SPORTS
Crabb ready for big school challenge
Last week Bowie Independent School District named Garden City Coach Joe Crabb its newest coach to take over the girl’s basketball program.
A 26-year veteran coaching girl’s high school basketball and amassing 600 plus wins, Crabb’s four year run at Garden City where his teams went 114-17 along with his high character personal reputation around the state were some of the factors that led to his hiring.
Born in Sayre, OK, Crabb graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1991 with a bachelor of science in business administration and accounting. In 1993 he added a bachelor of science in education.
Crabb initially was looking to be a football and baseball coach, but could not outrun his family’s legacy.
“My dad and brothers were girl’s basketball coaches in western Oklahoma and had a lot of success up there,” Crabb said. “Just because of who they were when I started looking for a job people wanted me to come coach girls basketball.”
Crabb spent his first three years at Erick High School from 1993-1995. Oklahoma was still playing the six-on-six format during this time as it was the last state to eliminate it.
Crabb then moved on to Silverton out in West Texas, where he coached for three years before moving to Strawn.
At Strawn Crabb was coach for 17 years from 1998-2015. There he raised his family and coached both of his daughters. While five of his teams reached the regional finals during this time, they fell just short of state tournament appearances.
Crabb has been at Garden City the past four seasons. The 2017 team saw one of Crabb’s teams advance to the state tournament for the first time. During his four years the Lady Cats spent many weeks listed amongst the top teams in the state in the several coach’s polls.
One of the attractions to the Bowie job was its proximity to his parents in Oklahoma and his daughters families. Also after 26 years coaching at 1A schools, Crabb has always been intrigued by what it would be like coaching at a bigger school.
“Honestly, that is something I have looked at and people have asked me about a lot and it has really intrigued me to try out,” Crabb said.
Along with the reputation the Bowie girl’s basketball program has around the state Crabb is happy he got the job.
While at Strawn his teams shot a lot of three-pointers since he had a lot of good shooters. At Garden City the shooting was not quite as good, but the size and athleticism were better so his teams concentrated on that.
A staple at both schools has been his team’s use of defensive pressure to disrupt offenses and create scoring opportunities.
“Playing the 1-2-2 and just pressing people,” Crabb said. “Doing some stuff in the half court and causing people a lot of trouble. Making it difficult to score and taking them out of their comfort zone.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week 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.
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.
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