By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
Former T.R. Miller Lady Tigers basketball standout Deanna Jackson has had mixed results so far in her first season with the WNBA's Chicago Sky.
Jackson has appeared in nine of Chicago's 11 games with one starting assignment. Jackson is averaging 5.7 points a game so far, up from last year's 4.8 points per game average when she played with the Indiana Fever. However, that mark is down slightly from her 5.8 points per game career mark.
The 6-2 Jackson has contributed 3.2 rebounds a game. That mark is above last season's 2.3 figure and her career total of 2.6 boards a game.
Jackson's shooting from both the field and free throw line are both down from previous seasons. Jackson is shooting 37.5 percent from the field, the second lowest mark of her five-year career. A career 70.6 percent career free throw shooter, Jackson has hit only 52.9 percent in that area so far.
The expansion Sky have gotten off to a rough start with a 1-10 record. Jackson was selected by the Sky in last season's WNBA expansion draft after two seasons with Indiana. Jackson, a 1998 T.R. Miller graduate, spent her first two seasons with the Cleveland Rockers before that franchise folded after the 2003 season.
T.R. Miller Lady Tiger softball player Haley Rilling picked up some more postseason recognition when she was named to the Mobile Press-Register All-Area Second Team.
Rilling, a senior outfielder who hit a team high .534 this past season, received Honorable Mention on the Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 3A All-State Team for the second year in a row.
While Rilling was recognized by the Mobile newspaper for softball, T.R. Miller senior Antonio Gomez was oddly left off the Press-Register's All-Area Track Team.
All Gomez did this spring was win individual state
championships in the long jump, triple jump, 110 meter high hurdles and 300 meter intermediate hurdles, set a state record in the 300 hurdles, win at least three events in every meet and propelled his team to the 3A state title.
Three of the Press-Register's selections are understandable because they all had better state marks than Gomez. Foley's Julio Jones went 47-5 in the 6A triple jump as compared to 43-7 for Gomez. Jones also had a leap of 22-11 to win the 6A long jump. Daphne's Phillip McMillian finished second in the 6A 110 meter high hurdles, but his time of 39.19 was better than Gomez's time of 39.65.
The real mystery was the Press Register's selection of B.C. Rain's Lamichael Howell for the 110 meter high hurdles. Howell was fourth in Class 5A with a time of 15.77, while Gomez won 3A with a time of 15.42. While Howell chased runners in his race, Gomez cruised to a win in his race by .45 over his closest competitor.