DALLAS – The road to a special season for Midlothian football will begin in a special place.

At a press conference last week in Dallas, the Panthers were announced as one of six teams selected to play in three games as part of the North Tex-as Football Classic at Cotton Bowl Stadium. Midlothian’s originally scheduled season-opener against Grapevine will now take place at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 27.

“Stadiums that have history of the game of football, this has to be in the top five in the country in my opinion. What an awesome opportunity for these kids,” Midlothian coach Lee Wiginton.

District rival Duncanville will open the Classic with a game at 7:30 p.m. on Friday against Colleyville Heritage. The Colony will play Sher-man in Saturday’s late game, which is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to the game are $10 and will be on sale at the MISD athletic department office from now until game day.

The North Texas Football Classic marks the first time high school foot-ball games have been in the Cotton

Bowl in more than a decade. Stadium general manager Roland Rainey was presented the idea of a three-game event, which fit perfectly into the sta-dium’s schedule. Last season’s Clas-sic was played at Frisco’s Pizza Hut

K

C

M

Y

K

C

M

Y

K

C

M

Y

K

C

M

Y

SundaySportsExtra

J u n e 5 , 2 0 1 1

Perez ready to run pointPage 3B

INSIDE

Midlothian hockey rolls onPage 5B

Hebert showing leadershipPage 3B

Freeman stands tall in postPage 3BMidlothian softball banquet

Page 4BBurke, Johnson join SAGU

Page 6B

Dream bigThe pursuit of Mariano led to so much more

What’s better than catching a foul ball at a Major League Baseball game?

How about spending nine innings with one of your heroes after landing an autograph from some-one you have chased for more than five years.

Oh yeah, and your team wins the game.Waxahachie’s Jimmy Mismash thought the New

York Yankees were untouchable, unreachable and unbelievable but a three-game series against the

Texas Rangers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington May 6-8 made his weekend unforgettable.

Mismash, a 12-year-old sixth-grader at Waxa-hachie’s Clift Middle School, entered the series in pursuit of an autographed baseball from Yankee closer Mariano Rivera to add to his collection of more than a dozen Yankee autographs but went home after Sunday’s 12-5 Yankee win with a week-end full of memories that will last a lifetime.

By CHAD WILSONDaily Light Sports Editor

See MISMASH, Page 2B

Photos by Chad Wilson/The Daily Light

Jimmy Mismash received an autographed Joba Chamberlain ball and Chamberlain’s game-worn Oakley sunglasses when the New York Yankees played in Texas in May.

See pg. 6B

By ALEX RILEYDaily Light sports writer

See PANTHERS, Page 4B

Photo by Alex Riley/The Daily Light

Midlothian coach Lee Wigin-ton and Grapevine coach Dave Henigan were all smiles at the announcement of the North Texas Football Classic.

Panthers to play in North Texas ClassicRegular season opener against Grapevine moved to Cotton Bowl Stadium for showcase

Autrey headed to Corsicana

Heath Autrey

Red Oak coach accepts baseball job, looking forward to new challenges

Red Oak baseball coach Heath Autrey has accepted the head coaching position at Corsi-cana High School leaving the Hawks after a five-year tenure. Autrey met with Corsicana school officials on Friday and accepted the position tentatively with final approval from the school board expected to come as early as Monday.

“I’m excited about this new opportunity in

Corsicana. I want to thank (Corsicana Super-intendent) Dr. (Diane) Frost, (current baseball coach) Billy Harlan and the search committee for giving me this opportunity,” Autrey said in a phone call Friday night. “I’d also like to thank all the community at Red Oak for their support. (Red Oak Superintendent) Mr. (Scott) Niven, (Red Oak High principal) Mr. (Kevin) Freels, (athletic director) Mike Burns for everything they’ve done for our baseball program. It’s been good in Red Oak and all

the players and all the families that’s been in-volved, it’s been a lot of fun and I appreciate everything they’ve done for me.”

Autrey, a graduate of Waxahachie High School, took over at Red Oak five years ago and began turning the Hawks into consis-tent playoff contenders. After two seasons of building and installing his coaching philoso-phies in the program, the team reached the

By ALEX RILEYDaily Light sports writer

See AUTREY, Page 6B

NCAA Baseball - Fort Worth Regional

A friendly rivalryCollins bests Harrison in Regional opening game

FORT WORTH – Boomer Collins takes the humble and high road when talking about Friday’s game. For now at least.

Though he’s being forced to sit out a year due to NCAA transfer rules, Collins still suited up for the NCAA

Baseball Tournament Regional open-er between Dallas Baptist and Okla-homa. More specifically between Collins and his former Waxahachie teammate Drew Harrison.

“Growing up, playing summer ball against almost all the kids you play

By ALEX RILEYDaily Light sports writer

See REGIONAL, Page 4B

Photos by Gary Puckett/Special to the Daily Light

Drew Harrison, left, and Boomer Collins, right, played together at Waxahachie but faced each other in the Fort Worth Regional.

SportsExtra2B   Waxahachie Daily Light   Sunday, June 5, 2011

Chad Wilson, Sports Editor469-517-1455 | chad.wilson@wninews.com

Game oneCarrie Mismash, Jimmy’s mother, bought

the tickets to the series in advance and thought she had seats next to the Yankees bullpen for Friday night’s game. Row one, seats one and two.

When the tickets were printed they were actually row one, seats 11 and 12, so she tried to get this corrected but in the end Jimmy and his dad Jim Mismash ended up with seats 11 and 12.

It turned out to be the first of many positive turnabouts for the weekend.

“Jimmy and I always get to the ballpark when the gates open so Jimmy can stand behind the Yankees dugout to watch batting practice, see the players up close and maybe get an autograph,” Jim said. “Jimmy is a quiet and reserved boy not wanting to shout to the players and ask for autographs and baseballs. He waits patiently, dressed in all of his Yan-kees gear, hoping one of the players will point to him to throw them his baseball so they can sign it.”

Over the years Jimmy has had pretty good success with the autographs, has been given a ball or two and in 2007 Alex Rodriguez tossed Jimmy his batting gloves as he went down into the dugout after batting practice.

Knowing it could be Rivera’s last trip to Arlington and his last chance to get the au-tograph that he has sought for more than five years, Jimmy was set on being the first in line for Rivera Friday.

Jimmy moved a little further down the third base line because that’s where he had seen Rivera stop in the past to talk with fans and sign autographs. He was fortunate his plan worked.

After just missing on several other oc-casions May 6 proved to be the day when Jimmy finally got to have Rivera sign a MLB baseball, on the sweet spot, to add to his col-lection.

“It means a lot for me to get the ball signed since I have been trying to get it for several years,” Jimmy said.

What was thought to be the top moment of the series would soon be topped as the Mis-

mashes reached their seats.“We went out to left field to our seats and

soon found that seats 11 and 12 were right against the Yankee’s bullpen, not seats one and two as we had thought,” Jim said. “We sat down and watched coach Tony Pena working with Russell Martin and then watched Ivan Nova getting ready for the game. Jimmy was so excited. His seat, seat 12, was right next to the bullpen.”

The first player to sit on the bench was Lance Pendleton and Jim explained to Jimmy that Pendleton, a relief pitcher for New York, had attended and played baseball for Rice

University, the same university Jimmy wants to attend once he graduates Waxahachie.

Jimmy worked up the courage, said hello to Pendleton and asked him how he liked go-ing to Rice. That simple question sparked a conversation with Pendleton for a short time before former Nebraska Cornhusker Joba Chamberlain entered the pen.

“He put a chair between the end of the bench and the dugout wall, sitting mere inches from Jimmy,” Jim recalled. “He fist bumped Jimmy through the fence and asked him how he was doing. Chamberlain then offered Jimmy sunflower seeds from a pack-age he was opening. Jimmy politely declined. Chamberlain poured a few in his hand, tossed them on Jimmy and told them if he wasn’t go-ing to take some he would just throw them at him. Jimmy really laughed and then took some seeds and ate them.”

The nice gestures continued through the game as Jimmy offered Chamberlain and Pendleton peanuts and Slim Jim beef sticks. They took him up on the beef sticks.

Jimmy continued talking with Chamberlain about a number of things, including Jimmy having won a World Series Championship ring in 2011 with his baseball team the Waxa-hachie Tribe.

During the conversation Jimmy kept refer-ring to Joba as Mr. Chamberlain. After a cou-ple of references Chamberlain told him that they were friends now and that he should call him “Joba” because Mr. Chamberlain was Joba’s Dad. Jimmy really liked that.

Before the game was over, Chamberlain gave Jimmy a baseball, which he later auto-graphed. Under his name Chamberlain wrote “Dream Big.”

After he received the autograph and read it, Jimmy was in shock because the “Dream Big” phrase was something that was special to him too.

Jimmy showed Chamberlain a Yankees necklace he got from his mom and dad in 2007 that was engraved “Work hard. Dream big.” after reading Chamberlain’s inscription, making Chamberlain chuckle and say how cool it was.

Rivera was seated on the bullpen bench during the game and Jimmy thanked him for signing the ball for him. Rivera told him he was welcome and gave Jimmy a thumbs up.

To make a great night even better, Ri-vera was called upon in the ninth inning and picked up a save, his 571st of his career, in a New York 4-1 win against Texas.

As the game ended Chamberlain posed for

a picture with Jimmy, told him he enjoyed visiting with him, gave him a fist bump good bye and told him to come back to another game and see him.

“Jimmy was so excited that he got to talk to these guys, that they were so nice and they were just like regular people,” Jim said.

Game two, threeThe Mismashes had seats close to home

plate along the first base side on Saturday and did not get to talk with the Yankees’ bullpen as Texas won the game 7-5. However, Cham-berlin did pitch in the loss and Jimmy thought it was “cool” to watch his new friend take the mound after the game one experience.

Back near the bullpen on Sunday the Mis-mash boys were joined by Carrie since it was Mother’s Day but it was Jimmy who received the biggest surprise.

“We got to the ballpark about an hour and a half before the game and went straight to the Yankee dugout. I had to laugh the whole way seeing that my son is only 12 and I am not. To say the least, Jimmy made it to the dugout long before I did,” Carrie said. “To my sur-prise when I arrived Jimmy was leaning front and center of the Yankees dugout. We stayed there for a while to watch the Yanks come in and out and do their rituals they do before game time.”

Instead of sitting row one, the Mismashes

MismashContinued from Page 1B

Photo by Chad Wilson/The Daily Light

Jimmy Mismash proudly sets in his old Yankee Stadium seats when he watched the Yankees play; however, they are heavy and hard for the 12-year old to move.

Jimmy Mismash and Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain at game one of the series in Texas.

Photo by Chad Wilson/The Daily Light

Jimmy Mismash’s collection of autographed balls that includes the Rivera, Chamberlain and local heroes such as Colton Cain, Drew Har-rison and Boomer Collins.

Photos by Chad Wilson/The Daily Light

Jimmy Mismash also has a framed pair of Alex Rodriguez battling gloves in his Yankees collection. Almost everything in the young boy’s room is related to the Yankees, including the sheets he sleeps on.

Photos by Chad Wilson/The Daily Light

Jimmy Mismash’s collection of Yankee memorabilia features everything from signed baseballs to posters and action figures. See MISMASH, Page 3B

moved up to row seven but still had seats right by the bullpen and were quickly spotted by Chamberlain.

Chamberlain recognized Jimmy, called him by name and said, “Hey, buddy, you moved seats on me.”

Jimmy replied “Yes sir, my mom couldn’t get the same seats.”

Chamberlain responded, “That’s OK, Jimmy, we can still hang out and visit.”

Chamberlain made several trips to visit Jimmy during the game and due to Friday’s experience Jimmy brought Chamberlain and the bull-pen a can of Slim Jims.

“The guys in bullpen seemed

very thankful we knew who Joba was,” Carrie said.

Later in the game Jimmy went to get a snow cone and when he re-turned to his seat Chamberlain put his hand in the air and asked Jimmy, “Where’s mine?”

Not knowing he was only kid-ding, Jimmy jumped right up and went and got him one. When Jimmy returned with it Chamberlain had to refuse it because he was about to warm up to enter the game but he gave it to one of the pitching coach-es.

As Jimmy tried to hand Cham-berlain the snow cone Chamberlain handed Jimmy his Oakley sunglass-es.

Jimmy was in shock, he could hardly speak.

He put the glasses on and didn’t

take them off for the rest of the game and now they are one of his most prized possessions.

“He was even more excited that they still had a few of Joba’s finger prints on them,” Carrie said. “Over-all the experience is one we will never forget. As life-long fans we have always supported the team and we just wanted Joba, Mariano and the rest of the Yankees to know how thankful we are for taking time out to spend with my 12-year-old son.”

New York won the final game of the series to take the three-game series two games to one but the fi-nal outcome was only icing on the cake as Jimmy had autographed baseballs from Chamberlain, Pend-leton and Rivera, the sunglasses and memories of time spent with big leaguers.

“It was cool meeting Joba. I thought he would be a big famous guy and hard to talk to but he was a really nice person,” Jimmy said. “He was real kind, outgoing and funny.”

Once the weekend series was complete Jimmy was asked what his favorite part of the weekend was, “Everything,” he replied. “I wish it was Friday again.”

The glasses and three auto-graphed balls are now part of a large collection of New York Yankee memorabilia in Jimmy’s museum-like room.

He has been collecting anything Yankees for a long time now. He has every McFarlane figure that has been released and several auto-graphed balls.

He has two seats from the old

Yankee Stadium, including seat 14, which is the number he wears while playing sports.

His room is insured with extra security protection and everyone that comes into his house to see his collection, whether a Yankee fan or not, is in awe.

Jimmy said his favorite two col-lectables are his Rodriguez batting gloves and the Chamberlain glasses.

It was just another weekend for the Yankees on their road trip into hostile territory but it turned out to be a weekend that Jimmy will nev-er forget as he pursues his biggest dream of all, dawning the pinstripes and calling himself a New York Yankee.

Contact Chad at chad.wilson@wninews.com or at 469-517-1455.

SportsExtraSunday, June 5, 2011 Waxahachie Daily Light 3B

Chad Wilson, Sports Editor469-517-1455 | chad.wilson@wninews.com

This time last year, Alyssa Freeman was just a young post player trying to figure out what life was like at the varsity level. She showed promise during summer league work and carried that over into the regular season.

Today, Freeman is showing all those les-sons have been stored away in her memory bank and she is ready for whatever comes her way. And she isn’t alone. Freeman joins fellow post players Sam Drusch and Haley Lott in the battle for playing time while sup-porting each other. It might sound complex but in reality it isn’t simply because every-one is out for a common objective.

“Like I told my sister and our team, this is our time to get better. This is our time to motivate each other,” Freeman said. “Our goal as posts is to step it up and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

In Wednesday’s game against Waxa-hachie, Freeman was able to show just how far she has come over the last year. Facing up against a pair of Lady Indian post play-ers who were about equal in height but were bigger in size, Freeman had one of her best outings in quite some time.

She opened with six first half points and then scored another six in the second half including four points as part of a 10-2 run to close the game. Freeman finished with a team-high 12 points in the narrow loss.

All night, Freeman battled for rebounds and position against those bigger players. Her double-figure game went along with a handful of rebounds. Why was she able to be so successful? Freeman attributes that to the new competition the Lady Panthers ran into last season.

“I think we feel a lot more comfortable being in a 5A. I think Haley, me and Sam, we all got kind of used to it all season this past season and it got us to a whole new lev-el of what we’re looking to do and expect for the next year,” Freeman said. “Coming out here after going through that whole 5A season really helped us step up.”

Where Freeman and her post playing co-horts go from here is anybody’s guess. The Lady Panthers have another few weeks of summer league work and then an entire off-season program to go through in prepara-tion for next season.

Freeman is just out to prove she belongs in the mix when it comes time to create the depth chart next season. While she might be battling with those other post players, she

isn’t alone in her quest and despite the com-petition there’s also a massive showing of support for each other.

“Just step up, work hard and use this as our practice for next year. That’s just our goal – to motivate each other to get ready and work harder for next year,” Freeman said.

Contact Alex at alex.riley@wninews.com or at 469-517-1456.

It’s hard for Bailey Hebert to think of her-self as a veteran. After all, she is just a rising junior in the Red Oak basketball program and she was a reserve player last season. But when it comes to her teammates on the Waxahachie summer league squad, Hebert is the equiva-lent of a seasoned vet.

The Lady Hawk roster features just two players with varsity experience from last season and a slew of incoming freshman and rising sophomores who are looking to make headway when it comes to varsity playing time. That makes Hebert a person they’re turning to for advice and input. That makes her a veteran.

“Even though I don’t have that much expe-rience myself, I have to step up and go from the experience I have had and got this year and just try to lead from my knowledge of the game and stuff,” Hebert said. “I try my best to lead by example.”

With the departure of several key players from last year’s team, Hebert and several oth-er Lady Hawks are being asked to step up and fill those roles. Despite only being 5-foot-9, Hebert has proven to be a player unafraid to do what is necessary in the post.

Going up against bigger and stronger play-ers in the summer league has been a good test for Hebert who will end up facing simi-lar competition in the regular season. So far, Hebert has shown she is willing to stand her ground and play against whatever size player the opposing team wants to throw at her. It’s a challenge and it can be a struggle but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s hard. It gets really hard sometimes,” Hebert said. “I have to get stronger and I just have to tell myself to keep pushing because they’re bigger than me and they’re going to keep pushing so I need to get strong and push back.”

With so many young players on the team, Hebert is spending plenty of time on the bench as well. The Red Oak roster is deep with play-ers meaning the more than dozen players have split time on the court equally.

While she might not be getting as much court time as players on other smaller teams, she knows the younger kids are building their stamina for the upcoming season while devel-oping a chemistry that will be key to future success.

In what little bit of time the summer league has been going on, Hebert has seen several young players step up and show they can

compete for a varsity spot when tryouts hap-pen. The chemistry is beginning to build and that’s going to be difference in another good season for the Lady Hawks or a tough road ahead.

“(The chemistry is) actually getting better every week. It’s not gone down yet,” Hebert said. “We’re good. We’re going to be fine.”

Contact Alex at alex.riley@wninews.com or at 469-517-1456.

There is no hesitation in Jamayia Perez’s voice when she talks about running the point for the Waxahachie girls basketball team dur-ing summer league action. Much like her game, she doesn’t pause. She just says and does what is natural to her.

For the Lady Indians, that is a good thing. Perez has quickly shown she can run the show. She drives to the basket with ease, gets around double-team defense with little resistance and has been able to find the open shooter effort-lessly. To some, those things would be tough. To Perez, they are just what she does.

“I like (running the point). It’s easier be-cause I can drive to the hole good and then when teammate’s defense (comes to) help (stop me) I can kick it out,” Perez said.

Last season, Chanel Miller and Taylor Hill were responsible for the majority of the point guard duties for Waxahachie. Miller has graduated, leaving Hill as the primary ball-handler.

What remains unclear is just how much Hill will be counted on to run the point in the regular season. All during the summer league, Perez has seen a healthy portion of time run-ning the point, freeing Hill up to be a shooter. The plan has worked out well for both play-ers as they’ve both become consistent scoring forces for the Lady Indians.

Against Midlothian last week in the team’s only game, Perez was a scoring force with 13 points to lead the team, including nine in the second half. She finished just short of a double-double with about nine assists in the game as well.

Whatever happens this coming basketball season is a long way from being finalized but Perez is comfortable with running the show. The summer league has given her the chance to show that.

“I think I’m going to play the one next year,” Perez said. “I like the one because you take control, look for the open man and pass-es. I can handle tight defense.”

During the summer, Perez is just hoping to make things smooth between the younger and older players in the Waxahachie program. Her goal is to develop consistent passing tenden-cies and find a comfort level that everyone on the Lady Indian roster can agree on for the upcoming season.

While all those things are a work in prog-ress, Perez believes thing are starting to get to where they need to be in order for the team to get back to winning. Ultimately, she’ll do whatever it takes to help that cause.

“It has (gotten better). And then we’re working on our peripheral vision passing,” Perez said. “It’s getting easier. I like it.”

Contact Alex at alex.riley@wninews.com

Taking controlPerez showing she can run the point for Lady IndiansBy ALEX RILEYDaily Light sports writer

Photo by Alex Riley/The Daily Light

Waxahachie’s Jamayia Perez gives a signal to teammate Dawn King before try-ing to shake a Midlothian defender on an in-bound pass.

Trying to stand tallFreeman shows improved approach to battle down lowBy ALEX RILEYDaily Light sports writer

Photo by Alex Riley/The Daily Light

Playing against 5A competition last season has prepared Midlothina’s Alyssa Freeman for the battles that will come her way as a post player.

The young veteranHebert leading, learning during summer league workBy ALEX RILEYDaily Light sports writer

Photo by Alex Riley/The Daily Light

While she may still be just a rising ju-nior, Bailey Hebert is one of the few summer league players with varsity experience, making her a player the Lady Hawks are counting on to lead.

MismashContinued from Page 2B