After highlighting the top pitchers and catchers on the Big Country softball scene the past two nights, it’s time to turn our spotlight to the field.
For the third installment in our five-part position rankings series, we list our top-10 infielders in the area for the 2026 season.
We hope you enjoy reading through our rankings.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Westbrook-Eula girls basketball bi-district playoff (54 images)”
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Baird-Hermleigh girls basketball bi-district playoff (32 images)”
The Abilene High boys basketball team began and ended its Senior Night in celebratory fashion Tuesday at Eagle Gym, overcoming a sluggish start and a spirited Cooper squad in between to earn a 60-44 win over its crosstown rival in its regular-season finale.
The Eagles, who had already locked up their first district championship since 2016, found themselves trailing for most of the first three quarters Tuesday. But a 29-8 run over the game’s final 11 minutes turned a potentially tenuous situation into a comfortable win, allowing coach Justin Reese to close the game with several senior reserves on the court.
The victory improved AHS to 20-11 on the season and closed out a 7-1 run through District 4-5A, making winners out of seniors Brooks Reese, Trae Shaw, Myles Osborne, Payton Shawver, Luke Jackson, Jeremiah Collins, Brenner Paul and Dylan Bardin in their final game on their home floor.
After kicking off our softball position rankings series on Monday with the pitchers, we now shift our attention to their battery mates.
For the second installment in our five-part series, we rank the area’s top 10 catchers with others to watch for in 2026.
We hope you enjoy our list.
MERKEL — In a game that saw a number of extended runs both ways, the No. 3 Eula girls basketball team had the biggest and most pivotal one Monday at Badger Gym, using a 20-5 surge through the second quarter to nab the lead for good in a 52-38 bi-district win over Westbrook.
The Lady Cats had a 13-0 run in the first quarter and an 8-0 spurt spanning the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth. But coach Jeff Bontrager’s team never got closer to the lead than nine points after halftime thanks to the Lady Pirates’ big second period.
The win, which saw Eula stretch a 15-point halftime lead to a game-high 19 points with just under three minutes remaining in the third quarter, advanced the Lady Pirates (34-2) to the area round of the Region II-1A Division I playoffs, where they’ll take on Hamlin (15-18) later this week.
MERKEL — The fourth-ranked Hermleigh girls basketball team kicked off its playoff run in dominant fashion Monday, cruising past Baird 73-39 in a Region II-1A Division I bi-district game at Merkel High School.
The Lady Cardinals outscored the Lady Bears 26-12 in the opening quarter and spent the next three periods adding to that advantage to earn an area-round matchup with the winner of Tuesday’s bi-district game between Munday and Rotan.
Hermeigh, which had four players reach double figures scoring in the victory, knocked down nine 3-pointers as a team in improving to 32-2 on the year.
With the softball season kicking off last week, it’s time to take a look at the players who will be making the biggest impact throughout the Big Country Preps coverage area in 2026.
For the first installment in a five-part series that will cover all position groups on the area softball scene, we’ll be taking a look at the Big Country’s top pitchers, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this spring.
We hope you enjoy reading through our list.
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wylie-Cooper boys basketball (52 images)”
Trailing Cooper by a point in the final minute on Friday, the Wylie boys basketball team closed the game on a 5-0 run to grind out a crucial 51-47 victory at Cougar Gym.
It was the second consecutive road win for the Bulldogs in which they faced a deficit in the closing minutes, clinching a playoff spot for coach Gregg Ruffin’s team while eliminating the Cougars from postseason contention.
Wylie led 33-22 at halftime only to see Cooper snag the momentum — and, eventually, the lead on Jabari Collier-Gard’s 3-pointer with 1:30 to play. But a 5-of-6 tally from the free-throw line and a couple of key stops in the final 43 seconds were enough to earn the Bulldogs the hard-fought victory over their crosstown rival.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wichita Falls Legacy-Cooper boys basketball (42 images)”
Jaden Carrillo only had one field goal in the Cooper boys basketball team’s must-win matchup with Wichita Falls Legacy on Tuesday at Cougar Gym. But it was the most important bucket of the game in a dramatic 34-33 win for the Cougars.
With his team trailing by a point after a J’Quan Carroll free throw broke a 33-all tie with just under 17 seconds remaining in the game, the senior guard was given the keys to the offense when play resumed out of a timeout on the Coogs’ final possession. With time ticking down, he drove around and past Legacy’s Jerimiah Smith, going all the way to the rim for a go-head layup with 2.9 seconds to play.
That proved to be the game-winner for Cooper (13-13 overall, 2-4 in district), which rallied from a 27-13 third-quarter deficit to score the victory, pulling within a half-game of Legacy (9-19, 3-4) and Wichita Falls Memorial (14-17, 3-4) for third in District 4-5A and within a game of Wylie (12-13, 3-3) for second.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene High-Wylie boys basketball (60 images)”
The boys basketball regular season is nearing its end, and district championship and playoff pictures across the area are coming into view.
Most leagues now have clear favorites in both their title and playoff races, but several remain unresolved with just two or three games left to play.
With just a couple of weeks of games remaining, let’s dive in and take a look at this week’s biggest games and last week’s most significant developments.
The Abilene High boys basketball team clinched at least a share of its first district championship since 2016 on Friday, grinding out a thrilling 57-52 win over crosstown rival Wylie to improve to 5-1 in District 4-5A play.
The tough road victory, combined with Wichita Falls Legacy’s win over rival Wichita Falls Memorial on Friday, gives the Eagles (18-11 overall) a two-game lead over both of those squads and a 2½-game lead over Wylie with two games remaining.
AHS can claim the title outright — something the Wylie girls did with a 75-10 win over the Lady Eagles in Friday’s early game — with a victory in either of its final two games against Memorial and Cooper.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wichita Falls Legacy-Abilene High boys basketball (40 images)”
Coming off a rough performance Saturday in a 48-41 loss to crosstown rival Cooper, the Abilene High boys basketball team bounced back in a major way Tuesday, dominating Wichita Falls Legacy from start to finish in a 54-34 win at Eagle Gym.
The Eagles limited the Leopards to just 11 points before halftime, taking a 16-point lead into the break before stretching that advantage to a game-high 25 points early in the fourth quarter.
The dominating effort, which followed a 49-19 Legacy win in the girls game, improved Abilene High to 17-11 on the year and kept the Eagles alone in first place in the District 4-5A standings at 4-1.
Here are the standings for all Class 2A-5A boys basketball districts involving Big Country schools through Jan. 31:
Continue reading “Big Country Boys Basketball Standings (through Jan. 31)”
Here are the standings for all Class 2A-5A girls basketball districts involving Big Country schools through Jan. 31:
Continue reading “Big Country Girls Basketball Standings (through Jan. 31)”
While area coaches and athletic directors were left scrambling to adjust to the unexpected new districts they were placed in on Monday during the University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment, the leaders of Abilene’s three largest football programs shared a stress-free day in the Metroplex at the Birdville ISD Fine Arts/Athletic Complex.
Abilene High, Cooper and Wylie saw minimal changes to their football district alignments when those were made public at 9 a.m., as the Eagles remained in District 2-5A Division I with Amarillo High, Amarillo Caprock, Amarillo Tascosa, Frenship Memorial, Lubbock High, Lubbock Monterey and Wolfforth Frenship and the Cougars and Bulldogs stayed in District 2-5A DII with Amarillo Palo Duro, Lubbock Cooper, Lubbock Coronado, Wichita Falls Legacy and Wichita Falls Memorial.
Adding to the largely mundane nature of Monday’s proceedings, the three schools also remained in a five-team District 4-5A for their other sports, staying with the two Wichita Falls schools in an unchanged league.
Surprised — and in some cases, stressed out — faces could be seen in abundance Monday morning at Abilene’s Region 14 Education Services Center, where coaches from throughout the area and beyond gathered to learn their new district homes as part of the University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment.
In what can best be described as a seismic shift in the Big Country football landscape, a majority of area schools were placed in unfamiliar environs — be that a new district with new foes or even a new region entirely.
The now venerated process by which the UIL releases the packet containing the new district alignments for football, basketball and volleyball is frequently compared by coaches to waking up on Christmas morning to find what presents await under the three. And on this day, in particular, few found the gifts they were expecting.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene High-Cooper boys basketball (68 images)”
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Bangs-Roscoe basketball doubleheader (78 images)”
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cooper-Wylie basketball doubleheader (57 images)”
Last week’s winter storm made for a wild week of action, condensing a week’s worth of games into three day’s time. And the results were as unpredictable as you might expect given the circumstances.
We saw several district championship and playoff races shaken up by upsets and others take shape as the cream continued its rise to the top.
As we do here weekly, it’s time to take survey of the Big Country boys basketball landscape. We hope you enjoy this look at the biggest developments from last week and the biggest games this week’s slate has to offer.
Over the past two years, the boys basketball coaches in District 4-5A have consistently talked about the competitive balance of the league and how no game or opponent can be overlooked because any of the district’s five teams can beat another on a given day.
Saturday’s crosstown matchup between Abilene High and Cooper was a great example of this principle in action.
The Cougars came in off losses in each of their first three district games, while the Eagles were unbeaten at 3-0. But at the end of 32 minutes, it was Cooper celebrating a massive 48-41 win on its home floor that revitalized its playoff hopes and set up what is certain to be a wild second half of league action starting next week.
ROSCOE — Entering Friday’s matchup with Bangs just a game up on the Dragons for the District 8-2A lead, the 18th-ranked Roscoe boys basketball team all but settled the league’s championship race, blasting BHS 71-33 at home to take a two-game lead with four more to play.
The thorough victory was the Plowboys’ second of the year over Bangs, improving coach Russell Best’s team to 27-1 overall and 8-0 in district play. With the tiebreaker over BHS (14-13, 6-2) and a three-game edge over Coleman (15-13, 5-3) and Ballinger (16-11, 5-3), the Plowboys can officially clinch their second consecutive district title next week, when they travel to Ballinger on Tuesday and host Miles on Friday.
Roscoe put itself in that position with a dominant effort against the Dragons, wrapping up a doubleheader sweep after watching its girls team cruise to a 53-16 win in Friday’s early game. The Plowboys never trailed, opening the game on an 8-0 run before closing the first half with a 20-4 spurt to increase a 21-15 lead with 6:47 to play in the second quarter to 41-19 by the halftime break.
Trailing 20-18 after a wild first quarter, the Wylie boys basketball team outscored Cooper 45-23 over the middle two periods to pull away in the second half for a 73-53 win Thursday at Bulldog Gym.
A 21-7 run through the third quarter proved the knockout blow for the Bulldogs, who hit nine 3-pointers in the game, which was twice postponed by the winter storm that hit Abilene last weekend.
Swade Sipe and King Lloyd combined for eight of those 3s, scoring 24 and 21 points, respectively, to help Wylie complete a doubleheader sweep after the Lady Bulldogs rolled past the Lady Cougars 69-18 in Thursday’s early game.
Mother Nature did her best to bring the high school basketball season to a standstill, sending a winter storm that put most Big Country teams on the shelf for a week. But the action around that unexpected break gives us plenty to talk about in this week’s look at the area boys basketball scene.
With a number of excellent (and meaningful) games last week and some big matchups slated for the next few days, the area district races remain as intriguing as ever.
Let’s go ahead now and take a look at the biggest games the area slate has to offer this week and some of the outcomes last week that helped shape the weeks to come.
The winter storm that blew across most of the state over the weekend wreaked havoc on the area basketball schedule, forcing most of last Friday’s games to be pushed up a day and the bulk of this week’s early games to postponed all the way to Thursday.
But icy weather — and the bevy of schedule changes that came with it — have done little to cool the area’s rapidly heating district races.
We still had a number of thrilling and significant results last week and have a bunch of intriguing games to look forward to over the next few days. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the biggest of those in our weekly look at the Big Country girls basketball scene.
Here are our first-team selections for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our first-team selections for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps six-man football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps six-man football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our third-team and honorable mention selections for the 2025 All-Big Country Preps six-man football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wichita Falls Memorial-Wylie basketball doubleheader (56 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wylie-Abilene High basketball doubleheader (60 images)”
Hosting Wichita Falls Memorial a day earlier than scheduled to beat the winter storm expected to hit Abilene on Friday, the Wylie girls and boys basketball teams both picked up key district wins Thursday at Bulldog Gym.
The Lady Bulldogs blasted the Lady Mavericks 46-18 in the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader, taking sole possession of the District 4-5A lead in the process. And the Bulldogs used a big fourth quarter to pull away for a 57-45 win in the late game, evening their district record at 1-1 two nights after falling 61-53 at Abilene High.
The sweep improved the Wylie girls (24-5 overall) to 4-0 in league play at the midway point of their district schedule, while the boys improved to 10-11 with their fourth win in their last five games.
With his team down one early in the fourth quarter, Payton Shawver drained 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to fuel the Abilene High boys basketball team to a 61-53 home win over crosstown rival Wylie in a key District 4-5A game full of big runs, clutch shots and wild momentum swings Tuesday at Eagle Gym.
The three triples came as part of an 11-point fourth quarter for the talented senior, whose game-high 27 points sent a raucous AHS crowd home happy as the Eagles (15-10 overall) improved to 2-0 in district play.
Wylie, which erased a 10-point third-quarter deficit to take a 42-41 lead on John Chavez’s 3 with 6:21 remaining in the game, fell to 9-11 on the season and 0-1 in league action with the loss, which came as part of a doubleheader split as the Lady Bulldogs topped the Lady Eagles 65-19 in Tuesday’s early game.