SPORTS
Nocona’s Clay ready for challenge
By ERIC VICCARO
bnewssports@sbcglobal.net
After spending last year not coaching, Tiffany Clay will be returning to the court this season as Nocona’s leader.
“I’m honored to be given an opportunity to coach on the same court I once played,” Clay said. “I want to continue to build on the success we’ve had in the past.”
Clay said she’s motivated by the number of banners on walls inside Nocona’s gymnasium.
Glenna Clay, Tiffany’s mother-in-law, and Sandy Langford have guided the Indians to state championship berths. And Tiffany hopes to accomplish the same feat.
“My mother-in-law, she’s the reason why I love coaching and what I do,” Tiffany Clay said. “She’s been a great mentor for me.”
Tiffany Clay played for Glenna Clay on the Indians’ back-to-back state tournament teams more than a decade ago. Clay was also an assistant under Langford during Langford’s first season as Nocona’s head coach.
Clay, who played one year at Ranger College and graduated from Tarleton State, said the type of offense the Indians will run this season will be based on personnel.
In addition to Nocona, Clay coached at Lexington for three seasons and Prairie Valley here in Montague County for two years. Last year, she was a third- and fourth-grade teacher in the Montague Independent School District. Read the mid-week edition of The Bowie News for more, including Nocona’s season schedule.
Nocona volleyball coach Tiffany Clay. (Photo provided by Garner Studios, Gainesville).
Bowie had six players play in the Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl football all-star game. For pictures from not just the football game, but the basketball and volleyball games as well that feature athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6875584&T=1
Nocona is welcoming back Coach Sandy Langford, former coach and alumnus for the Lady Indians, as its new volleyball head coach.
Langford comes back to Nocona after spending the past 11 years leading the Glen Rose volleyball program.
Her circumstances with her family allowed her to jump at the opportunity once she became aware the position at Nocona was available.
“My youngest graduated and is playing football at Midwestern (State University),” Langford said. “All of our family is here and I knew that Coach Kara (Lucherk) was leaving. We were eventually going to retire here. Our oldest son plays college football at West Texas A&M and we’ll be two hours closer to him as well.”
She again will lead the Lady Indians volleyball program, one that she led all the way to the state title game in 2011, which is the farthest the volleyball program has ever gone in its prestigious history.
Langford kept up that level of success during her 11 years at the bigger 4A Glen Rose. She won less than 20 games only twice during her time, winning her 500th career game back in 2023. Her teams were ranked among the top 10 in the state five times and Langford led Glen Rose to the state tournament in 2017, the best finish in program history.
With the Lady Indians also having its own string of success, appearing in back-to-back regional finals while finishing atop the district standings both years, Langford is excited to not just keep the success going, but shoot for the stars.
“We are not expecting anything less than a state championship,” Langford said.
She has stacked the non-district schedule with strong, state-ranked 3A and 4A teams as well as big tournaments that will test Nocona’s mettle early next season in the hopes it will prepare them for a long playoff run.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
The Red River High School Bass Club competed this past weekend, May 31 – June 1, at the State Tournament on Lake Conroe for the two-day tournament.
Two of the teams from Montague County traveled south to try their best at the culmination of the year for the state title. Teams were able to pre-fish on Friday before the Saturday and Sunday competition. On Friday, there was a flipping contest for the youth and Cooper Johnson won third overall and won a $500 scholarship and an Academy gift card.
The club’s two teams who competed were Lane Smith/Colt Henry with boat captain Jimmy Smith. The team placed 63rd with a total of 16.22 pounds. The second team of Cooper Johnson/Corbyn Patton and boat captain Jayson Toerck placed 169th with a total weight of 2.29 pounds.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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