SPORTS
STORM CENTER: College football opens
And so it begins. The college football season is upon us, and you could tell that just by looking at the Pigskin Picks contest from earlier this week.
Your slate of games features many of the most-talked about match-ups heading into the opening week.
And Week One games are already in the books, having taken place on Thursday.
Locally, Midwestern State University football opens the season on the road at 7 p.m. on Sept. 3.
Who’s the opponent? Truman State, which is based in Kirksville, Mo. This school was once known as Northeast Missouri State until changing its name to honor former United States president Harry S. Truman.
Midwestern State has some degree of expectation this season. After all, the Mustangs came in ranked 14th in the American Football Coaches’ Association preseason Division II poll.
MSU lost only two games last season, and head coach Bill Maskill has the team primed for another successful campaign.
The biggest question in my mind is who replaces Marqui Christian as the leader of the defense now that Christian is playing for the Arizona Cardinals.
The Mustangs should field one of the deepest groups of wide receivers at the Div. II level in the entire country.
Here’s a group of famous alumni from Truman State, basketball Hall of Famer Harry Gallatin, boxer Ken Norton, former major league baseball pitcher Al Nipper and Glenn Jacobs. Yes, that Glenn Jacobs who plays Kane on WWE programming.
The hype machine is already cranking out that this will supposedly be “the greatest opening weekend in college football history.”
Preseason No. 1 Alabama will be facing No. 20 USC at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Amazingly enough, the Crimson Tide are currently a double-digit favorite to win the game.
Is that how great the chasm is between the elites and mid-tier teams today? I’m just wondering about that out loud. Read more from this column in the Sept. 3 Bowie News.
Editor’s Note: The Storm Center column is the expressed written views of sports editor Eric Viccaro and not The Bowie News.
AT&T Stadium will be the site of tonight’s opening college football game between the University of Alabama and USC. Alabama is the top-ranked team in the country again. (Courtesy photo by James Smith/The Dallas Cowboys)
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.
-
NEWS3 years ago2 hurt, 1 jailed after shooting incident north of Nocona
-
NEWS2 years agoSuspect indicted, jailed in Tia Hutson murder
-
NEWS2 years agoSO investigating possible murder/suicide
-
NEWS2 years agoWreck takes the life of BHS teen, 16
-
NEWS2 years agoMurder unsolved – 1 year later Tia Hutson’s family angry, frustrated with no arrest
-
NEWS2 years ago
Sheriff’s office called out to infant’s death
-
NEWS2 years agoBowie Police face three-hour standoff after possible domestic fight
-
NEWS3 years ago
Driver stopped by a man running into the street, robbed at knifepoint