• E-mail

Carly Chandler's truck won't turn any heads. It has a banged-up fender, needs a paint job and is older than some of her classmates at Wylie.

But to Chandler, a senior first baseman, the black 1991 Chevy S-10 is a beauty.

"A lot of my friends, they were given their cars," said Chandler, 17. "I guess they earned it, but I just feel like I really appreciate it more because I worked so hard for it."

She also waited a long time for the truck. When Carly was 15, one of her four brothers, Coyt, bought the truck for $1,000. Coyt couldn't get it to run dependably, so he gave it to his dad.

AMY CONN-GUTIERREZ/Special Contributor

Carly Chandler and her father, Rick, spent more than a year fixing up a 1991 Chevy S-10 truck for her to drive.

Rick Chandler, who is not a mechanic, decided to try to fix it up so his only daughter could drive it after her 16th birthday.

But getting the truck ready for the road took more than a year. The first problem was a short in a wire that caused the engine to cut out. Carly and her dad searched for the short for months before discovering the problem. The truck also leaked brake fluid, so they had to install a new cylinder.

That meant taking off the entire wheel assembly and putting all the pieces back together.

"I did a lot of that," Carly said, "because I'm good at puzzles."

Carly and her dad also took off a side panel of the truck to fix the driver's side window, which wouldn't roll down. They repaired the passenger-side door, which wouldn't open from the inside. And they recovered the seat and put in a new stereo.

"When my dad came home from work, working on the car is the first thing we would do," Carly said. "I learned a lot about him and his patience."

Rick Chandler said, "She was right there over my shoulder, handing me things, pulling out things. I look back at it now, and it was a great bonding experience."

Carly drove the truck for the first time in February, and it ran great. She'll head to Stephen F. Austin later this year to study kinesiology, and "Black Beauty" will be with her – along with all the memories from fixing up the truck.

"I made a card for my dad for his birthday," Carly said, "and I told him that fixing the truck was the best experience I've had with him."

That made all the work worthwhile. But getting to drive "Black Beauty" makes it even better. For Carly and her friends.

"They were so happy," she said. "I was always riding with them."

mwixon@dallasnews.com

Daylan Holt

YEARBOOK MOMENT: During this week in 1997, Daylan Holt hit a grand slam to help top-ranked Mesquite rally from a five-run deficit and beat Plano East, 9-6. Holt later hit a lot of home runs for Texas A&M, leading the nation with 34 in 1999.

SHOOTOUT STARS: Soccer teams from the Dallas-Fort Worth area won three of the four state titles last season, and whether North Texas can produce three more titles this season might depend on a shootout. Three of the last eight state soccer titles have been decided in shootouts. Area teams would've swept the titles last year, for the first time, had the Frisco boys won their shootout against Wichita Falls Rider.

SPEEDING FORWARD: It was a sizzling week for sprinters Chris Givens of Wylie and Marquise Goodwin of Rowlett. Each ran the 100 meters in 10.09 seconds at their district meets, giving them the fastest time in the area this year. The winning 5A time at last year's state meet was 10.37.