If someone read the whole story below to me and deleted all reference to where it happened I would still know that this incident occurred in Texas. Texas is the only state I know of in which major metropolitan newspapers have entire sections covering highschool football. By "entire sections" I'm not referring to pages within the sports section itself, I'm talking about another daily sports section that features nothing but highschool football news and is an entity unto itself.

My sister and I grew up in California, but she later went on to teach highschool in the Dallas public school system. In her words: "The way the kids look at it is that either you're a football player or you're a cheerleader or you're a loser." She said the attitude was very deeply entrenched. I hope she sends my nieces and nephew to school in California. They are nice kids and I'd hate to see them turn into complete nimrods just because they're growing up in Texas.



Texas High School Football Coach Shot


CANTON, Texas (April 7) - The father of a high school football player shot and wounded the coach with an assault rifle Thursday and fled in a pickup loaded with weapons, claiming to have a hit list, authorities said.

Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, 45, was captured a few hours later, after his truck was found abandoned near a golf course outside Canton. Robertson was carried out of the woods on a stretcher.

Police were trying to establish the motive for the shooting of Canton High coach Gary Joe Kinne.

But Police Chief Mike Echols said Robertson had been banned from campus and told not to attend school functions. Robertson had had confrontations with some of the coaches, including Kinne, who took over the football program in 2003, authorities said. Kinne's son was the team's quarterback.

According to one parent, Robertson had complained last year that his son was being picked on by his teammates.

Kinne was shot with an AK-47 rifle in the chest at the school's field house, officials said. He was airlifted to a hospital in nearby Tyler; his condition was not immediately released.

Robertson said he had a hit list, according to state Homeland Security spokeswoman Sophie Yanez.

An athlete's father, Steve Smith, said Robertson had threatened to kill Smith's son last year over an on-field teasing.

"He's a very high-strung, hot-tempered individual," said Smith, a Canton business owner.

Smith told the Tyler newspaper that Robertson's son, then a freshman football player, was walking off the field when some older students "razzed" him.

"This guy blew up," Smith said. "He thought some kids were picking on his son. My son wasn't even the one who said anything. But he threatened to kill him."

Smith said he complained to the school and police. Robertson was never charged.

A local restaurant cashier said Robertson had a reputation in Canton, about 60 miles east of Dallas.

"I wouldn't say he was respected. But he was well-known," said Sister's Cafe cashier Diane Price, who said she has known Robertson for 37 years because he attended high school with her daughter. ___

(Associated Press writers Anabelle Garay and Bobby Ross Jr. in Dallas contributed to this report. )


-- XXOO Tanya