SPORTS
STORM CENTER COLUMN: Give it a fair start
The University Interscholastic League state track and field meet is one week away, and the anticipating is building.
Forestburg’s Skyler Sandusky will be Montague County’s first athlete to compete – on Thursday at 5 p.m. in the high jump.
Sandusky will compete again on Friday in the long jump and the 400-meter dash finals.
Bowie’s entrants are Addy Cook and Kamryn Cantwell, and those Lady Rabbits will hit the stage at Mike A. Myers Stadium on Saturday in the triple jump and 400 dash respectively.
There’s more than meets the eye what happens at a track and field meet, and there are many interlocking parts in this well-oiled machine.
And perhaps the most important role belongs to the starter.
“The starter has two roles,” said Jacksboro head track and field coach Joel Hood, who served in the same capacity at Bowie for the entire course of the 1990s.
“They can dictate that pace of a meet,” Hood said. “If they are active and on the ball, they’ll make sure the runners are ready to go.”
Hood said the other role is to make sure rules are adhered to.
“Athletes can feed off the attitude of the starter,” he said.
Starters must command a presence, and they need to speak from an authoritative position.
For the past few years, Hood has employed Fairfield-based Thomas Baxter as the starter. Baxter filled the role at Jacksboro’s regular-season meet as well as the District 3A-8 and Area 3A-7/8 meets.
Baxter brings along with himself his own public address system, which helps add clout to his official capacity.
“His experience as a starter makes him an invaluable part of the meet,” Hood said. “Another reason why I use him is he doesn’t have any local ties.”
That means the starter will have an unbiased, qualified, professional interpretation of the rules. Read more from this column in the May 6 edition.
Editor’s Note: The Storm Center column is the expressed written views of sports editor Eric Viccaro and not The Bowie News.
Thomas Baxter has worked as a starter at the Jacksboro Invitational, District 3A-8 and Area 3A-7/8 meets this year in Jacksboro. Baxter is certified through U.S.A. Track and Field. (News photo by Eric Viccaro)
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.
The 72nd Chisholm Trail Rodeo was a big success on Friday and Saturday nights at Nocona.
The rodeo had big crowds and saw some good competition from both local and far reaching talent.
Winners in the events included Zach Hibler in bareback riding, Lindsey Muggli in barrel racing, Ashley Goforth in breakaway roping, Leanardo Lima in bull riding, Cody McCartney in calf roping, Thomas Moellering in ranch bronc riding, Wacey Hathcock in saddle bronc riding, Renato Finazzi in steer wrestling, Rowdy Jones and Rance Doyal in team roping.
To see full results and more pictures, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The regional tennis tournaments were late last week in North Richland Hills and a doubles team is moving on to state.
The Saint Jo girl’s doubles team Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the 1A region III tournament and will return to state for the second straight year.
The pair rolled through teams from Morgan, Dodd City, Priddy before beating a Graford team in the finals. The pair did not lose a set and only lost five of the 53 games it played, never losing more than one in a set.
The team made it to state last year after finishing second at regionals and won a match at the state meet against a team from Vernon Northside. They then lost to the eventual state champion team from Utopia and finished tied for third place.
They will be the only tennis players from Montague County playing at state this week as others did not have as successful regional tournament.
The Saint Jo teammates and fellow girl’s doubles team Bailie Nobile and Maxey Johnson won their first match against Ector 6-1, 6-4, but fell in their next match against Lometa, 6-1, 6-1.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter was competing in boy’s singles. His first match was a draining two and half hour battle against a player from Strawn Carpenter came through in the three-set battle, winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
Unfortunately, the magic was not there in the second game. Paired against the eventual tournament champion from Gustine, Carpenter lost 6-0, 6-1.
From Gold-Burg, Alyson Rojas and Jimena Garcia competed in girl’s singles. Rojas won her first match against a girl from Avinger 7-6, 6-2. Unfortunately, the next match she lost to a girl from Graford 6-0, 6-0 to end her tournament.
Garcia lost a tough first match against a player from Ector. Both sets could have gone either way with the scores being 6-4, 7-5 to the winner.
The mixed doubles team from Forestburg, Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros, also did not make it through.
From Nocona, Kaygan Stone was playing in the girl’s singles 2A region II tournament.
Unfortunately, she got paired against the player who would go on to win the tournament in the first round to end her season.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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