Sports and Outdoors

 Lake Info

Normal Lake Level is 322.00 feet above Mean Sea Level.
Current level for Cedar Creek Lake is: 321.45 Water Temperature:
86  degrees - top
84 degrees - bottom

To avoid the worst of the heat, practices at Mabank, Kemp and Eustace started early (7 a.m. at Mabank and Eustace, 8 a.m. at Kemp) and ended around noon, when temperatures already were near or above 100 degrees.
Overall, coaches were pleased at what they saw on what was a typical first day of practice.
At Mabank, head coach Jimmy Cantrell said around 100 or so athletes turned out, although some clearly weren’t ready for the start of two-a-days.
“There’s been a lot of puking going on,” he said.
Monday’s focus was on defense, and Cantrell said he was pleased with the players’ retention from spring drills.
“We had a few busted coverages, but not many,” he said. “Offense has yet to be seen.”
Most of the players came in in pretty good physical shape, but as expected, not everybody did.
“Those who went through our summer camp are in better shape, and we’ve got some who didn’t go through camp who came back in pretty good shape,” Cantrell said.
At Kemp, head coach Greg Anderson is looking at some fairly good numbers, with 53 out for the first day of practice.
“We’ve got a few more who we know are coming,” he said. “Of course, you can always use a few more.”
Anderson was pleased at the conditioning the majority of the players showed.
“We started out with ten 110s (sprints),” Anderson said. “That checks them out pretty quick in this heat.
“All our varsity kids finished, and most of our junior varsity finished,” he added. “That’s a good litmus test for us.”
Anderson said he was very pleased overall with the retention his players showed, particularly on offense.
“I thought they did a good job, and they were ready and alert,” he said.
At Eustace, head coach Doug Wendel has pretty good numbers to work with.
“We’ve got 60 here today, and I know of six who are not here for various reasons,” Wendel said.
Wendel said it was really too early to tell if the players are in good shape or not.
“We’re going to bring them along slowly,” he said. “We can’t take any chances with this heat.”
Overall, Wendel said he was excited about the upcoming season, with Eustace finally dropping down in classification after many years of playing 3A teams with 2A enrollment.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of teaching going on this August.”
Area teams won’t be allowed to don pads until Friday, Aug. 13, and all three teams have scrimmages scheduled early in the day Saturday, Aug. 14.
Eustace will be hosting Scurry-Rosser, while Kemp will visit Brownsboro and Mabank will host Jacksonville.
All three teams will hold a second scrimmage Thursday, Aug. 19, with Mabank visiting Athens, Kemp hosting Van and Eustace hosting Elkhart.

Area volleyball players hit the court
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
CEDAR CREEK LAKE–One lake-area rookie and two veteran coaches opened two-a-day volleyball practices Monday.
Mabank, Kemp and Eustace are all scheduled to play scrimmages Friday and Saturday, Aug. 6-7, before officially opening the season Tuesday, Aug. 10.

Monitor Photo/
Kerry Yancey
AT RIGHT: Kemp High School girls step and jump under the direction of new head volleyball coach Kelly Grady (at far left, with daughter Shelbie) during the first day of two-a-day workouts Monday.

Mabank is scheduled to host a series of freshman, junior varsity and varsity scrimmages starting at 1:30 p.m. Friday, and all day Saturday, while Eustace also will host scrimmages starting at 4:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
Kemp is scheduled to visit Venus at noon Friday and then will play at Eustace Saturday.
Mabank will host Wills Point and Corsicana in a dual match at 4 p.m. Tuesday, while Kemp will host Brownsboro at 7 p.m. and Eustace will host a 4:30 p.m. dual match with Grand Saline and another unlisted team.
At Kemp, new head coach Kelly Grady had 33 players out for morning and afternoon workouts Monday.
Coming to Kemp from Scurry-Rosser High School, Grady (a former Crandall standout) said most of her players turned out in pretty good shape, although there were a few who clearly weren’t up to the pace.

Monitor Photo/
Kerry Yancey
AT RIGHT: Returning Mabank High School senior Torrie Garrett (center right) goes up for a hit during a varsity-junior varsity scrimmage on the first day of volleyball workouts Monday.

“You can tell who worked this summer and the ones who haven’t,” she said.
Although Grady is inheriting an almost brand-new team (there are only two lettermen – neither one starters – returning from last year) she was pleased at how well the players have retained the offense and defense over the summer.
“I’m going to be doing some different things,” she said. “We’ll do more defensive stuff, but they’ve pretty well got it.
“We’ll get there,” she added.
At Mabank, veteran head coach Stacy Shelton was upbeat as she watched a varsity/junior varsity scrimmage Monday afternoon.
Shelton reported 19 freshmen, 14 junior varsity and 12 varsity players were present opening day. “We’ve got one missing and some of them are at cheer camp,” she noted.
“Most of them are in pretty good shape,” she said. “A lot of them did our summer course, and we played in a summer volleyball league.
“Some are a little rusty, but that’s to be expected,” Shelton added.
Although the Lady Panthers missed the 4A playoffs last year – breaking a run of five straight post-season appearances – Shelton has a strong offensive nucleus returning, with sophomore setter Kourtney Holyfield and senior front-line players Megan Royal and Torrie Garrett, who looks to be back to form after missing a big chunk of last year with a broken foot.
“I was a little worried about our libero position, but we’ve got three players fighting for that spot,” Shelton said. “We’ve also learned a few new things from other championship teams, and we’re going to try and implement them in our defensive set.”
At Eustace, the dean of area coaches, Chuck Powers (now entering his 38th year), is looking forward to 2A competition after the Lady Bulldogs put together back-to-back unbeaten runs through a 3A district.
Unlike last year, Powers has some excellent numbers to work with, as 43 girls turned out for the opening day of practice.
“I was very impressed,” he said. “We’ve got a good group of freshmen.
“Those who went through our summer program are rompin’ and stompin’,” he added. “Those who didn’t are having some serious catching-up to do, but volleyball-wise, we came back ahead of my expectations.”
Powers said a number of the younger girls clearly put in a lot of time working out over the summer.
The Lady Bulldogs have a solid nucleus coming back from last year’s regional quarterfinalist squad, including the district’s Newcomer of the Year, junior Catania Grant.
Eustace lost district MVP Jenny McConathy and Setter of the Year Kimberly Austin to graduation, “so we’ve got two big sets of shoes to fill, but we’ve got kids who want to fill ’em,” Powers said.