AUSTIN --- The UIL has announced the five Texas Dodge Dealers Lone Star Cup winners for the 2008-09 season.

With three state championships during the 2008-09 season, Conroe The Woodlands has captured its third Class 5A Lone Star Cup in four years. The Woodlands won state titles in boys and girls cross country and girls swimming and diving as well as made lengthy playoff runs in boys and girls soccer. Read more

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A school system report released Wednesday on the heat-related death of a football player concluded a Louisville coach and his staff did not break any high school athletic rules, and found evidence the sophomore was ill with a headache and other symptoms before the practice.

The Jefferson County Public Schools report comes after the death of 15-year-old sophomore Max Gilpin, who collapsed while running sprints known as "gassers" at the end of a preseason practice last August. He died three days later of septic shock, multiple organ failure and heat stroke. Read more

By ELADIO JAIMEZ
eladioj@valleystar.com
956-430-6285 Read more

For nine-year NFL veteran Robert Garza there is no better feeling than being home where his football dreams started.

And for the third consecutive year he is showing young students in the Rio Grande Valley how the pros do it.

Garza, a Rio Hondo native, held the first of two football camps for Los Amigos de Roberto for kids ages 7-14 Tuesday morning at Sams Stadium in Brownsville. Read more

RGVSports.com sports reporter Brian Sandalow and I were chatting about a story he's been working on for an area stadium that has gone to hell in a handbasket pretty fast. In any case, it led us to talk about the top (and bottom) stadiums across the Valley. Naturally, we spend most of the time during a game in the press box, so we judged them according to accomodations. So if you're team's stadium is in the bottom five, I'm not saying the complex isn't good, just that the amenities to actually cover a game from a reporter's perspective stinks. Read more

MISSION - Erik Niño and Artie Tanguma are nothing more than memories for the Edcouch-Elsa Yellowjackets. The passing duo helped lead the ‘Jackets to an 11-1 record and their sixth straight District 32-4A championship, and, understandably, E-E could be worried about how the prolific pair are going to be replaced this season, as both graduated this spring. Read more

Remember your roots!

You hear it too much sometimes that it tends to lose its meaning.

Fathers tell their kids. Civil rights leaders preach it to the masses.

Remember your roots! On Friday night, the Valley remembered its sports roots in grand fashion at the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame at the Victoria Palms Hotel in Donna.

And the stories were endless.

And everywhere you looked there was a piece of Valley sports history on display. Read more

PORT ISABEL - Today Tommy Roberts passes the time watching his grandsons play high school football and feeding deer at his ranch in Freer. On occasion, the former Port Isabel and San Benito head coach will bump into former Mission head coach Sonny Detmer at the corner store in Freer. Detmer also owns a ranch in the small community west of Alice.

The two surely relive their coaching days in the Valley. Both will be together again tonight at the Victoria Palms Hotel in Donna as members of the Class of 2009 of the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame. Read more

Two-a-day football practices are one of the accepted and conventional ways to prepare players for the upcoming season. Practices help acclimate players with their teammates and coaches while testing their bodies and minds during some of the hottest days of the year. Read more

Seven Rio Grande Valley sports legends will be honored tonight for their outstanding careers.

Pete Bazan, the late Tommy Cox, Sonny Detmer, Tommy Roberts, Hector Salinas, Reggie Tredaway and Lum Wright make up the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame's Class of 2009.

The induction ceremony will take place tonight at 6:30 at Victoria Palms in Donna. Read more