SPORTS
Bellevue launches first volleyball season
For the first time in school history, Bellevue will be starting volleyball practices next week.
Picked to lead the Lady Eagles into a new sport is Mollee Kirk, a 22-year-old 2019 graduate from Windthorst who got both her bachelor’s and master’s in business administration at Texas Tech University in four years.
She also was helping coach during her time at college at Lubbock’s Southcrest Christian School and had most recently coached her sister’s club team.
Despite that time put in, Kirk was not initially planning to pursue coaching and was instead working as an area manager at Amazon this spring before she was contacted by Bellevue, on a tip from one of her old coaches at Windthorst, to talk about its new volleyball program.
“I didn’t realize it was going to be an interview, but it was,” Kirk said. “They said they would get back with me in a couple of weeks and two days later they offered the job.”
After thinking it over for a time, Kirk accepted knowing she could have more of an impact on young girl’s lives than if she stayed on at Amazon.
Kirk was a multi-sport athlete at Windthorst, but her main sport and passion she poured 10 years into was volleyball. She was a middle-blocker who was named to the Texas Sports Writers Association all-state third team and the Texas Girls Coaches Association all-state first team in both her junior and senior seasons.
That playing experience along with the coaching experience she got in college will be needed as Bellevue is starting from the beginning as only a couple of girls in the program have played the sport at all.
“They are super eager and excited to learn,” Kirk said. “They listen whenever I give them critiques. They are excited for this new sport. The good thing about it is most of the girls are younger, like freshman or sophomores, so we will be able to build it so that in a couple of years when they are upperclassmen we can compete.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend 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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