SPORTS
Lady Rabbits lose to Ponder 3-1
The Bowie Lady Rabbits came into Tuesday night’s home game on a high.
Following a great performance at the Godley tournament that saw the Lady Rabbits beat two state-ranked teams, one twice, saw Bowie rise all the way to number 10 in 3A after not being previously ranked.
Unfortunately, things would eventually come back down to earth for the Lady Rabbits as they lost a frustrating game to Ponder 3-1.
The first set saw Bowie play well throughout. Jumping out to an early 7-3 lead, even when the Lady Lions came back to cut it to 8-7, the Lady Rabbits were playing with the lead for the whole set.
The lead quickly went back up to four 17-13 where Bowie was able to keep them at bay as it won 25-21.
The second set was more of the same. The opening points were back and forth with the Lady Rabbits holding a small 8-7 lead. From there Bowie played its best stretch of the night as it went on a 13-3 run to build a huge 20-10 lead.
It looked like the Lady Rabbits were headed for another set victory that would have put them 2-0, but something happened after a timeout.
Ponder, who had been making a lot of self-inflicted errors, including from the service line, started to tighten things up. Bowie had been solid for the most part in their serve-receive, but things started to snowball on them.
Hitting errors and inconsistent serve-receive passes did not add up to a good thing for a Lady Rabbits’ team that all of sudden had trouble scoring one point.
The Lady Lions came all the way back to tie the set at 23-23. Bowie retook the lead and had match point 24-23, but Ponder scored the next three points to steal the set and tie the match at 1-1.
While the Lady Rabbits hoped to put that set behind them, the match was different afterward. The early third set was close with the score tied 5-5 and then 10-10. Quickly, unlike in sets one or two, the Lady Lions were able to build a big lead going on a 9-1 run to go up 19-11.
Another bad stretch of serve-receive and inefficient offense was the culprit again and Ponder was not bailing Bowie out with service errors.
The Lady Rabbits turned things around to eventually cut the lead to three, but it was too little too late as the Lady Lions won set three 25-21 to take the match lead 2-1.
Bowie needed to win set four if it wanted to force a fifth set for a chance to win. Hoping some of the momentum from the end of set three, that saw the Lady Rabbits go on a 10-6 run, would be able to shake off the last two sets.
The early points had some of the same feeling to it. Ponder was able to get an early 12-8 lead. Bowie was able to make it up with solid play and great blocking as the score was tied at 18-18.
From this point, neither team was able to get much of an advantage.
The teams exchanged points all the way up to being tied 22-22. From there, the Lady Lions were able to convert the final three points to win the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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.
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.
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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