Which of our local high school basketball teams has the best overall season?

Another fine high school basketball season has come and gone in Conecuh County and all four of our local varsity teams posted seasons that they can be proud of.

Which of our local teams had the best overall season?

That’s a hard question to answer in just one sentence since there are a number of factors to consider.

Sparta Academy’s varsity girls had the best overall record in the county. They went 17-4 overall for a winning percentage of .810. Hillcrest High School’s varsity boys followed with a 15-14 overall record, a winning percentage of .536.

Sparta’s varsity boys went 11-13 overall for a winning percentage of .458. Hillcrest’s varsity girls finished with a 7-14 overall record, a winning percentage of .333.

It should be noted that Hillcrest’s varsity girls, under head coach Tommy Dukes, improved greatly over their showing last season, when they went 3-23 overall. They not only won more than twice as many games this year, but they also lost four other games by four or fewer points.

Hillcrest’s varsity boys had the most potent offense in the county. They led the county with 1,801 total points this season, an average of 62.1 points per game. Sparta’s varsity girls followed with 1,154 total points, an average of 54.9 points per game.

Sparta’s boys collected 1,137 total points, an average of 47.7 points per game. Hillcrest’s girls scored 769 total points, an average of 36.6 points per game.

Sparta’s girls appeared to have the best defense in the county this season. They allowed just 840 total points, an average of 40.0 points per game. Hillcrest’s girls followed with 863 total allowed points, an average of 41.1 points per game. (This is another example of how much the Lady Jags improved over last season, when they allowed 1,362 total points, an average of 52.4 points per game.)

Sparta’s varsity boys allowed 1,210 total points this season, an average of 50.4 points per game. Hillcrest’s boys allowed 1,750 total points, an average of 60.3 points per outing.

Sparta’s girls and Hillcrest’s boys both played very well at home this season. The Lady Warriors went 10-1 on their home court this season, losing by three in overtime to Marengo Academy on Nov. 22. The Jags went 9-1 in Evergreen, winning all their regular season home games before falling by two against Monroe County in the area tournament title game Monday of last week.

Hillcrest’s girls went 4-4 at home compared to a 1-8 showing in Evergreen last season. Sparta’s boys went 5-6 at home this season, a winning percentage of .455.

Sparta’s girls were the best road team in the county this year. They went 7-3 in away games, a winning percentage of .700. Sparta’s boys followed with a 6-7 road record.

Hillcrest’s boys went 7-12 on the road, and the Lady Jags posted a 3-10 record in road games this season.

Maybe the best performance mark of all is each team’s area record during the regular season.

Sparta’s girls went undefeated in area play, posting a 6-0 record against area foes. Hillcrest’s boys followed closely with a 7-1 area record. Sparta’s boys went 3-3 in area play, and Hillcrest’s girls posted a 3-5 overall record.

In the end, I’d have to say that Sparta’s girls had the best overall season of the county’s four varsity teams this year. Hillcrest’s boys were a close second, and I’d rank Sparta’s boys in third. The award for most improved team this year goes to Hillcrest’s varsity girls, and I look for the Lady Jags to be even better next year.

Daily Weather Observations for Thurs., Feb. 23, 2012

Temp: 62.6 degrees F (17.0 degrees C)

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.0 inches.

Humidity: 84 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Overcast.

Winds: 1.1 mph out of the Southeast (light air)

Barometric Pressure: 29.28 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.1 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 7.2 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 11.9 inches

Local Weather Alerts: None.

NOTE: 64th day of Winter.

And Remember - "If salt is sticky and gains in weight, it will rain before too late."

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level.

This week's movie picks are 'Act of Valor' and 'J. Edgar'

It’s Wednesday, so today I give you my weekly list of movies that will open in theatres this week as well as a list of movies that will be released this week on DVD.

I hope this will serve as a useful guide as to what’s going on this week if you happen to be near a movie theatre or if you’re looking for something to drop into your NetFlix queue.

Movies that are scheduled to hit theatres this week include:

Act of Valor (Action, R): Directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh and starring Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano, Emilio Rivera, Gonzalo Menendez and Ailsa Marshall.

The Fairy (Comedy, Romance, Not Rated): Directed by Dominique Abel and Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Philippe Martz and Bruno Romy.

The Forgiveness of Blood (Drama): Directed by Joshua Marston and starring Refet Abazi, Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej and Ilire Vinca Celaj.

Gone (Suspense, PG-13): Directed by Heitor Dhalia and starring Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, Wes Bentley and Daniel Sunjata.

Good Deeds (Drama, Romance, PG-13): Directed by Tyler Perry and starring Tyler Perry, Gabrielle Union, Thandie Newton, Brian White and Rebecca Romijn.

Tomorrow When the War Began (Action, Drama, R): Directed by Stuart Beattie and starring Caitlin Stasey, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Linsoln Lewis, Deniz Akdeniz and Phoebe Tonkin.

Wanderlust (Comedy, R): Directed by David Wain and starring Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Malin Akerman, Justin Theroux and Lauren Ambrose.

New DVD releases for the week of Feb. 21 include:

J. Edgar (Drama, R): Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench and Jeffrey Donovan.

London Boulevard (Drama, Crime, R): Directed by William Monahan and starring Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Anna Friel, Ray Winstone and David Thewlis.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (Drama, Suspense, R): Directed by Sean Durkin and starring Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy and Brady Corbet.

The Mighty Macs (Drama, G): Directed by Tim Chambers and starring Carla Gugino, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Ellen Burstyn and Phyllis Somerville.

Puss in Boots (Comedy, Family, PG): Directed by Chris Miller and starring the voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris.

Retreat (Suspense, Action, R): Directed by Carl Tibbetts and starring Cillian Murphy, Jamie Bell, Thandie Newton and Jimmy Yuill.

The Son of No One (Action, Suspense, R): Directed by Dito Montiel and starring Channing Tatum, Al Pacino, Juliette Binoche, Ray Liotta and Katie Holmes.

The Space Between (Drama, Not Rated): Directed by Travis Fine and Melissa Leo, Anthony Keyvan, AnnaSophia Robb, Hunter Parrish and Brad William Henke.

Tower Heist (Action, Comedy, PG-13): Directed by Brett Ratner and starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Gabourey Sidibe and Casey Affleck.

The Way (Comedy, Drama, PG-13): Directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Deborah Kara Unger, Yorick van Wageningen and James Nesbitt.

If I could only watch one movie at the theatre this week, it would be “Act of Valor,” and if I had to pick just one DVD to rent this week, it would be “J. Edgar.”

In the end, let me know if you get a chance to watch any of the new movies in theatres this week or if you’ve already seen any of the movies that have just been released on DVD. What did you think about them? Which would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.

Daily Weather Observations for Wed., Feb. 22, 2012

Temp: 52.0 degrees F (11.1 degrees C)

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.0 inches.

Humidity: 84 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Overcast and foggy.

Winds: Calm.

Barometric Pressure: 29.54 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.1 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 7.2 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 11.9 inches

Local Weather Alerts: Dense fog advisory in effect until 8 a.m.

NOTE: 63rd day of Winter. Ash Wednesday. Washington's Birthday.

And Remember - "When the sun shines while raining, it will rain the same time again tomorrow."

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level.

2012 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize winners announced

The winners of the 2012 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize were announced recently, and this year’s winners were “Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union” by William C. Harris and “Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky” by Elizabeth D. Leonard.

The Lincoln Prize is administered by the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College and has been awarded annually since 1991 for the best non-fiction history work of the previous year on the American Civil War.

Nominees for this year’s prize included 116 books. This year’s Honorable Mention Recipient was “The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic” by Barbara A. Gannon. Other finalists included “Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867” by William A. Dobak, “A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War” by Amanda Foreman and “The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War and the Making of Modern America” by William G. Thomas.

The complete winners of the Lincoln Awards are as follows:

1991 – “The Civil War” by Ken Burns
1992 – “Frederick Douglass” by William S. McFeely
1993 – “The Peculiar Institution” by Kenneth Stampp
1994 – “Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom and the Civil War” by Ira Berlin, et al.
1995 – “The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln” by Phillip Shaw Paludan
1996 – “Lincoln” by David Herbert Donald
1997 – “Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s and The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics” by Don Fehrenbacher
1998 – “For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War” by James M. McPherson
1999 – “Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln” by Douglas L. Wilson
2000 – “Runaway Slaves: Rebels in the Plantation” by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger
2000 – “Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President” by Allen C. Guelzo
2001 – “A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865” by Russell F. Weigley
2002 – “Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory” by David W. Blight
2003 – “Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!” by George C. Rable
2004 – “Lincoln” by Richard Carwardine
2005 – “Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation” by Allen C. Guelzo
2006 – “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin
2007 – “Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Worlds” by Douglas L. Wilson
2008 – “The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes
2008 – “Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee through his Private Letters” by Elizabeth Brown Pryor
2009 – “Tried by War” Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
2009 – “Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy and the Civil War” by Craig Symonds
2010 – “Abraham Lincoln: A Life” by Michael Burlingame
2011 – “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” by Eric Foner
2012 – “Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union” by William C. Harris
2012 – “Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky” by Elizabeth D. Leonard

In the end, how many of these Lincoln Prize winners have you had a chance to read? Which did you like or dislike? Which would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.

Daily Weather Observations for Tues., Feb. 21, 2012

Temp: 49.6 degrees F (9.8 degrees C)

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.0 inches.

Humidity: 81 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Mostly Cloudy.

Winds: Winds out of the Southeast.

Barometric Pressure: 29.73 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.1 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 7.2 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 11.9 inches

Local Weather Alerts: None.

NOTE: 62nd day of Winter. Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras Carnival Holiday (Mobile). New Moon.

And Remember - "When down the chimney falls the soot, mud will soon by underfoot."

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level.

FICTION - The Ambulance Incident - Part II

Stinking, gray smoke issued from the spot where I applied the electrode, and the man on the stretcher grabbed me by the throat. Just that fast, my head swam on the verge of unconscisousness as the man’s clawlike fingers dug into my neck and tightend against my carotid artery.

John dropped the IV he was prepping, grabbed the man’s thick arm and pulled hard in an attempt to remove his hand from my throat. The injured man was strong for his size, and John had to rise from the bench seat, brace one boot against the stretcher and pull to make the man’s arm budge. Blackness crept into the edge of my vision just before the man’s hand slid from my throat.

The man had long fingernails, and they raked down the right side of my neck as John pulled the man’s hand away. Four fresh, superficial scratches began to ooze blood and stain the collar of my uniform shirt.

John jerked the man’s left hand down in the next instant. I lost my balance and pitched forward across the stretcher. I reached out to keep from falling across the man, and my left hand came down on the siderail on John’s side of the stretcher. In that brief second, my shirt sleeve rode up and left my exposed upper arm inches from the man’s mouth. In a frenized flash, the man jerked up and sank his teeth into my left tricep. I swore as a wave of brief, intense pain shot down my arm.

I snatched my arm out of his mouth and regained my balance. I pulled back my short sleeve and examined the damage. The imprint of the man’s teeth was etched into my arm, and I watched as blood began to seep from the spots where his canine teeth had been.

“He bit me!” I said to John, who continued to struggle with the wildeyed man.

John didn’t look up. “Get the soft restraints,” he barked, almost out of breath. “We’ve got to tie him down before he hurts himself.”

I turned, squated and opened a low compartment to the side of the monitor shelf. “Don’t we need to call med control and ask for permission to restrain him?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder.

“To hell with that,” John said. “Radio’s busted anyway.”

We seldom have to use soft restraints on the ambulance and for that reason the small plastic bags that contained them had worked their way to the back of the dark compartment, well behind the myriad bits of other equipment and gear that we used more often. More by feel than by sight, I found them, pulled them out and slid the thick, plastic compartment door closed.

The next few minutes were a chaotic blur, but somehow between the two of us, John and I got the man into the restraints. We were both out of breath when we finished, and we paused for a few seconds to get our wind back. John, a smoker, looked like he’d just run a marathon, but I was sure that I looked the worse for wear. He wasn’t the one bleeding.

The man on the stretcher fought uselessly against the restraints, and it was in that moment of brief rest that I took a good, long look at the man. Under the bright flourescent lights of the ambulance, I could see that he was a strange looking man. The dominant feature of his face was thick, black eyebrows that met over the bridge of his nose. He also had low-set ears that gave him the aspect of a dog. I was already well acquanted with his curved fingernails, and from where I stood I was struck by the putrid smell of his breath.

“Break’s over,” John said as he began to calmly reassemble his IV set. “You need to clean those scratches and that bite. Look in that cabinet. There are some four by fours in there and some rubbing alcohol. That’ll have to do until we get to the ER.”

Before I could turn to open the compartment, the deep, long howl of a coyotoe sounded from just outside the ambulance. Gooseflesh popped out on my forearms, and I pretended not to notice that John had jumped at the sound. “That was close,” he said.

As if in reaction to the howl, the man on the stretcher grew calm and ceased to struggle against his restraints. In the ensuing seconds, he made the only statement that John and I heard him mutter during our entire encounter with him.

“You’ve…. got… to… let… me… go…” he said, his voice rough and deep, almost like a growl, like someone who might be very sick.

I immediately thought about what this might mean in regard to the fresh bite on my uppper arm. “Sir, do you have any health…”

Before I could say “problems,” the man resumed his struggle against the restraints. “Sir, you’ve got to calm down,” John said. “You’ve been in an accident, and you might further injure yourself if you don’t calm down and be still.”

John might as well have been talking to the wall because the man was in no mood to listen. I watched as his abdominal muscles flexed hard as he tried to sit up against the restraints. It was then that one of the soft restraint straps did give slightly with a small sound like ripping velcro. John and I exchanged a glance and only had a second to consider what it meant when the alarm on the heart monitor began to sound as the man’s vitals began to spike out of control.

The man went limp as John and I studied the monitor’s small screen. “He’s crashing,” John said, turning back to his IV set-up.

John began to start the IV, and I read off the man’s vitals. “Heart rate’s 150 beats per minute,” I said. “Looks like sinus tachycardia. Last diastolic BP’s 116. Pulse ox is good at 98 percent.”

“All right, let’s go,” John said. “Get up front and get us to the hospital.”

I nodded and headed for the side door. “Hey!” John called.

I turned and saw him stick an 18-gauge needle into a large purple vein that ran down the length of the man’s left forearm. “Look out for that coyote,” he said with a grin. “And keep trying the radio.”

I’d forgotten about the animal responsible for that howl only minutes before. I pulled off my plastic gloves, dropped them into the garbage can beside the bench seat and opened the side door. I stepped outside and closed the door. If anything was out here, it would probably get me before I could get back inside. I jogged around to the driver’s side, pulled the door open and hopped in.

It was nice to be back behind the wheel and headed to the hospital. The fog was as thick as ever, but that was no big deal. I switched off the emergency flashers and turned on the big overhead strobe lights. As I put the truck in drive, I heard John’s muffled voice. A small window, about one-foot square, separated the cab from the back of the truck. I reached over my shoulder and slid the window open on its track.

“What did you say?” I yelled back through the hole.

“Get back hear,” he yelled. “Something’s wrong.” There was an unusual hint of strain in John’s voice. Like most paramedics, John was unflappable, conditioned to hide his feelings behind a blank mask that came from years of dealing with the worst kind of emergencies.

I put the ambulance back in park. “What’s wrong?”

“Just get back here,” he yelled. “I need you back here. Hurry!”

I grabbed a pair of medium plastic gloves from a small cardboard box in the center console and opened my door. I jumped out and ran to the rear double doors. I pulled the handle, but the door stuck as it sometimes will on humid nights. I swore under my breath, got a better grip on the handle and pulled again. The right half of the double doors swung open, and I was shocked by the scene that met my eyes.

The man who’d been on the stretcher was nowhere in sight. In his place was a large gray wolf. Its back legs were on the stretcher and its front paws held John down against the bench seat. John was still alive, but he struggled weakly against the powerful animal that had its muzzle buried in his throat. Before I could react, the beast turned its head and looked at me. Fresh blood – John’s blood – dripped from its snarling black lips, and I watched as drops of crimson fell to the plastic mat of the ambulance floor.

The beast seemed to grin and then arched its back before unleashing a long, unnerving howl. As if in response, from somewhere close behind me, there came an answering howl from some unseen creature shrouded in the thick fog.

(All rights reserved. This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.)