By Tom Waddill
It’s been a relatively slow, but productive fall semester for the golf teams at Huntsville High School.
The Lady Hornet girls have played in two tournaments, finishing sixth in their most recent outing, while the Hornet boys rallied for a seventh-place finish in the Huntsville Fall Classic late last month.
Sophomore Kacie Boley fired a personal-best round of 82 for the Lady Hornets, which placed her second in the individual medalist standings at a tournament in Magnolia on Oct. 30. In the 16-team field, Huntsville finished sixth, only five shots out of third place, according to coach Marcus Evans.
Freshman Madison Wood played in her first varsity tournament in Magnolia. She shot a 99, which surprised her coach, who bragged on her and some of the other young girls in the growing Huntsville golf program.
“Madison did an outstanding job,” Evans said. “She played exceptionally well for being so new to our program. Several of the other freshman girls also are playing well. That’s going to be a very good group in the future. They’re going to give us some much-needed depth that we haven’t had in a while. We’re going to have more girls competing for varsity spots, which will make us stronger in the spring.”
In earlier fall action, the Lady Hornets finished 10th in a 20-team field at the Links at West Fork in Conroe.
“We were a little short-handed in the girls’ first tournament,” Evans pointed out. “We had some injuries this fall. Three of our girls were sitting parked at a traffic light and they were hit from behind. One of those girls is still out.”
The Lady Hornets host the Huntsville Girls Fall Classic on Nov. 16-17. The first round will be played at Raven Nest, and the second round will move out to Waterwood National.
At the Huntsville Boys Fall Classic, the Hornets moved up from ninth place after one day to seventh in the second round. Senior Caleb LeNorman shot rounds of 79 and 78 at Raven Nest and Elkins Lake to finish 16th in the individual standings. Junior Nathan Watson followed his round of 78 at Raven Nest with an 82 at Elkins Lake for a 160 total.
“We battled in the first round and scrambled very well,” Evans said. “We made more mistakes in the second round, but we beat Montgomery, which is going to be our stiffest competition at district.
“We had a very strong 24-team field at our fall boys tournament. I wasn’t pleased when we were ninth after one round, so I challenged them to improve on that. They moved up to seventh and beat some very good teams, including Klein Oak and Montgomery.”
The only Class 4A school that finished ahead of Huntsville, Evans said, was Katy Seven Lakes, a team that advanced to the state tournament last season.
Evans said he was excited to see what the Hornets did when they got off the golf course at Elkins Lake.
“The guys had a meeting after the round and rededicated themselves to their goals,” the coach explained. “They pledged to work until dark every day because they want to do better at Crown Colony.”
The Hornet boys finish the fall season Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at a tournament hosted by Lufkin High School at Crown Colony Golf and Country Club.
Cubs, Bulldogs and Lions are in — Any chance the Brenham Cubs will roll over tonight in their regular-season football finale with the Caney Creek Panthers? Don’t bet on it.
The Cubs have already clinched another District 18-4A championship and a spot in the Class 4A state playoffs, but coach Glen West says there’s still work to do.
“It’s the competitiveness of wanting to win and to be the best that drives you,” West told the Brenham Banner-Press. “I would feel like some of the things we’ve accomplished would be tarnished if we didn’t beat (Caney Creek). We’d be the district champs, but we’d have a loss just like Waller and Livingston, and we don’t want that. We’ve got momentum and we want to keep that ball rolling and carry it into the next level.”
Brenham’s 42-7 win over Willis last week clinched the district title and a playoff berth for the Cubs, while Caney Creek’s 24-13 loss at Huntsville eliminated the Panthers from playoff contention.
As a result, the playoff field from 18-4A has been set, with the Cubs advancing to the Division I, or big-school, bracket, while Livingston and Waller move on to the Division II bracket. Livingston and Waller play each other Friday for second place in the district.
West feels fortunate to be putting another championship trophy in the case at Brenham High. Six of the Cubs’ first seven games were decided by four points or fewer, and Brenham’s district schedule included an overtime victory over Waller, a three-point win over Huntsville and a four-point victory over Montgomery.
“We came back 10 points against Montgomery, came back against Huntsville and beat Waller in overtime or we’d be out. It’s that close,” West said. “There is no situation where we’re up on the hill looking down at them.”
Lady Bears bounced, but Cubettes still alive — The Brenham Cubettes are returning to the Region III volleyball finals for the third time in four years after sweeping Santa Fe in a Class 4A regional semifinal match in Spring on Tuesday night.
Brenham (32-7) beat 23rd-ranked Santa Fe 25-20, 25-21 and 25-23. Last year the Cubettes lost to Nederland in the regional semifinals.
“It feels good to be there again,” Brenham coach Debbie Yeager told her local newspaper. “We took a year off and that wasn’t pretty.”
Brenham, which eliminated Huntsville last week in the Region III quarterfinals, won its fourth district championship in program history this fall and became the first Cubettes team to win back-to-back district titles. Prior to 2004, Brenham had never reached the regional championship round.
“Only two or three of us have been in this position so we’re excited,” sophomore outside hitter Bethany Yeager told the Banner-Press. “We’re ready to play Friendswood on Saturday and we just can’t wait.”
Friendswood swept District 18-4A runner-up Montgomery 25-18, 25-19, 25-12 on Tuesday night at Kingwood High School.
Friendswood, which eliminated Huntsville last year in the regional semifinals, improved to 36-6. Montgomery finished the season at 23-15. This was Montgomery’s first trip to the regional semifinals, while Friendswood was making its seventh appearance.
“I told the girls that I was proud of them and that they needed to be proud of themselves regardless of the outcome tonight,” Montgomery coach Amy Haberern told the Conroe Courier, “They have achieved more and have gone further than any Montgomery volleyball team ever has. That is something to be proud of in itself.”
