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It boggles my mind that former National Football League (NFL) head coach Bill Parcells was not selected to the Hall of Fame this past week.

I can understand if the person did not do well in the league or coached a team to a Super Bowl to get selected after they have retired from the league.

But Parcells is different because he has turned around four teams when he took over as head coach and made them into playoff contenders.

The New York Giants had only one winning season prior to 1983 when Parcells became head coach. Under his leadership, the Giants won two Super Bowls in 1986 and 1990.

He became the head coach of the New England Patriots in 1993 after a two-year break. The Patriots made two playoff runs in the three years that Parcells was head coach including making the Super Bowl in 1996, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers.

The New York Jets had a dismall 4-28 record prior to hiring Parcells. After they hired him, the team had a 17-15 record in two seasons under Parcells.

The final team that he took over as head coach was the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys finished each of the three previous seasons with 5-11 records prior to 2003 when Parcells was hired. He led the Cowboys to a 34-32 record in three seasons and made the playoffs only once.

Parcells is a true innovator in the NFL and hopefully, he will get the nod when the NFL Hall of Fame Committeee votes again next year.

The free throw is the most overlooked stat in basketball, it is the most important part of the game.

The Bearkat women’s basketball team defeated the UTSA Roadrunners by the score of 67-55 and increase their Southland Conference record to 5-2 (10-8 overall).

The Bearkats shot 33.9% from the field and was 7-19 from three point range while the Roadrunners shot 26.4% from the field and was 3-15 in the three point department.

Free throws were a different story as the Bearkats shot 64.5% from the line. The Roadrunners on the other hand, shot 80% from the free throw line.

“It’s something that we work on everyday,” head women’s basketball coach Brenda Nichols said. “It’s a mental thing and they got to step up and make them.”

By Cheval John

The free-skying world lost one of it’s icons yesterday. Sarah Burke, a four-time winter X games champion free-skier, passed away from injuries she sustained nine days ago in a skiing accident while she was preparing for this year’s winter X games that will be held in Aspen, Colorado.

Though I did not follow this sport as much as I should, I remember back in 2003 when the first ever X Games Global Championships that was held in both the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, USA and in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. I saw a high-flying Burke representing Canada in her hometown of Whistler. She had style and grace as she competed against the best from all over the world.

She was successful in getting the Olympic Committee to add free-skying to the roster of winter sports that will be featured at the next Winter Olympic Games that will be held in Sochi, Russia in 2014.

She was a true iconic figure in her sport and will be dearly missed.

The old saying goes, “Defense Wins Championships.” That holds true for the Sam Houston State Bearkat men’s basketball team as they won a nailbiter against Texas State Bobcats by the score of 71-68. They are now 2-2 in the Southland Conference and 8-10 overall.
“It was tough down the stretch, but we made the stop that was needed to win the game,” head basketball coach Jason Hooten said.
The Bearkat defense was outstanding in the first half as the Bobcats shot 36% from the field and turned the ball over thirteen times while the Bearkats converted eleven points off of those turnovers.
“Coach Hooten really harped on defense ,” senior forward Marcus James said. “The preparation that we had for two days leading up to the game paid off for us.”
The second half was a different story as the Bobcats battled back and shot 57% from the field and had opportunities to win the game, but the Bearkat defense stood strong in the final minutes to get their second straight conference win.
The Bearkats will face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders on Saturday at Johnson Coliseum. Tip-off will be at 7 p.m. and for more information, visit gobearkats.com

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Two years ago, the Indianapolis Colts was playing in the Super Bowl under first year head coach Jim Caldwell. Fast forward to today, Caldwell was fired by the same Colts.
Sure the Colts finished 2-14 for the season. Yes, the head coach should bear the brunt of responsibility for the performance of the team. But in this case, it was a lot of circumstances that cause the Colts to perform horribly. The main circumstance is quarterback Peyton Manning being out for the season. Why is that? How could one person being out change the entire perplexity of the team? This person, a.k.a. Manning was the most important person that made the Colts offense go. Not only did the Colts build their team around Manning, but they did not add other key components that would keep the team competitive. Components like key running backs, an established defensive line, etc. They did not think that nothing would happen to their star quarterback. Sure, it worked for a decade. Yes, they have made playoff appearances including winning a Super Bowl and appearing in another. Now the team is in disarray and they have cleaned house. The lesson that can be learned from this is to never depend on one person to deliver for a team because if a team becomes dependent on that one person and doesn’t make any improvements when given the opportunity, then they will end up like the Colts.