A hundred years yields lots of athletic candidates

The powerful, and sometimes maligned, governing body of Texas high school competition turns 100 this year. And to mark the occasion, the University Interscholastic League will name all-centennial teams in football, volleyball, girls and boys basketball, track and field and baseball.

That’s right, this is one time that the UIL will be harboring goodwill rather than issuing sanctions, although any all-anything teams generally are cause for lots of second-guessing by those who don’t agree with the people included — or excluded, for that matter.

But this won’t be solely in the hands of UIL officials. In fact, the organization is letting the opinions of the fans be heard. You can go to http://www.uil100.org for details and a list of candidates. But if one of your favorites doesn’t happen to be on the list, there’s a space for write-ins.

Voting currently is open for football and volleyball All-Century teams. The deadline for casting volleyball ballots is Oct. 31. Football voting will continue through Nov. 7.

Actually, today also is the first day for girls basketball, which will remain open through Feb. 13, 2010. Boys basketball runs from Oct. 28 through Feb. 20.

Those who are followers of track and baseball will have to wait for the calendar to turn. Track voting is open from Feb. 1 to April 17 and baseball runs from Feb. 19 to May 4.

And yes, there are a lot of listed candidates from Odessa and the rest of the surrounding area on the volleyball and football teams. (The girls basketball list won’t be up until today, so local and area candidates will have to be noted later.)

Anyway, the names on the ballot provide quite a trip down memory lane for sports fans. Legends like Sammy Baugh, E.J. Holub and Jack Pardee can be found in the football section. Heck, it’s worth the trip to the website just to see the names of some athletes that you might not have thought about for years. And while you’re there, you might as well vote.

Now, here are some of the area representatives:

In volleyball, the ballot includes Brittany Hughes of Monahans, Ann Roberts of Crane, Janice Hickman of Midland Lee and Rose Majors and Marilyn McReavy, both of Big Spring.

Of course, the list is somewhat longer in football because the sports has been around longer and there are eight different categories for positions.

So here goes. Among quarterback candidates are Rodney Allison of Odessa High, Jack Mildren of Abilene Cooper and Joe Barnes of Big Lake.

Among running back candidates are Cedric Benson of Midland Lee, Dominic Rhodes of Abilene Cooper and Glynn Gregory of Abilene High.

Permian has two listed in the wide receiver category and they happen to be brothers — Lloyd Hill and Roy Williams. Jon Harrison of Abilene Cooper also is on that list.

Among the tight ends are two from Midland Lee, Junior Miller and Eric Winston.

Surprisingly, there are no defensive linemen from this area on the ballot. But the offensive line includes Dennis Smelser of Permian, Midland products Tom Brahaney, K.C. Jones and Jake Young, Bob McKay of Crane, Jeff Lebby of Andrews and A.Z. Drones of San Angelo Central.

Three linebackers from Permian — Glen Halsell, Daryl Hunt and Britt Hager — and Ed Williams from Ector are listed.

Among the defensive back candidates are Joe Bob Bizzell of Permian and John Norman of Lee.

Have fun.