Here are our second-team selections for the 2026 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 2026 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 2026 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 2026 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 2026 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 2026 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: Hawley-Forsan bi-district football (74 images)”
SWEETWATER — Hawley junior running back Brycen Stofel has had a quiet 2025 season for the most part, but when the Hawley football team needed him to step up, he did so in a big way.
Stofel ran for 181 yards and three touchdowns on just 15 carries Thursday as Hawley claimed a 42-14 win over Forsan in a Region I-2A Division I bi-district matchup at the Mustang Bowl.
It was an effort Hawley coach Mitch Ables said he told Stofel that he hoped to see more of.
Colorado City 42, Sonora 12 — Ace Mejia threw for 200 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 79 yards and two more scores to lead the Wolves to what may have been the upset of the year over the Broncos.
Gavin Harbour (11-57), Joel Hernandez (3-54, 1 TD) and Mikell Martinez (3-24, 1 TD) also contributed to a 212-yard rushing effort for Colorado City (1-9, 0-5), which got quality receiving days from Jadon Reyna (3-61, 1 TD), Aidan Casares (3-59) and Davin Lara (4-48, 1 TD).
It’s been a good while since a Goldthwaite Eagle snagged our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award in any sport. But sophomore Owen Campbell obliterated that streak with a fabulous effort in a 61-0 rout of Meridian on Friday.
His performance came on both sides of the ball, beginning with 12 carries for 144 yards and four touchdowns from his running back position.
Defensively Campbell charted eleven tackles, including seven solos, four assists and an interception from the GHS secondary.
“Owen had a tremendous game on Friday where he contributed to our win,” coach Andy Howard said. “He made a huge impact in all three phases of the game. He plays a huge role for us every week on defense, offense and on special teams.
“He continues to grow and improve as a player every week. I am proud of Owen but proud of everyone around him as well.”
Ozona 46, Forsan 40 — Hayden Bowlin ran for 192 yards and four touchdowns and added 90 more yards through the air, but it wasn’t quite enough to fuel the Buffaloes to an upset win over the Lions.
That’s because Christian Villarreal ran for 411 yards and five touchdowns for Ozona, which built a 30-20 halftime lead and held off a Forsan rally in the second half to improve to 9-0 overall and 4-0 in league play. The standout’s third 400-yard game gave him 3,269 yards and 47 touchdowns rushing for the year, putting him within 776 yards of Texas’ single-season rushing record of 4,045, set by Sugar Land’s Kenneth Hall in 1953.
Forsan 21, Christoval 7 — Hayden Bowlin ran for 183 yards and all three FHS touchdowns to lead the Buffaloes to a two-score win over the Cougars.
Forsan (3-5, 2-1), which also got 56 yards passing and eight yards receiving from Bowlin, limited Christoval to just 150 total yards in stretching a 7-0 halftime lead to two touchdowns by the start of the final period.
Forsan senior Hayden Bowlin had a career night last Friday and picked up our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award in the process.
To begin with, the FHS QB rushed for 280 yards and five scores in last week’s 60-27 win over Colorado City. Aside from that, he threw for 59 yards, he returned a punt 75 yards for a sixth TD and had a 34-yard kickoff return to give him 389 all-purpose yards and 36 of FHS’ points.
Forsan 60, Colorado City 27 — Hayden Bowlin ran for 280 yards and five touchdowns and passed for 59 more yards to lift the Buffaloes to a comfortable win over the Wolves.
Ashton Ellis added 124 yards and two scores for Forsan, which ran for 425 yards as a team in improving to 2-5 overall and 1-1 in district play.
Christoval 15, Colorado City 6 — The Cougars only generated 174 yards of total offense, but that was enough thanks to a dominant defensive effort against the Wolves.
Trailing 6-0 after a quarter, Christoval (3-3, 1-0) got a touchdown pass from Ty Debusk in the second quarter to take a 7-6 lead into halftime, before getting another TD throw from the quarterback in the third quarter to put the game away.
Ropesville Ropes 59, Forsan 0 — Ryland Keith ran for 274 yards and a touchdown while receiving for 59 more yards to help the Eagles rout the Buffaloes.
Ropes finished with 592 yards of total offense, getting 142 yards and two TDs passing from Kade Franklin, 86 yards and a TD rushing from Jaivyth Cruz and a pair of receiving scores from Kolter Dockery to increase a 22 halftime lead to 45-0 by the start of the fourth quarter.
Wink 48, Forsan 14 — Leading just 7-0 at halftime, the Wildcats put up 20 points in the third quarter and 21 in the fourth to turn a previously competitive game into a lopsided win over Buffaloes.
Wink’s big second half left Forsan with its third loss in four games after rallying for the first win of the Casey Thompson era last week at Stanton.
Believe it or not, there is a huge difference between a 1-2 start and an 0-3 start — especially when that victory comes in Week 3.
So when a team has dropped its first two games, the players are facing a crossroads — one with momentum which is one win away from hitting the .500 mark. Or, one with an emotional hole to dig themselves out of — three games under .500 with no momentum and a battle to retain their confidence.
A number of teams in the Big Country Preps coverage area reached this crossroads on Friday, with Brownwood, Comanche, Bangs, Forsan and Winters all scoring wins.
Forsan 34, Stanton 33 — Coy Evans passed for 285 yards and a pair of touchdowns, hitting Hayden Bowlin seven times for 183 yards and both scores, to lead FHS to its first win of the season in this battle of Buffaloes.
Stanton, which got big games from Isaiah DeLeon (18-26-1—289, 1 TD passing), Travis Palomo (30-103, 2 TDs rushing) and Vayden Pastrana (15-247, 1 TD receiving), raced out to a 33-14 halftime lead. But Forsan (1-2) scored 20 unanswered points in the second half to rally for the victory.
McCamey 42, Colorado City 19 — The Badgers held the Wolves to just 137 yards of total offense, including 78 yards on the ground, to start fast and hold on for a comfortable win.
McCamey outscored C-City 28-0 in the opening quarter and was never threatened after, going to halftime with a 36-13 advantage.
Seymour 33, Colorado City 27 — Ace Mejia ran for 155 yards and three touchdowns and added another TD through the air, but it wasn’t quite enough to lift the Wolves to a come-from-behind win over the Panthers.
C-City fell behind 13-0 in the second quarter before rallying to tie the game at halftime. Seymour then responded with a safety and a pair of touchdowns to pull ahead 27-13, before the Wolves rallied again to knot the score at 27-all.
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.
It didn’t take Hayden Bowlin long to endear himself to first-year Forsan coach Casey Thompson.
Between his physical gifts, work ethic, team-first attitude and leadership skills, the speedy senior made quite a first impression on the new Buffaloes mentor.
In the time since that introduction, Thompson’s fondness for Bowlin has only grown. And with the start of the 2025 season on the horizon, the coach is still working to devise ways — and phases — in which he can utilize the multi-talented receiver/defensive back.
Few small-school programs in the state have enjoyed more coaching stability over the past several decades than Forsan. But after 16 years as the school’s head football coach, Jason Phillips announced in January that he’d be stepping down from that post.
That decision opened up the FHS job for just the sixth time since 1980 and opened the door for former Sweetwater special teams coordinator Casey Thompson to take over a Buffaloes program that had posted an 88-84 record and made nine playoff appearances under Phillips’ watch.
While Thompson inherits a team that saw a four-year playoff streak snapped last year during a tough 2-8 campaign, the energetic new head man is bullish on the program’s future. And he feels good about the foundation he’s building from in the present.
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 Forsan Buffaloes.
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.