SPORTS
DCTF previews local football season
With less than a month before practices start, it time to start thinking about high school football.
One part of that is a Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine, a yearly magazine that gives a preview of every Texas high school and college football team for 64 years. It is lovingly called “The Bible” of Texas high school football.
Trying to cover the whole state and sending questionnaires to coaches as early as the spring, before some teams even have a coach hired, means there are some blind spots. As well as a team preview, every district gets a surface level preview of the final standings.
These predictions are not gospel, but it is the first bit of expectations teams can start to have about themselves heading into the season. Teams can either use it as fire if they are picked to finish lower than they think they are or as validation and the first outside weight of expectation if they are state favorites.
For Bowie, playing in a new district 3A-4 in division I, the Jackrabbits are predicted to finish seventh. Bowie went 1-8 last season in Tyler Price’s first year as head coach. The team is expected to return 16 of 22 starters on both sides of the ball according to the magazine.
For Nocona, the Indians are predicted to take a step back. After winning the district title and going 8-2 last year, Nocona lost half of their starters to graduation and is picked to finish fifth in the district, just missing the playoffs.
Trying to replace several four year starters on both sides of the ball is a hard task for Coach Blake Crutsinger and his staff, but several underclassmen showed promise last year. With it being largely the same district, familiarity should be pretty high for the Indians as they know the level they need to get to.
Of all the teams in the county, Saint Jo, as usual, has the highest expectations from outsiders looking in. The Panthers went 6-5 last year to finish second in the district to state-ranked Union Hill and lost in bi-district round of the playoffs to eventual state champs Gordon.
Saint Jo returns eight of its 12 starters from last year, including its top two offensive weapons. The biggest change will be on the sideline. CJ Hanz takes over for the beloved Mark Stevens. Hanz comes from an equally successful Throckmorton program.
What he and the staff brings will be the biggest difference since the Panthers are again expected to finish second to Union Hill in the district despite being ranked 16th in the state in 1A.
For Gold-Burg and Forestburg, both are relieved to no longer be in a district with Strawn and Newcastle.
The two programs are now back in an only three-team district with familiar Fannindel. While the Falcons have traditionally been at the top of the district in the past, Fannindel losses five seniors and is expected to be rebuilding which leaves the door open for the Bears and Longhorns.
Gold-Burg is going to have to recover from losing two four-year starters to graduation, including a talent like Jayon Grace that seemed to give the Bears a chance no matter what, but returns almost everyone else from the last several seasons.
This generation of Gold-Burg athlete is used to the team winning. Despite falling just short of the playoffs last year, the team went 6-4 and beating the bigger Saint Jo program for the first time in 12 years was almost just as important. Several will have to step up to do it together with no outlying talent at the top to rely on.
With that in mind, the Bears were picked to win the district title in the magazine.
For Forestburg, the Longhorns are picked to finish second in the district. Forestburg is in a similar boat, losing two four year starters that were their top talent from last year.
The Longhorns went 1-8, but the continuity of several key seniors all coming together, a raved about freshman class along with the team being more competitive than that record indicate is what gives them the edge over the unknown Fannindel team according to outside sources.
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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