The temperature has dropped and it seems like the cold weather is here to stay. Basketball season is underway while football playoffs around the state are in full swing.
Graham’s football team captured a bi-district championship in a damp, cold atmosphere in Aledo last week while the Lady Blues basketball team kicked off its season with a couple of games. The sports don’t stop for these athletes and Graham’s teams continue to compete at high levels.
In just their second game of the young season, the Graham Lady Blues showed improvement from their season-opening performance just five days prior.
However, the visiting Paradise Lady Panthers’ shooting heated up early on and overwhelmed the Lady Blues as they took a loss 61-35 Saturday, Nov. 11.
For going two weeks without a game since the conclusion of their regular season, the Graham Steers sure didn’t look like a team coming off an extended break.
At a neutral site in Aledo Friday night, the Steers crushed all aspects of the game as they defeated the Hillsboro Eagles 56-0 to claim a bi-district championship.
The win gave the Steers a boost of momentum as they look to continue their playoff run. Graham holds a 10-1 record moving forward into next week’s playoff game against West Plains while the season ended for Hillsboro with a 5-6 record.
The cold, rainy weather didn’t seem to make as much of an impact as many might have expected when the Newcastle Bobcats visited the Woodson Cowboys with a bi-district championship on the line.
The visiting Bobcats (10-1) earned the title of bi-district champions Thursday, Nov. 9 with a 55-0 thrashing of the home team Cowboys (3-8).
It was a bit of a rough start to the season for Graham’s Lady Blues basketball team as they came away with a 41-20 loss Tuesday, Nov. 7 to the Haskell Maidens.
Things went about what one might expect for a first game of the season for a team who’s had players coming from other sports and who haven’t had lots of time to practice together. Turnovers and sloppy play were prevalent in the season-opener and led to the loss.
Fall sports are fast coming to a close and winter sports are right around the corner. Graham’s volleyball team ended its playoff run last week with a tough loss to Decatur, while football playoffs just got underway this week.
Before basketball season officially takes over, there were some football and volleyball players who earned recognition for their performances recently and throughout the entire season.
The Newcastle Bobcats had already locked up first place in the district before their final regular season game against fellow district opponent Forestburg. The question was whether or not Newcastle would sweep all their district games.
That question was answered in short order Friday night as the Bobcats steamrolled the Longhorns 48-0 in a game that ended after just two quarters of play.
In their second do-or-die game of the week the Graham Lady Blues came up short in a three-set loss to the Decatur Lady Eagles by scores of 15-25, 18-25 and 14-25.
The loss in the area round of playoffs to Decatur ends Graham’s season only one game after the Lady Blues were named bi-district champions with a win over Sweetwater.
For an athlete representing her entire school as the lone state qualifier, Mattie Dollar made her community proud.
Dollar competed at the 1A state cross country meet Friday, Nov. 3 and ended her season with a strong showing at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. Out of 145 total runners, Dollar finished 43rd with a time of 13:28.9.
The first-place finisher from Springlake-Earth ran a time of 11:20.1 while the final runner came in at 18:36.0. Dollar competed alone at the state meet due to Newcastle not having enough runners to qualify for the team event.
The colder weather hit hard this past week and it was felt in and around the fall sports still happening around the area. But the lower temperatures didn’t deter teams around the county as they continued to show out in various sports events.
Graham and Newcastle both have teams either already in the postseason or trending in that direction. This week, The Graham Leader selected Mattie Dollar, of Newcastle’s cross country team, and Jace Gill, of the Graham football team, as athletes of the week for their performances during recent competitions and throughout the season.
