PA, CCHS name new head coaches

By By Austin Bishop/ regional sports director
July 22, 2002
Mulling over many musings on a muggy Monday while wondering if the New Orleans Saints will win more than they lose this season …
While Patrician Academy in Butler, Ala., has a new head football coach, he certainly is no stranger to folks in Choctaw County.
Jim Archibald, who has been a volunteer assistant at Patrician since 1995, was named head coach of the Saints last week.
Prior to coming to Patrician, Archibald was head coach at Choctaw County High School in Butler for eight seasons. He led the Tigers to the playoffs six of those seasons.
Patrician begins practice on Aug. 1 and opens the season Aug. 30 against Grove Hill.
Choctaw County High School has named head basketball coach Charles Graves as head football coach and athletic director.
Graves replaces former CCHS football standout Reginald Ruffin, who resigned.
The CCHS Tigers open their season on Aug. 30 against arch-rival Southern Choctaw High School.
The pros are hard at work
While the NFL season doesn't officially open until Sunday, Sept. 5, the pro football players are in training camp getting ready for the season.
The first exhibition game is set for Aug. 3, when the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins square off in the American Bowl in Osaka, Japan.
That will be followed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame game on Aug. 5 between the fledgling Houston Texas and the New York Giants.
And, just in case you are interested, the Super Bowl is set for Sunday, Jan. 26 in San Diego.
Gehrig's homers were certainly grand
There are many New York Yankees who have done some wonderful things at the plate Babe Ruth for his entire career and Reggie Jackson's home run outburst against the Dodgers in the World Series quickly come to mind, as well as Bucky Dent breaking the hearts of the Boston Red Sox fans with his dramatic homer but there also has to be a place for Lou Gehrig.
While Gehrig may be as famous for his retirement speech as anything he did on the field, he was a great player.
In fact, no player has hit more grand slams in a career than the Yankee first baseman.
He belted the first of his 23 grand slams on July 23, 1925 in a game against the Washington Senators. By the way, just in case you are interested, the Yankees won the game 11-7.
There may be some tight races
While the Atlanta Braves are absolutely blowing away the competition in the NL East they are 13.5 games ahead of second place New York and the Minnesota Twins are 13 games ahead of the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central, there are still some interesting races going on.
The tightest race is going on in the NL West, while Arizona holds a one-game lead over the San Francisco Giants and a 1.5 game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have lost eight of their last 10.
The American League West also has gotten quite interesting thanks in part to Anaheim's three-game sweep of division leading Seattle over the weekend.
The Mariners hold a one-game lead over the Angels and are ahead of Oakland by two games.
The other two divisions are still begin contested, while it has become more of a two-team race in each case. The New York Yankees hold a four-game lead over the Boston Red Sox in the AL East, while St. Louis is up on Cincinnati by 3.5 games.