SPORTS
Magazine predicts football season
With football practices starting next week, now would be as good a time for fans to look through Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine.
printed every year since 1960, over the decades it has been the dubbed, “The Bible of Texas Football.”
No other publication does the exhaustive work of trying to preview all of the more than 1,500 high school and private school football teams in the state at once.
It also previews Texas college and pro teams as well as recruiting, but for a lot of communities, seeing their high school and player’s names in print as part of the definitive preview of Texas High School football is the big kicker.
Also parts of it are the little blurbs written about every team, which everyone wishes were longer or more in depth.
Some are longer than others, especially those from renowned programs and bigger schools that get regular regional coverage.
Some of it can lie with the coaches, who have to fill out and return questionnaires during a busy spring season while also dealing with athletic director duties. A lot of stuff can change from when that questionnaire was sent back in terms of kids moving in or out of the district as well as a different coach leading the team that fall.
Some of it can be reflected back to the Texas Football staffers, who probably have to write hundreds of previews at once with little information to go on some times.
All of this is to say, as highly regarded as “The Bible of Texas Football” is, fans cannot always take the high school previews to heart.
Besides the blurbs and key players mentioned, there are pre-season state rankings and district predictions.
Again, with little to go on for staffers for some districts and hundreds to predict, most are surface level guesses.
It’s not surprising in that sense Bowie is picked to finish last in the 3-3A division I district.
Coming off a 1-9 record last year, with Coach Tyler Price taking over and most of the team’s leading offensive skill players graduated from last year, this season from the outside will look like a rebuild of sorts.
Some of it might prove to be overblown since Price seems committed to turn around a program he grew up in and the team returning many key role players and lineman on both sides of the ball.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
District awards for 1A released
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.
SPORTS
Forestburg coach retiring
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.
SPORTS
Bowie Sports Banquet
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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