SPORTS
Langford coming back home
Nocona is welcoming back Coach Sandy Langford, former coach and alumnus for the Lady Indians, as its new volleyball head coach.
Langford comes back to Nocona after spending the past 11 years leading the Glen Rose volleyball program.
Her circumstances with her family allowed her to jump at the opportunity once she became aware the position at Nocona was available.
“My youngest graduated and is playing football at Midwestern (State University),” Langford said. “All of our family is here and I knew that Coach Kara (Lucherk) was leaving. We were eventually going to retire here. Our oldest son plays college football at West Texas A&M and we’ll be two hours closer to him as well.”
She again will lead the Lady Indians volleyball program, one that she led all the way to the state title game in 2011, which is the farthest the volleyball program has ever gone in its prestigious history.
Langford kept up that level of success during her 11 years at the bigger 4A Glen Rose. She won less than 20 games only twice during her time, winning her 500th career game back in 2023. Her teams were ranked among the top 10 in the state five times and Langford led Glen Rose to the state tournament in 2017, the best finish in program history.
With the Lady Indians also having its own string of success, appearing in back-to-back regional finals while finishing atop the district standings both years, Langford is excited to not just keep the success going, but shoot for the stars.
“We are not expecting anything less than a state championship,” Langford said.
She has stacked the non-district schedule with strong, state-ranked 3A and 4A teams as well as big tournaments that will test Nocona’s mettle early next season in the hopes it will prepare them for a long playoff run.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona and Forestburg had differing results to the starts of their volleyball playoffs Oct. 30.
No.7 in Class 2A Nocona opened with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-12, 25-11 win over Quanah. Ava Johnson, who recorded her 1,000th kill earlier in the week, led the way with 15 kills. She added 10 digs and two blocks.
Sy Parker added seven kills and two blocks. Maddyn Bowles had four kills and served up two aces while Aubrie Kabisch had three kills and had 10 digs. Aubree Kleinhans led the way with 11 digs and also in aces with five. Kasi Castro had eight assists and served three aces. Jolie Rose had 17 assists and six digs.
For further information, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bellevue, in its first volleyball playoff game in school history, gave it a solid shot Saturday against Crowell but a powerful front court enabled the Lady ‘Cats to move on in the Class A playoffs with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-18) win over the Lady Eagles.
Bellevue Coach Jamie Hickey was proud of her squad’s effort.
“We played how I expected for a team to play in their first ever playoff game,” Hickey said following the match at Iowa Park High. “Definitely some areas were noticed that need some work, but lots of room for growth and to build.”
For further information, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
In the playoffs, being consistent is even more important than the regular season.
Bowie’s consistency ebbed and flowed Oct. 30 in its bi-district volleyball matchup with Peaster. The Lady ‘Hounds were able to capitalize on that and wound up knocking the Lady Rabbits out of the postseason with a 3-0 (25-14, 25-11, 25-19) win at Graham High School.
Bowie Coach Ashley Sanders said her squad never completely got on track.
“When you get to this level, into the postseason, you have to find the rhythm and that consistency and Peaster definitely had that,” Sanders said. “We struggled to find our consistency. We had our moments where we tied together some really good plays.”
For further information, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
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