of Montana, soccer
• Murphy Short, SMU, soccer
• Reagan Dunk, University of Denver, soccer
• Mason Miller, University of Central Florida, soccer
• Glory Williams, Notre Dame, soccer.

You or your kids into soccer? You guys need to get in on this …

If you haven’t yet read our February story about futsal, check it out here.

In short, a couple of Lake Highlands High School grads, twins Esteban and Manuel Mariel are star futsal players, coaches and owner/operators of City Futsal, which has recently relocated to the Carrolton area.

If you don’t know what futsal is, it’s indoor soccer, only completely different.

“In indoor soccer, the ball bounces off the walls, all over the place,” one of the twins tell us. “Futsal players have a lot of control and room to make things happen. It is fast moving, high scoring.”

Congratulations are in order for several members of the Wildcat football team who earned individual honors for their achievements on the field and in the classroom.

Will Moomaw has been named to the Elite All-State Academic Team, the only player in our district or in the entire City of Dallas to achieve the top status. Zach Fleig and Alex Wittel earned spots on the 2nd Team, and Jordan Dann, Jonathan Iheke and Garrett Reeves received Honorable Mention.

These players were named 9-5A 1st Team All-District:

* Jacobi Johnson, Running Back

* Kent Perkins, Offensive Line

* Dedrick Grayson, Offensive Line

* Zach Fleig, Wide Receiver

* Darian Morris, Linebacker

* Two Two Taylor, Defensive Back

* Jacquille Myles, Defensive Back

* Mitchell Henton, Punter

(Henton and Taylor were unanimous selections by district coaches.)

These players were named 2nd Team All-District:

* DeVonte Sunwenghan, Running Back

* Will Moomaw, Offensive Line

* Alex Wittel, Offensive Line

* Chase Walling, Offensive Line

* Randall Howard, Defensive Line

* Mark Powell, Defensive Line

* Garrett Reeves, Defensive Line

These players earned All-District Honorable Mention:

* Michael Wright, Wide Receiver

* Jerrod Traylor, Wide Receiver

* Jon Garza, Linebacker

* Jamion Hartford

* Jonathan Iheke, Defensive Back

Congratulations all!

The Dallas White Rock Marathon last week hosted the awards ceremony for the winning relay teams from December’s SMU Cox Corporate Relay Challenge, which took place at the White Rock Marathon. Winning teams’ prize money was donated to the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in the winners’ names.

Sewell dominated the competition, winning for most number of finishing teams and also taking awards in four other categories. In all, they received $13,500 to be donated to the hospital.

BNSF’s Team Velocity won for the day’s fastest corporate relay team. The five members completed the 26.2 miles in 2 hours and 43 minutes (That’s a fast 6:14 minute mile average—not too shabby for a bunch of corporate guys).

“The Corporate Relay Challenge is a great example of how deeply entrenched corporations in Dallas are in promoting health and fitness at the local level,” said Phil Baker, chairman of the Dallas White Rock Marathon board of directors. “By participating, companies are not only involved in one of the largest spectator events in Dallas, but they also support our wonderful beneficiary, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.”

The relay challenge, which is now in its sixth year, consists of five-person relay teams that participate in the full marathon relay at the Dallas White Rock Marathon^.. In 2011, a record number of participating corporations registered more than 175 total teams.

Below, all the corporate team winners: (more…)

If twin brothers Esteban and Manuel Mariel had their druthers, all the kids would be playing the sport. But don’t mix it up with indoor soccer.

Kindergarteners at White Rock Elementary brought in pajamas to donate to the Richardson ISD Clothes Closet in December.

When the Miami Heat take on the San Antonio Spurs tonight, look for former Lake Highlands Wildcat Terrel Harris wearing jersey number 14 and playing on the home court for Miami. Harris attended LHHS with the Class of 2005, though he moved before graduation and finished at South Garland High.

“Terrel was a funny character,” remembered Tyler Brown, Terrel’s Wildcat teammate in 2002-04. “He always joked around and made sure we all had fun during practice, games, and in the locker room. I’ll never forget his goofy character. He was always a hard worker and went 110%, so I’m glad to see it paying off years later.”

Harris played four years at Oklahoma State after high school, but he wasn’t drafted by an NBA team. He played in French and German leagues and on NBA Development League teams before joining the Heat earlier this season.

Here’s hoping we face him in the NBA finals.