SPORTS

Crabb ready for big school challenge

Published

5 years ago

04/24/2019

Last week Bowie Independent School District named Garden City Coach Joe Crabb its newest coach to take over the girl’s basketball program.
A 26-year veteran coaching girl’s high school basketball and amassing 600 plus wins, Crabb’s four year run at Garden City where his teams went 114-17 along with his high character personal reputation around the state were some of the factors that led to his hiring.
Born in Sayre, OK, Crabb graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1991 with a bachelor of science in business administration and accounting. In 1993 he added a bachelor of science in education.
Crabb initially was looking to be a football and baseball coach, but could not outrun his family’s legacy.
“My dad and brothers were girl’s basketball coaches in western Oklahoma and had a lot of success up there,” Crabb said. “Just because of who they were when I started looking for a job people wanted me to come coach girls basketball.”
Crabb spent his first three years at Erick High School from 1993-1995. Oklahoma was still playing the six-on-six format during this time as it was the last state to eliminate it.
Crabb then moved on to Silverton out in West Texas, where he coached for three years before moving to Strawn.
At Strawn Crabb was coach for 17 years from 1998-2015. There he raised his family and coached both of his daughters. While five of his teams reached the regional finals during this time, they fell just short of state tournament appearances.
Crabb has been at Garden City the past four seasons. The 2017 team saw one of Crabb’s teams advance to the state tournament for the first time. During his four years the Lady Cats spent many weeks listed amongst the top teams in the state in the several coach’s polls.
One of the attractions to the Bowie job was its proximity to his parents in Oklahoma and his daughters families. Also after 26 years coaching at 1A schools, Crabb has always been intrigued by what it would be like coaching at a bigger school.
“Honestly, that is something I have looked at and people have asked me about a lot and it has really intrigued me to try out,” Crabb said.
Along with the reputation the Bowie girl’s basketball program has around the state Crabb is happy he got the job.
While at Strawn his teams shot a lot of three-pointers since he had a lot of good shooters. At Garden City the shooting was not quite as good, but the size and athleticism were better so his teams concentrated on that.
A staple at both schools has been his team’s use of defensive pressure to disrupt offenses and create scoring opportunities.
“Playing the 1-2-2 and just pressing people,” Crabb said. “Doing some stuff in the half court and causing people a lot of trouble. Making it difficult to score and taking them out of their comfort zone.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

District awards for 1A released

Published

10 hours ago

05/18/2024

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Bellevue’s Bryce Ramsey was named his district’s newcomer of the year.

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

Published

11 hours ago

05/18/2024

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Forestburg boys basketball coach Eldon Van Hooser helped lead the program to its first playoff win in nine years in his last year coaching.

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

Published

3 days ago

05/15/2024

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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.