SPORTS
Bowie powerlifting brings back individual medal from state meet
The Bowie girls powerlifting team competed at the state meet on Friday at the Extraco Events Center in Waco.
With five Lady Rabbits competing against the strongest the state of Texas had to offer, only one was able to come away with some hardware.
Senior Carrington Davis, making her fourth appearance at the state meet, was able to one up last year’s fifth place finish with a silver medal in the 181 pound weight class. Davis lifted 980 total pounds, including a personal record of a 420 pound lift on squat.
The rest of the Bowie team was making their first appearances at state, with three of the four also being underclassmen.
Jessie Henry finished eighth overall in the 97 pound weight class. The sophomore was able to set a new personal record in deadlift with a lift of 225 pounds and total weight with 555 pounds.
Emma Skinner finished 13th in the 114 pound weight class, setting personal records in squat with 275 pounds and in total weight with 645 pounds. The sophomore came in as an underdog, but wound up beating three lifters rated ahead of her in the standings.
Her sister Sierra Skinner finished 19th in the 105 pound division. The junior did not equal her highest total of the season while putting up 585 pounds, but did set a new record for squat lifting 250 pounds. While she is an upperclassman, it was the first year Sierra competed in powerlifting.
Chelsea Price came in competing in the 220 pound weight class hoping she could finish in the top 10. Unfortunately, Price failed her first three lifts on squat and ended up busting out.
While headlined by Davis earning a silver medal in her final meet, the rest of the girls are coming back next year.
Price, Henry and Emma will be juniors with already two years of competition experience under their weight belts along with experience at the state level now.
This type of success should continue to drive them to see the type of leaps in strength they made from freshman to sophomore this year.
Sierra will be a senior and with one year of experience and making it to the state level, she should see a jump next year like most lifters as she matures.
While this year making it to the state meet was an accomplishment in itself, all four of them have set the bar for themselves and will be looking to raise it next year at the state level.
Coach Quenten Berend hopes he will have some other girls join them as well. Despite all the individual success, the overall regional team title has just eluded the Lady Rabbits the past three years.
To see results from every lift the five athletes did at the state meet, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
With the baseball and softball seasons over for the area 1A schools, district awards have been released.
Listed below are those earned honors on the field and in the classroom for Saint Jo and Bellevue.
Softball
Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Utility player: Taylor Patrick; Catcher: Jordyn O’Neal
Baseball
Superlatives
Offensive MVP: Devin Stewart, Saint Jo
Newcomer of the Year: Bryce Ramsey, Bellevue
Pitcher: Trent Gaston, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Jayden Curry, Saint Jo
Second team
Pitcher: Charlie Barclay, Saint Jo
Infielder: Brycen Bancroft, Bellevue; Sam Martin, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Rylan Forrester, Saint Jo
Catcher: Charlie Evans, Saint Jo
Utility: Logan Hoover, Saint Jo
DH: Amzy Barclay, Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Cody Gaston, Saint Jo; Xander Joyner, Saint Jo
To see academic awards from Saint Jo players, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Eldon Van Hooser is leaving Forestburg better than he found it.
The head boy’s basketball coach is retiring after more than 30 years, spending the last five at Forestburg.
Van Hooser did not come to this decision because of a lack of fire or feeling tired after decades in the profession. He had to for family reasons.
“My wife has MS (multiple sclerosis) and it’s a disease where you have trouble standing and walking and she needs help,” Van Hooser said. “I am able to so I am going to step away from teaching and coaching to be there for her.”
Van Hooser was hired in 2019. Along with being the boy’s basketball coach, he also was the football team’s defensive coordinator.
There were some lean years for Forestburg on the boy’s athletic side, with numbers being low and the available athletes being mostly underclassmen.
For two years, the Longhorns’ boy’s basketball team won few games and one of those seasons saw the team field five players on the high school team.
“One of those years we had COVID-19 and the other we had five kids,” Van Hooser said. “It was very rough. After that we worked with the kids and we had a good freshman group coming up. Next year they are going to be seniors.”
That group has helped to turn the program around. Last year the young Longhorns team contested for a playoff spot and just barely missed it finishing fifth in the district.
This season, that same group took a leap and finished second in district with a record of 7-5.
Despite losing its last two regular season games in dramatic fashion heading into the playoffs, the team stepped up in the bi-district game.
Playing against an athletic Newcastle team, Forestburg led for most of the game.
Unfortunately, the previous game against Bellevue saw the Longhorn team blow the lead late in the fourth quarter against a hard pressing style team and they were suffering the same fate against the Bobcats down the stretch.
Fortunately, Forestburg held on just enough to win 53-46. It was the first boy’s basketball playoff win in nine years for Forestburg.
“It was huge for our program,” Van Hooser said. “This new year we will have new goals. The new coach will have some goals of his own, but I set some for the team and think that we have come a long way.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie sports banquets was on Monday night. Olivia Gill and Tucker Jones were named Jackrabbit and Lady Rabbit of the year. Pick up the mid-week paper for all of the sports team awards and pictures.
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