Top 10 (and then some) Sports Stories of 2018
Published 11:52 am Sunday, December 30, 2018
1. City of champions again: Memorial brings basketball glory back to PA with first title
The Memorial Titans will always remember the Alamodome. And basketball fans throughout Port Arthur will always remember the Titans.
March 10 became the greatest day in Memorial High School’s young athletic history, and a day locals waited 23 years to come around again. The Titans lived up to coach Kenneth Coleman’s belief that they could win the state championship, coming back from a 10-point deficit against Justin Northwest and riding the MVP performance of senior Darion Chatman to take a 75-69 win in the UIL Class 5A state final in San Antonio. This moment, without a doubt, became The Port Arthur News’ top sports story of 2018.
The win capped a 34-5 season and 26-game winning streak for the Titans, who went unbeaten in District 22-5A. Their playoff run consisted of victories over current 21-5A foe Barbers Hill in Channelview, Shadow Creek in La Porte, Humble, Whitehouse and Fort Bend Elkins at Houston’s Delmar Fieldhouse and Midlothian and Northwest at the Alamodome.
Lincoln in 1995 was the last Port Arthur team to win state before Memorial.
Other developments involving the Titans that followed became big stories of their own:
• 1b. Coleman takes Summer Creek gig
A Port Arthur native and Lincoln graduate, Coleman needed only three years to build the Titans into a championship program. Just 47 days after his crowning achievement, the Humble resident resigned to take the same position much closer to his house at Summer Creek, where former Memorial football coach Kenny Harrison had just taken over earlier in the year. Coleman was an assistant at North Shore before becoming Memorial’s coach.
Coleman went 74-28 at Memorial.
• 1c. Lewis promoted
Just a month later, the Port Arthur ISD promoted Coleman’s top assistant, 2003 Memorial alumnus Alden Lewis as his successor.
Lewis is already putting his stamp on the program. The Titans are 14-6 after winning the James Gamble Classic for the third year in a row. Lewis has succeeded in reloading a team that lost nine players to graduation.
• 1d. Three Titans sign with Lamar State
Shockingly, no one from the championship squad signed a Division I letter of intent.
All the more Titans for Lamar State College Port Arthur to pick up.
Guards Jamyus Jones, Thailan Wesley and Chatman all officially committed to the Seahawks on May 21, sparking a greater local interest in the junior-college team. Jones was the Seahawks’ second-leading scorer at 8.8 points per game before Sunday’s game against Victoria College, but had yet to start. Chatman, at 6.8 points per game, started each of the Seahawks’ first 12 games, and Wesley was dropping 5.5 per contest.
2. Lamar makes NCAA playoffs
Lamar waited nine years since relaunching its football program for this moment.
A season that was once mired in a 1-4 start — with all four losses coming after a season-opening blowout of Kentucky Christian — turned around just in time to start an improbable run to the NCAA Division I playoffs. The Cardinals won six straight, knocking off three ranked teams at the time (Sam Houston State, Central Arkansas and McNeese State) and became one of the last three teams, ESPN revealed, to be selected for the postseason. (Northern Iowa eliminated Lamar 16-13 in the first round in Cedar Falls, Iowa.)
Here’s how the streak began:
• 2b. Lamar’s block-six
Southland Conference-leading Incarnate Word lined up for a potential game-winning field goal Oct. 13 at Provost Umphrey Stadium with 12 seconds remaining and the game tied at 21-21.
Potential on offense turned into opportunity on defense.
Lane Taylor broke through the line for the block, and Caleb Abrom scooped it up for a 66-yard return as time expired to give Lamar the stunning victory. The play was highlighted on ESPN’s college football postgame show and on SportsCenter’s Top 10.
3. Year of Roschon
Imagine a quarterback who rushed for 1,600 or more yards in each of his three seasons — as a starter — became Port Neches-Groves’ all-time leading passer with 7,616 career yards and accounted for 169 touchdowns, including 27 rushing and 22 passing as a senior.
That same quarterback also accepted an invitation to the Under Armour All-America game in Orlando, which will kick off Thursday and has signed with the University of Texas.
The Indians had their man in Roschon Johnson. Together, they’ve won a share of the district championship each of the last three seasons (the overall streak is four) and have gone three rounds deep in the UIL playoffs each year.
For good measure, Johnson threw for game-winning touchdowns in the final 3 minutes in three consecutive games (one of which had to be forfeited later). With a diploma already in tow, Johnson has left his legacy in an area steeped in high school football tradition.
4. Landry earns first PGA Tour win
Groves native Andrew Landry came oh-so-close to his first PGA Tour victory in January’s CareerBuilder Challenge in La Quinta, California, losing on the fourth playoff hole to Jon Rahm.
But 2018 was still his year to break through.
Landry won by two strokes in the Valero Texas Open on April 22 in San Antonio. The win earned the former University of Arkansas star more than $1 million and an invitation to the 2019 Masters, which he received just before Christmas.
Landry turned in a 17-under 271 for the tournament, closing with a 68. He shot back-to-back 67s going into the Sunday round.
5. Sharks’ season silenced
When injuries reduced Sabine Pass’ football roster to 12 healthy bodies, the school made a difficult decision.
The 0-2 Sharks canceled the remainder of their season Sept. 17 for what administrators called safety reasons. The 2A Division II program, which had made a rare playoff appearance two seasons earlier, has struggled with low numbers on its roster for years. The division is the lowest 11-man football classification in the UIL.
It wasn’t the last time the Sharks’ seniors would take a road trip together.
The Houston Texans, via video tweet from wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, invited the class and their coaches to an Oct. 14 home game.
6. Harrison leaves Memorial for Summer Creek
Kenny Harrison took Memorial football to great heights in nine seasons as head coach.
Under his watch, the Titans had won two district championships and made it all the way to the present-day 6A Division II state semifinals in 2011. But after back-to-back runs to the 5A Division II Region III semifinals, the Port Arthur native left Memorial in February to take the head coaching job at Humble Summer Creek.
The move is paying off for Harrison. The Bulldogs went 9-4, a two-game improvement from 2017, and reached the 6A D-II Region III semis in 2018.
• 6b. Morgan takes over Titans
The Port Arthur ISD stayed local in a quick search for Harrison’s replacement.
PA native Brian Morgan was elevated from assistant coach and brought a new mantra to the program: Titan Tempo. The Titans responded with a 5-0 start to the season and rode the all-around play of JaVontae’ Hopkins and stalwart defense of lineman Lazarus May to second place in District 9-5A Division I.
The Titans, however, bowed out at home to eventual regional finalist Richmond Foster in the bi-district round.
7. Bummer, then Bum Bowl
To say PNG had to overcome plenty of adversity on the football field would be an understatement.
PNG dealt with enough troubles in the form of injuries to several key playmakers, but nothing could brace the Indians for controversy that would shape the District 12-5A Division II race. An impermissible iPod lying in the Indians’ coaches’ box led to the team forfeiting a comeback win at Crosby on Oct. 12, costing them a chance to win the district outright.
The forfeit was handed more than two weeks later, but PNG surged back to defeat previously unbeaten Nederland 34-21 in the Nov. 9 Bum Phillips Bowl at The Reservation. PNG, which started 1-2, finished 9-4 and in the 5A Region III semifinals for the third year in a row.
8. Volunteer of the year
Dwight Fobbs didn’t become a volunteer in the Port Arthur American Little League to gain national recognition, but that’s just what organization’s president drew.
Little League International awarded Fobbs its Urban Initiative Volunteer of the Year Award over the summer. As part of the honor, Fobbs was invited to South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the Little League World Series.
In the past nine years, Fobbs has led upgrades to the PAALL’s home at Pioneer Park, at the corner of Gulfway Drive and Ninth Avenue. He’s planning to build a T-ball field and Senior League field at the park.
9. Diamond Dogs
The reign in District 22-5A baseball went from one Mid-County rival to another.
Nederland unseated 2017 state champion PNG from the top of the district and made its own playoff journey in 2018. The Bulldogs (25-9-1) made it to the 5A Region III quarterfinal round before losing two games to Barbers Hill at the University of Houston.
Consistent batting of Landon Hiltz and pitching of Conner Kemp, just to name a couple, guided the Bulldogs, who had missed the postseason in 2016 and was knocked out by Barbers Hill in the 2017 bi-district round. Barbers Hill and Nederland will now be rivals in 21-5A.
Tie-10. Purple pitch
Once again, PNG captured the attention of the local soccer community.
PNG marched to the 5A Region III semifinal for the fourth year in a row, and the District 21-5A co-champion Indians weren’t going home so easily.
PNG recorded a 23rd shutout in either regulation or overtime against Tomball in the fourth round of the UIL playoffs on April 13, due in large part to the play of senior goalkeeper Libbie LeJeune. She made back-to-back saves in the final 40 seconds of regulation against the same shooter, but Tomball got the last laugh with a 4-1 shootout win. PNG ended the season 23-3-4.
Tie-10. Life sweet as Shugart
Bridge City graduate Chase Shugart made his first collegiate start Feb. 17 against Louisiana, throwing 6 2/3 innings of three-hit baseball and striking out three.
Shugart did not earn the decision, but it was the start of maybe his best season in the burnt orange of Texas.
The junior went 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA and made 14 starts in helping Texas reach the College World Series. The Longhorns won three NCAA playoff games involving Shugart, including an Austin regional tournament clincher in which he struck out the last two Indiana batters.
Shugart was drafted in the 12th round by the eventual World Series champion Boston Red Sox on June 6.