David Claybourn: Sports Views: Heath baseball coach's uncle once worked at newspaper
Jul. 25—In 1981 a photographer named David G. Landmann shot some photos of Rockwall football games for the Herald-Banner.
Landmann was our managing editor at the time and helped on the Friday night football coverage. That Rockwall team went all the way to the state semifinals before losing to Brownwood and its nine-time state champion coach Gordon Wood.
Forty years later Landmann's nephew Greg Harvey coached Rockwall-Heath to a Class 6A state baseball championship, the Hawks' second.
Now a player coached by Harvey, shortstop Jett Williams, was a first-round pick by the New York Mets in the recent Major League Baseball Draft. Williams was the 14th player player selected in the draft and said he's excited about returning to the state of New York, where he lived as a young child.
Williams is the fifth Hawk to be selected in the MLB draft since 2012, which is quite a record of accomplishments.
The four Hawks who were selected in the baseball draft before Williams included pitchers Jake Thompson, Drew VerHagen and Tyler Ivey and outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba.
Thompson was selected in the second round of the 2012 draft by the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers also took VerHagen in the fourth round in 2012. Ivey was selected in the third round by the Houston Astros in 2017 and the New York Yankees picked Smith-Njigba in the fourth round in 2017.
If the last name Smith-Njigba looks familiar it's because Canaan's younger brother Jaxon is an all-American wide receiver at Ohio State and his name has come up in Heisman Trophy discussions. — Not since 1904 have American men swept both the 100- and 200-meter dashes at an Olympic or world championship meet.
But they did that this week at the world track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Texan Fred Kerley, who is from Taylor, led the Americans in a sweep of the 100 in 9.86 seconds. Close behind were Marvin Bracy (9.88) and Trayvon Bromell (9.88).
Noah Lyles, who is from Florida, led the American in a sweep in the 200. Lyles broke Michael Johnson's American record in 19.31. Kenneth Bednarek was second at 19.77 and 18-year-old Erriyon Knighton was third at 19.80.
Johnson, who is from Dallas, was on hand to talk about his record being broken. He was one of the TV announcers.
Speaking of sprinters, former four-time state New Mexico 100-meter dash champion Chase Ealey won the women's world shot put title in Eugene with a throw of 67 feet, 3 inches. I've never heard of a four-time sprint champion winning a world championship in a weight event.
Current Leonard golf coach Greg Connelly, who is from Trenton, reports that Ealey has relatives living in Trenton. I bet they're very proud of Chase.
The world championships have not been without controversy. American Devon Allen was disqualified from the men's 110-meter hurdles semifinals because a sensor in his starting blocks recorded his reaction time to the starting gun at 0.099 seconds. Anything under 0.1 is called a foul but I don't think that standard is fair. Allen's start looked fair to the naked eye and that's what should count. Not some computer reading.
The old rule was to allow the field one false start and then the next runner who jumped was disqualified. I wish they would go back to that rule.
At least Allen has the sport of football to fall back on. He's headed to training camp with the Philadelphia Eagles as a wide receiver.
David Claybourn is sports editor of the Herald-Banner.
