DON McDERMOTT MORE COLUMNS Advertisement

RENO -- We could have analyzed every event, every pitch, every move, every play of Pahrump Valley's appearances in the Nevada Class 3-A State Track and Field championships and in the fast-pitch softball playoffs here today and Saturday.

But the bottom line is this for both sports: the Trojans will conclude their 16-year run in 3-A, so it would not be unreasonable to expect the boys and girls from PVHS to compete with not only self-pride, but with a sense of urgency.

Today and Saturday, the Trojans go after championships in track and field at Damonte Ranch High School. Last year, at Del Sol High School, near McCarran International Airport, the PV girls claimed their first ever state team title in track.

A couple miles down the road, west of U.S. 395 at the new Bishop Manogue High School campus, the girls' softball team will go after a berth in the finals of the tournament that in 2003, 2004 and 2005 they dominated enroute to state titles.

The boys will have a difficult time competing against the deep, talented teams of Dayton, Spring Creek and Winnemucca Lowry, but on the team are individuals capable of winning championships.

Pahrump Valley moves into the Class 4-A Sunset Region Southwest Division in fall 2008, which will be an entirely new adventure for Trojan athletes, who began competing in most sports in the 1973-1974 academic year and through the succeeding years, have competed in Class A and 2-A before being elevated to 3-A status in the early 1990s.

As usual, we have made the trip to Reno, the biggest little city in the world that we have visited numerous times in the seven years we have been in Pahrump. We will follow the Trojans as closely as possible in both track and softball and will be filing reports for Times readers next week.

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Some disa, mostly data ...

* Jason Odegard, who has been educating youngsters in North Dakota for the past year, will return to Pahrump Valley in the 2008-2009 school year as not only a teacher, but as coach of the Lady Trojans' basketball team. Odegard will succeed Bob Hopkins, who guided the PV girls to an average of more than 20 victories a season for 13 years, including state 3-A title runs in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005. (The Lady Trojans were 61-6 in those two campaigns.)

* Rich Lauver's status as interim baseball coach at PVHS ended when the Trojans lost 5-4 to Boulder City in the 3-A regional semifinals a week ago. Whether he returns as head coach next season is to be determined, with the decision as much in Lauver's hands as it is the administration's.

We have made no secret of our admiration of Lauver as a coach; regardless of what decision is made, we hope that Rich is involved in some capacity with baseball. Teaching hitting, working on defense, and instructing pitchers ... he can get the job done in any of those endeavors.

* Bob Hopkins is the athletics director. I don't know if he wants to retain those duties, but to be perfectly frank, he is the best man for the job. He knows what has to be done ... he's got innumberable contacts ... and he is a terrific ambassador for PVHS. There has been spectulation that the athletics director will also be an assistant principal.

Trust me when I say there is no way that will work. Being an AD is a full-time job; mixing those duties with trying to handle counseling, discipline and other principal-related tasks is a mistake ... especially with Pahrump Valley moving into Class 4-A. If the administration wants extracurricular activities, especially athletics, to be successful at a minimum artistically and psychologically, the AD's job has to have a singular mission statement -- to make the athletics program operate efficiently.

* Finally, congratulations to members of the 2008 PVHS football team which helped the community in a cleanup campaign three weeks ago. Official workouts do not begin until mid-August, but they already are dedicated to a purpose.

* Now, for our nominations for the Pahrump Valley High School Athletics Hall of Fame. They are due May 27, with induction ceremonies scheduled sometime early in the 2008-2009 school year.

My choices:

*Derrell Smith, football and track;

*John Turner, Andre Kent, Mike Elliott, Neil Cowley wrestling.

*Chris Schultz, Bjorn Peterson, Hans Batchelder, soccer;

*Chad Goins, Mike Thurlow, golf;

*Jared Dillman, Jeff Caha, Tyrone Burris, basketball;

*Keith Lawrence, Rich Lauver (player) baseball.

*Marco Rafalovich, Randy Gordon, football;

*Ashley Hastings, fast-pitch softball and girls basketball;

*Felicia Fahey, track.

*Alainna Garrett, Laura Norton, Lori Hopkins, golf (Hopkins, basketball)

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How to send in nominations is detailed on page B3