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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 1977)
THE BATTALION Page 13 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1977 Football recruits find new home tlie s, Swans r centt d 40 ret reins ; i secoa Hid, "ffi ‘test ii Oil >wevet| undei endt ; prom m tm "****»? «» By WAYNE NELSON Outstanding football recruiting is fast becoming a trademark of Emory Bellard, and yesterday certainly did not hurt his record. Bellard and his coaching staff once again have prevailed winners in the annual recruiting campaign with the signing of 21 high school athletes to letters of intent. Because of the loss of so many seniors on last years team, the 1977 A&M football program will certainly receive an extra boost with these signings. The Aggies were obviously re cruiting in the areas that were left in need of help because of graduating seniors. According to head coach Emory Bellard the recruiting went about as expected. “It went just like we figured with no surprises,” Bellard said. “This group has an awful lot of speed,” he said. Bellard added that there was only one recruit who hasn’t been timed under five seconds for forty yards, “and that one is 6-6 and weighs 260,” he added. At quarterback A&M signed five prospects including the highly sought after Mike Mosley of Hum ble, an all-district, all-Greater Houston performer. Also signed was David Beal, an all-state athlete from Russellville, Ark. and Jennings Teel, a big lake Reagan County High School star who was selected all-district and all-West Texas. Also signed at quarterback was Rhett Darnell, a class 2A performer from DeKalb and John Dawson, a Dallas Hillcrest product, who was voted all-district and all-Greater Dallas. Another position heavily re cruited was at linebacker where coach Bellard and his staff signed a total of seven players. Among these include high school all-American Mike Little, who was also the Nevada state champion wrestler in the 191-lb. class. Little’s home town of Las Vegas, Nev. hap pens to be the same as former A&M all-American linebacker Ed Simo- nini. Also signed at linebacker were Cal Peveto, last year’s defensive player of the year in district 22-4A, along with being selected as an all district, all Orange County and all area star. Other linebacker stars that were signed include Jay Dale, an all district, all-Greater Houston per former from Houston South Hous ton High School, and Doug Carr, an all-district and second team all-state player from Gainsville. Mark Tull- ous, an all-district, all-Tarrant County player from Arlington Lamar High School was also signed. The defensive line was also an area that the Aggies were in need of help and coach Bellard’s crew came through again with the signing of one of the top prospects in the state in 6-6, 260 lb. Tim Ward, a member of the Dallas Times Herald blue chip recruiting list. Ward was also a high school National Honor Society member at Conroe. Also signed was John Osborne, a 6-4 245 lb. defensive tackle from Long Beach, Miss, and Ben Landry, an all-state defensive lineman from Port Arthur Tex., Lincoln High School. Many followers of A&M football feel that the defensive secondary was one of the weakest positions on last years’ team. With this in mind, Bellard signed three players to help strengthen this area. Ive rsec Lamar falls to Ags 71 -69 Signed was Leandrew Brown, an all-district, all-Greater Houston athlete who was also an all-state sprinter in track, Dan Davis, of Texarkana who was selected all district and all North East Texas. The Aggies also signed all-state performer Elroy Steen from Gon zales, another high school sprint star. The Aggies also signed one tight end prospect, Pat Flinn, an all district and all-city performer from Houston Bellaire High School. Two offensive linemen were also signed to letters of intent. Scott Hays a 6-4, 230 lb. all-district tackle from Houston Lee and Rick Morris, a 6-3, 215 lb. center from Arlington Lamar linked with the Aggies. No running backs were signed yesterday by A&M. The Aggies also have enrolled three junior college transfers in time for spring training. The three are E.J. Davis, a 5-10, 18 lb. cornerback from Houston Wheatley by way of Compton Calif. Junior College and Floyd Randle, a linebacker from Blinn Junior Col lege. Also Kenneth Taylor, a cor nerback from West,Tex. by way of Navarro Junior College was also signed. If your one who counts quality and quantity in recruiting, you will have to count the 1977 A&M crop as exceptional. If the prospects are all that they are built up to be, A&M football fans should have a lot to look forward to in the years to come. In other signings around the Southwest Conference (SWC), Baylor got one of the most highly sought after backs in the State in Big Sandy’s David Overstreet. Texas Tech signed a prospect that A&M had hoped for in San Angelo’s Bill Woodard. The biggest shock of the day came for Texas new head coach Fred Aker’s. When Aker’s traveled to Odessa to sign the states number one pros pect, David Sheppard, he did not show up. The latest account has it that Houston is now in the lead for his services. Arkansas signed the younger brother of Texas Ranger pitcher David Clyde, Steve, a 6-1, 215 lb. tight end from Houston Stratford. T.C.U. pulled off a surprise in signing Chester Strickland, a run ning from Pittsburgh, who had orig inally committed to Nebraska. Battalion photo by Debby Krcnek slam dunk has brought back an aspect of basketball jely needed at the college level. This dunk by Steve Jones i. 33) broke open the ball game for the Aggies early in second half. Guarding Jones is sophomore sensation (No. 42). lew start for By TONY GALLUCCI Robinson is back, jnember that all-American ulsa; the guy who was a cinch from the outside when it was as the Aggies threaded their the Southwest Conference t year; the guy who started i the season for the Ags and 10, 12 and 14 ponts in three st five games? well if you remember that iu’11 be glad to hear he’s back, is time he has brought some features with him. r hitting his career high of 14 against St Louis, Robinson ir nine against Oregon State [hen could manage only six at the most in the next nine , despite being given the to start in three, change occurred at Fayet- . “Coach chewed my rear off re and I decided that I could tter, ’ said Robinson. “They een running me after practice am in better shape. Jy statistics may not show it, pelieve my floor game has got- tter,” Robinson said, id coach Shelby Metcalf is in to agree, “This is his best de- e game (Baylor) since he has at A&M.” itcalf also cites Arkansas as the [ng point. “Joey and Willie man) made up their minds that ivas how they were going to They’ve both had five good |s in a row. ” inson’s statistics have not overwhelming but his deter- :ion and defense have made his for him. He scored four points pkansas and at home against before again hitting a career of 14 here against Rice. He put in 12 against TCU in Ft. . Last night, he scored six against Baylor, e has collected 17 rebounds in itfive games. His highest pre number for the same stretch was 11. Once again the turnaround point is more than obvious; Robin son didn’t have a single rebound in the three games prior to Arkansas. His four points and two rebounds in that game were not very indica tive of a turnaround but, then again, Robinson had to contend with Sid ney Moncrief. “I thought I covered Moncrief pretty "well, said Robin son, Tt made me think I could cover anybody I wanted to.” Robinson is currently the sixth leading scorer on the team, averag ing 6.2 points per game for the sea son and five points per game in SWC play. He is averaging around two rebounds per game. He has the least turnovers of anybody who has played every game this season. Joey, like so many others, is sur prised at the quality of his team’s record. “Back at the first part of the season I’d thought we’d win a few; but not this many. “If we can just beat SMU it will keep our confidence up for the rest of the season,” said Robinson. Where will his team finish? “I think we can hold on for sec ond,” Robinson said. Robinson won everything they had to give out in Oklahoma when he played for coach Terry West at Memorial High in Tulsa. They had no choice since he set the Tulsa city scoring record, played on the state championship team and on two all- star teams; As a freshman at A&M he aver aged 3.5 points and 1.4 rebounds and scored highs of 11 points twice in early season against Southwest Texas and Sam Houston State. Why would Robinson choose A&M? A good bet would be the fact that he comes from the same hometown as Metcalf and lists as a hobby, fish ing. Where else could a fishing bas ketball player be happier than at a school with a championship basket ball program and the king of cat- fishermen in residence? istTdJl LS t.99) 'ark je o< The Shape of Things (Iap e! ;esso’ ,e: YOUR FULL SERVICE SALON of HAIRCUTTING AND BEAUTY CULTURE 331 UNIVERSITY DRIVE COLLEGE STATION Ca// For An Appointment or Just Drop In 846-7614 By DEBBY KRENEK Battalion News Editor Five minutes elapsed before the screaming in the dressing room sub sided long enough for coach Kay Don to tell her girls, “You kept your cool. I knew you could do it. Her Aggies took a 69-69 tie score with 20 seconds left in the game and turned it into a 71-69 win over the Lamar University Cardinals here last night. The Ags trailed Lamar by as much as 10 points until early in the second half when four consecutive baskets brought them to within two points of the Cardinals. A basket by A&M’s Cindy Gough and two good free throws by Sally Morisse put the Aggies ahead for the first time. The contest turned out to be a battle down to the wire with each team alternating the lead and never dif fering by more than four points. “That was the longest damn half I played in my life, Karen Muskiet said. Nods of agreement at that came from every player on the team. Freshman Von Bunn took the in tense pressure of the game in stxide and gave the Aggies the three points they needed to win the game. The Cardinals led 69-6S with 37 seconds left on the clock. A Cardinal player fouled Bunn and she made the two free shots which gave the Aggies the lead 70-69 with 20 sec onds left on the clock. The Cardinals took the ball and fouled Gough; however she missed her free throws and Lamar once again had possession with five sec onds left on the clock. A pass from back court by one of the Cardinal players was intercepted in mid court by Bunn with three seconds left on the clock, and the Aggies left for the dressing room with a 10-8 season record. Bunn thrives on pressure, Don said. “She doesn’t get nervous eas ily.” “I wanted the game awfully bad,” Bunn said’ “and I was determined to get those free throws. I had come up against that same situation in high school and missed the free throws. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.” Even though the Aggies had a better shooting average than Lamar the first half, they trailed the Cardi nals in rebounds the first half, caus ing A&M to fall behind. “The girls were being too nice the first half and letting Lamar push them around,” coach Don said. “I told them to be more aggressive since Lamar is an especially aggres sive team, and that worked.” The Aggies shot 38 per cent from the floor and made 71 per cent of their free throw attempts. Lamar averaged 36 per cent on field goals and 66 per cent from the free throw line. Bunn led the scoring with 18 points followed by Morisse and Gough with 12 each. Pat Bond had eight, Margaret Byrne and Susan Kimbro each had six, Muskiet had five, Cindy Horton had two and Denise Bettis, one. The women head to the Houston City Tournament this weekend where they face the University of Nevada at 1:30 p.m. Sixteen teams will be competing in the tournament which will be held at Fonde Recreation Center in downtown Houston. » » i » l » » l » » » I * l l i It's Valentine! SUGAR AND SPICE . . . AND EVERYTHING NICE FOR YOUR VALENTINE. Corsages and Boutonnieres for the Freshman Ball. FLOWERS WIRED EVERYWHERE! WANTED “BUBBLES” Alias Pam Darsey has been a member of the 3C Gang over one year. A tough woman to follow. 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