SPORTS
Sports district realignment released
On Thursday morning, the University Interscholastic League released the district realignment for the 2024-2026 school years.
When the cutoff numbers came out during December, there were no big splashes for any area school moving up or down from the current status quo, but that does not mean there were no big changes.
Bowie is in an almost brand new football district, with only Iowa Park and Vernon returning. The other schools are familiar, but have not recently been in the Jackrabbits district.
The teams are Boyd, Paradise, Peaster, Ponder, Iowa Park and Vernon. While more than half the teams made the playoffs last year, only Paradise threatened for the district title.
The big news is there is no blue-blooded state-ranked every year opponent sitting at the top of the district that Bowie will have to endure like Brock or Jim Ned were expected to be.
Bowie had no other changes to its district layout in other sports. Holliday, Henrietta, Jacksboro, City View, Iowa Park and Vernon return to compete in every other sport.
Outside of district play is the news state power Brock is not just removed from the region, but out of the conference as the Eagles move up to 4A. Playoff runs will no longer die at the hands of Brock like so many Bowie teams have in the past.
For Nocona, the Indians staying in 2A was the biggest news back in December. Looking at the new football district, there is only one difference. Alvord, Tioga, Tom Bean, Trenton and Whitewright are all back. The district added one new team, Wolfe City. The Wolves finished in third place in their district the previous three seasons.
The basketball district stays the same except for the addition of Electra. Nocona will stay be in a district with Archer City, Olney, Petrolia, Seymour and Windthorst.
The biggest change is the Lady Indians volleyball district. Nocona moves from region II to region I and has a whole new district. Archer City, Olney and Petrolia are in it, but the big news is the inclusion of volleyball state power Windthorst.
For the 1A programs, some big changes came in the football districts. Gold-Burg and Forestburg moved out of region II to region III and will again be in a district with only Fannindel.
After two tough seasons sharing a district with Newcastle and Strawn, going back to a familiar opponent and a scenario where one win can get a team into the playoffs is welcomed.
For Saint Jo, the only change to its football district comes with the inclusion of Leverett’s Chapel, a team that won its district with ease the past two seasons. The Panthers will again have a long trip and tough team to play for the district title with Union Hill returning as well.
Campbell and Savoy have not been challenging for Saint Jo the past several seasons, so the addition of another playoff team will make the district schedule tougher.
The basketball district stays almost the same as Bellevue, Gold-Burg, Saint Jo, Forestburg, Prairie Valley and Midway return. The big news is the departure of district power Slidell as the Greyhounds moved up to 2A. With both boy’s and girl’s teams having won the district title almost every year for the past decade, it’s a big deal for the rest of the schools.
Also included in the good news is the departure of state-power Graford, which moved up to 2A, and Gordon moving out of the region.
In volleyball, the district stays the same as only area schools Bellevue, Forestburg, Saint Jo, Gold-Burg and Prairie Valley return.
The biggest change comes with two-time defending state champs Blum moving out of the region. Saint Jo has fallen each of the last two seasons to the Lady Cats in the regional final. Still, Harrold is coming off a state tournament appearance and will prove tough for the Lady Panthers in the upcoming season, according to volleyball Coach Kelly Skidmore.
This is just the district alignment for football, basketball and volleyball high school sports. Alignments for all other events will be releases in the spring of 2024.
To see the full breakdown of all of the new districts across the state in those three sports, you can go to the UIL website at https://www.uiltexas.org/alignments.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1
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