DON McDERMOTT MORE COLUMNS DON McDERMOTT / PVT The Pahrump Valley High School girls golf team, playing at Genoa Lakes, near Carson City, won the Nevada Class 3-A state championship for the second straight season, for the third time in five years, and for the fourth time over nine years. On the 2006 team were (from left) coach Julie Floyd, Hailey Forry, Jasper Biggs, Courtney Salmon, Desiree Fortin, Ashley Keller, Ashlee Bartholomew and assistant coach Bob Hopkins. The girls won the title by 45 strokes (943 to 988) against Las Vegas Faith Lutheran. Advertisement

Because all of the important action in Pahrump Valley High School athletics took place Thursday night, it's time to clear out the thought balloons in my head ... and other strange places.

Since taking over as sports editor of the Pahrump Valley Times in late May 2001, we have covered eight state championship girls teams from PVHS: three each in golf and fast-pitch softball, and two in basketball.

The latest championship came last week at the Genoa Lakes Golf Club, where the Lady Trojans grabbed their second straight Class 3-A state championship, giving coach Julie Floyd's teams three titles in five years and four over a nine-year span.

And her No. 1 assistant over the last eight seasons has been Bob Hopkins, the coach of the PVHS girls basketball team that has won 128 of its last 157 games, as well as state titles in 2004 and 2005.

Hats off to Floyd, Hopkins and the players -- Hailey Forry, Jasper Biggs, Courtney Salmon, Desiree Fortin, Ashley Keller and Ashlee Bartholomew -- who brought home another state championship plaque to show off in the school's trophy case.

Dominique Maloy, who has attracted national attention (but a minimal amount of publicity in Las Vegas), has won 11 (of a possible 12) individual track championships, with one more spring season remaining. Dominique, a senior, is not playing any sport this fall, but is expected to be the starting point guard for the PVHS girls this season.

Freshman McKenzie Dean won the 3-A state 3200 title last May at Reno and was expected to challenge for the title in today's Southern 3-A cross country meet at Laughlin.

So, do you wonder how the Pahrump Valley boys' athletic programs stand, as teams, as well as individuals?

Steven Sheppard, Vernell Wright and Kyle Floyd of Pahrump Valley won state 3-A track titles in each of the last four spring campaigns. Jason Odegard, the head coach, has put together a talented group of assistants to work with the Trojans, with the goal to turn them into state-level competitors. And having an all-weather track in their own backyard has helped considerably, as have other improvements in the athletics facilities on campus.

(Which reminds me, there is still plenty of work to be done out there, including installing lights on the baseball and softball fields, replacing water-hungry grass with artificial turf for football and soccer in particular, and maybe softball and baseball later.)

Back to the boys ... Jake Towles and Elias Armendariz won back-to-back state titles at 103 pounds in wrestling; the latter still has two more shots to add to that total.

Pahrump Valley's wrestling teams, which over the last five years have begun exceptionally stronger physically and mentally have won regional titles and have become legitimate challengers for state honors, under the direction of coach Craig Rieger, who like Odegard, has a highly-intense corps of assistant coaches.

Note, sadly, that no boys team has won a state championship in these last 5 1/2 years. The soccer, wrestling and track teams have come, oh so close, but have been shutout from the top step on the championship podium.

The boys soccer teams in 2001 and 2005 finished second to Truckee, Calif., in Class 3-A state championship tournaments, so those Trojan teams could at least boast as being the best in Nevada.

Pahrump Valley does have state championships -- in wrestling. The Trojans won back-to-back state titles in 1986 and 1987 -- and that's it.

Football has been the most frustrating experience for PVHS boys since they started playing the game under Hank Wohle in 1973. In 33 seasons, plus eight games this fall, the Trojans, who were 2-6 going into their regular-season finale against Boulder City Thursday night, have yet to officially achieve 100 wins.

On the field, they have 101, but the 2001 team had to forfeit wins against Ely White Pine and Henderson Coronado because an ineligible player participated in those games.

The Trojans did win the 2005 Southern Nevada Class 3-A League regular-season title, ending a 12-year drought. In seven post-season games, however, Pahrump Valley has just one victory -- a 3-0 conquest of Moapa Valley in 1978. A week later, the Trojans lost 18-0 to Lovelock on the frozen tundra of Pershing County.

Since then, Pahrump Valley has lost 12-6 to Moapa Valley in 1980; 41-7 to North Tahoe in 1993; 38-0 to Moapa Valley in 2003; 45-28 to Moapa Valley in 2004 and 26-7 to Virgin Valley in 2005.

The Trojans were able to beat Mesquite Virgin Valley in a regular-season football game (39-33 in overtime) for the first time in 13 years in 2005, but then came the loss in the post-season matchup with the Bulldogs, who reached the state 3-A finals before bowing to Truckee, 37-14.

Moapa Valley -- a 56-39 winner in a wild and wacky Homecoming Game last Friday -- is still making the Trojans pay for that 1978 victory; the Pirates are 27-2 against PVHS since losing that playoff game in 1978. The Pahrump Valley wins came in 1993 (22-16 in overtime) and 1994 (17-6). In the series, which dates back to PVHS's inaugural season (1973), Moapa Valley is 31-3 against the Trojans.

And the purpose of all this rhetoric?

It is to suggest that no coach who has been in control of the Trojan football program -- and no particular group of players -- has been able to generate a consistent winner.

Al Giannotti came closest to achieving that level of success; his teams from 1976 through 1980 were 27-15, but after going 2-6 in 1981, he left the job. From 1982 through 1992, the Trojans had one .500 or better season (5-3 in 1986).

Gary Findley took over as coach in 1993 and directed the Trojans to a 7-3 campaign. They were 5-4 each of the next two seasons, giving Findley a 17-11 start. But his next two teams were 0-9 and 3-6 and Findley, too, departed. It wasn't until Steve Nygaard's 2004 team went 5-4 in the regular season that PVHS enjoyed another winning record.

But, after the Trojans went 3-6 in 2005, Nygaard was out, despite the Trojans going 3-1 in the league to win the South 3-A title.

Brian Hug, who guided the Port Huron (Mich.) Pirates to a championship in the Great Lakes Indoor Football League last summer, is the Pahrump Valley football coach this fall.

He came in with lofty goals, but a shaky defense and a sometimes explosive, but more often inconsistent offense, proved disastrous as the Trojans took on the challenge of playing the toughest schedule in the school's history.

The Trojans opened with Class 4-A Las Vegas Chaparral, coming off a playoff campaign in 2005. Next was Don Lugo High School of Chino, a league championship contender for years in that section of California. The Trojans' third game came on a trip to Spring Creek, a team that was on a roll at the beginning of the season, but was stricken by a slump when it entered Northern Nevada Class 3-A League competition.

The Trojans were outscored 135-9 in sustaining three losses. The offense finally came to life in the fourth quarter of a home game against Yucca Valley, Calif. The Trojans, trailing 30-6 going into the final 12 minutes, exploded for 28 points in 9 1/2 minutes and won, 34-30. That offensive resurgence continued the next week, when Pahrump Valley overpowered Las Vegas Legacy, 29-14.

Southern League play began the next week, with the Trojans losing 36-7 at Mesquite. Faith Lutheran won 31-17 on a rain-and-lightning-filled night in Las Vegas, and last Friday, Moapa Valley survived a 56-39 shootout with the Trojans.

Whatever happened Thursday night should have been a surprise to no one who has followed PVHS football this season. The Trojans beat Boulder City because they were able to put all of the elements together, as they had in those five quarters against Yucca Valley and Legacy.

Or, they lost because they didn't.

Whatever happened, there has to come a time when someone takes charge of the program which generates more gate revenue than any sport in the school and has more local support, spiritually and emotionally, than any of the other athletic endeavors undertaken by PVHS boys and girls.

Thirty-four years into the game and it's well past the time for positive results to happen, not two or three times a season, but seven or eight times each year for not just one season, but two, five, 10 and 20 years.

It's about time for such a run of success to happen. Wouldn't you agree?