The ReSporter: Congrats once again on reaching a milestone that is well deserved.

The ReSporter: What can you tell us about the Taylor Ducks?

Head Basketball Coach Lucas Chapman

Coach Chapman: “They are big and athletic and can really get up and down the court. They shoot the ball well from deep and can really attack and rebound the ball. They are certainly going to be a tough opponent, but someone that I think we can certainly play with if we do the things we want to do.”

The ReSporter: I noticed from your last few games that certain players are sharing more of the load in rebounds, etc. Is that by design or just what happens in the flow of the game?
Coach Chapman: “That just happens in the flow of the game. Sometimes the ball bounces differently, so to speak, so rebounding can be fickle sometimes. I do like that we are having more guys get rebounds, especially the guards.”

The ReSporter: What are 2 or 3 things you will need to shore up in order to put this team in a place to pull off an upset?
Coach Chapman: “We need to keep them out of the paint and off of the glass on the defensive end of the floor. If we can do that we have a great shot. We also need to slow them down and make sure they don’t get a bunch of transition and run-out layups. That’s where they really hurt you.” (more…)

Travis Walker played 4 years on the Varsity and holds many of the Hawk Records

The ReSporter has been hurriedly trying to get with as many of the Coaches as possible as this time of the year starts to unfold with a lot of games and events going on, almost non-stop.

Catching up with Baseball Head Coach Trent Dunavant was next on our docket and The ReSporter will share the conversation next.

The ReSporter: First off, this season has to remind you of your first year as Coach in the hill country.

Coach Dunavant: “That is the exact analogy I was mentioning to Coach Bret Hodges the other day as we have more Freshman and inexperienced players than those days when we had just Sophomores and Juniors on the club and getting ready for our first season.”

The ReSporter: I was thinking that when you shared that your roster would be so young and then you add how many on last year’s team were seniors and walking across the stage.

The ReSporter: How will you approach this upcoming schedule?

Coach Dunavant: “We are really young and we have three players, Dylan Hodges, CJ Parrish, and Gavin Dietrich that played on last year’s varsity. Austin Brooks did play a little but he was more of person we would plug in here or there.”

Coach Dunavant: “We will have to rely on Dietrich a lot since he pitched for us last year and we just don’t have a lot of pitchers with experience starting this year.”

The ReSporter: Do you have any ‘diamonds in the rough’ that we can look forward to seeing?

Coach Dunavant: “Hayden Reed will give us some good outfield play and Lee Stafford is a catcher by trade but we will be able to move him as a utility middle infielder.”

The ReSporter: When you have such a young team, what part of the game would you say is the hardest to conquer?

Y4 Custom Homes supports Canyon Lake Baseball

Coach Dunavant: “Hitting is the hardest you have to have so much muscle memory and unless they are playing throughout the season, that will be something hard for these players to master during the season…..defense does not go into a slump.”

The ReSporter: That is a good one coach, that reminded me of many of your past seniors that came into their last campaign and they just hit a mental block and could not get out of their season long slump even though they had a very productive junior year.”

Coach Dunavant: “Yes, even if they can swing a bat, they still have to pick out the right pitch to drive and that just does not happen overnight.”

The ReSporter: How will you replace a Garrett Winters?

Coach Dunavant: “That will be very difficult as he was a top young man and he always brought a great attitude to the field. Yes, his play was ideal, but his upbeat attitude will be hard to replace.”

The ReSporter: Your schedule will not be very forgiving early in the season.

Coach Dunavant: “That is something you cannot know how it will affect the team. We have gone to the Lockhart tournaments before and after playing those teams we would come home and get our game handed to us by more experienced teams. So just playing games for feeling good about yourself will not alway play dividends against teams down the road.”

Coach Dunavant: “We will have a different schedule next year since our district will be much smaller and that will give us a chance to play more non-district teams.”

The ReSporter: This year will be a season where wins and losses might not tell the whole story on how this group might play out as the next two seasons play out.

Coach Dunavant: “We will see what happens and it all feeds on having our kids play a lot….we had a good effort against Boerne and our kids will give a good effort and they are very coachable. If we can stay healthy and we know we have no depth but this will be the first time in a while we will not have any drama going on in practice.”

The ReSporter: Thanks Coach, I will assume having drama on a baseball team will sometimes play against you especially if that drama is a One Act Play. Good luck and we will hope that those one-act-plays turn into double plays.

=========================================

                                  All-Time Top 5

 batting ave.              at bats                    runs
 Michael Brady     .364    Travis Walker      272     Travis Walker     65
 Nick Cahill       .354    Garrett Winters    192     Joe Shone         37
 Ross Wagliardo    .338    Cody Powell        188     Corey Shedrock    36
 Zach Jenkins      .336    Michael Brady      184     Nick Cahill       34
 Corey Shedrock    .320    Logan Felch        184     Cody Powell       34

 hits                      rbi’s                      extra base hits
 Travis Walker       80    Travis Walker       44     Travis Walker     26
 Michael Brady       67    Logan Felch         43     Logan Felch       21
 Daniel Camarillo    52    Michael Brady       38     Corey Shedrock    17
 Jeff Nabors         49    Zach Jenkins        29     Kyler Huff        14
 Logan Felch         49    Nick Cahill         27     Jeff Nabors       13
                           Cody Powell         27     Joe Shone         13

 base on balls             innings pitched            strikeouts
 Michael Brady       48    Cody Powell      114.1     Cody Powell      128
 Travis Walker       39    Ross Wagliardo    96.1     Ross Wagliardo   109
 Daulton Winters     37    Logan Felch       93.2     Cody Breest       87
 Kyler Huff          30    Cody Breest       79.1     Logan Felch       64
 Garrett Winters     30    Nick Kissell      66.1     Jeff Nabors       56

 era (15 or more innings                              wins
 Gordon McCleary   2.32                               Cody Breest       11
 Cody Breest       2.48                               Cody Powell        7
 Zach Jenkins      3.03                               Ross Wagliardo     5
 Cody Powell       3.62                               Logan Felch        4
 Travis Walker     3.98                               Ryan Hutcheson     4

Graduate Mariah Ellis made her mark in more than just one event

The ReSporter: What aspect of this year’s team do you think will be the strongest and why?
Coach Barthels: “I think we will be strong in the hurdles and the relays this year.”

The ReSporter: What about the Field Events?

Coach Barthels: “We have some returning throwers that should get us some points this year and a few Freshman and first year track girls that may help us in the throwing department. Bailey Drum will compete and has a shot at making it to regionals if not state this year in the triple jump. Emma Gray, when basketball season is over should help us in high jump and long/triple jump. Skylar Hurst came on and made it to the area meet in triple jump last year so expectations are that she will also improve this year. Addison Farley has been working on the high jump and long jump and is doing quite well for a first time track athlete as a senior, I am excited to see what she and the others that are new to track can do for our team.”

The ReSporter: Tell us about the Hurdles?

Coach Barthels: “Bailey Drum and Sydney Reibschlaeger should be very competitive this year in both the 100 and 300M hurdles. I only have two other hurdlers so I am working on converting some of the sprinters.”

The ReSporter: Give us your Short Distance (Dash) athletes.

Coach Barthels: “Alysha Perez and Skylar Hurst will compete after good seasons in both the 100 and 200 M Dash. We had some great runners last year with a young JV team and depending on times they may compete this year as Varsity runners or will continue to strive on the JV team. Kaylie Duke, Ashley Shipman, Jasmine Ramos…”

The ReSporter: Can you share anything bout the Long Distance runners? (more…)

Micah St. John looks to help Canyon Lake clear some hurdles.

The ReSporter was able to catch up with Boys Track & Field Head Coach Troy Moses to talk about this upcoming season and expectations.

The ReSporter: What are your overall thoughts on this year’s team?

Coach Moses: “We were very young last year, so I feel this could be a banner year.   If we can stay healthy and develop some points in the field events.”

The ReSporter: You have had an influx of some good looking athletes in these past couple of years what are your aspirations on this group this season?

Coach Moses: “The sky is the limit for this group.   Our goal is to win the District Championship.”

The ReSporter: Your Hurdle students looked very good as the season closed last year. How will you maximize that group and what are your thoughts on Brandon Courtney as he will try to repeat an Austin visit?

Coach Moses: “Our hurdlers are the strength of the team.  We have several young men that have proven to be very competitive.  Courtney had a great sophomore year, I think he has the ability to make it back to Austin in 3 events!!” (more…)

Head  Coach John Gallagher

Canyon Lake Softball team will see if their hands fit the gloves as they will have their first scrimmage this Thursday.

The ReSporter had a conversation with Head Coach John Gallagher to get an idea of where this team might be as the season gets going.

The ReSporter: Let’s start with how you feel about the Hawks schedule.

Coach Gallagher: “I think our schedule gives us a great opportunity to get in some quality innings of work. The two stand alone games against very good teams and we always face high quality competition in the Navarro tournament. The next two tournaments have Center Point, Mason, Seminole, Harper, Fltonia, as well as Blanco and Johnson City. All will be solid opponents.

The ReSporter: Last year you lost some games due to weather, that might mean you would be the one person praying for no rain. (more…)

The ReSporter: How much did all the fouls interfere with the flow of the game last night?

Head Basketball Coach Lucas Chapman

Coach Chapman: “It was a very long and choppy game. They were very aggressive from the start, which led to a lot of early fouls. It was hard to get into a rhythm offensively, but it wasn’t completely detrimental to what we were trying to do. Other than not capitalizing on shooting 50 FTs, we did very well.”

The ReSporter: Were you pleased with the overall play from the team?
Coach Chapman: “I was very pleased with our effort and energy and how we played. It was a tough game. Give Gonzales credit for coming out and playing really hard and making it tough. That is a place that is always tough to play at, so to come out of there with a grind it out win was huge. Good teams and playoff teams find ways to win games like that, and we did. I was very proud of our guys and the resiliency they showed.”

The ReSporter: How will you approach this Friday’s game with Navarro? (more…)

The Hawks finished non district play this week after a 1-3 record in the Fredericksburg Tourney.

Will Gray is hoping the Hawks are prepared for start of the District Season.

Now Canyon Lake will see if they can put their best foot forward for another try of making the playoffs.

The ReSporter caught up with Head Coach Lucas Chapman to talk about how this team will perform.

The ReSporter: What was your main problem in the Tourney this past week?

Coach Chapman: “Poor defense and turnovers. We shot the ball pretty well from the field during the tournament, but when you turn it over you waste possessions and you can’t score. We also did a poor job of keeping teams out of the paint defensively, and allowing a few opposing players to put up some big points against us.”

The ReSporter:  Did see some good things studying the stats, Will Gray did keep his turnover rate low and also led the team in rebounds for those 4 games. Is having Gray lead in rebounds a good stat to have?
Coach Chapman: “I think a lot of that had to do with our poor defense and really not having many opportunities to rebound the ball defensively. I don’t think we did a bad job of rebounding during the tournament, and I don’t necessarily care who gets the rebounds as long as they are wearing green and gold.” (more…)

Hilltop ReSorter: What will you do different in your game with Boerne after last week’s convincing loss?

       GO HAWKS!!

Coach Chapman: “We will definitely work some more zone offensive stuff. We hadn’t really played a zone team all year, so we haven’t had much work against it. We will really emphasize and focus on attacking a zone today and tomorrow during practice. We will also hopefully show up and play with much more passion and effort than we did on Saturday.”

The ReSporter: This game on Friday will tell if the team can come back from that loss like they have been coming back in deficits during an actual game such as last night’s affair.

Coach Chapman: “Yeah it will be a good barometer of who we really are. Boerne is definitely not 30 points better than us, but if we don’t show up and get after it then that result can happen. I just want us to go out and compete and get after it. When we do that we can compete with anyone.”

The ReSporter: What are some victories you can take from the games up to this point? (more…)

Coaches Corner with Bracken’s Hosea Stredic

Head Coach Hosea Stredic

The ReSporter: Hey Coach, what can you tell us about Tyler Street for this coming Saturday’s game?

Coach Stredic: “They are a pretty good team, they have couple of good running backs.”

The ReSporter: What is your assessment of how you might match up?

Coach Stredic: “I think we can handle them but they have one running back that is 6’3 and 230lbs and he will be a tough one to bring down he is runs like a locomotive. They run the spread and we would not meet another tight team until the State Game.”

The ReSporter: How are you injury wise?

Coach Stredic: “We are injury free.”

The ReSporter: How has your practices been going during this week? (more…)

                          Hawks will soon be back in action in 8 more months.

Coaches Corner with Volleyball’s Kim Paisley

The ReSporter: I guess the only way to start this article is ask, what happened?

Coach Paisley: “I think we had a little pressure in knowing we had to win this game and I honestly feel we were the better team but they (Sealy) played better as a team.”

The ReSporter: There were still several good things that happened this year…

Coach Paisley: “This was one heck of a season and I am proud of the team but we will now move on and learn from it.”

The ReSporter: Now you must say good bye to the seniors. (more…)