SPORTS

Super Bowl for Dummies

Published

5 years ago

02/01/2020

In case you didn’t know, Super Bowl Sunday is upon us whether you watch football or not.
While every football fan is guaranteed to tune in, Super Bowl Sunday has become a sort of mini-holiday for people, a good enough excuse for people to throw a party.
There are many better Super Bowl previews out there for the hardcore football fanatics who have watched games every Sunday for since the start of preseason in August. This is not for those people.
If you are one of those people where the bits and pieces of the Super Bowl you catch every year are the only football you watch that does not include a family member playing in it, this is for you.
If you want a rooting interest on either team based more than on which jersey design appeals to your sense of style, here is the quick run down.

Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas Chiefs are the slight favorites heading into the game, but not by much and they aren’t your typical favorites if you always like cheering for the underdogs.
The Chiefs last won the Super Bowl in 1970. It is also the last time they have been to the big game.
The team is a fun one. The Chiefs have one of the highest scoring offenses in the league and throw the ball a lot. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is a young (24-years-old) super star in the making with no personal baggage to make him unlikable. He also was born and raised in Texas and attended Texas Tech if that wins you over.
The other fun story is Head Coach Andy Reid. While he has consistently been one of the best coaches in the league for the last two decades, his playoff failures and his loss in the one Super Bowl he has been in has led to people writing him off.
A win on Sunday will completely alter his legacy and will probably lead him to the Hall of Fame no matter what happens afterwards. In case you hold it against him he was the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles for most of the 2000s, he is an easy guy to root for as well.

San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers were the surprise team of the season, which is why even though they come in with the better record of the two teams, (13-3 compared to 12-4) they are slight underdogs.
To put it in perspective, the 49ers won less games (12) in the past three seasons combined than they did this year. San Francisco last made the playoffs in 2014.
The biggest change was the health of potential franchise quarterback Jimmy Garappolo. He has missed large portions of the last two years after the team traded for him.
While he hasn’t played like one of the league’s elite like Mahomes, he played well in his first full season, which was a big upgrade from the guys the team has trotted out the last few years. He is also an objectively good looking guy if you want to go that angle.
Still, this team has succeeded thanks to having one of the top rated defenses in the league. The biggest name you might have heard of is cornerback Richard Sherman, who you might have seen yelling in a post game interview that went viral after a game back in 2014.
Despite his aggressive appearance in that interview, background on Sherman shows he made it out of Compton, CA not just on his ability on the football field but in the classroom, earning salutatorian honors before attending Stanford. He’s a classic don’t judge a book by its cover athlete who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks earlier this decade.
San Francisco is going to want to make it a boring game if it wants to win. Despite Garappolo playing well this season, in the playoffs the team has relied heavily on running the ball with a trio of running backs that are solid if unspectacular.
The one who has made the most news recently is Raheem Mostert, who rushed for more than 200 yards in the previous game to help the team get to the Super Bowl. His is a classic Cinderella story, having been cut by six teams before finding a place with the 49ers.

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

SPORTS

Two teams compete at state tourney

Published

23 hours ago

06/05/2025

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Colt Henry, Lane Smith, Cooper Johnson and Corbyn Patton competed at the state high school bass tournament at Lake Conroe. (Courtesy photo)

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.

SPORTS

15 athletes playing in Oil Bowl

Published

24 hours ago

06/05/2025

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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.

SPORTS

Hill upgraded to Nocona AD

Published

1 day ago

06/05/2025

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New Nocona Athletic Director Jeff Hill along with his wife Amy and their kids Kason, Camden and Kinsley. (Courtesy photo)

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.