Even if football isn’t your thing, The Boneyard’s the place-to-be this Saturday. At the annual Red-White Game, Lake Highlands High School coaches will be evaluating talent and planning next year’s season and graduating seniors will announce where they’ll attend college next year. The new cheerleaders, Highlandettes and band will make their debut, and the new Bell Boys will have their first crack at ringing the bell for every Wildcat touchdown.

The game kicks off at 1pm, and when it’s done, the LH Exchange Club will serve a hot dog picnic in the end zone. All students involved in the event, along with parents and fans, will be treated to free hot dogs, cookies and drinks, courtesy of LHEC volunteers. No need to RSVP, but wear sunscreen and bring your folding chair or cushion, those shiny stadium seats get warm in the sun.

Go Cats!

The Wildcats are hosting Senior Night this Friday, celebrating their likely playoff berth and ending the regular season. They’re inviting both the Wranglers and the Highlandettes to perform during the game, and they’ll feature each graduating member of the team.

The Cats can clinch a tie for second place in District 9-5A with a win against Richardson Friday, providing WT White also wins against Skyline across town. If those cards play right, there will be a seeding game for second this Saturday at Lewisville High (loser takes third). Playoffs begin next Thursday.

Go Cats!

When John graduates from the University of North Texas this month, he will be the first in his family to earn a college degree.

Muller’s first mountain climb was during her sophomore year at Lake Highlands High School.

Ricky Zorn played quarterback for the Wildcats, but when he hit the hallowed halls of Harvard, the powers-that-be moved him to wide receiver and he went about learning his new position.

After their annual inter-squad scrimmage Saturday, coaches’ tongues are wagging and the school newspaper is singing Ricky’s praises.

“The receiving corps I thought would have been a cause of concern,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy told the school newspaper. “But with the emergence of guys like [sophomore] Ricky Zorn, [sophomore] Matt Brown, [sophomore] Andrew Berg, and [freshman] Seitu [Smith], that could end up being a fun group.”

Ricky shone, pulling down more passes than any other receiver all day.

“Ricky Zorn has probably come farther than any other kid at his position,” Murphy continued. “He came in here as a quarterback, and now he is potentially going to be a very athletic, tough, fast, decent-sized receiver.”

The Harvard athletic roster lists Ricky at 6’0 and 185 pounds.

You can read The Crimson’s full coverage of the game here.

Wade Smith played football in Lake Highlands before his days in the NFL, and now he’s returning to the Dallas area for a big fundraiser for youth programs. The Wade Smith Foundation will host its Inaugural Lake Highlands Legends Charity Weekend this Thursday, April 26 through Saturday, April 28.

Celebrity players will be participating, including LH legends Reggie Newhouse, Marcus Stiggers, Stephen Hodge, Frank Okam and Marshall Newhouse. The list of NFL All-Stars includes Antoine Caldwell, Herb Taylor, Torri Williams, Patrick Crayton, Nic Harris and Adrian Jones.

The event kicks off with a VIP reception at Winstons Supper Club in Dallas, with a celebrity bowling tournament in Addison Friday night. Night owls can preview Smith’s restaurant venture, Viva La Vida, til the wee hours after that.

On Saturday, the celebrity players will conduct a football clinic and flag football game at Eagle Stadium in DeSoto. The foundation will donate 20% of every LH ticket sold to the game back to the Wildcat Club for use by LH athletics. Tickets are $5 for regular admission or $25 for a VIP field pass.

There’s more info on the website here, including details about becoming a sponsor, volunteer opportunities, the exact times and locations of events, and so on.

Proceeds will be used by the Wade Smith Foundation to support youth programs promoting health, fitness, nutrition and education.

By “we”,  I mean the team that represented our ‘hood at the National Senior League Wii Bowling Championships.

Remember the C.C. Young Wii bowling team the Young Strikers? We ran a story about them last year when the newly formed team, whose members range in age from 50-90-something, advanced to the Wii national bowling playoffs.

This year, they were crowned National Senior League Wii Bowling Champions. Coach Jerome Lewis, C.C. Young’s wellness director sent out the announcement today, noting, tongue in cheek, that there are talks of a parade (obviously the route wasn’t planned in advance).

Congrats, Young Strikers. Way to make Lake Highlands proud!

When she showed up at Lake Highlands Freshman Center, Shaletha Mayberry quickly gained a reputation with teachers as a discipline problem. Suspensions and grade problems followed her like a dark cloud, and some teachers gave up.

In May, Shaletha will be just the second in her 32-member family to graduate from high school and the first to go to college. Shaletha recently committed to play basketball on full scholarship at Northwest Tech in Goodland, Kansas. She’ll be the starting point guard for the Lady Mavericks.

Shaletha’s inspirational story of turning her life around involves personal soul-searching and the love of a strong-willed mom, but Shaletha admits she couldn’t have done it without the support of several special LH teachers and coaches along the way.

She tried out for the LHHS basketball team as a sophomore and she clearly had talent, but her lack of discipline hindered her on the court and in the classroom. She was cut from the team.

“She decided to change the path that she was going down and to improve her life,” said Justin Matthews, one of her LH coaches. “She buckled down in school, focused on her grades and her behavior, and good things started to happen.”

By the time she tried out for the team in 11th grade, the coaches were willing to take a chance and placed her on the JV roster.

“This was Shaletha’s first year to ever play organized basketball,” added Matthews, “which is much different than pick-up games and street ball. She had to learn offenses, what a ‘Zone’ defense was, and so on. She was frustrated sometimes with the learning curve, but she loved every minute of being part of a team and a new ‘family’.” It wasn’t long before head coach Holly Mulligan moved her up to varsity.

Shaletha was named First Team All-District her senior year and was nominated by VYPE Magazine as Power Player of the Week, but her biggest challenge may have been catching up academically and changing the minds of teachers who’d written her off.

“Her story highlights why kids need to be given second, third and sometimes even another chance to get it right before they walk out our doors forever,” said Matthews. “I don’t know that I’ve ever been more proud of a kid for what they have accomplished in a short amount of time through pure determination and taking the initiative to change their path in life. She’s been gracious and extremely thankful for the many people that have helped her along the way.”

Congratulations Shaletha, shown in the photo with coaches (left to right) Justin Matthews, Holly Mulligan, Julie Amabile and Janis Grace and mom, Lena Mayberry. Thank you to Basketball Mom Carrie Denson for providing the photos, and go Mavericks!

White Rock Running Co-op members Allyson Gump and Brent Yost prepare to toe the line at the historic Boston Marathon.

Dozens of Dallas area runners will tackle the historic Boston Marathon this morning, including several from the White-rock area based White Rock Running Co-op and Dallas Running Club.

Pictured left are two WRRC members Allyson Gump and Brent Yost, pre race.  Other neighborhood runners that we know of include Nicole Kalogeropoulos Studer, Teel Tishgart, David Renfro, Jason Mayes, Julie Mungioli, Sabine Norris, Stacey Jolly, Dane Fergusson, Steve Pfiffner, Shaheen Sattar and Craig “Junior” Miller from The Ticket radio station (if you know of someone else, put them in the comments section).

You can see how they are doing by searching a name here.

We hope these runners brought their Texas oomph! with them today, as record-high temps are expected in Beantown.