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Basketball coach Botard leaving Nocona for Quinlan Ford job

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In another change to the Nocona athletics staff, boys basketball coach Bret Botard announced through his Twitter account on Tuesday he had taken the same position at Quinlan Ford, located east of Dallas.
The move was made more for family reasons, as stated in his tweet.
“While this move puts my wife and I within 30 minutes of many family, friends and our grandchildren, we are very sad to leave Nocona,” Botard said.
Botard went out of his way to thank the people of Nocona, the staff he worked with and especially, his players.
“Lastly, to my players,” Botard said. “I love you. You are a special group of young men. You did everything that was asked of you by me and the rest of the coaching staff. Along the way, you made some history here in Nocona. You accomplished things here that hadn’t been accomplished in over 30 years. Realize that you were the driving force behind this.”
Botard had an extremely successful three-year tenure at Nocona, posting a 73-29 record with three playoff appearances, including reaching the regional semifinals in 2017. The past two seasons saw the Indians compete in a tough district that featured state ranked and tough Holliday and Bowie. A couple of his former players expressed some of the impact he had on their team.
“Coach Botard wasn’t just a coach to our team, he was like our other dad,” recently graduated Jeremy James said. “There were days when none of us were in a good mood, but when we walked into the gym he brought an energy to us that always made us laugh and have a good time. Another great thing about coach was that he believed in us when absolutely no one else did. Overall, Coach Botard was an amazing man and will be missed at Nocona.”
“One thing about him is that he always expected our best effort,” recently graduated McCasland said. “If he knew we weren’t giving it, he made sure we did. He loved every one of us like his own and as hard as he was on us, it was always out of love.”
In his wake, Football Coach/Athletic Director Brad Keck now has to go through the process of hiring a new boys basketball coach for next year. With the search happening during the summer rather than the spring, Nocona will be under the pressure to hire someone sooner rather than later.
“Its kind of wide open right now,” Keck said. “We don’t really have a timeline or a person in mind. I posted the job and taking resumes right now. With it being summer now, there is a little bit of a since of urgency to get something done. We just want to find the right fit for our kids and the right fit for our town, while also doing it pretty quickly.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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HS bass club meets next week

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The Red River High School Bass Club is meeting on Aug. 4 to talk about the upcoming season.
It is that time of year to meet and make plans for the upcoming high school bass fishing season with Texas High School Bass Association. This organization has more than 1,500 teams fish in it annually and the Red River club competes in the Metroplex division.
Tournaments will start in September and go through May each year. This year the Metroplex division will fish the following lakes: Ray Roberts, Texoma, Lewisville, Eagle Mountain, Richland Chambers.
If potential members are interested in joining the club, they will have a meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 4 at Tommy Fenoglio’s in Montague. You will be able to ask questions, eat some pizza and fish at his lake.
What do you need to do? Call the AgriLife office and let them know you will be there at 940-894-2831 or email [email protected].

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Bowie updates athlete policy

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Some updates were made to the athletic policy for Bowie Independent School District for this upcoming school year.
One of the new rules are athletes losing game time for being put in in school suspension.
In the past athletes had to complete two miles for punishment per day they were in ISS. Now, on top of completing two miles, athletes will suspended games.
The first offense will cause an athlete to be suspended half of a game. A second offense, an athlete will be suspended a full game.
A third offense, an athlete will be suspended three games. A fourth offense, an athlete will be removed from the athletic program for a calendar year. Athletes will be expected to still practice with the team up until a fourth offense.
Athletic director Tyler Price said the increase in consequences for school discipline is on the same track he has for raising the standard of what is expected of Bowie athletes off the field.
“We are just trying to stiffen the consequences and raise the bar and standard on the on-field, on-court product, but also a student athlete’s behavior away from athletics as well,” Price said.
Another change is no longer allowing athletes to have their cell phones out in the locker room. It will act as an extension of the classroom, so normal school rules about cell phone usage will now apply there as well.
Price said there was no incident that sparked this change, but he foresees there could be potential issues in the future.
“We just want to be proactive and get out in front of any potential problems we could have,” Price said. “A locker room is an extension of the classroom and it’s not a place for phones. There are multiple potential reasons why that could be the case.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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Hotter’N Hell 100 is next month

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The Hotter’N Hell 100 is one of the top bicycle endurace races in the world and is scheduled for Aug. 22-25 in Wichita Falls. (Courtesy Photo Hotter'N Hell)

The Hotter’N Hell Hundred bike event kicks off in less than a month in Wichita Falls.
The four-day cycling spectacle is set for Aug. 22-25.
The first Hotter’N Hell was back in 1982, when looking for a fun way to celebrate Wichita Falls’ Centennial year.
The name comes from the 100 mile endurance race along with temperatures that can reach 100 degrees.
At the front of the pack will be the pace group, sponsored and coordinated by the Midwestern State University Cycling Team.
It will be capped at 85 riders, with 15 current or former MSU team members pacing the group to make it a five-hour ride through 100 miles. It will be supported by moto escorts.
For those who are not able to bike 100 miles, there are routes for 10 kilometers, 25 miles, 50 miles and 100 kilometers to sign up for instead.
Apart from the endurance races, there are other biking events.
There is the Wee-Chi-Tah mountain bike races and trail runs. The race will 12 miles and feature a trail with many short, steep climbs and screaming descents. It will be limited to 300 riders per category.
There is the Gravel Grind race that will go 60 miles, 42 miles or 27 miles.
Finally, there will be USA Cycling Criterium races for licensed riders only for three of the four days.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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