SPORTS
New team, same expectations
The Bowie boy’s basketball team has a lot to answer this season if it wants to continue to be thought of as one of the areas’ best teams.
With all of the big-time contributors gone from the program’s state title team from two years ago and returning only four players, all seniors, from last year’s team, the Jackrabbit program will be put to the test this season.
“We try to make as minimal changes as possible to what we do because it has worked for so long,” Coach Jonathon Horton said. “The personnel changes, the system really doesn’t, but our personnel is a little different.”
The biggest departure, both literally and figuratively, is center Daniel Mosley, the team’s leading scorer, rebounder and shot blocker for the last several years who will be playing for Midwestern State University this season.
With him and some other departures, the length and bulk the team has had the past couple of years that was a strength, will instead be something the team will have to make up for in different ways.
Returning seniors include versatile wing and returning leading scorer Braden Armstrong, shooter Riley Harris, hustle and energy player Trevor Vann and tall post Boo Oakley.
All four contributed heavily to last year’s team that made it to the area game before losing to Jim Ned.
With no Mosley or dominant scoring presence in the post, the usual inside-out approach the offense and defense had the last several years will instead be geared towards perimeter play.
“Our goal is to make perimeter defense one of our advantages,” Horton said. “One of our weaknesses will be interior defense and rebounding because of our size, so we are making an emphasis on everything we do towards toughness on the interior.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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.
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