SPORTS
Bowie, Nocona softball teams look to bounce back this season with new coaches
Softball season has started for both Bowie and Nocona this week.
Both have their first actual games this week as well as first tournament in Jacksboro.
Both teams also are trying to bounce back after tough seasons missing the playoffs in a district that featured two teams making it far in the playoffs.
For Bowie, the program is not used to missing the playoffs, but last year’s team was young overall and lacking numbers following the shortened COVID season.
A lack of numbers for a JV team and missing a year of development cost them in a district that took no prisoners.
Coach Jordon Roth takes over the program and the former Bowie graduate hopes to build it back up from the beginning.
“I am expecting the girls to work hard every day and to be willing to do what it takes to help the team,” Roth said. We have good team chemistry, so I don’t see any issues with them being willing to sacrifice for their teammates.”
The good for the team is it lost only one senior starter from last year. That familiarity and growth for the young team should mean the team should be getting better together as a group.
With more than two seasons gone from the program’s last playoff berth, that does mean the team’s overall swagger and expectations from the players needs to be rediscovered again.
“The biggest area for improvement is going to be their confidence.” Roth said. “They have to trust me and be willing to be coachable for us to thrive this season.”
For the Lady Indians, Nolan Lanham gets his try to coach the softball team. The new coach has been at Liberty, Jarrell and Hamilton and is a graduate from Prosper High School and Tarleton University.
Lanham hopes to bring an “attack first” philosophy to this team.
“I believe for our team to be successful this year we have to learn to attack in every phase of the game,” Lanham said. “Our pitchers have to attack the strike zone and opposing batters, and when balls are put in play our defense has to attack the ball. Offensively we have to attack pitches early and often, then use our aggressiveness on the bases to put pressure on the opposing team.”
The Nocona softball program’s best recent seasons have been where they compete well, but wins have come few and far between. Their worst have been when most games finish early.
In best years the team is usually filled with upper classmen with experience and this team returns some.
Makenna Nobile, Sydnee Mowry, Tobie Cable and Maddi Ezzell all have experience in the infield and will try to lead the Lady Indians in making the fundamental plays on defense and making plays with their bats.
The team also will be incorporating some younger players that do not have a lot of innings playing at the varsity level.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a good final non-district warm-up on Friday at home against Ector.
The Eagles beat the Bulldogs 69-63 in a game where Prairie Valley was trying to play catch up all the way through.
The Bulldogs were coming off a tough tournament at Electra the previous week to try and knock the holiday rust off. Prairie Valley was familiar with Ector, having played the team to start its season back in early November and was hoping to compete better than it did in that first game.
The Eagles came out firing, splashing five 3-pointers, including several deep ones, to go out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter. Even with the Bulldogs changing out of their preferred zone defense, the 3-pointers continued a bit and opened things up inside the arc.
Thankfully, Prairie Valley’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring 18 points and cutting the lead down to 38-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same, though a different player for Ector started to get hot from beyond the arc. Even as the Bulldogs were able to keep up their offensive production from the second quarter, they could not break through and cut the game to single-digits, trailing 54-42 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie Valley break through to cut it the lead to single-digits, but just not close enough. Every time the Bulldogs were on the cusp of making it a one or two basket game, the Eagles would make a shot to keep that distance.
In the end, the final score was the closest Prairie Valley got as Ector won 69-63.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians bounced back with a competitive district win at Petrolia on Friday.
The Indians won 60-53 against the Pirates in a game where the middle quarters took drastic swings in momentum.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss against Windthorst as the team sat a 1-1 district record.
Petrolia came into the game at 0-1, but had a bit more time to prepare for the game.
The first quarter was competitive, but the Indians were able to get to the free throw line at will and led 16-11.
Then Nocona’s pressure defense turned up its intensity in the second quarter.
“Our pressure seemed to disrupt them and we were able to get out in transition after forcing turnovers,” Coach Brody Wilson said.
Nocona scored 25 points and led 41-25 at halftime.
Unfortunately, that intensity did not keep up at the start of the third quarter for Nocona.
The Indians took their foot off the gas a little bit which allowed Petrolia’s offense to get back into the game and make up some of the deficit.
The Pirates outscored Nocona 15-7 and trailed only 48-40 heading into the final period.
Thankfully, the Indians bounced back and competed a bit better in the fourth quarter. Nocona was able to keep offensive pace to keep Petrolia at a bit of a distance instead of making it a one score game.
The Indians held on to win 60-53.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871971&T=1
-
NEWS2 years ago2 hurt, 1 jailed after shooting incident north of Nocona
-
NEWS1 year agoSuspect indicted, jailed in Tia Hutson murder
-
NEWS2 years agoSO investigating possible murder/suicide
-
NEWS2 years agoWreck takes the life of BHS teen, 16
-
NEWS1 year agoMurder unsolved – 1 year later Tia Hutson’s family angry, frustrated with no arrest
-
NEWS2 years ago
Sheriff’s office called out to infant’s death
-
NEWS2 years agoBowie Police face three-hour standoff after possible domestic fight
-
NEWS2 years ago
Driver stopped by a man running into the street, robbed at knifepoint