Canton and Gilmer have cancelled their scheduled football season-opener a week after QB G.J. Kinne withdrew from Canton and enrolled at Gilmer. The game was originally scheduled as part of the East Texas Classic to be played Aug. 31 in Tyler.

Kinne's transfer came after an emotional year in which Kinne's father, former Canton coach Gary Joe Kinne, was shot in the school fieldhouse by a parent of another Canton player. Jeff Robertson has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the shooting.

Coach Kinne spent a year recovering from critical internal injuries but did return to coach Canton to a school best Class 3A regional final. But Coach Kinne left in January to  become an assistant at his alm mater, Baylor. With one year of eligibility remaining, G.J. Kinne opted to transfer to Gilmer. the family cited safety concerns at Canton High School.

Canton's new football coach Lance Angel requested out of the Gilmer contract because of all the emotions surrounding Kinne's departure. Angel was named in February to replace Gary Joe Kinne as Canton football coach.

From Dave Stephenson of TITUS Sports Marketing, who is sponsoring the East Texas Classic:

"We are disappointed that Canton did not fulfill its commitment to us to participate in the 2006 East Texas Football Classic. It would have been a classic matchup and one that we were eager to see after their great playoff game in Tyler last fall.
We now have to turn our attention at this late date to finding an opponent for Gilmer -- which should again be one of the top schools in Class 3A."

The Canton-Gilmer matchup was expected to draw a capacity crowd of 12,000 in Tyler when it was set in February. G.J. Kinne and Canton defeated then defending state champ Gilmer in a record-setting, 61-58, thriller in last year's playoffs.Kinne, considered one of the country's top quarterback prospects, passed for 3,859 yards and 41 TDs as a junior. He is expected to solidify Gilmer's chances to make a strong run at a state championship. Kinne will team with WR Curtis Brown, a highly regarded Texas commitment.

I'm going to try something different here. Instead of shilling for Dirk Nowitzki as the NBA MVP, instead of burying you with statistical data to support his candidacy, instead of going all "supportive home-town writer/zealot'' on you, I'm going to go backassward on you here.

I'm going to suggest that if The UberMan isn't an MVP finalist, then this is the greatest field of worthy contenders in the history of sports.

Check out last year's voting, which came down to two guys: Steve Nash and Shaquille O'Neal. The system (a panel of 127 North American media types vote, with players being awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five for third, three for fourth and one for each fifth-place vote) resulted in Nash earning 1,066 points to O’Neal's 1,032. Nowitzki finished a distant third (349 points), so it was a two-horse race.

Well, Nash and Dirk (and Shaq) must stink this year. Because while it appears they are having fine seasons that match their 2004-05 efforts, the media is pushing for the field of legit contenders to be more than the two of them. More than three guys. More than four. ...

At last count, I tallied the number of MVP candidates pushed by ESPN/ABC/TNT and came up with 18,789 guys.

Seriously, the continued expansion of "He Might Be An MVP'' coverage is becoming ridiculous. At a time when the list of contenders for the honor should be narrowing -- last year featured one of the four closest races ever, but close between just the two players -- the list is instead ballooning.

Is the volume of NBA coverage forcing the bloating of the list of candidates? Is it just announcers who want to hear themselves talk? Who want to come off as "inventive''? Who want to demonstrate that they take you "inside the game''?

Or are they just dunderheads who don't recognize an MVP candidate when he gives his team a lopsided win over a contending team by contributing 30 points, 12 rebounds and four assists while performing on national TV?

There is one ESPN story that asked ESPN staffers to go on record with their selections. Most of them lean toward Phoenix' Nash. Which is fine. Logic also gives us Dirk and Detroit's Chauncey Billups. Las Vegas makes those three, along with the Lakers' Kobe Bryant, the four favorites.

Two true contenders last year. Four true contenders this year. Bloated enough for ya yet?

Sorry. Because the media also demands that the flashy Dwayne Wade and LeBron James get mentioned. And they are exciting!

And what about big-market Clipper Elton Brand. He gets mentioned. So does Wade's wobbly teammate Shaq, and the Nets' Vince Carter, and San Antonio actually has two worthy players in Tim Duncan and Tim Parker and is there any end to the Insanity of Inclusiveness?

Along comes TNT's Craig Sager, the other day, and he pushes for Yao Ming (I guess because the Rockets were on TNT that night). This weekend, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith offers Phoenix' Shawn Marion. (Idiot. You mean Nash isn't even the Suns' MVP, but he's the favorite to be the league's MVP?) An ESPN story mentions Boston's Paul Pierce.

And then, yesterday at American Airlines Center, maybe the topper: ABC/ESPN's Len Elmore, the analyst for the Mavs-Nuggets game, stumps for. ... Carmelo Anthony?! While he's on the same floor with Dirk?! Are you kidding me?

Again, I'm not going to bother burying y'all in numbers, but. ... after Dirk reached 30/12/4 in this one, Mavs fans were astute enough to do the "M-V-P'' chant thing in his honor. I mean, you know how it seems The UberMan goes for 20 EVERY NIGHT? You know why it seems that way? Because he's scored 20-plus points EVERY NIGHT since late February!

I've got 20,000 humans yelling 'MVP' for Dirk while I've got one human, Len Elmore, touting not Dirk -- and not Nash or Chauncey or Kobe, and not even Wade or LeBron or Brand, and not even Shaq or Duncan or Vince -- but the other guy, the guy on the team that is losing by 30?

Because many of these same broadcast journalists make up the panel of 127 MVP voters, I have a prediction: Dirk will win co-MVP! Yes, this year's MVP race will end in a 127-way tie. In the most closely-contested battle in MVP history, 127 NBA players will each end up with one vote apiece.

It took the Rangers 3 years but they finally dealt with problem child Juan Dominguez. Check that. They didn’t deal with him at all. They simply dealt him. They dealt him to Oakland.

On Thursday GM Jon Daniels said about the enigmatic Dominguez, ‘…we’ll send a message when it is time…” Apparently the time was Friday.

Dominguez is one of those players who will drive you absolutely crazy. There’s no question that there is talent there. There’s also no questioning the high level of immaturity and “I don’t give a damn attitude” that Dominguez has displayed.

For 3+ years now the Rangers have privately drooled over the expected arrival of this talented pitcher. His body arrived. His brain never did. Overweight, chronically late for meetings, unfocused in games, AWOL when sent to the Minor Leagues. And yet, Texas still privately longed for Dominguez to grow up and take his rightful place in the Major Leagues.

The Rangers were patient but in this case that patience was misplaced. But Texas is not through with Juan Dominguez. For at least the next couple of years, they will hold their breath every time Dominguez pitches somewhere. They will be afraid that at any moment the light bulb will come on in his refrigerator.

W.T. White's Mike Zoffuto and Mike Farda of Irving Nimitz, two of the state's most respected coaches, won't be on the sidelines next year. Zoffuto will become his school's athletic coordinator. Farda will be leaving Nimitz after 26 years to become athletic director at Class 2A Maypearl.

Zoffuto, 59, has been one of the state's most high-profile coaches with three decades at Mount Pleasant, Lake Highlands and White. He coached future NFL punter Maury Buford in East Texas and made Lake Highlands a perennial state playoff power with his option-oriented offense at Lake Highlands, which dubbed its home stadium "The Boneyard."  He left Lake Highlands after a dispute with the school district and was hired at White in 1999. In eight seasons at Lake Highlands, Zoffuto compiled a 69-27 (.719) record from 1987-1994. His career coaching record is 154-62 (.713). In his last season at Lake Highlands, the Wildcats reached the 1994 Class 5A Region II final with an 11-3 record. They lost to eventual state champion Tyler John Tyler, 27-7, at Texas Stadium.

Zoffuto gained national attention the week before that final John Tyler game as part of an emotional broadcast team calling a dramatic 48-44 Tyler victory over Plano East.
Leaving a legacy through three decades at Nimitz, Farda was extended a contract by the Maypearl school board this week to be athletic director/administrator/coach. He's expected to assume duties this summer. Irving ISD athletic director Joe Barnett said he hasn't received a formal resignation from Farda but it was Barnett's understanding Farda likely will not be a fulltime coach at Maypearl.