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The UIL released its boys and girls soccer alignments for the 2011 season, and HP will compete against some long-time foes but also against some newcomers in what will be a revised District 20-4A.

The UIL broke  Class 4A into 64 districts two years ago, and will use the same format this season. HP is still in Region II-4A but as mentioned is now in 20-4A along with Richardson Pearce and The Colony, which were in HP's District 21-4A alignment the past two years. 

Joining those three of Carrollton Creekview, Carrollton Newman Smith and Carrollton Turner in the six-team loop.

Soccer practice begins the first week of January. HPISD will release the boys and girls schedules later this fall.

HP begins its track back toward the postseason today as official preseason workouts begin at UIL schools across the state. The Lady Scots will have two-a-day practices Monday and Tuesday, and the final rosters for the varsity and junior varsity will be announced Tuesday night.

HP, 32-12 last year, will practice the rest of the week before hosting scrimmages at HP Middle School on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, HP takes on Hebron and Lucas Lovejoy beginning at 5 p.m.. A short night puts the Lady Scots back at HPMS on Saturday at 10 a.m. hosting Allen and Coppell.

Former HP quarterback Luke Woodley is transferring to Texas A&M. The Aggies were among the schools recruiting Woodley while he was leading the Scots to 11-2 seasons the past two years.  

Woodley signed with Louisville last fall and graduated ahead of his class in December in order to enroll at the school in time for the spring semester and prepare for the Cardinals' spring practices. He left Louisville in March, however, citing personal reasons.  

Woodley threw for 7,941 yards and 81 touchdowns in his three seasons on HP's varsity, completing 65 percent of his passes. He ranks just behind now-NFL starter Matthew Stafford in most of HP's career passing statistics, but is ahead on career completions.   Woodley joins former HP players Winston Gamso and Seth Gardner on the Aggies' roster heading into preseason workouts.   

In 2008-09, the first year of the state-mandated random testing, the UIL spent $6 million to test 45,193 student-athletes and found 19 testing positive. If we double that figure to represent the second year, that's $12 million for what, at most, is three dozen positive tests. That's $333,333 to find one positive test. Whew. That possibly represents three dozen lives saved, but oh that cost.

Breakdown of tests conducted by sport:

A multi-sport athlete will be represented more than once in this list. Therefore, the individual sport numbers will differ from the total number of athletes tested.
Baseball: 148
Male basketball: 176
Male cross country: 41
Football: 590
Male golf: 40
Male soccer: 209
Male swimming: 29
Male tennis: 77
Male track & field: 59
Male wrestling: 56
Male multi-sport: 682
Total Male: 2,107

Female basketball: 105
Female cross county: 20
Female golf: 29
Female soccer: 166
Female softball: 143
Female swimming: 40
Female tennis: 87
Female track & field: 81
Female volleyball: 123
Female multi-sport: 405
Total Females: 1,199

(Taken from MLB.com)
LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw dropped the appeal of his five-game suspension Monday and will begin serving it Tuesday, when the Dodgers open a three-game series in San Diego.

Kershaw will be eligible to make his next start Sunday in San Francisco. In his last start, on Sunday, Kershaw made 112 pitches over eight shutout innings, so the two extra days of rest figure to help freshen his 22-year-old arm. He had been scheduled to start Saturday due to the Dodgers' day off on Monday.

Kershaw was handed the suspension and undisclosed fine for, according to MLB vice president Bob Watson, "intentionally throwing at" San Francisco's Aaron Rowand with a pitch in the seventh inning Tuesday night. Kershaw received an automatic ejection from home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson, who had warned both benches after Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp was hit by a pitch from Tim Lincecum. No action was taken against Lincecum. 

Ex-HP pitcher Clayton Kershaw pitched one of his finest outings of the season in his longest stay on the mound this season. Kershaw got his 10th win of the season against only five losses by holding off the New York Mets in a 1-0 win Sunday night. He also maintained his earned-run average under three at 2.96.

Kershaw was able to start for the Dodgers while appealing his five-game suspension from the MLB office stemming from two hit batsmen in Tuesday's loss to the Giants.  He should know the results of his appeal later this week.

Kershaw, 21, gave up seven hits and had struck out only three, but had a two-hitter going through seven innings. The Dodgers' defense helped by not allowing a runner to reach third base in his eight innings on the mound. Kenley Jansen came on in relief and retired the Mets in order in the ninth. 

Should Kershaw's suspension be lifted, his next scheduled start would likely be Saturday in San Francisco in an interesting rematch of last Tuesday's game that started it all.

OK, I know we just cover news and events relevant to HPISD athletics and the Park Cities as a whole. But I saw this in the daily newspaper here in the Quad Cities, Iowa, today and had to share.

The Quad Cities Times did not list its source as to whose betting lines they were publishing, but the Texas Rangers are listed second among the teams to not only appear in the 2010 World Series, but to win it. The New York Yankees, of course, lead the field with 3-to-1 odds to win it all. But Texas, with its six-game lead in the division as July comes to a close, are listed at 4-to-1 after opening the season at 30-to-1.

Have the Rangers ever been shown that much promise from a national sports organization, especially a gambling syndicate? Tampa Bay, which trails the Yankees in the AL East, is listed third at 7-to-1 with Atlanta and Boston fourth at 8-to-1.

I'm on my way to Iowa to visit family, and went straight up Highway 75 headed north. As we went through Sherman, I took a look at Bearcat Stadium, home to the Sherman Bearcats and site of HP's non-district game on Sept. 10. I did a double-take when on first glance the stadium's playing surface looked like pure dirt.

Sure enough, on the second glance there was no green grass to be found on what has been one of the few natural grass fields still left in the area. No yellow grass or any other color either, for that matter. Just brown dirt. So I looked on the Sherman ISD website, but couldn't find any information concerning the field being resurfaced. So the guess is either the Bearcats are going to be playing on Field Turf this fall (and work better begin soon), or they will be laying a stadium's worth of sod in the next few weeks to get ready for the season.

They've got time to work with. The HP game is Sherman's home opener after the Bearcats play on the road for their scrimmage and open the regular season at The Colony and at Little Elm. Coincidence?