High school foes now friends, Team USA teammates

By JAN HUBBARD

jhubbard@star-telegram.com

LAS VEGAS — After the first practice of the U.S. Olympic basketball team, Chris Bosh was seated in a folding chair about 10 feet from Deron Williams and marveling at how two guys who grew up about 30 miles from each other in the greater Dallas area are now part of the national team.

How would he have assessed the odds of that happening a few years ago?

"Slim to none," Bosh said, laughing. "You don’t even think of those things when you’re in high school. But it’s really cool for us to have played against each other in high school, and now we have the opportunity to play together and win the gold medal."

Williams is equally excited.

"It’s a great for us," he said. "It’s great for the state of Texas. We’re definitely proud Texans. I’ve known Chris since high school, and it’s great to be playing on the same team with him because he’s a such a great player and a great person."

Williams said that before being told how Bosh described a high school game between Bosh’s Dallas Lincoln team and Williams’ team from The Colony.

"We won the game, of course," Bosh said, smiling. "It was close because The Colony had a really good team. But we won, and he tried to dunk on me. He’ll probably tell you that he made it, but he didn’t. They called a charge. He just couldn’t pull it off."

Williams didn’t disagree with the result of the play. "Nah," he said. "I missed it."

But he said that because he gives up about seven inches to the 6-foot-10 Bosh, describing the play as a simple miss isn’t quite accurate.

"I didn’t make a fool out of myself," said Williams, the Utah Jazz’s point guard, "I barely missed it. They called the charge and the ball hit off the back of the rim. He’s lucky I didn’t catch him with it."

Bosh and Williams will play key roles in the Beijing Olympics and both give U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski flexibility because they are so versatile. The U.S. team, which will be in New York for promotional appearances today, is carrying only one true center in Dwight Howard, so the Raptors forward will back up Howard.

And even though Williams is one of three point guards on the roster along with Jason Kidd and Chris Paul, he is big enough to play and guard opposing shooting guards. So he will probably be on the court some with Kidd or Paul.

Bosh also has a score to settle with the rest of the world. He was part of the 2006 team that lost to Greece in the World Championships in Japan.

"We took everything serious," Bosh said. "Our preparation wasn’t the best [but] we all learned from it. Now we don’t underestimate anybody. We know that we have to come out and play extremely hard every game."

Williams spent last summer playing with the U.S. team in the Olympic qualifying tournament and said the current team has learned from past mistakes. In particular, the 2004 team that lost to Argentina and settled for a bronze medal in the Athens Olympics isn’t something this team wants to emulate.

"I think there were a lot of chemistry problems on that team — something I don’t see happening on this team," Williams said. "I don’t see that being a problem. I think everybody has checked their ego at the door.

"You can see how we have shared the ball. The leading scorer [last summer] averaged 16 points a game. There’s so much balance and so much versatility that it makes a difference."

Considering how their college careers went, it’s probably a little more surprising that Bosh has made the team with Williams. Both are 23 and Bosh is about three months older than Williams, but Bosh played only one year at Georgia Tech. Williams played three at Illinois.

"I saw what type of basketball player he was becoming in college," Bosh said. "He really matured fast. I don’t think people saw him doing that, but he did. And now he’s one of the best."

Bosh also noted that Williams plays on the better NBA team. Bosh has the memory of the victory in high school, but the Jazz has beaten the Raptors six consecutive times.

"That game in high school was a really good game," Bosh said. "But he gets most of the wins now. I guess it’s evened out."

Jack Hatchell’s more than 30 years as a leader and public servant ended on Saturday as he lost his battle with cancer and died in his sleep at his home in Plano at the age of 70. Hatchell was a Collin County commissioner for Precinct 4.

Hatchell served on the Commissioner’s Court since 1986 and also served on the Plano City Council from 1975 to 1985.

Hatchell worked as a transportation engineer for many large engineering firms and during his later part of his life he worked as an independent consultant. He also worked in his earlier years as a traffic engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Hatchell helped plan many of Collin County’s roads and thoroughfares, including the President George W. Bush Turnpike, State Highway 121 and the Dallas North Tollway extensions in Collin County.

His tenure and leadership on the Commissioner’s Court earned him the prestigious William J. Pitstick Regional Excellence Award on June 13 from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which is the NCTCOG’s highest award.

Hatchell was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the summer of 2004. He underwent chemotherapy at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Doctors pronounced him free of cancer in the spring of 2005, but the cancer later reappeared in his lungs, said his wife Pat Hatchell on Monday. Hatchell died in his sleep after he laid down on Saturday afternoon to take a nap, Mrs. Hatchell said. Hatchell was undergoing chemotherapy and continued to attend Commissioner’ Court meetings while he was underwent treatment. His last meeting was June 23.

Mrs. Hatchell said that her husband brought a lot of prayer to the decisions he made during his public service.

“He always stuck to his core values, and felt that it was important to do the right thing and to do what is fair. He felt like he was a public servant and loved serving the public. I was at a meeting the other day and someone said that Jack was always a cool head and had a calming effect on the decision-making process. Jack was always very logical and could get to the core of the problem. He tried to meet everybody’s needs,” Mrs. Hatchell said.

The couple was married for 47 years and had a vacation planned in Arkansas in the upcoming weeks, Mrs. Hatchell said.

“I knew that he was ill and I didn’t think that it was eminent for sure. I had the highest hopes that he would get better,” Mrs. Hatchell said. “Jack was very softhearted and I always had to be careful about telling Jack what I wanted for gifts because he would bend over backward to get it.”

Commissioner Phyllis Cole said Monday that Hatchell’s death was a surprise to everyone because he had been doing really well with his chemotherapy treatments.

“He laid down on Saturday afternoon to take a nap, and died in his sleep. It was the way everybody would like to leave,” Cole said. “His death is a great loss for all of us, particularly for Collin County. Jack was always a very good mediator and a strong leader on transportation. I think Collin County is really going to miss his expertise in the transportation areas.”

|Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said on Monday that he will miss Hatchell, whom he served with for 30 years, both on the Plano City Council and on the Commissioner’s Court.

"I think people will miss his input on transportation issues. He knew the capability of the engineering firms and kept up with everything that was going on in transportation,” Hoagland said. “We were friends and had our disagreements over the years, and 95 percent of the time we voted the same way on things. Jack had a tremendous ability to take into account the competing factions of whatever was going on, and he was a great mediator.”

Hoagland also said that he didn’t expect his friend to die so soon.

“He was very sick and I really didn’t think he was going to die so soon. It’s just one of those things, and you’re never really prepared for it when it happens,” Hoagland said.

Commission Joe Jaynes said on Monday that losing Hatchell was a big loss for the county, and that he will miss his friend.

“Jack always said, ‘Everyday was a gift from God.’ In my view, to work with Jack and to have him as a friend, that itself was a gift from God. When he became a county commissioner, Collin County was still a rural county, and Jack played a major part of transforming Collin County from a rural county to one of the fastest growing counties in the country,” Jaynes said.

“Jack was a great mediator. I know he taught me how to be a better listener, thinker and hopefully a better person,” Jaynes said.

Collin County Judge Keith Self said on Monday that Hatchell was a true professional and a delight to work with.

“He had seen everything in the transportation field, and was a really nice guy who will be missed,” Self said.

Former Collin County Judge Ron Harris, who filled Hatchell’s seat on the Plano City Council after Hatchell was elected to the Commissioner’s Court, said on Monday he thought the world of Hatchell.

“I think Jack needs to first be remembered as a Christian leader, then as a family man, and then as a servant leader in his elected offices he held. He was always a peacemaker and always thinking of the citizens. He had credibility with just about anybody,” Harris said.

“He gave the court so much free guidance and counsel in transportation issues that was invaluable. The main thing is that he can always be remembered as to what he left behind: the family, the infrastructure and the good he did for the people he served,” Harris said. Commissioner’s Court administrator Bill Bilyeu said that Hatchell was “just a sweet, sweet man who will be missed.”

“The few times I ever saw him get angry he apologized to the person he was angry with, and they might not have even deserved the apology,” Bilyeu said.

Kathy Ward, chairwoman of the Collin County Republican Party, described Hatchell as a gentleman, and said his death is a big loss for Collin County.

“He was a gentleman all of the time and was a class act. He always had a smile on his face and was respected by everyone. He stood up for what he believed in and always conducted himself with the upmost class,” Ward said.

A memorial service for Hatchell will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the Christ United Methodist Church in Plano, where he was a longtime member. A private burial service will be held prior to the memorial service.

Hatchell is survived by his wife; daughters, Amy Briggs of McKinney and Beth Jamison of Frisco, and grandson Jack Jamison of Frisco.

Hatchell was re-elected to a four-year term on the court in 2006. Self, as county judge, can appoint someone to fill Hatchell’s seat, and that person can serve from now until the November election. Self said on Monday that he will appoint someone very soon, but did not give a time frame of when that would be.

Precinct chairs of both the Collin County Republican Party and the Democratic Party of Collin County will be able to nominate someone to be on the ballot in the November general election to fill Hatchell’s vacancy.

Ward added that officials in the Collin County Republic Party have not yet discussed who the party will nominate to be on the ballot in the November election as everyone was still upset about Hatchell’s death.

Dan Dodd, Democratic Party of Collin County chairman, a message left at the party’s headquarters.

Mrs. Hatchell said that everyone can pray that the best possible replacement will be appointed to fill her husband’s vacancy on the court between now and November, and for the long term.

Contact staff writer Brandi Hart at hartb@acnpapers.com. To post comments online, access

this story at www.scntx.com.

When surveying the North Texas landscape, there’s much ado about so-called fast-growth, high-profile communities such as Frisco, Prosper, and McKinney. But as businesses and new residents continue to move to the region, watch out for The Colony to emerge from the shadow of its Collin County neighbors.

“The future of commercial economic development in The Colony is very bright,” said Tom Terrall, director of The Colony’s Economic Development Corp.

The Colony City Manager Dale Cheatham agreed.

“The Colony is a developer-friendly city with a pro-development City Council and economic development board,” he said. “In addition to offering financial incentives to businesses that will bring jobs to the community and expand the tax base, the city has streamlined its development process to make it easier for developers and businesses to develop in The Colony.”

Bordered by Lewisville Lake to the west and Frisco to the north and east, there’s surprisingly still plenty of land left to be developed in The Colony.

“The basic premise in site selection is location, location, location. The Colony offers prime location for retail, office and distribution,” Terrall said. Much of the remaining land for commercial development lies along the State Highway 121 corridor. The main lanes of State Highway 121 are still slated to open in September of this year, which will stimulate further development along the city’s gateway corridor, Terrall said.

“We are already seeing projects moving forward such as Cascades at The Colony, a Jackson-Shaw development located on the northeast corner of Morning Star and SH 121,” he said.

Phase I of the Cascades project is complete, with the opening of six flex-industrial buildings totaling 200,000 square feet. Phase II is under way beginning with the construction of two hotels, featuring a 104-room Marriott Fairfield Inn with approximately 5,500 square feet of meeting space and a 102-room Marriott Residence Inn. The Colony EDC contributed more than $3.6 million toward the infrastructure costs of the Cascades project.

“I look forward to the completion of this project which will ultimately have office and retail along with the flex-industrial buildings and hotels,” Terrall said.

Gateway 121 is another SH 121 project anticipated to further draw attention to the city. The retail center development is managed by DBSI, and is located on the northeast corner of Blair Oaks and SH 121. Presently, DBSI is working on infrastructure for this project, Terrall said.

Another sign of progress is the selection of property on Memorial Drive between Main Street and Blair Oaks by Rick Stacy for Stacy Furniture’s third Metroplex location.

In addition to the SH 121 corridor The Colony has a significant amount of land available for commercial development along Plano Parkway, south of SH 121.

The development of some of this land has been limited in the past because of a lack of adequate wastewater infrastructure, said Terrall, but the City of The Colony and Billingsley Corp. have reached an agreement concerning wastewater improvements that will facilitate the development of more than 1,000 acres in Austin Ranch. The Austin Ranch development is expected to include commercial and business development along with single family and multi-family components.

The city and The Colony EDC have reached an agreement whereby the EDC will pay $1.67 million of the city’s costs on behalf of the city. Upon completion of this project, the property along this major thoroughfare link to SH 121 will be ready for commercial development.

“These projects will add to the commercial side of the city’s tax base and create local employment opportunities,” Terrall said. “Some of the projects will increase our daytime population, which increases business opportunities for local merchants.”

On the residential side, the developer of The Tribute subdivision, known also as Wynnwood Peninsula, has obtained approval from the City Council for a development plan that features 1,148 residential lots for executive homes and golf villas. The plan also includes commercial development and a golf course. Phase I of the property has since been platted into seven subdivisions, or “villages,” of 419 lots. Cost of the homes has been estimated between $275,000 and $1 million, according to Terrall.

So while other cities continue to tout their status as destination locales, it’s clear that the City by the Lake is also continuing to grow into a destination all its own.