SPORTS
Bowie teen joins FC Dallas ECNL Regional team
A Bowie teen is advancing up the youth soccer totem pole after making it onto a prestigious club team.
Zac Ivy, the 14-year-old son of Chanda and Steve Ivy, aced a tryout for the FC Dallas 15U Club playing in the Elite Clubs National League on the regional level as the team’s lone goalie.
The ECNL is considered to be a higher level of play, with a more rigorous schedule and higher level of talent.
Ivy has been playing soccer since he was three years old, getting his start playing in the Montague County League at Pelhelm Park.
When he was scoring too much in games, his coach would put him in goal so he would not run up the score and give other kids a chance which is where he first fell in love with the challenge and pressure of being the goalie.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Zac said. “It’s fun. Sometimes I don’t like it since it’s a lot of pressure. If you mess up, it’s kind of tough, but I don’t know. It’s just fun. It’s something different than playing out on the field.”
The player he most looks up to at the professional level is longtime Mexican National Team goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.
Chanda wanted her kids to try a lot of different things growing up so Zac spent time playing baseball, spent 11 years taking dance, still practices piano and tried basketball of course because he lives in Bowie.
As he has gotten older and it became apparent Zac’s passion was soccer, the family has had to look outside the county for more opportunities for him to play. He played for the Wise County team in Decatur, in Wichita Falls and currently plays for an indoor soccer league first in Keller and not Carrollton.
In recent years he has come back to Bowie to play on a travel team coached by Chad Word, which set up the scenario where he has had to play against his old team in Decatur.
The original date for the tryouts for the FC Dallas Youth teams were in early July, but the family was not aware of them at the time.
The coach of the team, David Hoffman, who also has coached at the University of Dallas contacted them in late July for a tryout since the team’s most recent goalie got a position in Australia.
Usually, Hoffman told them he needs about three practices to get a feel for a player before he can make a call of whether they are on the team. After the first practice, Hoffman informed Ivy he was on the team.
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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