DON McDERMOTT MORE COLUMNS Craig Rieger Advertisement

LAUGHLIN -- Less than 12 hours after Pahrump Valley's state 3-A wrestling team was honored at a rousing awards dinner Wednesday night, we were on our way to this city on the Colorado River.

Yes ... another road trip ... this one to cover Pahrump Valley's baseball and fast-pitch softball teams in tournaments at River Valley, Ariz., and the Tonopah track team, in a meet today and Saturday at Laughlin High.

Everybody on the PVHS wrestling team received some kind of award, which seemed quite appropriate, considering the Trojans won the school's first-ever boys' Class 3-A state championship -- in any sport. The 1986 and 1987 Trojans won state 1-A mat titles.

Coach Craig Rieger fought his emotions all night, as he took part in the program which was filled with laughs, high praise, and occasionally some off-the-wall humor, but mostly with praise for the boys who dominated Nevada Class 3-A wrestling in the 2007-2008 season.

The Trojans won their fourth straight Southern regular-season and regional titles ... were 29-3 in all dual matches ... were 8-0 against league rivals ... and then racked Spring Creek 191 1/2 to 157 1/2 for the team championship at Overton last month.

Let's give the boys -- Elliott Owens, Elias Armendariz, Josh Armendariz, Paul Miller, Chris DeMille, Kyle Abreu, James Chapman, Steven Schmidt, Anderson Floyd, Zach Weldon, Joe Colucci, Pierce Henkel and Frank Lopez -- another round of applause for getting the job done in spectacular fashiom.

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Mostly disa, some data off the top of my head ... and other strange places ....

Nevada Class A Central boys' and girls' basketball coaches apparently did not select all-division teams ... And the state Class A coaches did not name an all-Nevada team in either boys or girls divisions.

In the Central Division are Beatty, Tonopah, Round Mountain, Lund, Spring Mountain (boys only), Indian Spring and Henderson International School.

The Web site, www.nevprep.com, has almost all of the regional teams in all of the classes -- except Central 1-A -- listed.

It's possible, of course, Central coaches weren't feeling very positive after what happened to their teams in the Southern regionals. The boys were 1-7, while the girls were 2-6 against Southern rivals.

Lake Mead Christian Academy's boys won the state title, finishing an amazing 33-1, while Las Vegas Mountain View Christian's girls lost in the Reno finals to defending champion Owyhee.

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The project to renovate the Pahrump Valley High School football stadium -- now splendid with 1,700 seats and a state-of-the-art press box -- was to be finished today. The first event -- a four-team track meet -- is Tuesday, with the next major attraction the Rotary Invitational Track meet April 11.

It's excellent that the stadium has been renovated, but the shiny new bleachers remind me of the handsome young lad who went out on a date with a finely-creased and clean suit. But he was wearing dirty socks and muddy shoes ... with no shoe-shine stand in sight.

Pahrump Valley's football field -- more dirt than grass -- would be terrific with artificial turf in place. We are not digressing ... we're talking straight talk. Sorry, John McCain. Not that it matters, you're a politician, not a football coach.