SPORTS
Basketball team receives rings
Two months and 11 days after winning the 3A state championship in San Antonio, the Bowie Jackrabbit boy’s basketball team received their championship rings on Monday at the Bowie sports banquet.
Almost immediately following the game, on the five hour ride home, the team got together and started going through the process of making design decisions for the ring, since they would not reconvene in more than a week since it was about to be spring break.
“They all agreed first they wanted the state of Texas with the B on top,” assistant coach at the time Jonathon Horton said. “Then we agreed we wanted the “We Make Mission” logo on the side.”
They wanted to put the Alamodome logo since it was where the championship was won, but the company that makes the rings did not own the copyright to the Alamodome.
The “We Make Mission” logo was based on the Alamodome logo and is different enough to avoid copyright.
With this addition, the rings cost a bit extra, around $250 each, since they featured a custom logo and a larger size. The school and several donators, including Dr. Josh Evans, helped pay for 30 rings for players, coaches, managers, trainers and school officials.
All three of the coaches on staff bought their wives a pendent necklace out of pocket.
The other side of the ring features a basketball, the player’s last name and number. The inside of the ring has the score from the championship game, Bowie 32 and Mount Vernon 28.
During the design process, the team was lucky to have access to several examples as then head coach Doug Boxell had won five state championships.
It was the first time any of the players or staff had seen any of his championship rings. Throughout the whole process, the players made the decisions as a team, with near unanimous agreement.
As the rings were presented, the players looked down at what for many is their first piece of jewelry, with pride. Besides maybe a necklace, not many teenage boys wear jewelry, let alone rings.
“Most of them, that’s the first ring they have ever had in their life,” Horton said. “They all smiled and were all excited to put them on immediately and wore them for the rest of the night. The next day, several of them wore them to school and continue to wear them, but several of the players have already locked theirs up since they have heard stories of people losing theirs.”
Whether it becomes a permanent accessory to people’s wardrobe or not, what the ring represents and the memories it will evoke years down the line is what matters more than any cool design.
To have a visual representation of an achievement is something to be cherished.
To read more, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a good final non-district warm-up on Friday at home against Ector.
The Eagles beat the Bulldogs 69-63 in a game where Prairie Valley was trying to play catch up all the way through.
The Bulldogs were coming off a tough tournament at Electra the previous week to try and knock the holiday rust off. Prairie Valley was familiar with Ector, having played the team to start its season back in early November and was hoping to compete better than it did in that first game.
The Eagles came out firing, splashing five 3-pointers, including several deep ones, to go out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter. Even with the Bulldogs changing out of their preferred zone defense, the 3-pointers continued a bit and opened things up inside the arc.
Thankfully, Prairie Valley’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring 18 points and cutting the lead down to 38-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same, though a different player for Ector started to get hot from beyond the arc. Even as the Bulldogs were able to keep up their offensive production from the second quarter, they could not break through and cut the game to single-digits, trailing 54-42 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie Valley break through to cut it the lead to single-digits, but just not close enough. Every time the Bulldogs were on the cusp of making it a one or two basket game, the Eagles would make a shot to keep that distance.
In the end, the final score was the closest Prairie Valley got as Ector won 69-63.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians bounced back with a competitive district win at Petrolia on Friday.
The Indians won 60-53 against the Pirates in a game where the middle quarters took drastic swings in momentum.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss against Windthorst as the team sat a 1-1 district record.
Petrolia came into the game at 0-1, but had a bit more time to prepare for the game.
The first quarter was competitive, but the Indians were able to get to the free throw line at will and led 16-11.
Then Nocona’s pressure defense turned up its intensity in the second quarter.
“Our pressure seemed to disrupt them and we were able to get out in transition after forcing turnovers,” Coach Brody Wilson said.
Nocona scored 25 points and led 41-25 at halftime.
Unfortunately, that intensity did not keep up at the start of the third quarter for Nocona.
The Indians took their foot off the gas a little bit which allowed Petrolia’s offense to get back into the game and make up some of the deficit.
The Pirates outscored Nocona 15-7 and trailed only 48-40 heading into the final period.
Thankfully, the Indians bounced back and competed a bit better in the fourth quarter. Nocona was able to keep offensive pace to keep Petrolia at a bit of a distance instead of making it a one score game.
The Indians held on to win 60-53.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871971&T=1
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