Random thoughts and a few news items as we enter the latter third of July and maybe, just maybe, brace for rain and temporarily lower water bills:

Taking on the world

From the Associated Press wire on Friday came news that a team of standouts from across the country will participate in an eight-team tournament known as the Junior World Championship from June 27-July 5, 2009 in Canton, Ohio.

Up to 10 players, all of which will be 2009 high school graduates, may be nominated by state high school athletic associations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The International Federation of American Football plans to hold the tournament every four years.

The U.S. team will be coached by Cleveland St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle, who has won nine Division I championships in Ohio and three national titles. Division I is comparable size-wise to Texas' 5A.

St. Ignatius has a local tie - it's the alma mater of Oliver Luck, the Dynamo president and father of former Stratford quarterback Andrew Luck.

Arguello tabbed as new Westside coach

Former University of Houston volunteer assistant Abe Arguello has been named the new Westside baseball coach, succeeding Emrick Jagneaux.

Arguello is a Lamar graduate who played college ball at UH, Texarkana Junior College and Houston Baptist.

Jagneaux took the head job at Deer Park in June after guiding the Wolves to within a win of the state tournament. They lost to Bellaire in three games in the 5A-Region III final.

Ogwumike upstaged

Cy-Fair basketball and volleyball phenom Nneka Ogwumike fell short of the winning the Gatorade High School Player of the Year award last week in Los Angeles. That honor instead went to Chanelle Price of Easton (Pa.) Area High, a track star who recently competed in the 800-meter run at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

It's one of only a handful of losses in the last year for Ogwumike, whose volleyball team lost twice and basketball team lost only once en route to a state championship.

Hardly a Tiny temper

Keith "Tiny" Gallon, a one-time star at Cypress Christian who stands 6-foot-8, 295 pounds and is ranked No. 4 among senior centers by Rivals.com and No. 5 by Scout.com, was benched during an AAU tournament last week in North Augusta, S.C. for disciplinary reasons.

Houston Hoops coach Marland Lowe took exception when Gallon didn't go to the defensive end after a teammate took what USA TODAY described as "an ill-advised shot."

"I pulled him out because it's not about the win, but making a lasting impression," Lowe said. "Everybody talks to him about his conditioning, but he also has to work on his mental preparation, the ability to play at a high level for a long time."

The story took a decidedly positive turn, though, when Gallon discussed how instrumental his mother, Sylvia, has been in his development.

"I work out with my mama a lot," Gallon said. "My mama taught me everything. ... She has me doing sit-ups and she has me running on the track. ... It's been helping me. I'm not getting as tired as I was last season."

Texas represented in Aflac game

The sixth Aflac All-American High School Baseball Game is scheduled for Aug. 9 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The game will be shown live on FSN affiliates nationwide, including FSN Houston and FSN Southwest, at 2 p.m.

Six Texans are participating, including two Houston-area players - pitchers Matthew Graham of Oak Ridge and Matthew Purke from Klein.

The game is for incoming seniors and is played in an East-West format.

Scheduling observations

An annual summer ritual of mine every year since I started reporting has involved spending the better part of several days tracking down fall schedules for every team in my area, then entering them in my publication's system.

That's one of the "perks" of typing 74 words a minute, at least according to the state of Ohio civil service test I took in 2004.

Combing through this fall's schedules, and even some basketball schedules the on-the-ball districts already have sent, bring to mind a few questions of why things are the way they are. Such as:

* Football is king in Texas, so why bother to schedule anything else on Friday nights? Surely Thursday can be a better day for volleyball, which never will win a ticket-office faceoff with football.

Volleyball arguably would get more fans if it didn't interfere with football, and likely more media coverage too.

* This goes for volleyball and softball: Tournaments rightly are held Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but where did the practice of sneaking a Friday night regular-season game not affiliated with the tournament into the schedule come from?

I remember thinking what an odd practice that was last year when I covered a softball team that drove in 90 miles from the tournament, won a district game in a rout, then turned right around and left town. These days, that seems like such a wasted trip.

Surely there are enough days in the year to play everything and not cram.

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