SPORTS
Volleyball Playoffs Roundup
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians finally got past Brock on Thursday night in their bi-district game.
The Lady Indians beat the two-seed 3-1 at Mineral Wells to continue their season into the area round.
The Lady Eagles program has haunted this senior class, ending their playoff runs in volleyball in two years and in basketball the last two seasons.
Nocona came out fired up to start the game, blitzing Brock in the first set to win 25-11. The Lady Eagles got some things going and won the second set 25-17 to tie the match up.
The next two sets were both competitive and required execution down the stretch of both to come away with the win. In both sets the Lady Indians did winning 25-22 and 25-21 to win the match 3-1.
Nocona is scheduled to play Sonora in the area round on Nov. 2-3. Playoff information is not yet known.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs came back to beat Perrin-Whitt in the bi-district playoff game in five sets on Thursday.
The Lady Bulldogs won the final two sets to win 3-2 against the Lady Pirates.
Perrin-Whitt won the first and third sets in a competitive way 25-20 and 25-21 to take a 2-1 lead.
Facing match set, Prairie Valley buckled down and took control of the fourth set to win 25-16. In the fifth set the Lady Bulldogs were still running off of that momemtum as they built a lead and won 15-9, winning the match 3-2.
Emily Carpenter had a career high 31 kills and also passed out 17 assists. Veronica Gutierrez led the team with 27 assists and Brianna Harris came up big with four blocks at the net to go along with 12 kills.
Details for the area game are still being worked out, but the Lady Bulldogs are planning for the game to be played on Nov. 2.
Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Lady Bears won their bi-district playoff game against Graford on Thursday night.
The Lady Bears got the win in four sets winning 3-1, with the last two sets won with authority.
After splitting the first two sets that could have gone either way with scores 25-23 Gold-Burg and 25-21 Lady Rabbits, the Lady Bears took their play to another level. Gold-Burg won set three 25-17 and set four 25-18 to win the match.
It is the program’s second bi-district win in the last three seasons. Gold-Burg hopes to add an area win to the list of accomplishments this season.
The Lady Bears play Evant at 7 p.m. at Goldley on Nov. 3.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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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