CANYON — Big Country Region II athletes had a long way to travel for their regional track meet — competing at West Texas A&M University in Canyon on Friday and Saturday.
Bangs was the top team finisher for the area, finishing fourth with 39 points — 28 behind regional champion Abernathy.
Coleman was the top area finisher in the girls meet with a third-place 52 points — 49 points behind a dominant performance by regional champion Panhandle.
Scoring and rebounding is only part of the story when it comes to basketball. Behind the scenes and beyond the view of the public, is where character is often measured. And it is with our Big Country Preps Gym Rat Team that we salute the individuals who exude the most of it.
This team isn’t about who the best players are, though some of the area’s top players are on this list.
The Gym Rat team is about effort, discipline, toughness, coachability and selflessness — traits that coaches love above all else and that championship foundations are built upon.
It is for that reason that our Gym Rat team is selected entirely by area coaches, described in their own words. And Big Country Preps is absolutely honored to present these individuals to you — the best “team players” (boys and girls) that the area had to offer during the 2025-26 season.
Players are listed in no particular order.
Enjoy.
In the pitcher’s circle, there are varying degrees of perfection. And in the case of our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, that statement was fully illustrated on Friday in a 6-0 Clyde win over Merkel.
Yes, CHS freshman Brynli Reynolds threw a perfect game. But this wasn’t your standard, every day, run-of-the-mill, garden variety perfecto.
In fact, it may have been the most dominating performance by a baseball or softball pitcher the Big Country has seen in the last two decades.
Aside from retiring 21 straight hitters from a very good Merkel team (19-2), Reynolds fanned the first 17 batters she faced and finished with 20 strikeouts. She also helped herself at the plate, going 1-for-2 with an RBI.
It was the second time this season that the Clyde freshman has taken our weekly accolade.
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week earned the accolade on the state’s biggest stage.
Jayton senior guard Sean Stanaland was a big contributor in several areas for the Jaybirds in a surprisingly easy 78-45 win over Kennard in the Class 1A Division II state title game. This began with the 28 points he scored to help JHS to its third straight championship.
He also pulled down 15 rebounds to go with five assists and three steals as Jayton capped its season with a victory in San Antonio’s Alamodome.
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: 2026 Eula Softball Tournament (126 images)”
Below are the current season statistical leaders for Big Country boys basketball through Feb. 19. With the end of the regular season, this will be the FINAL boys basketball leaders we post this year.
This database has been continually updated for our subscribers throughout the regular season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
Is your favorite team missing? If so, please pass along a friendly reminder to your coach to check his email for our weekly stats request. We’ll be happy to add them to our database after they arrive.
Ballinger coach Nathan Riggan spent the summer worrying about who was going to replace three-year starter Matilda Galvan at point guard.
The answer came about a week before school started when he got called down to the front office to meet Ballinger’s new student.
Ysée Le Borgne was a 6-foot-1 foreign exchange sophomore from France. Not only had she played basketball since she was 3 years old, but both her parents played and coached at a high professional level.
“Once she came out on the court that first day and I saw her handling the ball, I said, ‘There’s my point guard,’” Riggan said. “She’s everything for us. She’s our best defender, shooter, she can shoot from outside and she averages 3.4 blocks per game. She’s everything you’d want in a basketball player.”
Below are the current season statistical leaders for Big Country girls basketball through Feb. 12. This will be our FINAL girls stat leaders for 2026.
This database has been continually updated for our subscribers throughout the regular season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
Is your favorite team missing? If so, please pass along a friendly reminder to your coach to check his or her email for our weekly stats request. We’ll be happy to add them to our database after they arrive.
With the regular season concluding this week, we take a final look around the area, both the top games of last week and those coming up.
Keep an eye out for the postseason pairings for both girls and boys basketball on BigCountryPreps.com — both of which will be posted in the near future.
Lets dive in, shall we?
With weather postponements forcing Tolar to play three games last week, there was positive in an otherwise hectic week: It gave one of THS’ athletes the opportunity to showcase a remarkable run of consistency.
Tolar sophomore Atley Kolb takes our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for the Week ending Jan. 31, after posting three straight double-doubles in as many days to help the Lady Rattlers in wins over Millsap (57-25), Eastland (59-25) and Breckenridge (74-19).
Kolb posted 10 points and 13 rebounds against Millsap; 21 points and 11 boards against Eastland and 12 points and 10 boards in the Breckenridge win.
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.
With January’s schedule-jumbling weather behind us, we now look forward to multiple games with playoff implications around the Big Country Preps coverage area.
There were no shortage of big matchups last week and as usual, there are several more in the days ahead.
So let’s take a quick look at the menu for Feb. 2-6.
It should be fun, I’ll see you on the road.
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: Ballinger-Winters basketball doubleheader (45 images)”
WINTERS — Separated by only 16 miles along Highway 83, Ballinger and Winters have shared an athletic rivalry that predates the Great Depression.
The latest chapter in this intense matchup was written Friday night when BHS swept its neighbor in a varsity basketball doubleheader at the Winters High School Gym.
The Ballinger girls opened the twin bill with a 51-26 win, after which the BHS boys took the nightcap, 68-54.
Both wins were particularly important for Ballinger in District 8-2A, with the girls improving to 23-4 overall and 6-3 in the district race.
The BHS boys, in the meantime, lifted their overall mark to 16-11 and remained in strong playoff contention by improving their district mark to 5-3.
Most high school football teams have that one player acknowledged by the coaching staff as the prime example of what a teammate should be.
He’s the guy who seldom misses any practice time and is a regular in the weight room. He’s early to arrive. He’s late to leave and takes pride in being coachable, though he seldom needs direction.
He always sets the right example for younger players. He doesn’t complain and, above all else, he’s tough enough to make all the aforementioned traits consistently possible.
Know someone like that? Here is where they are honored.
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 selections for the 2024 All-Big Country Preps Football Team (Third-Team roster). For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our selections for the 2024 All-Big Country Preps Rising Stars Team — an honor reserved for the area’s top freshman and sophomore football players. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Ysée Le Borgne may feel like a fish out of water living in Ballinger, Texas. After all, the 16-year-old foreign exchange student and native of Lille, France is more than 5,000 miles and (needless to say), a major cultural shift away from her hometown.
On the basketball court, however, the 6-foot sophomore guard is right at home — so much so that she earned our Big Country Preps Player of Week for the week ending Jan. 17 with a rare quadruple double.
Le Borgne, who opened the week with a 24-point, 14-rebound double-double in a loss to Colorado City, showed the potential for a “quad” that night with seven steals, six pass deflections and four blocks.
Three days later it happened in a 43-32 win over Coleman that saw Le Borne finish with 23 points, 12 boards, 10 steals and 10 pass deflections.
With the arrival of the new year, Big Country Preps will again take a look at the area boys and girls basketball scenes each Sunday night until the end of the regular season.
Top games, top results and the week’s biggest surprise will be on the menu.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
In helping the Jayton Jaybirds to a second-straight state title last week, senior running back Bode Ham not only produced the top game in our coverage area, but his performance will likely remain part of six-man lore forever.
With Jayton topping Richland Springs 99-54, Ham’s numbers were nothing short of shocking, with 430 yards rushing and a state championship record 10 TDs on 28 carries.
For good measure, he was 3 of 4 through the air for 118 yards and an additional three scores, giving him 548 total yards and a direct hand in a state championship-record 13 touchdowns at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
It’s one thing to pour in points.
It’s quite another to do it against difficult competition in a big-school tournament. Wylie senior Swade Sipe, our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, did exactly that in last week’s Granbury tournament, helping the Bulldogs to a 2-2 mark in the challenging event.
Sipe’s weekend began with a 22-point effort in a 54-48 win over Saginaw. It continued with 12 points in a 56-50 loss to Prosper Rock Hill, 20 points in a 59-51 win over Midland Christian and a 33-point night in a 46-43 loss to Arlington Lamar.
Hamilton 27, De Leon 26 — The Bearcats had the Bulldogs on the ropes in this district championship matchup, leading 26-21 with four minutes remaining and the ball inside the HHS 5-yard line. But a fumble at the 1 ended that threat, and the Bulldogs drove the length of the field to score the winning touchdown with 22 seconds remaining.
De Leon, which got four passing touchdowns from Heston Jobe and a pair of receiving scores from Jake Cooper, took a 12-7 lead into halftime and rallied from a 14-12 deficit to take a 26-14 lead with five minutes remaining in the third quarter. But the Bearcats couldn’t close Hamilton out in falling to 7-3 overall and 4-1 in league play.
De Leon 60, Bangs 20 — Heston Jobe passed for 230 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 109 yards and another score to fuel the Bearcats to a convincing win over the Dragons.
Lane Couch (10-86, 1 TD) and Colt Schwertner (5-50, 2 TDs) also found the end zone on the ground for De Leon (7-2, 4-0), which was led in receiving by Bryce Burkeen (4-106, 2 TDs).
Hico 28, Coleman 27 — Cole Heutzenroeder ran for 226 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Tigers to a thrilling win over the Bluecats in a key game in the 5-2A DI playoff race.
The senior running back helped Hico (5-3, 1-2) rally from 21-7 halftime deficit that remained two scores (27-14) into the fourth quarter.
De Leon 58, Coleman 0 — Heston Jobe passed for 240 yards and four touchdowns while adding a fifth touchdown on the ground to fuel the Bearcats to a lopsided win over the Bluecats.
Adan Salinas added 67 yards and two TDs rushing, and Bryce Burkeen (4-85, 1 TD) and Jake Cooper (5-69, 2 TDs) had productive days receiving the ball as De Leon (5-2, 2-0) built a 46-0 lead by halftime.
Bangs 48, Ballinger 0 — Cason Tidwell ran for 185 yards and four touchdowns, and the BHS defense pitched a shutout to fuel the Dragons to a statement win over the Bearcats.
Bangs, which ran for 309 yards as a team, built a 28-0 lead by halftime in improving to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in district with its fourth consecutive victory.
As it turned out, the best game in the Big Country last week was Clyde’s dramatic 54-49 win over Muleshoe in the top shootout the area has seen thus far in 2025.
At the heart of all that mayhem was our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, CHS junior quarterback Devan Wright.
A year ago, the Ruston, La., Bearcats brought 11 DI players to the Lone Star State and beat three quality programs in Longview (21-10), Midland Legacy (38-6) and Stephenville (63-17). Yet they finished 11-3 with three losses to Louisiana teams and failed to win their state title.
What does that say about the quality of Louisiana football?
Regardless, the Bearcats are again dipping their paws into Texas’ talent pool this year, with two more wins over Longview (38-35) and Legacy (49-21). Stephenville is up next in a neutral site game in Longview this Friday and Ruston (4-0) is again loaded, with at least six DI players, including 6-foot-6, 235-pound blue chip tight end Deejay Drain.
Continue reading “BIG COUNTRY PREPS NOTEBOOK: Stephenville, Ruston, La., rematch should be closer”
Ballinger 21, Stanton 17 — Coleman King passed for 196 yards and a touchdown, and Pierson Nord had 73 yards rushing and 76 yards receiving to help the Bearcats to a hard-fought win over the Buffaloes.
Ballinger (3-2), which also got 71 yards and a TD receiving from Hunter Kresta, outgained Stanton 413-337 for the game, taking a 13-10 lead into halftime before extending that advantage to 19-10 early in the fourth quarter.
Hico 55, Itasca 7 — The Tigers improved to 3-1 with a thorough win over the Wampus Cats.
Hico did all of its scoring before halftime, building a 55-0 lead at the break before allowing a its only points of the game after the outcome had long since been decided.
Bangs 31, San Angelo Grape Creek 26 — Cason Tidwell ran for 133 yards and three touchdowns, while Hunter Withers found the end zone twice on the ground to lead the Dragons past the Eagles for their first in of the year.
Bangs (1-2) only had 212 yards of total offense, but that was enough, as the Dragons outscored Grape Creek 20-6 over the final 12 minutes to rally for the victory.
Hico 38, Moody 6 — Tyler Jackson passed for 151 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 141 yards and another score to lead the Tigers to a lopsided victory over the Bearcats.
Cole Heutzenroeder (9-101, 1 TD) also reached the 100-yard rushing mark for Hico, which got receiving touchdowns from Tyler Rainwater and Heath McLean.
Coleman 29, Eastland 0 — The Bluecats limited the Mavericks to just 136 yards of total offense (all rushing) in a season-opening shutout.
Coleman, meanwhile, piled up 353 yards, getting 188 yards and two touchdowns passing from Hunter Edington, 100 yards and two TDs receiving from Jayden Smith and rushing scores from Brayden Torres (8-57 rushing) and Braylon Stewart (2-62 rushing, 5-24 receiving).
Got the truck started yet?
Ready to jump on one of those farm-to-market roads to watch high school football into the late hours on a Friday night?
You’re not alone.
And, as tradition would have it, I tip my cap to those of you who will be hitting the trails each week in search of pigskin. My method: a preseason menu of sorts.
Each week for the next 11 weeks, Big Country Preps will be searching for its Game of the Week, and we’re already looking ahead. We now present our preliminary list of Big Country Games worth traveling for, but keep in mind: the following list is subject to change as surprises and disappointments emerge.
And as we all know … surprises and disappointments always emerge.
So, without further delay, here is our list of Big Country games worth traveling for in 2025.
I’ll see you on the road.
If you were to ask first-year Ballinger head coach Bryan Gayoso to list the strengths of the 2025 Bearcats, the offensive and defensive lines would be two of the first units mentioned.
If you were to press him as to why, it wouldn’t take long for Drew Knickerbocker’s name to come up.
Knickerbocker, a 6-foot, 220-pound senior, was a two-way all-district lineman for the Bearcats a year ago — and one of the biggest catalysts for a Ballinger squad that improved from 0-10 in 2023 to 5-6 last year, snapping a two-year playoff drought in the process. And this year, he’ll be leaned on as heavily as anyone to help BHS take the next step as a program and build on last season’s success.
With Ty Lang leaving over the offseason after leading a rebuilding Ballinger program back to the playoffs in 2024, the Bearcats will, technically, have a new coach this fall.
But in promoting longtime assistant Bryan Gayoso, BHS has ensured that its football team will be led by a familiar face.
Gayoso, who has been part of the Ballinger program for more than a decade now, is hoping his presence and amplified voice will provide stability through the Bearcats’ fifth coaching change since 2010. He’s also hoping that last year’s improvement is just the start for a BHS program that rebounded from a 1-19 record in 2022 and 2023 to go 5-6 in 2025.
Football is just around the corner, 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 Wednesday, Aug. 20. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on Aug. 4, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2025 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
Today, we take a look at the Ballinger Bearcats.
OTHER 2025 ALL-BIG COUNTRY PREPS TEAMS
Our All-Big Country Preps Softball and Baseball Teams, released Saturday and Sunday, respectively, are in place to honor those who achieved the most on-field success in 2025. 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 Big Country had to offer during the 2025 season.
The players below are listed in no particular order.
Here are our first-team selections for the 2025 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 2025 All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to release our 2025 All-Big Country Preps baseball teams.
Here, you will find our Rising Stars Team honoring the top freshmen and sophomores in the Big Country.
For the rest of this year’s baseball selections, please click the links below.
Here are our first-team selections for the 2025 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 2025 All-Big Country Preps softball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to release our 2025 All-Big Country Preps Softball teams.
Here, you will find our Rising Stars Team honoring the top freshmen and sophomores in the Big Country.
For the rest of this year’s softball selections, please click the links below.
