Softball tournaments can distort the significance of pitching accomplishments due to inning caps or time limits, rendering perfect games or no-hitters into half-versions of their true selves.
However, there is no denying that tournaments are work, especially for pitchers, and our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, Hamlin southpaw Zoe Moore, earned the accolade with a 4-0 record in the Wichita Falls Sunrise Optimist Tournament last week.
Photos by Seth Larue
It took almost until mid-April for Clyde’s softball team to reach a winning record.
But there aren’t many area softball teams currently more dangerous than the Lady Bulldogs, who have grown tremendously over the past two months.
Senior Paige Puryear and junior Maddi Kirksey are two reasons why Clyde is surging. Puryear has gotten comfortable in the circle, while Kirksey is a dependable catcher hitting a blistering .672. Puryear isn’t too far behind, batting .557 from the leadoff spot.
LAST WEEK: 32-2, .941
OVERALL: 282-64, .815
With two straight weeks of hitting over 90 percent on my picks, I’m feeling ready for the home stretch. But our Big Country Preps Game of the Week and at least three other area games, are virtual tossups. So keeping this pace up will be a challenge.
Our spotlight game: Clyde (3-4, 2-0) facing Early (4-3, 1-1) in a game that in the end, may decide the No. 3 playoff seed.
But this game offers a bit more than that.
The Early Longhorns haven’t reached the playoffs since 2008 — 12 straight years of sitting at home in late November. But a win here would nearly lock up a playoff spot, assuming the Longhorns defeat winless San Angelo TLCA on Oct. 30.
The “What Might Have Been” feature series is Big Country Preps’ effort to celebrate area athletes who have seen their seasons affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The series will continue through June 15. If you have a suggested story for the “What Might Have Been” series, please contact Big Country Preps at Evan.Ren@BigCountryPreps.com.
Fred Wendlick played golf for Clyde, where he graduated from high school in 1985, and has coached golf at his alma mater for the last 20 years. But last 
year was special.
The Clyde boys’ golf team qualified for state for the first time in school history.
“It’s all about the kids,” Wendlick said. “It was an incredible year. We had a great time down there (in Austin) at the state tournament. We played hard, and we improved the second day.”
The “What Might Have Been” feature series is Big Country Preps’ effort to celebrate area athletes who have seen their seasons affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The series will continue through June 15. If you have a suggested story for the “What Might Have Been” series, please contact Big Country Preps at Evan.Ren@BigCountryPreps.com.
“Be Legendary.”
That’s the motto that Reagan Sewell’s Clyde softball program latched onto a couple years ago, cementing their legacy by winning a program-best 30 games.
This year’s Lady Bulldogs were prepared to make their own history. Led by seniors Kaitlyn Turner and Peyton Lee, Clyde was off to a 12-3-1 start against quality competition and highly ranked in the TGCA Class 3A poll.
Did the COVID-19 outbreak cost the Lady Bulldogs a trip to state? Clyde was certainly a Region I-3A favorite along with the likes of Brock and Bushland.
“We had already accomplished so many goals personally and as a team,” Turner said. “Our chemistry on and off the field this year was astonishing. I believe we had the momentum and determination to be legendary this year.”
Marc Case is at it again, taking over a high school basketball team in urgent need of a coach and turning it into a winner.
This time it’s at Clyde — the second season of his second stint as the Bulldogs’ head coach. The passionate, fiery, old-school fundamentals coach who began his career in the 1970s has guided the Bulldogs back into the playoffs with a 19-14 record. Clyde will face Early (also 19-14) in a Class 3A boys’ bidistrict game at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Brownwood Coliseum.
“I always loved playing in the Coliseum,” the seemingly ageless 68-year-old Case said the other day. “I know it’s only five miles for Early to travel and 70 miles for us, but it’s a great place to play with a great atmosphere.”
Some might suggest Tuesday’s game will bring Case’s basketball career full circle, considering he played multiple times in Brownwood Coliseum from 1969-1973 as a McMurry guard going against the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets when both colleges were Lone Star Conference members.
Eastland 42, Clyde 27 — Behren Morton was 22 of 36 for 288 yards and four scores as Eastland recovered from its first loss of the year (at Wall on Oct.
25) with a big win over Clyde.
Anthony Bonilla was Morton’s favorite target, hauling in seven catches for 142 yards and a score. He also rushed eight times for 69 yards and two more touchdowns as the Mavericks improved to 8-1 overall and 3-1 in district play.
Dylan Neuman led Clyde (6-3, 2-2) with 231 yards passing, including a 37-yard TD pass to Jax Roam in the fourth quarter.
Wall 35, Clyde 7 — In a high-profile game between the district favorite and perhaps the most-improved team in the league, the Hawks got the better of the upstart Bulldogs.
Mason Fuchs threw for 79 yards, rushed for 23 and threw one TD pass to lead Wall (6-0, 1-0), tallied 222 rushing yards via committee.
Leading 14-0 at the break, third-ranked Hawks blew the game open with a 5-yard TD run by Cinch Dickey at the 7:30 mark and a 17-yard TD jaunt by Chase Rios at 0:53.
CLYDE — With Jim Ned capturing much of the area’s attention with three shutouts in as many weeks to open the season, it hasn’t been easy for anyone else in the Big Country to snag the defensive spotlight this year.
The Clyde Bulldogs, however, are making a bid to do exactly that.
Through four games, Clyde (3-1) has limited the opposition to a combined 21 points (5.3 per game), including shutouts of Comanche on Sept. 13 and Colorado City on Sept. 27.
“The guys have done an exceptional job,” second-year coach Scott Campbell said. “We’ve got a lot of experience on that side of the ball and a lot of good senior leaders who have an understanding of how to get aligned and play extremely fast.”
Jim Ned 28, Mason 19 — The Indians (4-0) passed their most difficult test of the early season in workmanlike fashion.
Trailing 6-0 early on, the Jim Ned gained a permanent upper hand with three straight touchdowns — the first of which came at the 0:16 mark of the first quarter on a 1-yard run by Riley Perry.
Perry added a 3-yard TD with 4:08 left in the half before a 65-yard punt return by Jamin Harwell put the Indians up by three scores with 9:07 left in the third quarter.
WALL — When Craig Slaughter’s name is brought up in Big Country football circles, it is often associated with a memorable run of success as the former Clyde football coach enjoyed when he led the Bulldogs to a 23-12 mark and one district title from 2006 to 2008.
His stint at CHS led to jobs at larger schools at Sweetwater (2009-11) and Llano (2012-17), after which many Big Country fans simply lost track of what had happened to the man.
He is, for the record, currently the defensive coordinator at Wall under head coach Houston Guy, where he is heading up a Hawk defense that has shut down powerhouses from Mason (47-7) and Cisco (20-13) in the first two weeks.
“I’ve really enjoyed the experience,” the 46-year-old Slaughter said of taking the job offer from his long-time friend, Guy. “When you’re leading a program, you get blamed for so much stuff that you really have nothing to do with, from who’s on the seventh-grade B team to the plays the seventh grade ran on a Thursday night.
“So (assistant coaching) is a load off your shoulders from the pressure you feel and put on yourself.”
With Brock handing Clyde a 10-0 drubbing in Game 1 of their Region I-3A quarterfinal series on Thursday, it may have been tempting for those watching to simply write off the Bulldogs in Game 2.
Brock coach Hart Hering knew better.
With Clyde facing elimination, the Bulldogs nearly forced a Game 3, falling to Brock 8-6 at Abilene Christian University on Saturday.
TUSCOLA — The Clyde baseball team clinched its fourth consecutive district championship with a 5-3 win over Jim Ned on Monday night in District 5-3A play.
Riley Rice went 6.2 innings and allowed three runs while scattering four hits. Rice also struck out eight and walked three as he outdueled Jim Ned freshman Tate Yardley.
Yardley went 5.1 innings, giving up four runs on eight hits while striking out four. He walked one and hit four others.
CLYDE — While it isn’t impossible for a high school baseball team to reach the state tournament without pitching depth, one would likely need two things in order to achieve it: extraordinary hitting and/or extraordinary luck.
Both avenues are longshots, with hitting serving as compensation and luck helping the pitching-challenged to avoid three-game series via successful coin flips.
The 2019 Clyde Bulldogs (18-4, 7-1 District 5-3A) have no such concern. And it’s a good thing, coming in a region that features Wall, Brock and Breckenridge — ranked first, third and 15th respectively by the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association.
CLYDE — With Clyde’s Payton Laughlin on the hill, the Anson Tigers knew coming into Tuesday’s District 5-3A road game that they would have to take advantage of what few opportunities that came their way.
Unfortunately for AHS, Laughlin was able to close the door nearly every time it opened, stranding four Tigers in scoring position in a 5-1 Clyde win.
Tossing a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts, Laughlin (6-1) overcame three errors behind him and three of his own walks to earn the win with his seventh complete game of the year. His ERA dropped to 1.12 in the process.
“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” — Vincent T. Lombardi
CLYDE — When he took over a successful softball program at Clyde three years ago, coach Reagan Sewell had to find a way to elevate something that was already quite good, without falling into the trap of fixing something that wasn’t broken.
He may have found a way, in a simple motto: Be legendary.
Simply put, Sewell wanted a motivational tool that would lead the Lady Bulldogs toward an absolute commitment to excellence and an unwillingness to settle for anything else.
Apparently, it stuck. Because over Sewell’s three-year tenure at CHS, you would be hard-pressed to find a more successful Class 3A program in the Big Country.
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CLYDE — It took the better part of six innings and some late Colorado City miscues, but the Clyde Lady Bulldogs cemented their status as the team to beat in District 5-3A with an 8-0 win on Tuesday.
Kaitlyn Turner tossed a five-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and Peyton Lee was 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lead Clyde 16-4, 5-0, which took sole possession of first place with the win.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by pushing the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
CLYDE — After 16 combined years of working as a varsity assistant and junior high coach, along with an 0-3 start this year, first-year Clyde girls basketball coach Nellie Parrish was more than ready to get her first career varsity win.
It came Tuesday night in a 45-26 win over Comanche in a Class-3A nondistrict matchup at the Bulldog gym.
CLYDE — After seeing Stamford quarterback Peyton Bevel dissect the De Leon defense with state records of 789 passing yards and 12 passing touchdowns last week, Clyde knew it was going to need a nearly perfect game to slow him down.
Consider that done.
Clyde ran just 50 plays to Stamford’s 68, but CHS kept the ball on the ground and dominated the time of possession in taking a 21-13 win at Bulldog Stadium in both teams nondistrict finale.
In his more than 30 years as a part of Abilene’s sports scene, Al Pickett has done a little bit of everything. In addition to serving as the sports editor of the Abilene Reporter-News for 15 years, Pickett has been the play-by-play voice for numerous local high school and college teams, hosted his own radio show, “Let’s Talk Sports,” and authored five books about sports in Abilene and Texas.
Pickett, who is both the founder and a member of the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame, took some time this week to talk about his career in sports journalism, seeing his book “Brother’s Keeper” being made into a feature film and what his future holds on this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast.
Also in this episode, Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood discuss the situations each of the area’s seven 11-man coaches taking over new programs face in 2018.
The most difficult situation imaginable for a first-year coach is to replace someone who was not only successful, but who left you an empty cupboard. You have a tough act to follow, but nothing to follow it with.
In that regard, new Clyde coach Scott Campbell can count himself among the fortunate — the very fortunate.
Campbell, who replaced the highly successful Rocky Smart following his resignation in the spring, has ample weapons at his disposal to make a splash in his Clyde debut.
Continue reading “Campbell taking over at Clyde in great situation”
There’s a difference between being young and being untested.
On paper, first-year Clyde coach Scott Campbell has a junior-laden team, likely a year away from hitting its peak. But the club is far from inexperienced.
A year ago under former coach Rocky Smart, the Bulldogs reached the playoffs and finished 6-5 despite starting multiple sophomores on both sides of the ball.
This year, Campbell, the former head coach at Luling, inherits an enormous junior class of 18 players — roughly half of whom were in starting varsity roles last year.
Like Big Country Preps co-founders Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood, Wichita Falls Time Record News area writer Zach Duncan has been covering high school sports in his market for a long time.
Entering his 15th football season with the Wichita Falls newspaper, Duncan has seen more great games than he can count and worked with some outstanding coaches and players. This week, he took some time to share some his favorite football stories and talk shop with Evan and Daniel.
Also in this episode, Evan and Daniel discuss District 3-3A Division I and District 7-2A Division II — two all-area leagues that should be competitive from top to bottom.