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Around the World in 80 Days, the Jules Verne classic, had a simple theme: "See everything in the world worth seeing ... Do everything in the world worth doing."

Athletes at Pahrump Valley High School will experience their own 80-day adventure, with this plot: "Win everything in Southern Class 3-A spring sports worth winning. Do everything in baseball, fast-pitch softball, boys golf and boys and girls track worth doing."

For the next 80 days (give or take a day or two), Pahrump Valley athletes will be competing in their final Class 3-A campaign. Preseason preparations are already underway; the regular season starts March 6 and the state championship games in baseball and softball will be played May 17 in Reno.

In August 2008, PVHS teams will be joining the Class 4-A Sunset Region Southwest Division. There is no time for melancholy, nostalgia or regrets. Consider the tasks at hand and execute them with a sense of urgency that drives an athlete or a team to succeed.

The Pahrump Valley girls' golf team, cross country runner McKenzie Dean and the Trojan wrestling team played with singular purpose -- Win. There was no other option for those girls and boys, who brought back state championship honors to be proudly displayed in the PVHS trophy cases.

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association is the "Fix" in this piece, mistakenly believing Pahrump Valley High School, because it had more than 1,200 students enrolled one day last fall, should be moved from Class 3-A to 4-A.

"Phileas Fogg (the hero and a.k.a Pahrump Valley High School) has to move to 4-A," the NIAA (Verne's misguided detective Fix) rules, without due regard to the damage it is doing to the school, the Class 3-A League in Nevadaa, and Trojan athletic teams.

One of the fallouts: the Nye County School District is thinking about building a $60 million (give or take a million or two, or three) second high school in Pahrump, theoretically creating two 3-A-sized athletic programs.

In four years, Pahrump Valley could return to 3-A if that second high school (now merely in the planning mode and nowhere near brick-and-mortar, chalk-for-the-blackboard reality) exists.

But when two Southern rival schools didn't want PVHS for whatever selfish reasons, why would the Trojans want to be a 3-A competitor again?

In spring 2007, the Pahrump Valley girls' track team won a state championship, the boys' baseball team lost in the state title game, and the fast-pitch softball team advanced to the state semifinals. Which means the around the 3-A world in 80 days adventure could be a successful adventure, with just a little bit more of Phileas Fogg's devotion to succeed against all odds.