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.
While scoring and rebounding garner much of the attention in basketball, there are other elements, crucial to success, that seldom grab headlines.
Behind the scenes is where character, effort and sacrifice set the foundation for teams to reach their full potential. And it is with our Big Country Preps Gym Rat Team that we salute the individuals who bring these elements to the table.
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 outworking, outhustling and outgiving everyone around you, both on the floor and off. Hard-working, honest, selfless, tough, coachable kids are what we seek for this roster.
A Gym Rat Team member can be your best player or the last player off the bench. But the one thing all of them bring is an uncompromisingly good attitude.
It is for that reason that our Gym Rat Team is selected entirely by area coaches. And Big Country Preps is truly honored to present these individuals to you — the best “team players” (boys and girls) that the area had to offer during the 2020-21 season.
Players are listed in no particular order.
Enjoy.
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LINK … GAME STORY: Late Eula rally falls short in state semifinal loss to Texline.
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Coming into the Region III-1A semifinal with Slidell, the Eula Pirates were on fire from the field, canning no fewer than 24 3-pointers over their last two games.
That stretch came to an icy finish on Friday, with Eula struggling from the floor in a 51-36 loss at Mansfield High School.
Brock Harwell scored 23 points and Slayton Pruett added 14 more to lead Slidell (30-9), which advances to face top-ranked Lipan in the Region III title game at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
After nearly four months of basketball, just three Big Country boys teams remain.
Brock, Jayton and Eula stand alone as the area’s last remaining survivors, and each now finds itself two victories away from a trip to San Antonio for the state tournament.
The Eagles, ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, must survive the field at the Region I-3A tournament in Plainview, while the Class 1A No. 9 Jaybirds and 11th-ranked Pirates will compete in the Region II-1A and Region III-1A tournaments, respectively.
Which, if any, of those teams will still be playing after this weekend? Only time will tell. But let’s take a look at what each group is up against, and what it will need to do to reach high school’s equivalent of the Final Four.
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EASTLAND — The Eula Pirates may have been a bit streaky on the offensive side in Tuesday’s Region III-1A quarterfinal with Huckabay. But coach Josh Fostel’s crew made up for it with a wire-to-wire defensive effort in a 60-26 win at Eastland High School.
Cade Smith scored 17 points while Dakota Boles and Matthew Booth added 11 each to pace the 11th-ranked Pirates (28-6), who now push on to the Region III-1A tournament, where they will meet No. 6 Slidell at 5 p.m. Friday in Mansfield.
HASKELL — Down 22-20 to start the fourth quarter, the fourth-ranked Haskell Maidens scored 15 points over the final eight minutes to knock off the upset-minded Eula Lady Pirates in a 35-29 victory at the legendary Tee Pee.
Leading the way for the Maidens (7-1) was freshmen Melody Martinez, whose five-point outburst late in the fourth quarter helped put away Eula for good. C’Era Taylor, meanwhile, had a team-high eight points and two rebounds for Haskell.