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/DG\ELUGVSUHSDUHIRUQHZVRFFHUFDPSDLJQBy CHRIS FILOTEOsports@leader-news.com

The new year brings many chang-es for sports fans.

And the same can be said for the Ladybird soccer team. First year El Campo coach Stephanie Morrison will direct the Ladybirds in District 47-4A and hopes to emphasize the importance of a new start.

I dont want to focus on last year, I want to focus on this year, Morri-son said. It will be different for me because its a new sport, but I want to get the girls together and form a good group.

El Campo isnt known for its soc-cer, yet the Ladybirds should have a cohesive unit of returning players. The Ladybirds have 20 players slat-ed for their opening-day roster and eight are returning from last year.

Two of those are seniors Angel Sal-dana and Crystal Lorta.

Morrison will institute a 1-4-3-3 formation this season. The formation

By CHRIS FILOTEOsports@leader-news.com

El Campo and Louise had its fair share of eventful and thrilling moments in 2012.

Lets take a look at the highlights of the 2012 sports season from spring through winter.Spring: Feb. 2 marked the day many Ricebird and Ladybird fans will remember for an extremely long time. The University Interscholastic League conducted its biennial classication realignment and the move shifted El Campo from Class 4A to 3A.

El Campo competed in 3A for the rst time in

more than 40 years beginning with the 2012-13 campaign.

The realignment affected the Louise football team as well. The Hornets dropped from Class 1A Division I to Division II. All other Louise sports competed in the same district as the previous year except for the football team.

The Ricebird soccer team nished their season 2-3-5 in district competition, just missing the playoffs by one win. El Campo drew with Brazo-sport 2-2 in its last match to shatter its playoff hopes.

Louise track and eld fans rooted Hornet Dil-

lon Lee all the way to a fourth place nish in the long jump event at the Class 1A state meet. Lee jumped 2110 in the long jump event to claim fourth place.

El Campo Athletic Director Bob Gillis and As-sistant Trainer Cassey Janak were both honored by the Greater Houston Football High School Coaches Association.

Gillis was inducted into the Hall of Honor for his dedicated work on the gridiron. Janak was selected as Athletic Trainer of the Year in her second year at El Campo.

(See EC SOCCER SQUAD, Page 6)

Stephanie Morrison (See MEMORABLE EVENTS MARK, Page 6)

Chris Kutac attempts to drive the baseline as the Hornets fell to Palacios 44-28 at Hornet Gym Thursday afternoon in a non-district matchup. The Sharks led 23-11 at halftime and were successful with their press defense in the second half, which limited Louise to shot opportunities and forced turnovers. The Hornets are off for a week before their next game against Tivoli at Hornet Gym Jan. 4.

L-N Photo by Chris FIloteo

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Lady Hornet Katelyn Roades (10) goes for a steal at mid-court during the third quarter in a 66-33 defeat by the Palacios Lady Sharks Thursday morning at Hornet Gym. Louise trailed 33-14 at halftime and struggled with shot production in the second half as Palacios held the Lady Hor-

nets to no shot attempts until 5:41 in the third quarter. The Lady Hor-nets scrambled against Palacios press defense throughout the contest. Louise travels to East Bernard Jan. 2 for its next non-district game. The Lady Hornets host Shiner in their rst district game of the season Jan. 8.

L-N Photo by Chris FiloteoSwiping Steal

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Hunting for white-tailed deer has drastically changed over the past de-cade.

I remember as a child, heading outdoors with my dad in search of a trophy buck. We would sit together in a blind and patiently wait for sun-rise.

Once deer began to wonder from the thick brush, I asked my dad, Look at that buck dad, have you seen him before?

My dads response was, Nope. I havent seen him before.

With the technology of trail cam-eras today, deer hunters have the opportunity to scout their herd 24/7 without physically being in the eld.

The vast assortment of trail cams (as they are called by hunters) range from a $75 model up to $500 and more. Any one of the trail cams can pin-point the precise location of a tar-geted deer.

The general season closes in Wharton County Jan. 6, but the spe-cial youth-only along with muzzle-loader seasons remain open until Jan. 20.

So, there is still time to accurate-ly locate that trophy buck you have been eagerly trying to see while in the eld.

Where is the best place to put a trail cam you might ask?

Most hunters put them along trails and around their feeders, Tex-as Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist for Wharton County David Lobpries said.

During the rut, which is typically during the rst week of November, placing a trail cam near a scrape to see a bucks activity is a great idea. Another crafty spot for your trail cam is by a rub, where a buck rubs his forehead and antlers against a tree trunk.

The bucks scrape off the velvet on their antlers in late summer and ear-ly fall. During the rut, bucks mark their territory with rubs, which leave scent from a gland in the forehead.

Now for the novice hunter, you

dont have to buy the fancy trail cam available to start your scouting.

For beginners, dont buy the most expensive one, Lobpries said. The least expensive cam without all the bells and whistles will do the job.

Lobpries suggests hunters not to place too many trail cams in one area.

If you use a protein feeder we recommend using one per 160-200 acres, Lobpries said.

How important are night time photos versus day time photos when patterning a buck?

They are really good for activ-ity and you will see that before the season, Lobpries said. Primarily you will see them coming quite fre-quently during daylight hours. Right now, I have a camera out west of El Campo and every deer is coming af-ter dark.

And nding out what time deer are active is the best tool to have dur-ing the season. However, nocturnal deer arent always bucks.

There are both does and bucks coming out to my camera in El Cam-po, Lobpries said. Does are sharper than bucks, especially when you hunt them. I only had one daytime photo around 5 p.m. and the rest of the pictures were at night.

In fact, during a hunt in Fort Bend County earlier this month I didnt have one deer come to the feed-er. Its been that kind of year. Very few deer, or hogs are coming to the feeder during daylight hours.

Hunting the rut is a magical time of year for most hunters. I know for me it is.

The best time to hunt is during

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A look back at the 14-1 season

Saturday, December 29, 2012

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WERE PROUDOF YOU!

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Congratulations on a great football season!

We Love You, Mom, Dad & Emily

#76

do, he said. Im going to stop being a trainer when I become a freshman because I want to play football too.

DuBroc said all the ice chests needed to be washed after game day, something he didnt expect to be so hard.

Loading ice was really heavy, he said. Its harder than it looks. I think the rst week of two-a-days we ran out of ice.

All the trainers had sore arms the rst few weeks, he added. Saturdays also meant folding towels and uniforms. Towels are especially impor-tant to hand out during the games, DuBroc said.

Sometimes its not your sweat that gets on you - its mostly theirs.

Britain Zalman, a junior at ECHS, has been a trainer for the past three years.

He said he loved sports, but decided not to spend his off-season in the fall running around the track to stay in shape.

Sports is my life, Zalman said. One of the coaches came up to me and asked me to be a trainer. I knew it would be my opportunity to be on the eld.

I know it means so much to the guys when youre back there in the locker room and you are doing everything you

can to get them back into good spirits, he said.

ECHS athletic trainer Cassey Janak said the stu-dents assistance is invalu-able. Janak was chosen as the 2012 Bobby Gunn Athletic Trainer of the Year for the greater Houston area. ECHS head athletic trainer Dean Easter was also chosen for this award in 2008 when he was employed at Sealy ISD. Both oversee the trainers and help with sideline manage-ment.

They are all really good kids, she said. They are very appreciated around here.

The trainers, like all mem-bers of the team, received Uni-versity Interscholastic League medals for being a vital part of the state runner-up team.

I think the main thing we do out here is take care of them, Zalman said. Its the relationships you make that hold us all together.

5HODWLRQVKLSVKROG5LFHELUGVWRJHWKHU(Continued from Page 4)

L-N Photo by Jon EiltsRooting Ricebird

Ricebird linebacker Jeremy Supak pumps up the crowd after he tackled Stephenville quarterback Tyler Jones at Cowboys Stadium.

FACEBOOK FAN FEEDBACK

The Leader-News asked its Facebook fans to post their re-actions about the Ricebirds re-markable run to the Class 3A Division I state championship game at Cowboys Stadium.

Stephanie Brazeale Cor-tez: My favorite moment was in Beaumont after the Car-thage game! It showed the heart of our team! I think that the way the town showed up to every game was awesome! It was neat to see all the red in each town we were at!

Laura Hensley Motal: My favorite moment was the win over Carthage. EC was not picked to win and many Internet forums showed rude, nasty comments about EC. Our players gave it their all and never gave up and took another win that night! The tears of joy that the team and fans expressed showed the love and support we all have for Ricebird football. Then state bound we were. The sup-port our community showed was overwhelming! Ricebird Nation was in full form at the state game! The Ricebird team may not have won that night, but the team will always be winners in the eyes of our community!

Bonnie L. Quintero Lim-baugh: I was a freshman ECHS band member at the 1967 state nals. I now live in Fort Worth and had been listening to the games online. I was so excited when I was able to attend the state nal after 45 years to cheer on my hometown. I have always been proud to be from El Cam-

po, but I was extremely proud when I was able to acknowl-edge to my co-workers that the El Campo football team made it to the nals.

Anita Moreno: I got so excited and in tears when the good news that our Ricebirds were going to be state bound! And on that Friday morning when the buses were leaving the high school, I got so happy and I was screaming so loud, GO RICEBIRDS STATE BOUND! I even got chills! I was so excited when I saw the Hutchins students and teach-ers supporting the Ricebirds with their posters and waving and smiling at their Ricebirds! And then I got to take a pic-ture of the cop escorting the buses! Im a proud fan of our Ricebirds. Everything about the Ricebirds is priceless and will always be my beautiful memories of 2012!

Ashley Allsmilez Cruz: My favorite was the pep rally for the Carthage game and seeing all the school kids with their signs supporting the football players. Then topping

it off with Santa and Ricky the Ricebird in the helicopter, my kids loved it all.

Traci Bell Faas: With-out a doubt the comeback to beat Carthage was amazing! It proved that our boys never gave up and that they were going to ght for their chance to get to state! The fans were red up and everyone was talking football! I would have loved to have seen every busi-ness painted up or displaying signs. That would have been an awesome sight to see! I wish the seniors nothing but the best in all they do and to the boys coming up, lets do it again! Go Ricebirds!

Lisa Mcafee Bailey: When Carthage fumbled the ball and my son recovered the ball. We then scored two touchdowns and beat them 29-25. It was great the way that El Campo supported the Ricebirds and followed them to Arlington.

Kim Morris Wood: I loved how the community came to-gether during the playoffs. I (and many people helped) sold football tickets at the ad-ministration ofce. It was fun to watch them come in each week and stand in the lobby discussing the game and what the next week would bring. The week we went to state was unreal. We sold almost 4,300 tickets in four days. The excitement and support from the community was better than anyone could have asked for. Thank you for the experi-ence and thank you El Campo for the support you gave!

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Above: The infamous jumbotron at Cowboys Stadium displays the two Class 3A Division I state cham-pionship teams before the game Dec. 14.

L-N Photo by Jon Eilts

Below: Members of the Derby Dolls look at the clock during the fourth quarter as the Ricebirds lost to Stephenville 70-35 in Arlington.

L-N Photo by Glen Frels

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