SPORTS

Volleyball Roundup

Published

9 months ago

08/12/2023

Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians started their season on Tuesday with two games at home.
The Lady Indians beat S&S Consolidated in straight sets 3-0, but lost to former district opponent Henrietta 3-1 afterwards.
Nocona came into the games and season with a lot of big expectations after falling to eventual state runners-up Lindsay in the playoffs and losing few players to graduation.
Against the Lady Rams, the Lady Indians had little trouble throughout the match. Nocona took control midway through the first set and won 25-16. S&S then got nothing going in the second set as the Lady Indians ran away with it 25-8.
The third set was only a bit more competitive, but the Lady Rams came back at the end to make the final score look closer than the set actually was as Nocona won 25-20.
The match against the Lady Cats followed after a bit of a break for the Lady Indians. Henrietta was also coming off a season after going three rounds deep in the playoffs, hoping to get back to challenging for the district title in their competitive district.
Nocona came out on fire, winning the first set 25-12 and looking like it might run away with the match. The second set was the closest of the match and went into extra-points, but unfortunately the Lady Cats won 26-24 to tie the score up at 1-1.
The Lady Indians could not recover after losing the second set. Henrietta won the third set 25-20 and the fourth set 25-14 to win the match 3-1.

Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Lady Bears opened their season against 2A Petrolia at home on Tuesday night.
The Lady Bears almost came back from two sets down, but fell short as the Lady Pirates won in five sets 3-2.
Gold-Burg has a lot of new faces this year and playing a bigger school, it was going to be tough for the Lady Bears.
Petrolia came through early in the match, winning the first two sets 25-21 and 25-19.
Then Gold-Burg turned it up a level with its back against the wall. The Lady Bears won the third set 25-22 and the fourth set 25-17 to force a fifth and final set.
Even with all of the momentum, the shorter final set magnifies any run a team can make.
Petrolia won 15-10 to get the win.

Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs lost their opening game of the season at private school Christ Academy in Wichita Falls.
The Lady Warriors won in straight sets against the Lady Bulldogs.
Playing a school with several new transfers that is supposed to make them a lot better than they were last year made the game not as competitive when it was first scheduled. Prairie Valley lost with set scores being 25-13, 25-8 and 25-19.

Bellevue
The Bellevue Lady Eagles started off their season earlier this week with two tough losses against formidable opponents on the road.
The Lady Eagles lost in straight sets against Harrold and Chico on Monday and Tuesday.
The first game against the Lady Hornets was always going to be tough. Harrold turned its program around last year and went three rounds deep in the playoffs. They won quickly against Bellevue with scores 25-10, 25-5, 25-5 and not much Coach Mollee Kirk could be positive about.
The second game against 2A Chico on Tuesday was a bit of improvement from the first match. Even though the Lady Dragons won with similarly one-sided scores 25-10, 25-8, 25-0, Kirk thought her team played a lot better from the previous day.

Missing scores
Bowie and Saint Jo game information from Tuesday was not turned in. Forestburg did not play earlier this week.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

District awards for 1A released

Published

4 hours ago

05/18/2024

bowienews

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

5 hours ago

05/18/2024

bowienews

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

bowienews

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.