[an error occurred while processing this directive] Goat gridiron team has 15 named to All-District squads By Byron "Putt" Riddle - Led by Cody Wilson’s selection as the Co-MVP of District 19-3A, the Groesbeck Goats had 15 members of its roster to garner All-District honors. Wilson was the senior quarterback for the Goats. Two other seniors drew first team recognition. Chris Favors who led central Texas in pass receiving made All-District at that position as well as the kicker spot. Ramon Costilla was named as a first team defensive tackle for his stellar line play. Wilson was the total offense leader in central Texas, not only in Class 3A, but in all classes. He completed 162 of 322 passes for 2564 yards and 31 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. He rushed for 779 yards on 169 carries with eight touchdowns. That gave him 3343 yards of total offense, nearly 400 yards more than the runnerup in any class from A to 5A. Favors pulled in 67 catches from Wilson for 1295 yards and 17 touchdowns. His moves once he had the ball were classics. When he juked four Mexia defenders converging on him and scored on the play was one for the ages. Costilla was a strong defender at the tackle position. He led the team with 90 tackles and two sacks. All three of these seniors will be missed on next year’s Goat team. But they were just part of the group standing out for All-District. Nine players made the second team. Senior John Mark Hill was named at running back. Cory Cortines and Chase Logan were recognized for their line work at offensive guard and tackle respectively. They are also seniors. Senior Ryan Fewell was named to the second team as a wide receiver. Over on defense, seniors Pat Kilman and Phillip Gibson were selected as second team backs. Junior Charlie Curry made second team defensive end as well as the second team tight end on offense. Sophomore Angel Palomin was a second team defensive tackle. Honorable mention went to senior John Edgerley at center. Junior Drew Gallegos and senior Michael Wyatt were picked at the tackle and guard positions respectively. Gibson was honorable mention for his receiving skills. Junior Cade Wilson made honorable mention as a linebacker. Fewell was named as a defensive back to the honorable mention unit. Let’s Read Riddle Nephew Zach Sasser ended his collegiate career at Amon Carter Field on the TCU campus Saturday. The Air Force Cadets fell to the Horned Frogs 38-14. And they looked sloppy and turnover prone in doing so. We were there to see the game from the press box and down on the field for the final three minutes. TCU was very hospitable and made everything available to the press to make covering the game easier. We were in a crowd of journalists interviewing Cadet Coach Fisher DeBerry afterwards. He completed his 23rd season in which he has compiled a 169-109-1 record. But this was the third losing season in a row for the Cadets. Though Air Force was third in the nation in rushing following DeBerry’s strategy to keep his game plan the same, there are people beginning to grumble about Air Force not moving its offense into the 21st century and going with the spread as so many successful schools have done. After hearing him defend his offensive scheme to some hostile reporters, we asked him what he would do if a solid spread offense quarterback came to the Academy as a freshman next season. Would he change to the spread much like the University of Missouri did to accommodate Chase Daniel becoming a Tiger? He said that if the quarterback was the right size, he might well do it. He was talking about height of the quarterback being the issue. He asked if we saw the Cadet quarterback Shaun Carney with his 5-10 size out there on the field and what he had to face from a very aggressive TCU defense. His point was well-made, but it seems that some emphasis could be made on finding some future jet jockey who is 6-4 and mobile in the pocket with a jet for an arm to come play at the Academy. We were the recipients this week of two articles which followed up on an item mentioned in this space over six months ago. That was the Nothing But Nets campaign initially publicized in Rick Reilly’s column in Sports Illustrated to help reduce the number of deaths daily among African children from 3000 down to a much lower number. The campaign was to raise money to buy mosquito netting that would cover the beds the children slept in since that was the source of the most transmissions of malaria to the children. It took only $10.00 to buy a net. So Riley appealed in his column, “ The Life of Reilly” for people to make donations. He reported this week that $1,200, 000.00 plus came in from his request. In addition to the effort made by SI, the United Methodist Church reported on its involvement in the same campaign. The church has been in mission in Africa for 160 years. It has spent decades trying to help contain malaria. Now it is partnering with the National Basketball Foundation, VH1 and the United Nations Foundation to continue on this campaign The Dallas Mavericks may take it on as a special project for the team. If you would like to get involved or give to this project, go to www.NothingbutNets.net for informtion The Methodist Church will also run a web page for the convenience of its members through its page www.umc.org. The results so far are gratifying but much more needs to be done. So get involved and see how close to zero the daily deaths in Africa can go with your generosity and participation. To say that the 2006 college football season was one of upheaval and upsets would be an understatement. The 13-9 loss by Southern Cal to UCLA was just the icing on the cake for a season in which the polls were shuffled almost weekly by one surprise win or more from the supposed have-not’s. So here we go with the following match ups in the bowls after the college season officially ended Saturday. For the national championship, it will be 12-0 Ohio State against 12-1 Florida. Smelling the roses, but not wanting to since they both were so close to making the BCS title game are Michigan and USC at the Rose Bowl. The Cotton Bowl has Nebraska versus Auburn. Oklahoma catches the other undefeated team this year, Boise State, in the Fiesta Bowl. Key games that will be played before the New Year rolls around are the Holiday Bowl with A&M against California, the Alamo Bowl with Texas and Iowa facing off, the Insight Bowl in which the Red Raiders of Texas Tech will try to throw the ball out of sight against Minnesota and the Poinsettia Bowl in which the above mentioned TCU Horned Frogs entertain Northern Illinois. We’re not sure why the Dallas Cowboys thought it prudent to get rid of Mike Vanderjagt as its kicker just because , well just because. Martin Grammatica did well in his debut replacing Vanderjagt kicking the game winner with only six seconds on the clock. But how do you consider the most accurate kicker in NFL history to be not worth keeping especially when he hadn’t been doing that bad a job. We’ll bet that whoever picks him up from the Cowboys will get their money’s worth when he has to perform on the field. Meantime maybe Grammatica who we always thought was pretty good will stick for the season and be the difference maker several times in the four games left in the regular season and the playoff games beyond. Elsewhere in the paper you will see a letter to the editor from Clayton Griggs concerning our column of November 9th. To reiterate all we did was restate what the press who attended the Big 12 preseason sessions before basketball began predicted after interviewing all the teams and players. That was that the Oklahoma State Cowgirls were picked by them to finish in last place in the Big 12. Not our personal prediction. We note that the Cowgirls are off to a 6-0 start, but playing in the Big 12 still looms ahead and that’s what the prediction was all about. We mentioned that OSU graduate Boone Pickens the billionaire who recently gave $150,000,000.00 to the Cowboy football team might have done well to have spent a little bit of it instead on the women’s program since he obviously loves his alma mater and wants it to succeed in its sports programs. Incidentally Boone played basketball at OSU in the late 40’s when it was still called Oklahoma A&M. But Boone isn’t just a name to us. We have known him since he used to come over to the house while he was in high school and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made by our mom for him and our older brother who was his best friend at Amarillo High. In 1986 while still in the brokerage business, we proposed at his request an investment idea that he could use to buy a company that no one else had mentioned to him. That was what he was known for then as he bore the title of corporate raider. He was good at it too. We proposed that he take over PNC Financial and Mellon Bank simultaneously for about the two billion that it would cost then.That’s what he told us he had to work with. He could sell off the duplicate branches in the same locations and get enough money to pay off his loan. He didn’t do it but found our idea interesting. On Monday of this week , Wells Fargo agreed to buy out Mellon Bank for $16.5 billion which would have given Boone a 700% profit on his trade had he followed our recommendation. That’s not counting what PNC became worth. This is an on-line publication of Groesbeck Journal P.O. Box 440 Groesbeck, TX 76642-0440 254-729-5103 For comments or questions, email Publisher: Thomas Hawkins thawkins@groesbeckjournal.com The Web Site contains material which is protected by international copyright and trademark laws. 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