JANUARY 27 & 28
Star’s news coverage gets critical response, P. 5
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Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 40 • No. 21
WEDNESDAY • JANUARY 3, 2018
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Are you ready for rugby? Houston SaberCats to start play in Sugar Land Saturday By Bill McCaughey FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
The Houston SaberCats open their inaugural exhibition season with a game against the Seattle Saracens on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Constellation Field in Sugar Land. The SaberCats will be a member of Major League Rugby which includes the Austin Elite Rugby, Glendale (Colo.) Raptors, NOLA (New Orleans) Gold, San Diego Legion, Seattle Saracens and the Utah Warriors. The league begins play in the last week of April. The SaberCats will play a ninegame exhibition schedule before starting league play. The SaberCats head coach is Justin Fitzpatrick. Previously, Fitzpatrick was Director of Rugby for the Seattle Saracens, and he played 26 games for the Ireland national team, including games in the 1999 World Cup. Fitzpatrick also played 156 games with the Ulster Rugby team, which was the first Irish team to win the Euro-
pean Cup. Sam Windsor is the assistant coach and will play fly half back for the SaberCats. Windsor has been playing rugby since he was seven. “I grew up playing both soccer and rugby, but my father was a rugby player, so I focused on rugby,” Windsor said. “I have played in Australia, London, other parts of England, Ireland and now in Houston.” The SaberCats have several stars on their roster. Osea Kolinisau was the captain of the Fiji Olympic gold medal winning team in 2016 in Rio. The Fiji Olympic team selected him as their flag bearer in Rio. Kolinisau, 31, first played for the Fijian national team in 2008 and he led them to back to back World Series titles in 2015 and 2016. “Osea is a great player. The fans will really like his style of play,” Windsor said. Jamie Dever joined the team from
SEE SABERCATS Page 4
It’s not football, so what is this game? By Bill McCaughey FOR THE FORT BEND STAR
If you combined soccer, football and that old playground favorite, kill the guy with the ball, you would come close to describing rugby. The key features of the game are: • Rugby has two 40-minute halves and no stoppage or injury time. • The winner is the team with the most points after 80 minutes. • The field is 100-meters long by 75-meters wide. There are two dead
goal areas, think end zones, at each end of the field that are 10 to 20 meters long. • Scoring a try is worth five points, and it is awarded by touching the ball to the ground in the dead goal area. After a successful try, a conversion is awarded. A successful conversion is worth two points, and is scored by kicking the ball through the goal posts, similar to a football extra point. • If a team is called for a penalty,
SEE RUGBY Page 4
Members of the Houston SaberCats practice in a recent scrimmage. The professional rugby team will make its pre-season debut Saturday at Constellation Field. (Submitted photo)
Reflections of 2017 What were Fort Bend County’s top 10 stories of the last year? By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Looking back at 2017, it is apparent that it was quite a busy news year. The weather and sports played a big part in our lives last year, as did politics. Without a doubt, Hurricane Harvey and the floods it brought are clearly the top story of the year. Because of that, there is no need to print a Top 10 Stories of 2017 list in reverse order to build anticipation over what was the biggest newsmaker of 2017. Therefore, we are going to list Fort Bend County’s biggest news stories for 2017 in order. Without further ado, they are:
Willowridge High School molded over the summer and had been undergoing extensive remediation and reconstruction.
2. Willowridge High School mold problem In
A house on FM 359 in Richmond sits in floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey.
1. Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast near Corpus Christi on the evening of Friday, Aug. 25, as a Category 4 hurricane. It slowly meandered to the northeast, dumping as much as 50 inches of rain on the Greater Houston Area over the next several days, causing widespread flooding. Missouri City and Sienna Plantation were the hardesthit areas of eastern Fort Bend County with tornadoes and floodwaters. The Brazos River crested at a record height of 55.18 feet, causing additional flooding in parts of Fort Bend County. The storm caused the Sugar Land Skeeters baseball team to move a home series to a road game, as the stadium was converted into a makeshift shelter for people and pets.
June, work was being done to renovate and remodel parts of Willowridge High School. Power was cut off for a few days due to the nature of the work being done. When workers returned, they found that mold had rapidly spread throughout most of the building. That forced the closure of the school and the relocation of the students and staff to Marshall High School. The mold remediation was estimated cost about $7.5 million and is being paid for out of the district’s contingency fund. “Every single ceiling tile in that whole building is coming out of the building and is going to be replaced with new ceiling tiles,” Superintendent Dr. Charles Dupree said. “All the air conditioning ducts, all the pipes for the air conditioning are being removed and replaced with brand new ducts. Everywhere there’s carpet in the building, the carpet is being removed and we’re putting brand new tile. The entire building is being painted inside with fresh, new Willowridge Eagle colors, and we are also replacing every bit of furniture in the building.” The building is scheduled to re-open when students return from the holiday break on Jan. 8.
Greatwood (pictured) and New Territory were annexed by Sugar Land in December.
3. Sugar Land annexation Sugar Land grew by more than 30 percent on Dec. 12 with the annexations of the New Territory and Greatwood Municipal Utility Districts, increasing the population from 87,367 to 117,869 residents. In 2016, the city council unanimously approved the annexations of both areas. The city’s 2017 fiscal year budget was also amended to begin the pre-annexation work to provide the areas with city services. Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman said the annexations have been part of Sugar Land’s planning for the past 10 years. He added that city officials worked with elected representatives of both MUDs and homeowner’s associations to negotiate Strategic Partnership Agreements (SPAs), which outlined each party’s various responsibilities and timing for the future annexations. New Territory and Greatwood will be temporarily placed within City Council District Two and City Council District Four, respectively. The newly annexed areas will be able to participate in the mayoral and atlarge elections in May of 2018.
Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land officially opened for business in January with two shows featuring Jerry Seinfeld.
venue, made its long-anticipated debut in January. Located near the intersection of University Boulevard and the Southwest Freeway, the facility welcomed comedian Jerry Seinfeld as its inaugural performer on Jan. 14, followed the next day with a concert by Don Henley. Designed for flexibility, the 200,000-square-foot venue incorporates innovative moveable walls that can expand and contract to create four different seating capacities that range from an intimate setting of 3,400 seats to a maximum of 6,400. It also features 14 luxury suites, corporate hospitality areas, and the latest sound, light and video technology. Other offerings include space to house up to 14 production trucks and buses, as well as 2,500 guest parking spaces. In May, the city dedicated a new plaza outside the facility.
5. Skeeters hire new manager to replace Gaetti
4. Smart Financial Centre opens for business
Pete Incaviglia, a left fielder who played 12 years in the Major Leagues with six different teams – including two stints with the Houston Astros – was named the second skipper in Sugar Land Skeeters
Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land, the city’s new $84 million performing arts
SEE TOP 10 Page 6
Pete Incaviglia