Citing a desire to get to be a parent and enjoy watching his son, Cooper boys basketball coach Bryan Conover announced on Wednesday that he’s stepping down from his post.
It was a move he said he knew he was going to make going into the season, which culminated with a playoff berth as the Cougars went 18-13 and finished as the District 4-5A runner-up.
While tough, the decision wasn’t one that Conover struggled to make.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Lubbock Monterey-Cooper baseball (30 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cooper-Wylie softball (39 images)”
Despite it being the end of spring break, the local baseball and softball teams were busy on the diamonds on Saturday, both in town and in Lubbock.
The six teams from Abilene High, Cooper and Wylie combined to go 3-3 in action.
You can read Daniel Youngblood’s story on Lubbock Monterey’s 6-2 win over Cooper in District 4-5A baseball here.
Meanwhile, Abilene High’s baseball and softball teams, along with Wylie baseball, picked up key District 4-5A wins. Wylie softball dropped a heartbreaker at Lubbock Monterey and the Cooper softball squad dropped a nondistrict game against Wolfforth Frenship.
The Cooper baseball could never solve Lubbock Monterey starter Hector Villegas on Saturday, tallying just two hits off the right-hander in a 6-2 loss to the Plainsmen at Cougar Field.
Villegas kept the Cougars off balance all game, pitching around four walks and two hit batsmen by drawing weak contact more often that not.
The Monterey starter struck out only three, but he drew nine groundouts and four pop outs in helping the Plainsmen (8-11 overall) improve to 4-1 in District 4-5A play. Cooper, which managed single runs in the first and fourth innings, fell to 10-6 on the year and 2-3 in league action.
The Wylie softball team stayed perfect in District 4-5A play Thursday, using a big fourth inning to break a 3-all tie and eventually beat crosstown rival Cooper 7-4 at Bulldog Field.
After scoring one run in each of the first three innings, the Lady Bulldogs erupted for four runs in the fourth — all with two outs — to build a lead they would protect the rest of the way.
The victory improved Wylie to 18-4 overall and 2-0 in league play, while Cooper fell to 1-2 in District 4-5A action with its second loss to a crosstown rival this week.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene High-Cooper softball (48 images)”
The Abilene High softball team got a strong pitching performance from Avah Reyes and Diana Silva and took advantage of four Cooper errors Tuesday in an 8-1 win over the Lady Cougars at Cougar Diamond.
The Lady Eagles led 1-0 after an inning, before taking control of the game with a three-run top of the third. That was all the support needed by Reyes and Silva, who combined to limit their crosstown rivals to just one run on six hits in the victory.
The win improved AHS (17-3 overall) to 1-1 in District 4-5A play, while Cooper fell to the same record in league action. AHS had opened district with a 6-4 loss to Wylie last week, while the Lady Cougars opened 4-5A play with an 8-6 win over Lubbock Cooper.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene High-Cooper baseball (125 images)”
First-year Abilene High baseball coach Brad Harman admitted that he didn’t sleep much on Friday night with the excitement of his initiation into the Crosstown Showdown looming.
He may not get much sleep on Saturday night either.
Cooper used a six-run sixth inning to take the lead and held off the Eagles 12-8 on Saturday afternoon at Cougar Field in a District 4-5A matchup that also served as the conclusion of the Abilene ISD Invitational baseball tournament.
Not only did Thursday mark the opening game of the 2023 Abilene ISD Invitational, it also featured a District 4-5A matchup with the Southside Showdown between Cooper at Wylie at Bulldog Field.
Abilene High split a pair of games with schools from Wichita Falls ISD, while the Bulldogs picked up a 10-0 win over the Cougars to close out the day in a game played mainly in a heavy mist.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene Icebreaker Softball Tournament (241 images)”
While Hawley’s Kason O’Shields is better known for his prowess on a football field, the HHS senior is actually a remarkable all-around athlete who is capable of having an impact in a variety of different sports.
This week is a prime example of that, as O’Shields takes our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for the week ending February 18.
At 6-foot-5, having scored 1,000-points-plus in a varsity career that began when he was a freshman, Cooper’s Jaelyn Rivera is standing tall these days — both literally and figuratively.
As the primary offensive force on a Cougar team that is 18-12 after finishing second in District 4-5A, Rivera will lead Cooper into its Region 1-5A bi-district game against Amarillo Palo Duro at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Lamesa.
While Cooper coach Bryan Conover can only speculate how his team’s deliberate-offense/stifling-defense style will match up against the Dons’ run/gun/launch-the-3-as-soon-as-it’s-open attack, he knows his team will be perched on Rivera’s sturdy shoulders when the game tips off.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene High-Cooper boys basketball (72 images)”
Abilene High traveled to Cougar Gym on Tuesday needing a win in its District 4-5A finale to keep its playoff hopes alive. Cooper needed a victory to clinch the league’s No. 2 playoff seed.
In the end, the Cougars were just too much for the Eagles in a 52-36 Senior Night victory.
CHS, which capped the regular season at 18-12 overall and 8-4 in district play, raced out to a 14-7 lead after a quarter and outscored AHS in each of the following three periods to close out the regular season with an impressive crosstown win.
Photos by Dayton Wood, HubCityPreps.com
LUBBOCK — Trailing 50-48 with 12.8 seconds remaining, the Cooper boys basketball team put the game in Jaelyn Rivera’s hands. And as he has done so many times before, the standout forward came through for the Cougars.
The senior took a pass just beyond the midcourt line with time winding down, dribbled to the 3-point line, shook two defenders and drained the game-winning shot with 1.8 seconds remaining to lift Cooper to a dramatic 51-50 road win.
Eula’s Clayton Gray, our Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the week ending Feb. 4, earned the accolade on two fronts. Not only did he post big numbers in consecutive wins over Moran and Rising Star, but he also reached an impressive milestone in the process.
To begin with, the junior guard chalked up 29 points, six boards and four blocks in a win over Moran. He also tallied 43 points, eight boards and four steals in a win over Rising Star.
Six Cooper athletes made their college commitments public Monday during a Signing Day ceremony at Cougar Gym that was rescheduled from last week due to the winter storm that whipped through Abilene and most of the state.
Surrounded by family, friends, teammates and coaches, five CHS football players — quarterback/athlete Chris Warren, receivers Malik Jackson, D’Andre Ralston and Cam Herron and defensive back Michael Ramis — joined girls basketball standout Karrigan Parrott in announcing the universities for which they will continue their athletic careers collegiately.
Warren and Ralston are both headed to Hardin-Simmons, while Ramis will also stay local and compete at McMurry. Herron will join that trio in the Division III ranks at Trinity in San Antonio, while Ramis will play NAIA football for Arizona Christian University.
Parrott, the lone girls athlete to participate in Monday’s ceremony after fellow basketball player Kyla Speights (Texas Wesleyan) and volleyballer Skyla Stark (Hill College) announced commitments earlier, will head east to compete at the next level for DIII Texas-Dallas in Richardson.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Lubbock High-Cooper basketball doubleheader (84 images)”
Facing off with Lubbock High in a game they needed to win to maintain any hope of reaching the playoffs, the Cooper Lady Cougars put forth their best effort of the year Saturday afternoon at Cougar Gym.
Playing with the sense of urgency one might expect in a must-win game, coach Brandon Hudson’s squad scored 45 first-half points and stretched 21-point halftime lead to 30 in the third quarter before closing out a 67-48 Senior Day victory.
The win improved Cooper to 20-13 overall and 4-7 in District 4-5A play, pulling the Lady Cougars within a game of LHS (21-13, 5-6) with one game remaining on the district schedule. That sets up another must-win Tuesday at Lubbock Coronado, and potentially another after that should the fourth-place Lady Westerners fall as expected to top-ranked Lubbock Monterey.
Sharing the court with one of the area’s best forwards in Jaelyn Rivera and a pair of talented guards in Kam Gray and Jordan Willis, Cooper senior Maxwell Falade knows he’s a role player.
But in watching the Cougars play, you realize pretty quickly just how important that role is.
While Falade’s name may not jump off the stat sheet the way some of his teammates’ do, his energy and effort on both ends of the court are critical to his team’s success. And if you ask coach Bryan Conover what makes him such a special person and valuable player, you had better be ready for a lengthy response.
He entered last week as the leading scorer in the entire Big Country, putting up more than 37 points per game. So few will be surprised to hear that Benamin’s Grayson Ridgon has put up yet another performance worthy of our Big Country Preps Player of the Week Award.
Yet last week’s numbers were big, even by his standards.
Helping the Mustangs to consecutive routs of Harrold (100-36) and Crowell (93-53), the sophomore guard poured in 50 and 51 points respectively and even found time to snag a head-turning 20 rebounds in the Crowell win.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wylie-Cooper basketball doubleheader (124 images)”
About a second passed between the time Kam Gray’s game-tying 3-point attempt first banged off the rim and when it finally came back down to the basket. But it felt like much longer for those in attendance — and especially those on each bench.
With his team trailing crosstown rival Wylie by three points and just over seven seconds remaining, the Cooper guard raced down the court and launched a shot from just in front of the CHS coaching staff. The high-arcing heave, which was on target but a little long, bounced high off the rim and came down over the cylinder, but after clanging off both sides of the rim it fell harmlessly to the floor, preserving a 62-59 win for the visiting Bulldogs.
The closing sequence was fitting end for a wild game that almost saw Cooper erase an eight-point deficit in the final 48.6 seconds.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cooper-Abilene High basketball doubleheader (126 photos)”
Riding a three-game winning streak into its first matchup with rival Abilene High, the Cooper boys basketball team stayed hot Friday night, closing out the first half of District 4-5A play with a 50-41 win in front of a packed house at Eagle Gym.
The victory, which improved the Cougars to 14-8 overall and 5-1 in league play, kept CHS just a game back of district leader Lubbock Monterey (18-8, 6-0) and completed an exciting night of basketball that saw Abilene High edge the Lady Coogs 51-50 in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader.
Leading just 32-31 at the end of three quarters, coach Bryan Conover’s squad pulled away in the fourth, outscoring the Eagles 18-10 over the final eight minutes to close out the win and set up a big home matchup with Wylie on Tuesday.
A limited number of minutes, if the numbers compute correctly, can figure strongly in our selection of Player of the Week.
That is the case with this week’s winner, Gavin Landenberger of Cisco, who opened the week with 29 points, five boards, three assists, and five steals in a win over Haskell last Tuesday.
However, what sealed the deal for the senior guard, was a 20-point, four-rebound, five-assist and five-steal game he charted in a win over Hamlin — numbers he posted in only 18 minutes of playing time.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Lubbock Coronado-Cooper basketball doubleheader (112 images)”
Last week, while hosting Lubbock Monterey in a big District 4-5A matchup, the Cooper boys basketball team couldn’t execute well enough down the stretch to escape a tough home loss. Facing similar circumstances seven days later against Lubbock Coronado, the Cougars found a way.
Coach Bryan Conover’s squad rallied from a 42-39 fourth-quarter deficit Friday at Cougar Gym, going on a 4-0 run over the final 43 seconds to hand the Mustangs a 49-46 loss.
The thrilling victory pulled Cooper even with Coronado in the district standings at 3-1 — a half-game behind district leader Monterey, which was idle Friday.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Lubbock Monterey-Cooper basketball doubleheader (98 images)”
On a night when buckets were hard to come by for both teams, the Lubbock Monterey Plainsmen finished with one more than their Cooper counterparts Friday, scoring the final six points in a hard-fought 40-37 win at Cougar Gym.
Cooper, which needed almost four minutes to score to its first points of the game, held a 22-18 lead at halftime and rallied from a third-quarter deficit to go up 37-34 on a Jordan Willis layup with 3:47 to play. But those would be the Cougars’ final points of the night, allowing the visiting Plainsmen to close the night on a run and escape with a three-point victory.
After a turnover spoiled CHS’ penultimate possession, the Coogs had one final chance when Monterey missed the front end of a one-and-one up 40-37 with just over four seconds remaining in the game. But Jaelyn Rivera’s halfcourt shot at the buzzer banged off the rim and out, eliciting an gasp from those in attendance.
It wasn’t the prettiest game the Cooper boys basketball team will play all year, but the result was just what the Cougars were looking for in their District 4-5A opener against crosstown rival Wylie.
After taking a 13-11 lead into halftime and going into the fourth quarter tied at 25, CHS outscored the Bulldogs 19-14 over the final eight minutes Tuesday to escape Bulldog Gym with a 44-39 victory in a game that even coach Bryan Conover as a “rock fight.”
But the win sends the Coogs into the holiday break at 8-6 overall and 1-0 in district play, which made the ugly win seem a little prettier after the fact.
Trailing crosstown rival Wylie 33-32 heading into the final quarter, the Cooper girls basketball team needed a spark to get to the finish line with a win Tuesday at Bulldog Gym.
Enter standout senior Kyla Speights.
After being limited to just six points through the first three quarters, the talented point guard exploded for 13 points in the fourth — including two big 3-pointers and a three-point play in rapid succession — to fuel the Lady Cougars to 52-41 victory.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Catclaw Classic Day 3 (60 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Catclaw Classic Day 2 (68 images)”
The Catclaw Classic has seen the three local schools struggle with a combined six losses in seven games, but it hasn’t been as bleak as it sounds.
Cooper has continued its strong performance of late, starting off with a pair of losses by a combined three points to Midland Christian and Fort Worth Chisholm Trail, while host Wylie suffered a big loss on Thursday before falling by just three on Friday.
Abilene High has had the most success in the tournament so far with one win in its three games, a 41-36 victory over Midland Christian on Friday night. The Eagles lost games to Chisholm Trail and Canyon earlier in the event.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cane’s Key City Classic Day 3 (102 images)”
After North Crowley’s Eric Moore hit a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter and tie Amarillo High in the Raising Cane’s Key City Classic championship game, it seemed as though the Panthers had all the momentum.
The game stayed close throughout the fourth quarter, but the Sandies pulled away over the final 1:23 to take a 59-48 win and claim the tournament title Saturday afternoon at Abilene High’s Eagle Gym.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cane’s Key City Classic Day 2 (46 images)”
Here are the 2022 Raising Cane’s Key City Classic boys basketball tournament results: Continue reading “TOURNAMENT CENTRAL: Raising Cane’s Key City Classic results”
FORT WORTH — The Cooper football team rallied from a 17-0 first-quarter deficit and 24-7 halftime hole to pull within three points in the fourth quarter of Friday’s Region I-5A Division II area-round matchup with Grapevine. But that was as close as the Cougars could get in a season-ending 38-21 loss to the Mustangs at Crowley ISD Stadium.
Hurt by five turnovers, CHS still managed to pull within 24-21 on Daniel Bray’s 16-yard touchdown run with 7:19 remaining in the game. And the Coogs had an opportunity to take a lead on their next possession. But they couldn’t finish that drive, and Grapevine closed with two late touchdowns to pull away.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cisco-Cooper girls basketball (38 images)”