The Rev. Ron Scates catches a pitch from Clayton Kershaw on Thursday night. (Photo: Susan Hudson)

Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw was the featured speaker at Highland Park Presbyterian Church last Thursday. He and his wife, Ellen, recently published a book called Arise: Live Out Your Faith and Dreams on Whatever Field You Find Yourself, and Kershaw discussed both their missions to Africa and his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The talk began with the Rev. Ron Scates catching a pitch from Kershaw, which isn’t as out of left field as you might think. Andrew Scates, the pastor’s oldest son, was a catcher on the HPHS baseball team when Kershaw was a pitcher for the Scots. Ron, who officiated the Kershaws’ wedding, even attended San Antonio’s Trinity University on a baseball scholarship.

You can read more about the event in the Feb. 10 edition of Park Cities People.

The Highland Park girls basketball team will take on Rockwall-Heath at 7:30 tonight in its final home game of the season.

Seniors Libby Ethington, Amanda Goodwin, Sydney McDaniel, Savanna Taylor, and Sarah Werner will be honored prior to the game.

The Lady Scots (20-7, 8-4) are in a three-way tie for second place in the District 10-4A standings with McKinney North and Wylie. McKinney is just one game behind those three teams. Rockwall has already wrapped up the district title, so one of those four teams in the log jam for second place will not make the playoffs.

Highland Park wraps up the regular season on Tuesday at McKinney.

The Scots have tentatively set their 2012 schedule. (Staff photo: Chris McGathey)

Every two years, when the University Interscholastic League unveils its realignment and reclassification of districts, tons of football coaches gather at Birdiville ISD Fine Arts/Athletics Complex the morning the new districts for the next two years are released.

Once that happens, coaches from the new districts meet and set their district football schedules. Coaches also finalize their non-district schedules, once they know how many district games they’ll have. It’s always a madhouse. And it’s always a blast.

This morning, I got to go out and cover that very event, which is always one of my favorite things to do. As Dan posted earlier, Highland Park found out which teams will be in its new district for football, basketball, baseball and several other sports.

We already knew Highland Park’s football team opens next season against Aledo in the Tom Landry Classic. The rest of the schedule has the Scots hosting Tulsa Northeast Oklahoma Association of Home Schools and going to Sherman to round out non-district play. Highland Park will then have a bye week before opening District 10-4A play at home against Forney. The Scots will then play back-to-back road games at North Forney and Mesquite Poteet. Highland Park then hosts West Mesquite, travels to Carrollton Creekview, and then hosts Carrollton Newman Smith and Terrell to close out the regular season.

The non-district schedule will be the same in 2013, with the exception of Sherman coming to Highlander Stadium. The District 10-4A schedule will be the same with the home teams reversed from the 2012 schedule.

Nick Rose flashes the Hook ’em Horns with his mother, Kathy, by his side during National Signing Day at Highland Park High School. Rose was one of seven Highland Park athletes who signed letters of intent. The other six were Kelsey Bass (Oklahoma State), Megan Gittins (Princeton), Parker Kennedy (Fort Lewis), Tanner Stone (Duke), Taylor Sorrels (Florida Atlantic), and Tyler Rentfro (McMurry).

Chase Fletcher shows his disbelief after a scoreless overtime period. (Staff photo: Chris McGathey)

As a sports writer, you never know what you might see when you go to cover a game. If you attend enough games, you’ll witness just about everything that could possibly unfold. That’s why when you see something you’ve never seen before, it can be pretty cool.

Such was the case on Tuesday night at the Highland Park-McKinney North boys basketball game at Highlander Fieldhouse. After a rough first half, the Scots found themselves trailing by 12 early in the third quarter. Highland Park was able to whittle that lead away and tie things up on an Andrew Barnes layup with 21 seconds left in regulation.

The game ended up going to overtime. And that’s when the weirdness ensued. Neither team scored in the first extra frame. That’s right, zero points in five minutes. Making things even more astonishing is the fact neither team scored in the second overtime until Chase Fletcher gave the Scots a lead on a layup with one minute left.

Although quite a bit of it had to do with the Bulldogs stalling the ball on offense, we went 9:21 of game clock without a single point. Crazy.

The Scots ended up winning, 48-45, to wrap up a playoff spot and extend their winning streak to 10 games.

Highland Park guard Tanner Stone (72) earned third-team all-state honors. (Photo: Jeremy Chesnutt)

Highland Park’s football team was well-represented on the 61st Annual Collin Street Bakery/Texas Sports Writer’s Association’s Class 4A All-State Team, which was released today.

Guard Tanner Stone, who is set to sign his national letter of intent with Duke on Wednesday, was named to the third team. The other five Scots — quarterback Brady Burgin, defensive back Mark Gottsacker, running back/kick returner Preston Miller, wide receiver William Morris, and linebacker Mason Shaw — were all honorable mention.

Aledo running back Johnathan Gray was named the Offensive Most Valuable Player, while Denton Ryan defensive lineman Mario Edwards Jr. was named the Defensive MVP.

“Leave Skirts to Girls”

“Daddy Can’t Buy This Game”