SPORTS
Saint Jo tabs Blank as coach
By ERIC VICCARO
bnewssports@sbcglobal.net
New Saint Jo head boys basketball coach Brian Blank, pronounced “Blunk,” is part of a family coaching tree here in the state of Texas.
Blank’s father, Donald, won nearly 800 games in 42 seasons at Needville and Yoakum. Blank’s brother, Michael, coaches with both the football and basketball programs at Strait Jesuit, a Conference 6A school in Houston.
Uncle Kelvin Blank is an assistant football and pitching coach at Ennis.
“I hope kids enjoy being taught the way I was taught,” Blank said.
Blank said playing team basketball – especially on offense – is like artwork.
“I was an assistant coach under my dad for the past six years, and my brother is an assistant, so I got to coach with them,” Blank said. “There were some changes made (at Needville). I was ready to start my own program.”
Blank saw the opening for a boys’ basketball coach at Saint Jo on the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ website.
He interviewed in late May, and the Saint Jo Independent School District officially hired Blank in June.
Blank will be an assistant football coach, working with the running backs and secondary, and he will also be assisting with the Panthers’ track and field program. He replaces former coach Russell Endress.
In the classroom, Blank will teach seventh-grade Texas history, eighth-grade United States history and seventh-grade health. Read more on this story in the weekend edition of The Bowie News.
Saint Jo Panthers logo. (Logo provided by the Saint Jo Independent School District)
A positive culture can be tough to install but will reap dividends if done correctly.
Trinadee Imotichey is trying to do just that with her Forestburg Lady Longhorns.
Imotichey, an assistant coach on the 2025 Forestburg volleyball team, was moved into the head coaching position. Last year’s coach, Cori Hayes, took over as football head coach.
Imotichey, in her 2nd year in Forestburg, said she learned a lot from Hayes and is ready to take over.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie’s summer softball league team overcame a 6-1 deficit with a six-run third inning for a 7-6 win over Bridgeport in its season opener July 6.
The league consists of teams from Bowie, Nocona, Lindsay, Bridgeport, and Alvord and will last three weeks. Bowie will host games each week.
Bowie pitcher Hazel Trahern gave up two singles and a groundout to put the Sissies on the board in the first. It would be the only hits she gave up in the game. Two groundouts and a strikeout got the Lady Rabbits out of the jam.
Bowie got the run back in the bottom of the first with Andee Jo Miller opening the frame with a walk and a stolen base. She then scored on Kynlee Baker’s groundout to tie the game at one.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Rest. Run. Repeat.
Sage Keck, an 8th grader at Montague, lives by this mantra. No ifs, ands and buts about it.
She’s been running since fourth grade PE classes where she would run a mile every week. After discovering she could outrun the other students, she began to enjoy it and continued doing it.
Her success continued, as she finished 2nd overall against more than 200 runners at the Old Saint Jo 5K July 4. In last weekend’s Texas Junior Olympics, she reached the pinnacle of her career so far by qualifying for the United States of America Track and Field (USATF) National Junior Olympics in Norwalk, Calif. in three events.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
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