Mike McGilvray, who has served as the volunteer assistant coach at Sam Houston State University the past two seasons, stepped down soon after taking an underdog Highlander team to the state crown in 2000. Now, he's back as the head coach at Houston ISD's Lamar High School.

"It's going to be fun," said McGil-vray. "I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be exciting again. I've enjoyed the last two seasons at Sam Houston State. I appreciated the opportunity to help Coach (Chris) Rupp. I've had some opportunities to get back into high school the last few years.

"I really wanted to run my own program again. I really missed the competition with the other coaches, competing on game nights and working with the kids. I still have a strong desire to coach. It's a good fit for me and my wife (Christy)."

McGilvray said the choice to return at Lamar was an easy one.

"They made it very appealing to me," he said. "It's a real good situation. I couldn't say no. I don't have any teaching responsibilities. I get to coach baseball. We have two offseason classes with three other full-time coaches and a total of eight coaches in the program. They have a very active booster club, similar to The Woodlands. They've had some great kids come through their program. I'm looking to maybe take them a little higher. They've made the playoffs for seven straight years, but have only gone a couple of rounds at the most."

McGilvray said he's going to work on that by toughening the team's schedule.

"I want to upgrade it and play in some better tournaments," he said. "Hopefully we can get up there and play Coach (Jason) Washburn (at College Park) or Coach (Ron) Eastman (at The Woodlands). Two seasons ago they went 29-2 in the regular season then lost in the second round of the playoffs."

Lamar plays its home games at Butler and Delmar stadiums and is in a district with perennial powers Bellaire and Westside. The other squads in the league are Madison, Chavez, Sam Houston, Milby and Houston Austin.

"The enrollment at Lamar is about 3,300," said McGilvray. "There are sixty or seventy kids in the program right now. Lamar also has a business magnate school, so we do get transfers from some other places."

McGilvray, who coached the Chicago Cubs' Kerry Wood in high school before taking the job at The Woodlands, said he thinks back about the 2000 Highlander state-title team on a very regular basis.

"I think about them quite a bit," he said. "Not many days go by that I don't think about a player on the team or some moment during that season. It will be with me for the rest of my life. It was a special team and a special season. I'll never forget them. As the years go by it keeps reinforcing to me how difficult it is to win a state championship.

"...The fact that that team won with three sophomores and one freshman in the starting lineup is a credit to them. The older kids gave them confidence that they belonged
there playing at that level."