SPORTS
STORM CENTER: Texas plays classic with Toronto
Wednesday wasn’t the easiest sports day for me – well, from a fan perspective that is.
My first priority was to cover the District 1A-21 cross country meet at Twisted Oaks Golf Club near Amon G. Carter Lake.
That meant only casually glancing to check the score from Game Five of the American League Championship Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers.
Interestingly enough, junior high school awards were presented just as the seventh inning was about to begin.
Yes, that seventh inning – which spanned 53 minutes inside Rogers Centre, the building formerly known as the SkyDome.
Toronto Blue Jay Jose Bautista said the only time he experienced a seventh inning like that was in winter ball.
The seventh inning had everything a baseball fan could ask for; it was like going to one of the many buffet lines at the Golden Corral.
It was the greatest seventh inning I never saw live – only with accounts through Major League Baseball’s gameday scoreboard service and the radio. I later saw highlights and cobbled together some notes for this piece.
There were questionable umpiring decisions, a benches-clearing incident, errors aplenty, and Bautista’s bat flip heard around the world.
Yes, I became a Blue Jays fan this season, and that’s because Toronto general manager Alex Anthopolous traded for third baseman Josh Donaldson.
Donaldson is my favorite current player in baseball, and he plays the game like my favorite third baseman all time in Michael Jack Schmidt of the 548 home runs and Hall of Fame career.
I know you Rangers are dealing with heartbreak, and I can say I have been there, too. After all, I grew up in Connecticut rooting for the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Phillies have lost the most games in major league baseball, with more than 10,000 of them. They lost several times in the National League Championship Series.
Philadelphia lost to Baltimore in the 1983 World Series after winning the first game. The Phillies lost to the Blue Jays in 1993 as Joe Carter smacked an epic home run off reliever Mitch Williams in Game Six. Read more of this column in the weekend edition of The Bowie News.
Editor’s Note: The Storm Center column is the expressed written views of sports editor Eric Viccaro and not The Bowie News.
Texas Rangers. (Graphic provided by the team and Major League Baseball, used with permission)
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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