Canyon Lake finally was able to hit someone without knowing who it was last night as the Green and Gold took on Llano Yellowjackets and Early Longhorns.

There will plenty of film to study after the four hour marathon in Llano, Texas.

“We are getting better,” Head Coach Charley Drum stated. “We have installed a new offense and had a chance to see it under game speed with another team.”

“We stayed healthy and I like what I saw.”

There were several key players on the sideline without pads on for this scrimmage as bumps and bruises is part of the game.

“The majority of our team was playing JV or Freshman ball this time last year,” Coach Drum beat. “We have gotten better every day.”

That is an important statement considering how fast this new season in

Canyon Lake Hawks under the Bright Lights

Canyon Lake will have one more scrimmage next week in Buda so every day will have this team working like they are on their final exams to be accepted into their next realm on the ladder.

Coach Drum also commented on his defense, “We have a lot of fine tuning but these kids are smart and we are also working with a different front on our defensive line.”

The Hawks don’t seem like they have many days of taking anything for granted or having an off day.

Everything will be getting faster as this team starts to hone in on improving their game as Blanco will be calling soon on the horizon.

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The CL Hawks started their new season with a new coach and a lot of new players as they suffered two losses in the three team round robin to Clemens and Liberty Hill.

“It is all about coming to the game prepared and we have a lot of things to work on,” Head Coach Kimberley Paisley stated. “We are only as strong as our weakest link.”

Coach Paisley could be seen exhorting throughout each game as the Hawks had way too many unforced errors causing both losses.

“We had too many missed serves and we killed ourselves in both games,” Coach Paisley continued. “Our offense needs to be cleaned up.”

“There are some things we need to work through and we are not perfect….I’m looking for a solid eight players and I just don’t know who that core group is yet.”

This will certainly be a learning experience as this season commences.

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The ‘Brains’ behind this new fangled offense is Coach Troy Moses as the Canyon Lake intrasquad game on

Offensive Coordinator Troy Moses

Saturday gave fans a good idea of what might be expected when Friday’s roll around in the Fall.

One thing is for certain. The players like this offense and that excitement can be seen in settings like was played out on Saturday.

“You could tell they were doing something new and for the first time at full speed,” Offensive Coordinator Moses parted. “Taking that into consideration we did pretty good today.”

Canyon Lake will have to be a quick study with this offense as the will soon be upon us.

Two scrimmages and then Blanco to open the season at home August 30th or in 20 days.

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Alumni looking good before the game. (from left to right, Casidy Riccio, Logan Nease, Alyssa Drum, Reanne Wagliardo, Marisa Ellis, and Katie Williams)

Canyon Lake’s Volleyball team won their first game on Thursday night as they took it to the Alumni Team.

After opening with a hard fought loss in the first game, the more fresher players were able to take the next two games and put the Alumni team to bed.

One thing you can notice with this team is that Senior Trena Lorett is very serious no matter who she is playing.

Her intense look on the court was intense.

Lorett had her serve down and served notice that this just not any game.

“I’m hoping with a new coach and a lot of new players that we can get to the playoffs this year,” Lorett surmised.

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Canyon Lake’s Marisa Ellis Standing on Top of the Podium

The Canyon Lake Girls Track Team beat Fredericksburg at the State Track Meet held in Austin last weekend.

The Hawks finished with 10 points while the Billies garnered one point in this contest.

Fredericksburg had won every track meet they had entered during the regular season and also lapped CL during the District 27-3A Meet, 193 to 84 held over a month ago.

But Marisa Ellis had other thoughts as she jumped back over the 5’6 High Jump Bar and not only scored enough points to beat the invincible Billies, but Jumped right into the Canyon Lake’s record books with the first Team or Individual to place first in a State event.

That 5’6 jump was a personal best for Ellis that just so happened to be at the right time and just enough for a win and 10 points for the Hawks.

Ellis was in a zone as she made all her marks without a miss when the field was reduced to five students in this competition as the bar was raised to a 5’8 standard.

Recap: Ellis was at that height without a miss which gave her the championship if she finished tied with any of the other four girls without having any other person clearing the bar.

Each athlete would have three more tries at this new height and now you can see how nerves would be on edge as this event whittled down with each rotation.

“I tried to not be so nervous,” State Champion Ellis said calmly.

There were two girls that had reached heights over this mark so thinking that might happen again was certainly on the minds of all the participants no matter how many misses had occurred at this stage of the high jump event.

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Canyon Lake will have two representatives for the Track & Field State Meet, May 10-11 in Austin after two

Jordan Anderson Jumping High

CL athletes decided to Jump over to Austin in a couple of weeks.

Marisa Ellis and Jordan Anderson will both be making their second visit after placing in last year’s meet, albeit in different events.

Both Ellis and Anderson participated last season in the Triple Jump and 400 Meter Dash respectfully and now have come together to compete again in the High Jump.

In the Region Track Meet in Kingsville over the week-end Ellis had a rough hour as she competed in her two qualifying events at the same time.

That seems to not be a very fair way of coming up with the best athletes as Ellis was going from one venue to another as other girls were waiting for Ellis to High or Triple Jump.

So, as other students were able to focus and concentrate on one event, you had Ellis going back and forth to hope and compete at her best.

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Travis Walker in game with El Paso Parkland earlier this year.

By the time their Moms got to their CL sons the nightmare was over and all the Hawks had to show for this game was a relieved look on their face as this season came to a close.

The Hawks carried this game to that last inning when a year of troubles finally released all that bad karma and Navarro had taken a close game and turned into a nightmarish 13 run inning and a final score of, 15-1.

How about two grand slams in that seventh inning and a batting order that batted around two times.

 Tale of the 7th Inning
 Hit Batters:   2
 Singles:       5
 Doubles:       3
 Home Runs:     2
 Walks:         3

What will make you shake your head is that CL had controlled this game and had a chance in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the lead when the Hawks loaded the bases with no outs.

That nightmare started with that inning as Canyon Lake had one out on a squeeze play that went awry. Another potential score that was thrown out at the plate after another single.

Navarro took that defensive momentum and went crazy from the plate as Travis Walker finally ran out of gas and what fuel that was still in the tank blew up from a spark off the bats of the Navarro Panthers looking to clinch a spot for the playoffs.

That was certainly accomplished with those 13 runs and now Fredericksburg will go home without a spot in the post season as they needed a Navarro loss for a chance to play on.

Walker had another good pitching game save that last inning as he kept those Panthers guessing with his ‘eefus’ or Big Cheese pitch for much of the evening.

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Outfielder Cody Powell

Canyon Lake became Fredericksburg’s best friend as the Hawks knocked off Navarro with the pitching of a Ryan Hutcheson, five hit shut out, 3-0.

Fredericksburg needs Navarro to lose to give them a chance to finish third in district play and be awarded a spot in the post-season.

CL pulled out a masterful 80 pitch outing from Hutcheson as he evened his record at 4 and also threw strikes and giving only one Panther a free ride to first.

“Hutcheson was able to get all three pitches over for strikes, his fastball, curveball and knuckle ball,” Senior Catcher Brady said. “He kept the Panther hitters off balance for the whole game.”

Hutcheson’s battery mate also helped the teams cause by raising his batting average to .411 for the season with a double, run, and rbi.

Cody Powell also scored two of the runs while Corey Shedrock contributed a double for Canyon Lake.

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Canyon Lake JV beat Wimberley for the fourth time this season as they take 3rd Place in District

Kyle Krohn and Jonathan McGuire celebrating after another won over Wimberley

In a phrase, Canyon Lake Owns the Wimberley Texans this season as this game gave the Hawks their fourth win over their friends from the north.

CL gift wrapped six errors and five walks and still did more little things right which helped in giving an edge to the Hawks.

More enthusiasm seemed to be a common theme among the players and coaches.

“After Thursday’s games they were geared up today,” Head JV Coach Brian Owens said. “Yes, we had a few errors, but we were ready to rock when they got off the bus.”

“They (Hawks baseball team) figured it out on Thursday and I’m not a chanting Coach, but when they used that to get fired up then I will just let them go at it…when they got off the bus they wanted to play with enthusiasm.”

The break out inning happened in the fourth with four runs and giving CL a lead that would not be taken for the rest of this windy but beautiful day.

Gordon McCleary reached on an error to start off that inning and then was followed by a single from Nick Kissell.

With two batters on and one out, Hayden Lee hit a line drive through the infield and started the flood gates for Canyon Lake.

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The Hawks said good-bye to four Seniors on a hard fought extra inning affair loss to Navarro,

Senior Cassidy Riccio Leaves the Hawk Diamond for last time as Italian Stallion

“I thought we played a very good game,” Head Coach John Gallagher said. “But our future is bright as we have a lot of young talent and more coming in.”

Canyon Lake took the early lead when scoring on a fly out off the bat of Brianna Young that scored Alexis Robinson who had reached base following on an error.

That run held up until on a controversy call on a run scored after a Navarro base runner scored on a run down between third and second base.

Young had good position to apply the out, but the Panther appeared to slide under that tag.

Freshman pitcher Robinson responded by striking out the side the next inning on a full count pitch.

Robinson had now retired seven straight Navarro batters going into that eighth inning but.an error trying to get an out at first after a sacrifice bunt proved to be a run your Hawks could not overcome.

CL had almost pulled off an improbable act by responding with four consecutive singles in that eighth inning which could of prolonged the game for the, never give up, tenacity of this Hawk team.

This game was not to be as Navarro was able to get two infield outs at the plate and a final strike out.

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