You have to appreciate a player who can contribute big numbers in several different ways. And in the case of our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, such players have an advantage when it comes to taking down our weekly award.
This time around, it’s Cisco junior Owen Kilpatrick, who posted a triple-double in a 74-38 win over Abilene TLCA, finishing with 18 points, 21 rebounds and 12 assists.
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.
District races are heating up throughout the Big Country and the cream is quickly rising to the top in our area leagues.
Last week and helped provide some clarity in a number of district’s throughout the BCP coverage area, and this week will, no doubt, do the same.
Without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive into this week’s column and take a look at the biggest games on this week’s slate and some of the top results last week had to offer.
There are memorable shooting nights. Then there are shooting nights one is unlikely to ever forget.
Wylie senior guard Swade Sipe had one of the latter on Friday night, with a 33-point effort in a 74-62 win over Brock.
During the course of this performance, Sipe was 11 of 11 from the field, 6 of 6 from 3-point range, 5 of 5 from two-point range and 5 of 6 from the foul line.
This explosive, nearly perfect effort against a very good 4A Brock team earns Sipe our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award, during a week when several players posted numbers good enough to claim the accolade.
With district play either underway or starting this week for all area boys basketball teams, it’s time to start taking a closer look at how our Big Country hoops races are shaping up.
And as we’ve done in the past, we’ll break down our top upcoming matchups, the top results from the previous week and the area’s biggest surprise right here each Sunday, starting with this column.
We hope you enjoy a look at this week in area boys basketball.
Nobody played a tougher schedule over the holidays than the Wall boys. And nobody had a bigger impact on their successful run through a brutal five-game stretch than 6-foot-7 big man Paxton Brake who takes our first Big Country Preps Player of the Week for 2026.
Brake, a junior, scored a combined 70 points through the break, averaging 14 points, 9.2 boards and 3.2 assists to help the Hawks go 4-1 over the break with wins over Decatur, Lorena, Ponder and Sweetwater, along with a close loss to perennial power Brock.
Wall enters this week at 17-5 overall.
EULA — The Jim Ned boys basketball team fell just short of the Eula Holiday Classic championship on Wednesday, dropping a hard-fought game to a familiar foil in the event’s title game at Mary Mosley Gymnasium.
The Indians got off to a fast start against region rival Holliday, building an early 17-9 lead, but they couldn’t maintain that momentum in a 42-36 loss to the Eagles.
That matchup capped a strong boys tournament for area teams, as Graford placed third with a 64-33 win over Christoval and Clyde took fifth with a 45-36 win over Andrews. Other noteworthy results involving area squads included a 36-34 loss by Tolar to Bells in the seventh-place game and 69-64 loss by Eula to New Deal in the consolation third-place game.
EULA — Before last year, Eula coach Josh Fostel had never won a Eula Holiday Classic championship in the tournament’s long and illustrious history. On Wednesday, he and his Lady Pirates won their second straight.
After racing out to a double-digit lead in the first half of Wednesday’s championship game, EHS saw Jim Ned rally to take its first lead of the contest on a Lily Bryant 3-pointer with just over 17 seconds remaining. But Reagan Barr answered with a clutch 3 of her own with five seconds to play to lift the Lady Pirates to a thrilling 49-47 win at Mary Mosley Gymnasium.
That action-packed title game capped a strong overall tournament for area squads, as Tolar topped Hermleigh 54-46 to take the third-place game and Clyde defeated Spur 53-44 to win the consolation title. Hico also finished sixth in the 16-team girls field, falling to Nazareth 44-27 in the fifth-place game after knocking off Holliday 50-40 in its third-round game on Tuesday.
EULA — The Eula and Jim Ned girls basketball teams played their way into the championship game of the Eula Holiday Classic on Tuesday, scoring semifinal wins over Tolar and Hermleigh, respectively, to set up a clash of Big Country powers for the tournament title on Wednesday.
The Lady Pirates rallied from a 12-9 first-quarter deficit to pull away for a 37-27 win over the Lady Rattlers, while the Lady Indians pulled off the comeback of the tournament, digging out of a 30-11 second-quarter hole to slip past the Lady Cardinals 51-50 in a thriller.
Eula and Jim Ned will tip off at 2:40 p.m. at the Mary Mosley Gymnasium for the championship following a noon third-place game between Tolar and Hermleigh. At Eula Middle School, meanwhile, Clyde will play Spur for the tournament’s consolation title after defeating New Deal 55-47 in the consolation semifinals.
EULA — The Graford boys basketball team encountered little resistance on the opening day of the Eula Holiday Classic, following a 97-18 win over Abilene TLCA in its tournament opener with a 68-37 quarterfinals win over Tolar to become the first area team to earn a spot in the event’s semifinals.
Clyde almost joined the Jackrabbits, after earning a 58-53 win over Eula in the first round. But the Bulldogs were edged 59-56 in overtime by Holliday in the quarterfinals, leaving Graford to play the Eagles in the semifinals on Tuesday for a spot in Wednesday’s championship game.
Jim Ned, which defeated Muenster 47-37 in its opener, is the only other area team remaining with a chance at the tournament title. The Indians will play Bells in the quarterfinals at 9:20 a.m. Tuesday, while Christoval and Andrews will face off in the final quarterfinals matchup at 10:40 a.m.
EULA — The Tolar and Eula girls basketball teams were the first to punch their tickets to the semifinals on the opening day of the Eula Holiday Classic, earning a pair of wins on Monday to earn a matchup against each other on Tuesday for a spot in Wednesday’s championship game.
Tolar followed a 54-42 win over Clyde in its opener with a 49-41 victory over Hico in the quarterfinals, while Eula picked up double-digit wins over larger programs from New Deal (36-24) and Holliday (52-38).
The other semifinal qualifiers on the girls side of the tournament will be determined Tuesday morning, following quarterfinals matchups between Nazareth and Jim Ned (9:20 a.m.) and Springtown and Hermleigh (10:40 a.m.). Jim Ned defeated Strawn 49-37 in its opener, while Hermleigh routed Andrews 89-56.
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.
Not only is our Big Country Preps Player of the Week holding down the top spot with big numbers, but his performance in Graham’s 35-28 area round win over Lubbock Cooper Liberty was a virtual seminar on poise.
Helping the Steers (9-3) to overcome three separate deficits, senior QB/kicker/punter Jace Gill was 15 of 28 for 239 yards and three TDs. He also rushed 12 times for 118 yards and another score.
You have to love a great all-around performance and in the case of Brayden Henry, our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, his effort in last week’s 84-25 bi-district win over El Paso Bel Air was a record-setter.
Aside from going 6 of 7 through the air or 56 yards and one TD, he also rushed five times for 137 yards and three more scores.
Comanche 43, Clyde 42 — The Indians pulled off a stunning upset on Friday to finish at 5-5 overall and 2-3 in district play — narrowly missing the playoffs.
Comanche grabbed an early 21-7 lead, then fought off a huge Clyde rally to put an exclamation point on their season.
Jim Ned 41, Clyde 34 — Cash Gwinn threw for 157 yards and two TDs and rushed for an additional 40 yards and a third score to lift Jim Ned to an important win over Clyde.
Trailing 34-28 at the break, the Indians (8-1, 4-0) rallied with two unanswered scores in the second half to get the win.
Devan Wright led Clyde with 172 yards rushing; Miles Wilsher rushed for 72 yards and four TDs.
Jim Ned improved to 8-1 and 4-0 with the win and can clinch the district title with a win over Sweetwater next Friday. Clyde fell to 7-2 and 3-1.
What more can be said about the performance of Wall senior Landon York last week other than it was a model of efficiency?
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week shredded Grape Creek in a 48-0 district win to clinch the District 4-3A DII championship.
Along the way, York connected on 18 of 21 throws for 246 yards and get this: seven touchdowns. That means one out of every three throws resulted in points.
How good of a night did he have? How about a ridiculous quarterback rating of 294.1?
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Sweetwater-Clyde football (46 images)”
Breckenridge 26, Comanche 22 — Breckenridge used a solid defensive effort to get past Comanche in a vitally important game for both clubs.
Limiting Comanche to 239 yards, the Buckaroos snagged sole possession of fourth place and the potential No. 4 playoff seed with two games left.
Breckenridge improved to 3-5 and 1-2 in league play; Comanche fell to 3-5 and 0-3.
CLYDE — When the Clyde football team hosts Sweetwater, it’s almost guaranteed the game is going to be in doubt until the final whistle.
The Bulldogs took the 2022 meeting between the two programs 29-28 in overtime before hitting the road in each of the last two years.
Friday night at Bulldog Stadium, the hosts claimed a crucial 27-20 District 3-3A Division I win as they stopped a Caiden Ortiz scramble in the middle of the field on the final play of the game. It was a thrilling end to a game that saw a ho-hum first half played in a driving rain give way to a second half full of momentum swings and stunning turns of events.
Jim Ned 49, Breckenridge 7 — Cash Gwinn threw for 186 yards and three scores and Aiden Ellis rushed for 127 yards and another TD as Jim Ned earned its fourth straight win.
The Indians quickly built a 42-7 first-half lead before coasting to the finish.
Breckenridge fell to 2-5 and 0-2.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Breckenridge-Clyde football (70 images)”
Jim Ned 56, Comanche 3 — Cash Gwinn threw for 283 yards and three scores and Aiden Ellis rushed for 90 yards and two more TDs as Jim Ned (5-1, 1-0) won the district opener for both schools.
After building a 35-3 halftime lead, Jim Ned ended any hopes of a Comanche miracle with a 21-0 third quarter.
Comanche (3-3, 0-1) was led by Cooper Welch, who threw for 120 yards.
CLYDE — Having a drive where a team needs to gain at least 30 yards to convert a first down is usually something that can derail an offense’s momentum in a football game.
If it happens twice in a game? That’s a recipe for disaster.
Despite the odds being against them, the Clyde Bulldogs overcame two possessions where it needed a least 35 yards for a first down with a fourth-quarter rally to beat Breckenridge 22-14 at Bulldog Stadium to open District 6-3A Division I play on Friday night.
San Angelo Grape Creek 49, San Angelo TLCA 12 — TLCA was the lone district team to see action on Friday, falling to its archrival Grape Creek in league play.
TLCA fell to 0-5 with the loss and will open district play at home against Sweetwater next Friday.
When Courtney Freeman was named the new volleyball coach at Clyde shortly before the beginning of the 2024 season, she immediately was met with an array of formidable challenges.
Surprisingly, the biggest one wasn’t the fact that she was succeeding the highly successful Laura Carr in that position.
Carr led Clyde to the playoffs routinely throughout her nine-year stay there, and her 2023 team made it to the Region I-3A semifinals.
Meanwhile, as Carr moved on after that season (to become an assistant principal in Wichita Falls ISD), so, too, did some of the better senior volleyball players in Clyde High School history. The cupboard Freeman inherited was far from bare, given the type of program Carr established, but it wasn’t filled with experienced, heirloom-quality athletes, the likes of which helped Carr make Clyde a perennial volleyball contender.
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.
Clyde 54, Muleshoe 49 — The Bulldogs topped Muleshoe in what turned out to be the area’s most entertaining game of the week.
Devan Wright rushed for 179 yards and four scores and threw for 246 yards and three more touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs, who improved to 4-1 with the win.
Muleshoe dropped to 2-3.
Comanche 36, Tolar 33 — Ladainian Smith rushed for 141 yards and three scores and Zaden Tello rushed for 103 yards and another TD to help Comanche even its record at 2-2.
Tolar (2-2) was led by Briton Rice, who threw or 259 yards and three scores.
Comanche will next see action when it travels to Early next Friday. Tolar will play host to Breckenridge on the same evening.
Comanche 42, Eastland 14 — Ladanian Smith rushed for 102 yards and two scores and Zaden Tello rushed or 72 yards and two more TDs as Comanche (1-2) earned its first win of the year.
The Mavericks dropped to 0-3 with the loss.
Eastland trailed 28-14 at the break before Comanche put things away with a pair of second-half touchdowns.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Jim Ned-Clyde volleyball (32 images)”
CLYDE — When Clyde and Jim Ned meet on the volleyball court, records can always be thrown out the window as the two squads tend to be part of a three-way battle with Wall for the District 6-3A championship.
Tuesday night’s affair at Bulldog Gym between the Lady Indians and Lady Bulldogs was nothing short of spectacular.
When all was said and done, it was the hosts who claimed a thrilling 25-22, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22 win to start district play.
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week is seldom an easy choice and this week was no exception. But Big Spring senior quarterback Marcus Rios had the numbers to snag the top spot in a brilliant performance against Lubbock High on Friday.
Rios hit 11 of 19 throws for 261 yards and four touchdowns in a 41-27 win. But that’s just the beginning.
Clyde 52, Eastland 28 — The Bulldogs used a 20-0 first quarter to gain control of this contest and never looked back.
Clyde (2-0) rolled up 521 yards in total offense while limiting Eastland (0-2) to 279.
Harley Griffin rushed for 124 yards and two scores and Miles Wilsher rushed for 107 and another TD to lead the Bulldogs.
Photo provided by Randy Day
Milestones catch our eye when selecting our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, as do great weekly performances. But when both occur at the same time, you can rest assured that player will be in the running for the top spot.
This week the spotlight goes to Comanche senior outside hitter J’Lee Salinas, who not only helped the Maidens to the Heart of Texas Tournament Championship in Brownwood, but she also hit the 500-kill milestone in process.
Jim Ned 42, Lubbock Estacado 21 — Cash Gwinn was 8-of-15 through the air for 187 yards and three scores and Aiden Ellis rushed for 113 yards and another TD to lift Jim Ned to an impressive win over Lubbock Estacado.
With the score knotted at 21-21 at the break, the Indians took command with three unanswered scores in the second half.
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.
By his own admission — and that of Clyde coach Johnathon Haddock — Devan Wright was more of an athlete playing quarterback than a polished signal caller last year as a sophomore.
But the talented youngster still did enough in that role to establish himself as one of the area’s most explosive playmakers in 2024.
Now a junior with a much firmer grasp on the nuances of his position, Wright is looking to become a more complete player this fall. And after rushing for 1,074 yards and nine touchdowns and passing for 1,220 yards and 13 more scores a year ago, that could be scary news for the Bulldogs’ opponents.
Hired last June to take over the Clyde program, former Cooper offensive coordinator and Plainview head coach Johnathon Haddock had less than three months to get his staff filled and his team ready for the start of the 2024 season.
While he ended up leading CHS to the playoffs as the fourth seed out of District 3-3A Division I, the Bulldogs’ 4-7 campaign was a whirlwind experience for all involved.
With that season in the rearview and a full offseason to prepare the coming one, Haddock is expecting things to go more smoothly in 2025. And while the Bulldogs will have to rebuild their lines after graduating 14 of 29 lettermen from last year’s squad, the Clyde coaching staff and players enter the year with more confidence and a higher comfort level on the whole.
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 Clyde Bulldogs.
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.