On the heels of announcing our first-ever Big Country Preps Girls Athlete of the Year, it’s now time to announce our first boys winner.
Again, our Athlete of the Year and subsequent “Super Dozen” represent the Big Country Athletes who contributed the most to their athletic programs — most often over a broad range of disciplines.
So, at this time, Big Country Preps proudly announces its Boys Athlete of the Year: Kevin Yeager of De Leon.
An Athlete of the Year award for the Big Country has been a long time coming, and Big Country Preps is officially ending the wait.
What better way to end our first school year than by honoring our top all-around athletes. By that, we mean those athletes who competed at a high level over a broad range of disciplines and had the biggest overall impact on their athletic programs (as nominated by area athletic directors).
So without further ado, we proudly announce our first Big Country Preps Girls Athlete of the Year: Anna Masonheimer of Eula.
From start to finish, Masonheimer was a key contributor to Eula’s athletic success during the 2018-19 school year, beginning with her helping the EHS cross country team reach the regional meet.
She was the MVP of Eula’s district champion basketball team, earning all state honors from both the Texas Association of Basketball coaches and the Texas Girls Coaches Association. But she was just getting started at that point.
Football is fast approaching, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Friday, Aug. 16. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Running through the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 5, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2019 as part of our “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
After featuring Munday on Saturday, we stay in Class 2A Division II with the Roscoe Plowboys. On Monday, we will take a look at the Cross Plains Buffaloes, followed by the Haskell Indians on Tuesday.
Football is fast approaching, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Friday, Aug. 16. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Starting today and running through the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 5, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2019 as part of our “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
We start in Class 2A with the Munday Moguls. Sunday we will take a quick look at the Roscoe Plowboys, followed by the Cross Plains Buffaloes on Monday.
COLLEGE STATION — The Jim Ned football team rebounded from a 1-2 run through pool action Friday to reach the Division 2 semifinals at the Texas State 7-on-7 Championships on Saturday at Veterans Park and Athletic Complex.
The Indians, the Big Country’s only team in Division II or III to win a bracket play game, defeated Stafford (28-19), Graham (39-27) and Dumas (47-41), before seeing their run end with a 13-12 loss to eventual champion Sunnyvale in the semis.
COLLEGE STATION — With 64 teams hitting the field on Day 1 of the Texas State 7-on-7 Championships, the picture became a bit clearer by day’s end, though not a single team was eliminated.
All 32 teams in both the Division II and Division III tournaments were guaranteed a spot in the championship round, with Thursday’s pool play serving as a means to seed the entirety of both events at Veterans Park and Athletic Complex.
Big Country representatives Dublin and Brady had the biggest days among area teams, both of which won their pools to earn a No. 1 seed on Friday.
The Division I competition (Classes 5A and 6A) will get underway on Friday without a single Big Country team in the field.
The arrival of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine means the high school football season is just around in the corner.
In this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast, Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood break down Texas Football’s projections for Big Country area schools, looking at team rankings, key district races and some local and area individuals honored by the publication.
Lining up in the shotgun with four or five receivers out wide has never really been the Brock Eagles’ thing.
Coach Chad Worrell has long preferred a more straight-ahead, smash-mouth style to the “basketball on grass” of the spread era — a philosophical decision that, to this point, has paid off handsomely for his young, but thriving program.
So it would be natural to question the value the 7-on-7 game, which relies exclusively on spread-based passing attacks, might have for a Brock team that can count its pass attempts on two hands most fall Friday nights.
Ask the Brock players, though, and you’ll find that the 7-on-7 season holds immense value. It just might not come in the areas one first suspects.
With the State 7-on-7 Tournament rapidly approaching, the game does have its share of detractors who insist the hyped-up version of “touch” football can teach players bad habits.
Some head football coaches don’t even attend the games, and college coaches aren’t allowed to.
So, while some may be tempted to ask the question if 7-on-7 is actually worth the investment, others insist that it is.
Count Ballinger head football coach Chuck Lipsey among the latter.
OTHER 2019 ALL-BIG COUNTRY PREPS TEAMS
Our All-Big Country Preps Softball and Baseball Teams, released Friday and Saturday, respectively, are in place to honor those who achieved the most on-field success in 2019. It is off the field, however, where character, grit, and work ethic are often measured. And it is with our Big Country Preps All-Hustle Team that we wish to honor those players, male and female, who were (simply put) the hardest-working, best teammates in the area this spring.
This team isn’t about who the best baseball and softball players were.
The All-Hustle team honors effort, discipline, toughness, coachability and selflessness — traits that coaches wish they had in every player and upon which championships are built.
It is for that reason that this team is largely selected by area coaches and described in their own words.
Big Country Preps is now honored to present these individuals to you — the best team players (boys and girls) that the the Big Country had to offer during the 2019 season.
The players below are listed in no particular order.
Here are our superlative award winners for the inaugural All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our first-team selections for the inaugural All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the inaugural All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our superlative award winners for the inaugural All-Big Country Preps softball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our first-team selections for the inaugural All-Big Country Preps softball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the inaugural All-Big Country Preps softball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Prior to the release of our All-Big Country Preps softball and baseball teams on Friday and Saturday, Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood will review the 2018-19 school year throughout this week and the top athletic stories produced by the area in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
The 2019 baseball season was a wildly successful one for schools in the Big Country Preps coverage area. Wall won its first state championship in program history, Albany got back to the Class 2A state tournament for the second time in three years and a number of other programs made deep playoff runs and/or took big steps forward.
Now, it’s time to take a look back at the season we just completed and celebrate the teams and games that made 2019 unforgettable.
Without further ado, let’s dive in and hit the highlights.
Continue reading “2018-19 IN REVIEW: Baseball (w/ two photo galleries)”
Prior to the release of our All-Big Country Preps softball and baseball teams on Friday and Saturday, Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood will review the 2018-19 school year throughout this week and the top athletic stories produced by the area in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for fastpitch softball — I admit it.
A long time ago, it was common for men to play the game. My dad played it. I played it. So I still thoroughly enjoy getting to as many girls softball games as possible — just to see some fastpitch again.
So, it is with pleasure that I review the the 2019 season — the top teams, the top games, the top surprises and the clubs that are about to make a splash in 2020.
That said, it’s time to dive in.
Continue reading “2018-19 IN REVIEW: Softball (w/ two photo galleries)”
With Baird’s decision this week to join the six-man football ranks, which follows a trend set in recent years by fellow Big Country Class 1A schools Rotan, Gorman, Bronte and Roby, the Bears will be entering a whole new world this fall.
On this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast, Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood explore that transition from all angles.
Also in this week’s episode, Evan and Daniel take a look back at the 2018-19 athletic year and discuss some of their highlights from the football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball seasons.
Prior to the release of our All-Big Country Preps softball and baseball teams on Friday and Saturday, Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood will review the 2018-19 school year throughout this week and the top athletic stories produced by the area in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
Any season that ends with two teams in the state tournament is a successful one, so the Big Country’s 2018-19 boys basketball campaign would certainly qualify.
With Brock advancing to the Alamodome in Class 3A and Jayton doing so in 1A, area teams kept us captivated until the final day of the high school season. And even those whose runs ended short of that ultimate goal gave us some great storylines to follow.
Today, we look back on the highlights of the most recent boys basketball season and remember the teams and games that helped make it such a special one.
Continue reading “2018-19 IN REVIEW: Boys basketball (w/ two photo galleries)”
Prior to the release of our All-Big Country Preps softball and baseball teams on Friday and Saturday, Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood will review the 2018-19 school year throughout this week and the top athletic stories produced by the area in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
Our review of the 2018-19 athletic school year continues today with girls basketball, which, while it didn’t produce a state title for the Big Country, was never boring.
It is a long-standing Big Country hoops tradition to be very strong in both Class 1A and Class 3A girls basketball, and last season was no exception.
The area sent two representatives (Wall and Hermleigh) to the state tournament in San Antonio, continuing the area’s stronghold in both classes.
That said, let’s not waste time. Let’s dive in and take a look at the season’s highlights, shall we?
Continue reading “2018-19 IN REVIEW: Girls basketball (w/ two photo galleries)”
Prior to the release of our All-Big Country Preps softball and baseball teams on Friday and Saturday, Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood will review the 2018-19 school year throughout this week and the top athletic stories produced by the area in football, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
Before we dive into last football season, let me begin with a quick thank you. With a full year now in the books, BigCountryPreps.com enjoyed a successful first campaign, and that is entirely due to you — the Big Country sports fan.
We are already chomping at the bit to begin our second year in business and we’ll be preparing our 2019 Football Preview throughout much of the summer, with a release date set for mid-August.
Which brings us to the subject at hand.
Midway through the 2018 football campaign, Daniel Youngblood and myself were already concurring that it was one of the strangest seasons we had ever experienced. And by December, I felt compelled to write about that very fact.
Here’s a quick sample: At various points, 2018 produced a 7-0 Dublin team, a 13-0 San Saba team and 1-9 clubs from Sweetwater and Goldthwaite. How’s that for a reversal of recent history?
Continue reading “2018-19 IN REVIEW: Football (w/ two photo galleries)”
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. Our company watermark “BigCountryPreps.com” will be removed from all purchased photos.
GROUND-ORIENTED WINTERS NEARLY PASSES ITS WAY TO STATE TOURNEY
JIM NED QUALIFIES FOR STATE ON ITS HOME FIELD
PHOTO GALLERY: DIVISION II STATE QUALIFIER AT JIM NED
On a typical Friday evening in the fall, the Winters football team may throw the ball five times — 10 if desperate measures are required.
The flexbone-based Blizzards under coach Matt McCarty have made their living on the ground, reaching the playoffs for two straight years via the triple option.
Nonetheless, McCarty saw fit to include his team in the annual statewide 7-on-7 competition, a pass-only “touch” football game meant to hone high school passing games to a fine edge over the summer.
It subsequently stunned nearly everyone in attendance Friday at McMurry University, coming within a victory of passing its way to the Division III state tournament in College Station.
The Jim Ned 7-on-7 State Qualifying Tournament was a good one for the home team Friday as the Indians rallied for a 33-13 win over Llano in the event’s semifinals to earn their second straight trip to the Division II state tournament.
Jim Ned, the only Big Country team to advance past pool play, trailed Llano 13-6 late in the first half but scored a touchdown and conversion on the final play before halftime to send the teams to the break tied at 13. The Indians then outscored the Yellowjackets 20-0 over the final 20 minutes to punch their ticket to College Station on June 27 and 28.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. Our company watermark “BigCountryPreps.com” will be removed from all purchased photos.
Fresh off leading the Wall baseball team to its first state championship in program history, coach Jason Schniers took a few minutes to chat with Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood about the Hawks’ dream season, the Wall community’s reaction to his team’s championship run and the future of his program for this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast.
Also in this episode, Evan and Daniel recap the Fellowship of Christian Athletes All-Star Festival.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. Our company watermark “BigCountryPreps.com” will be removed from all purchased photos.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. Our company watermark “BigCountryPreps.com” will be removed from all purchased photos.
Send me to a baseball, softball or basketball all-star game and I’m all-in.
Along those lines, you could send me to an all-star curling match and I’d gladly go.
But football?
The mere mention of an all-star gala surrounding pigskin makes me cringe because I know what I’m in for: Bad snaps. False starts. Rusty tackling. Blown assignments and dropped passes (if and when the passes are on target).
And since it’s impractical to stage a football all-star game at any other time but the summer, you can usually add 95-100 degree heat to the aforementioned list of attractions.
Saturday’s 60-13 win by the Blue team over the Red in this year’s FCA Myrle Greathouse All-Star Classic at Shotwell Stadium pretty well drives home the point I’m about to make.
BROWNWOOD — As members of district rivals at Colorado City and Jim Ned, respectively, Omar Boone and Dylan Bryant got well acquainted with each other during their high school basketball careers.
So in some ways, it was fitting that the two closed that chapter of their lives on opposite sides in the FCA All-Star Men’s Basketball Game on Saturday at Brownwood Coliseum.
Boone and the North squad got the better of Bryant and the South, rallying from a 10-point halftime deficit to score a thrilling 90-84 victory, but the smiles and handshakes after the final buzzer were all one needed to see to know that the purpose of the FCA All-Star Festival had been served and there were no losers in this one.
Boone, the event’s MVP, and Bryant, the South’s leading scorer, took nothing but positives from their experience, and both enjoyed the opportunity to showcase their skills head to head one final time.
BROWNWOOD — Looking at the two rosters before Saturday’s FCA All-Star Women’s Basketball Game, Roby graduate Hallie Rose Edmondson wasn’t sure how her North squad would fare.
Facing off with a South team that featured a number of recognizable names from prominent programs such as Wylie, Wall and Jim Ned — and doing so with a short-handed roster of just 10 players — Edmondson felt she and her team were decided underdogs in the 11th annual all-star game.
But the northerners play at Brownwood Coliseum told a different story entirely. And it was the former Roby star’s record night that fueled the 87-60 victory.
Ever since the Big Country FCA added volleyball to its annual All-Star Festival five years ago, they’ve gone with a different format than you’ll see in any other match.
Sure the two squads are prepared to play five sets, but the first two sets are a relaxed atmosphere to ensure that everyone gets into the game before it becomes hyper-competitive in a best-of-three match to determine the winner.
The first year of the event caused plenty of confusion, but since then the unique format has allowed for memories to be extra special.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. Our company watermark “BigCountryPreps.com” will be removed from all purchased photos.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. Our company watermark “BigCountryPreps.com” will be removed from all purchased photos.
ROUND ROCK — The Wall baseball team finished the job.
And after edging Kirbyville 5-4 in nine innings to take Friday’s Class 3A state semifinal, the Hawks had to win another nail-biter on Saturday against Blanco to do it.
Title game MVP Luke Young pitched six strong innings, and Wall scored the only two runs he’d need in the bottom of the sixth to beat the Panthers 2-1 and claim the first state championship in program history.
SAN ANGELO — Clyde baseball coach Colby Rowley didn’t waste any time discussing strategy with his players when given the job of coaching the North team in this year’s FCA All-Star Baseball Game.
He did, however, have one standing order: have fun — an edict the northerners followed to the letter, both in their preparation for Friday’s game and in coming from behind to win it 6-5.
Hamlin’s Jared Woods drove in Zachary Duran with the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth to lead the North, which overcame a 5-2 deficit over the final three innings in an expanded nine-inning FCA format.
“It was a fun week,” Rowley said. “You could tell it changed a lot of lives in a positive way.”
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SAN ANGELO — With unlimited substitutions, a batting order that can be as long as one wants and a game length stretched to nine innings (rather than seven), one may think the Fellowship of Christian Athletes All-Star Softball Game is taken about as seriously as a slow-pitch game in a public park.
On the contrary, while Friday’s 5-4 win at Mayer Field achieved its primary aim of Christian fellowship, it backed it with a highly competitive game that came down to the final out.
It was the first time in the six-year history of the game that the South had won — something the southerners took seriously enough to use Brownwood ace Chyanne Ellett over the final six innings.
ROUND ROCK — Down to its final out in the bottom of the seventh inning in Friday’s Class 2A state semifinal matchup against Kirbyville, the Wall baseball team did what it has done so well and so often this season: It just found a way.
Trailing 4-3 heading into that half-inning, the Hawks turned four walks into the tying run, before mounting a two-out rally in the ninth to win the game 5-4 and earn its second state finals appearance in three years.
After Wall had gone down in order in the eighth and picked up two quick outs in the ninth, Caleb Heuertz slapped a double down the right-field line to bring up Gage Weishuhn, who drilled a line drive into left-center to bring home the winning run.
More than 270 athletes from the Big Country and Concho Valley areas will be representing their high schools one final time this weekend at the 2019 Fellowship of Christian Athletes All-Star Festival, which will pack six all-star games into two days across three sites.
The event begins Friday with the softball and baseball games, which are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, in San Angelo. It will continue Saturday with the women’s and men’s basketball games in Brownwood and the volleyball match and Myrle Greathouse All-Star Classic football game in Abilene.
The women’s and men’s basketball games are scheduled for 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, at Brownwood Coliseum, while the volleyball match will be played at noon at Wylie High School and the football game will kick off at 7 p.m. at Shotwell Stadium.
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ROUND ROCK — It took a Division I-caliber pitcher throwing for the defending state champions to finally bring Albany’s season to a close in the Class 2A state semifinals on Wednesday at Dell Diamond.
Texas Tech-bound Brandon Hendrix worked six solid innings with 12 strikeouts, while Broch Holmes and Graden Emmons were both 2 for 3 with an RBI triple to lead Big Sandy to a 4-1 win over Albany.
With the game remaining scoreless through 4½ innings, Big Sandy struck for three runs on three hits, including the triples by Holmes and Emmons, to give the Wildcats the lead for good. Big Sandy (35-4) now advances to Thursday’s state title game, where it will to face Linden-Kildare, a 5-0 winner over Valley Mills in Wednesday’s other semifinal.
The 2A title game is set for noon at Dell Diamond.
During his time as Albany’s baseball coach, David Fairchild has led one of the most successful programs in all of the Big Country, particularly over the past five years, which have seen his Lions advance to the region championship round three times and make its first two trips to the state tournament.
On Monday, Fairchild took some time to chat with Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood about this year’s run to Dell Diamond in Round Rock, last week’s dramatic comeback against New Deal for the Region I-2A title and having Albany football coach/athletic director Denney Faith as his assistant for this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast.
Also in this episode, Evan and Daniel discuss Abilene High’s decision to promote defensive coordinator Mike Fullen as its head football coach and recap Brock softball’s trip to state and the region championship baseball series between Wall and Brock, and Albany and New Deal.
Sooner or later, the road to a state championship was going to lead through Big Sandy anyway. So the Albany Lions (23-7) may as well face the top-ranked Wildcats (34-4) in the state semifinals.
Why waste time?
The Lions will square off with the defending state champs at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Round Rock’s Dell Diamond. The winner advances to face either Valley Mills (28-6) or Linden-Kildare (20-9) for the state title at noon on Thursday.
The top-ranked Wall Hawks earned their trip to the Class 3A state tournament with a hard-fought series win over a scrappy and well-rounded Brock club.
Their reward? A semifinal matchup against a Kirbyville team that reminds coach Jason Schniers a whole lot of the Eagles.
Wall will take on the Wildcats at 9 a.m. Friday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, and Schniers is expecting a challenge similar to the one Brock posed. And given that the Eagles handed his Hawks (37-1) their first and only loss of the season in Game 2 of that three-game region championship series, he knows his team will have to play with a sense of urgency to extend its campaign into Saturday’s title game.