Ward to Play Back in Illinois
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Corpus Christi Caller-Times ❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018 ❚ 1B NCAA women’s bracket ❚ UConn is No. 1: A look at the com- Sports plete tournament bracket. 6B DISTRICT 30-5A SOFTBALL: CALALLEN 5, CARROLL 2 Calallen slugs way past Carroll to open 30-5A Len Hayward run with another single. The big hit was Corpus Christi Caller Times a two-run single by freshman catcher USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS Lauren Mata in the third inning that gave Calallen a 3-0 lead and the runs What this game means: Calallen (15-5, needed to win. 1-0 in District 30-5A) picks up a key win against a playoff-contending team to Tuesday’s stars: Calallen’s Jessica start the district season. Carroll, mean- Johnson was 4 for 4 with two runs while, falls to 10-11 and 0-1 as it tries to scored and Mata was 2 for 3 with two defend its district title. RBI. Carroll’s Rhae Ann Avalos was 1-3 with a double and RBI, and Qirsten Tuesday’s highlights: The Wildcats had Orgas also was 1-for 3 with an RBI. some clutch hitting in Tuesday’s game as all five runs scored on hits. Kat Flo- Next: Calallen will have this weekend res drove in a run in the first inning with off and resume district play against an RBI single, Jamie Rojas hit a solo Miller on March 20, and Carroll will face Calallen’s Lizette Del Angel delivers a pitch against Carroll on Tuesday. Calallen home run and Hannah Chapa drove in a the Buccaneers on Thursday. won the District 30-5A opener 5-2. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Sampson returns to NCAA tourney It’s been a long road for Houston coach Kristie Rieken ASSOCIATED PRESS HOUSTON – A NCAA Tournament mainstay for more than a decade starting in the mid-1990s, coach Kel- vin Sampson never doubted he would return to the tournament, even after NCAA violations left him effectively barred from college coaching for five years. “I thought I’d be back in the NCAA Tournament if I came back to college,” he said. Sampson delivered on his confi- dence this year, guiding Houston to its first NCAA appearance since 2010. The 21st-ranked Cougars meet San Diego State on Thursday night. Sampson coached Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana to the tournament in 13 of 14 seasons from 1994-2008, an impressive string of success highlighted by the Sooners’ Final Four in 2002 and their run to the round of eight in 2003. But Sampson committed numer- ous violations regarding impermissi- ble calls to recruits at both Oklahoma and Indiana, resulting in a five-year show cause order from the NCAA in 2008 that kept him out of the college ranks until he was hired by Houston in 2014. He worked as an assistant with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets during his exile from college Incarnate Word Academy’s Gabby Ward (right) scored 37 goals as a senior. RACHEL DENNY CLOW/CALLER-TIMES basketball, and with the perspective of years he believes the detour from college coaching was a good thing. “That was a blessing for me … there’s unintended consequences in everything that we do,” he said. “Get- WARD TO PLAY ting to the NBA really helped me per- sonally on a lot of levels. I liked it so much that I wanted to stay there.” He interviewed for a couple of NBA head coaching jobs before the oppor- tunity at Houston came up. BACK IN ILLINOIS “A lot of stars got aligned the right way and I ended up here being a Cou- High-scoring IWA standout chooses DII McKendree See SAMPSON, Page 2B Quinton Martinez soccer history. “She is a feisty, Corpus Christi Caller Times She finished with 162 career goals in USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS high school play, including 24 goals as a feisty forward freshman in Illinois. that will do Sometimes you can go home again. “I’ve been involved in soccer in Cor- Just ask Incarnate Word Academy’s pus for 20-plus years in general,” said anything to put Gabby Ward. Sebastien Giraldo of Giraldo Elite Futbol the ball in the Ward and her family moved to Cor- and also the assistant coach of Corpus pus Christi from Illinois before her FC. “I have never seen a high school boys back of the net, sophomore year and this fall she is re- or girls player score that many goals in a turning, where she will play soccer for career. Ever. basically.” Division II McKendree University in “Not even close. I have never seen Sebastien Giraldo Lebanon, Illinois. anyone through four years consistently Giraldo Elite Futbol coach In three years playing club soccer and average that many goals.” at IWA, she will have left her mark in Giraldo coached Ward at the club lev- Corpus Christi, as one of the most prolif- ic goal-scorers in the city’s high school See WARD, Page 2B Houston coach Kelvin Sampson once was a regular in the NCAA men’s tournament. PHELAN M. EBENHACK/AP 2B ❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018 ❚ CALLER-TIMES Guy Lewis and the Phi Slama Jama crew won 32 games recruited kind of got educated on the history of Hous- Sampson and reached the national championship game in 1984. ton. That was … an unbelievable infomercial for our “It feels amazing to get this great program back to program now. Just let people see what this program Continued from Page 1B where it used to be,” guard Corey Davis said. was. It’s a sleeping giant. It was just dormant.” Houston’s performance earned Sampson confer- Now that Sampson has made Houston basketball gar,” he said. ence coach of the year honors for the fifth time in his relevant again, he is focused on making the trip to the But he didn’t inherit a great situation at Houston. career and the first time since 1995 at Oklahoma. NCAA tournament a yearly occurrence. He pointed to When Sampson arrived, the once-proud Cougars were He wasn’t too keen on reflecting on what his return banners that line the team’s practice gym which are far removed from the Phi Slama Jama teams starring to the tournament means. But he acknowledged that adorned with the words “NCAA Tournament” and the Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes and Clyde Drexler in he takes great pride in helping the Cougars return to year of the trip. the 1980s that made five Final Four trips, including prominence. “Every day I look at that spot right beside 2010 three in a row from 1982-84. “These are shared experiences,” he said. “I share knowing that there’s going to be a banner that says Houston had struggled to contend in conference this credit with so many people. It’s a big deal to get to 2018,” he said. “And then I’m going to look at that spot play, and when Sampson was hired most of the talent the NCAA Tournament. That’s why when I took this right by 2018 and I’m going to think 2019, 2020, 2021. on the roster transferred rather than go through a re- job and (even with) what we didn’t have I saw this day That’s your goal.” building effort. … I envisioned this.” While thrilled to put the school back in the tourney, The Cougars went 13-19 and just 4-14 in American And though Olajuwon, Hayes and Drexler were Sampson and the Cougars want to make it clear they Athletic Conference play in his first season. But the fol- playing for the team years before his current players aren’t satisfied with simply getting a spot in March lowing year, they won 22 games for the school’s most were born, Sampson credited those stars for giving Madness. victories since 2008. They are 26-7 this season after him a boost in recruiting through the 2016 ESPN docu- “We want it to (be) more than just getting into the losing to Cincinnati 56-55 in the final of the conference mentary about those teams. tournament,” forward Devin Davis said. “We want to tourney. “Houston has a name,” Sampson said. “The 30- actually make some noise and win some games when The Cougars’ 26 wins are their most since coach for-30 piece they did on Phi Slama Jama, every kid we we get there.” goal of cracking her school’s chart of top scorers, known them since I was in fourth grade. It is cool that Ward which meant she needed 100 goals. we grew up playing together and we get to go to college She raced past the mark last year and scored 37 and play together again.” Continued from Page 1B more as a senior to finish with 162. Ward said she plans to study pre-med at McKen- “The hard thing is getting people that don’t watch or dree, which has a good acceptance rate into medical el since she arrived in Corpus Christi. follow soccer to understand how prolific that is,” Gi- school, with a goal of becoming a pediatrician. “She is extremely talented,” Giraldo said. “She has raldo said. “That would be like averaging 30 or 40 Ward, who has a grade point average more than 4.0, an instinct for (the) goal that is something that is ex- points a game in high school basketball. Every single said becoming a doctor was her dream long before tremely natural, and obviously developed through night. In baseball, it is like hitting two or three home playing soccer in college was even a thought.