At the end of last year, there was already talk of football players dropping out for a wide-variety of reasons.

Two of the top returning seniors, Lance Anding and Nick Rumbelow, were already the owners of two filled-up letter jackets and a room full of trophies befitting a top athlete, as juniors.

Both experienced injury problems as juniors in football, but each still had that yearning to play, just for the sake of long-time teammates.

In Rumbelow’s case, an early signing to play baseball for the national champion, LSU Tigers, put a new line of thinking in the mix.

“Not playing football or basketball was just killing me,” said Rumbelow, after a workout at APEC. “But it didn’t make much sense to chance an injury, or ruining that for me, and the work that I have been getting at APEC has really helped alot.”

Anding is a completely different story, and one that can still have a happy ending.

Early in the area- round basketball game with Fairfield, Anding went down, and it wasn’t just one ligament that went out....... it was two.

Not only had Anding’s basketball season playoff hopes ended, but the prospects of repeating as the all-district baseball player seems highly unlikely, with the severity of the injury.

“I couldn’t believe it when it happened, but I knew when I went down, it was bad,” said Anding about his season ending injury. “But I’m gonna do what the doctors tell me to do, work harder than I ever have before, and maybe there is still a college out there looking for somebody like me.”

Both Anding and Rumbelow have played many sports together for years, and this year’s baseball team was a season many had looked forward to with a huge nucleus of accredited postion players.

At top, Lance Anding, nailing one of his many 3-pointers of the year for the Bullard basketball team. Middle, Anding is joined by BHS head coach, Robert Sampson as one of five male winners of the Burger King Scholarship Award. Above, Anding is seen pulling into third base last year, in baseball action for the Panthers. (Banner Staff Photos by Doc Smith) The Panther baseball team was in Fort Worth, playing and winning the “Tournament of Champions’, when they got the news of Lance’s misfortune on that Friday night in Rusk.

“We just couldn’t believe it when we heard about it,” Rumbelow said,” and we all tried to call him up and tried to pick him up some, but he was pretty bummed and we were, too.

“I think we used that for added fuel in the tournament, too, when we won it,” Rumbelow added.

Anding still remains a part of the team. He shows up for every game, and as painful as it can be for him to watch what he’d love to be doing, there is a special bond with this group of hardballers.

“We have been together so long, a bunch of us even think the same way when we aren’t playing ball, we’ve been around each other so much,” Anding said. “I appreciate what they have done for me, and it was just some bad luck for me. These guys have already got me thinking about getting back to rehabbing, and getting back out there as soon as I can.

“I have been playing ball and different sports for so long, but an injury like this will really make you wake up and see how important is is to hit the books, because sports might not be able to take you where you want to go.

“A good education will,” Anding added, “and don’t think I’m giving up. As soon as the time is right, I’m gonna be right back out there hoopin’ or scoopin’ on a court somewhere.”

Knowing Anding and Rumbelow...they will be heard from after their BHS days are done.
Nick Rumbelow has spent his time off the football field and basketball court working at APEC, specializing in adding arm strength and leg-drive. During his workouts, Rumbelow’s vertical jump has increased eight inches, which according to the LSU signee, make a huge difference on the mound, in endurance. (Banner Staff Photos by Doc Smith)