DON McDERMOTT MORE COLUMNS RICHARD STEPHENS / PVT The Beatty High School football team travels to Laughlin today, to play a Class A interdivisional game against the Cougars, who were a playoff team in 2005. Kickoff is at 7 p.m., with Gus Sullivan making his debut as the Hornets' coach. Advertisement

BEATTY -- The Sullivans and excellence in athletics have long been a tradition in this rural Nye County community.

In the mid-1990s, Diana Sullivan was one of the outstanding female athletes for the Hornets, as they dominated the competition in volleyball, basketball and track and field.

In 2000, 2001 and 2002, Greg Sullivan was a champion long-distance runner for the Hornets, and attracted the attention of many NCAA Division I schools, including Arizona State. He went to ASU, transferred to UNLV, and is now doing well working at Wynn Las Vegas, the classic casino-resort on the Strip. Greg still competes; he finished 23rd in the last Las Vegas Marathon and plans to run again in that event.

Steven Sullivan was a star performer in football, basketball and track; now weighing in at 280 pounds, he is headed to the University of Nevada in Reno, where he hopes to walk on with coach Chris Ault's Wolf Pack.

And now the patriarch of the Sullivan family, Gus, is the head football coach for the Hornets, who debut tonight at Laughlin in a Class A inter-Division game against the Cougars. In the 2005 playoffs, Laughlin, out of the Southern 1-A Division, converted three turnovers into second-half touchdowns to upset two-time Central champion Tonopah 62-40 in the first round of the state playoffs.

Sullivan is a former Nye County Sheriff's Department deputy, who retired as a captain, and is now a justice of the peace. Sullivan succeeded long-time coach Bruce Moen, whose last two teams won seven games (including four in 2005), to turn around a program which had, at one point early in this decade, lost 18 consecutive games.

"I had been helping out whenever I could, after retiring from the sheriff's department," said Sullivan, as he sat in his office here. "I was appointed justice of the peace, and where I had once been working a lot of hours, I found I had time to get involved as a coach.

"Coaching ... it's fantastic," said Sullivan. "I love the kids ... they're like family. We have a lot of Beatty kids playing, but we have 10, 12 boys who live in Amargosa who have a tough time getting to practice. So I, and another coach, Martin Church, who works at Valley Electric, have been transporting them to practice, then home. So we get back late each night we have practice. But the Amargosa kids deserve an equal chance to compete."

The Amargosa players include:

Senior running back Josh Britton;

Senior Tony Heilman, a 5-foot-10, 230-pound wrecking ball of a linebacker and fullback;

Senior guard-nose guard Eddie Maldonado;

Junior fullback-linebacker Junior Dare;

Byron Gray, a defensive end who can punt and place-kick;

Junior tight end Mario Roman, and

Kyle Marchand, a 6-foot-2 linebacker-tackle, who according to Sullivan is a "daring, cowboy-type."

Also seeking a starting job are Amargosans Tony Dare, Tanner Davis, Miguel Arroyo, Jorge Avila and Daniel Frias.

Veteran quarterback Matt Everts is a key returnee; he brings the ability to direct a run-oriented attack or throw the football.

Nick Gorman, a two-way end; Josh Jerkins, a back-defensive end; Dan Kibbee, a 6-foot-3 linebacker-end; Jose Mendoza, a safety-wide receiver, and Dan Ramirez, a wide receiver rank high on the depth charts for the Hornets.

"We have 28 boys on the roster; about 24 are here every day ... and we expect more to come out, once school starts," said Sullivan, who knows this team faces many difficult trials (pardon the expression, Judge) this fall.

The Hornets' first four games are on the road. After a bye next week, the Hornets go to Pyramid Lake Sept. 9, to Lone Pine, Calif., Sept. 15, and to Big Pine, Calif., Sept. 23, before they play their first home game Sept. 29 against Henderson Warren-Walker. Then, there are Central Division battles with Spring Mountain, Round Mountain, Tonopah and Indian Springs.

And how will the Hornets fare this fall? It's too soon to judge. Wait 'til all the evidence is in. Right, Gus?