SPORTS
Boxell named TABC coach of the year
More accolades are coming for the Bowie Jackrabbit boy’s basketball team as the coach is getting some love from other coaches.
The Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) named Doug Boxell the 3A coach of the year.
Boxell has been at Bowie since 2013, coming off a five year stint at University of the Ozarks. The process for this year’s state title team has been in the works since he arrived.
This team of players were in junior high then, the ideal age.
“He began that first year listing on the schedule the regional tournament and the state tournament,” associate head coach Jonathan Horton said. “It was not something that had been done here before but every little detail similar to that one is really what began changing the mindset of our players and parents and the community.”
Those types of small changes did not pay off right away, but it slowly started to change the expectations of what the players hoped to achieve. Getting a group of players to believe they are capable of winning a state title if they put the work in, in a place that has not had that type of success in awhile is half the battle.
Those high expectations started in the coach’s office among the staff, determining what was acceptable and how they would work.
“The whole staff in the past at the end of every season would have their own ideas about what went right, what went wrong and what needs to be improved,” Horton said. “Oddly enough, we are still doing it, even though we won the last one.”
The staff would then go find what they needed from that list in the offseason.
Early on, a change in defense was necessary. Boxell used some of his background from his time as a college coach at University of the Ozarks to find a defensive philosophy borrowed from another college that would work for his team.
It was from this that they borrowed some of their defensive principles they have used since. It was a big reason they won the state title. In the title game, they held Mount Vernon to only 28 points.
It is these types of commitments in the offseason from the coaching staff that allowed them to put their players in the right spots to succeed.
Boxell has now won six state championships at four different schools, a feat that may not be equaled by any coach in the state. Still, he does not look at that or the coach of the year award as an accomplishment for himself.
“It reflects our team won a state championship,” Boxell said of the award. “Whenever your team’s very successful, everyone is going to receive a lot of benefits because of that. It represents what the team did. It’s more of reflection of the team’s success than me.”
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.
The Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl is this week on June 6-7 and graduating athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo are confirmed to be playing.
In total, seven athletes from Bowie, five from Nocona and three from Saint Jo are planning to play in the all-star games this week. Nocona also will have a pair of coaches participating as well.
The girl’s basketball game kicks off events on June 6, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Falls Memorial High School. In the game, the east team will have Nocona players Avery Crutsinger, Meg Meekins and Reagan Phipps playing while Kyler Spitzer and Clayton Brown coach them one last time.
On the west team, Saint Jo’s Payzlie Cervantes is confirmed to be playing.
The boy’s basketball game is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. On the east team, Bowie’s Boston Farris and Nocona’s Jose Gomez Jr. will be playing.
On June 7, the volleyball games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the small school game. On the west team, Nocona’s Kaygan Stone and Saint Jo’s Taylor Patrick are confirmed to play. On the east team, Saint Jo’s Aubrey Morman will get to play her teammate.
There are no local athletes confirmed to be playing in the big school volleyball game.
The final event is the football game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. It is an all Bowie affair with six players confirmed to be playing for the east team: Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Hunter Fluitt and Braden Rhyne, Preacher Chambers and Moh Azouak.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona Independent School District officials looked inward for a new athletic director/head football coach, selecting Jeff Hill for the position.
Hill, who served last year as Nocona football’s offensive coordinator and also led the softball program to the playoffs for the first time in a while as its head coach, was upgraded to the role.
This came on the heels of former Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger, who served in the role the last four years, resigned in May.
For Hill, the choice to apply for the position was a no brainer. His one year in Nocona had impressed upon him and his wife that it was the place they would like to be long term.
“I’m looking for a town to raise my kids in and Nocona has treated my family really well,” Hill said. “There are some really good people. The kids work hard. Everything I am looking for in a hometown is right here in Nocona and I want to try and make it as best as it can be, especially through athletics.”
Before Nocona, Hill served as the athletic director at S&S Consolidated while also spending time at Hebron and Whitewright in his coaching career.
Hill expresses great respect for the departing Crutsinger and besides changing a few small things in how he personally wants to do things, he is not trying to come in with a sweeping restructuring of the whole athletic department.
The program had five of its six team sports make the playoffs, with volleyball playing in the regional final and the girl’s basketball team winning the state championship.
That along with two athletes competing at the state championship in cross country and track with one earning a gold medal, it was one of the more successful school years in athletic program history.
“Coach Crutsinger was awesome and did a great job so honestly just little tweaks, a little bit of structure and cohesion amongst the coaching staff between boys and girls,” Hill said. “I hope to keep the winning tradition going overall in the athletic department.”
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