Sports

It was another successful week for Graham and Newcastle athletics.

The Graham Leader recognizes Madison Cauble of the Lady Blues and Keegen Voyles of the Bobcats as this week's athletes of the week. 

Madison Cauble, Lady Blues Volleyball

Cauble is one of seven seniors leading the way for the volleyball team this season. Cauble has served primarily in the front row this season, but has also been able to move to multiple positions this year. This is something that head coach Marci Faulk praised Cauble for over the course of this year. 

The Graham Steers team kicked off their official schedule this past week with their opening basketball practice. This season brings a journey of new beginnings and a new coach. 

The new coach is head coach Quinton Fossett, who for the first time this year was directly involved with the team, running their regimen in their opening practice Wednesday, Oct. 29. 

“It was awesome,” Fossett said. “The kids want to get better, and that’s the biggest thing. We want to get better and we want to improve. I want to be around kids who want to get better.”

The Graham Lady Blues played their final game of the regular season and in district play against the Mineral Wells Lady Rams. Unfortunately for the Lady Blues, they were not able to pick up the victory. 

Despite fighting in each of their last few contests to end the year, the Lady Blues find themselves in a little bit of a funk. Head coach Marci Faulk believes that the number one thing the team needs to improve is consistency and getting on longer runs offensively as they head into the postseason. 

The JV Lady Blues played their final game of regular season action this past weekend on the road against the Mineral Wells Lady Rams. 

While they weren’t able to pick up the victory, they put up a good fight and finished off a strong season of growth. 

The match took place Friday, Oct. 24. The team showed promise and improvements this year. 

The Newcastle Bobcats remain at the top of district with an undefeated record after their latest victory against the Northside Indians. 

The game was held Thursday, Oct. 23 instead of their originally scheduled date Friday, Oct. 24 due to weather concerns. 

It was a complete team victory for the Bobcats as they won by a final score of 46-8. This was only the fourth time this season that Newcastle surrendered points to an opponent.

The Graham Steers continued their hot streak in district play with a shutout of the Mineral Wells Rams.

After the 42-0 win, the Steers remain undefeated in district play and moved to 6-2 on the season. Due to weather concerns, the game was held Thursday, Oct. 23. 

After a brief lightning delay to start the Steers went on to outmaneuver the Rams. Much of this came off of a dominant ground game where Colt Taylor opened the scoring with a wide open running lane to hop into the endzone for an easy touchdown 7-0. 

The JV Lady Blues played their final match at home for the regular season this week against the Brock Lady Eagles. Unfortunately for the team, they were not able to get the job done, losing in two sets. 

Set one was definitely more of a fight for the Lady Blues. The team started out trailing 8-4 but players like Kate Hufstedler kept the team in the fight at the service line, picking up a few points to make it 8-6.

Paizlee Evans also helped pull things to within three at 14-11, and McKynley Corley helped cut it to within two. 

The Lady Blues played their final home game of the regular season against the Brock Lady Eagles this week and after fighting hard, the team was not able to pick up the win. 

The teams met Tuesday, Oct. 21 and head coach Marci Faulk continued to emphasize to the team that the number one aspect to improve going forward was consistency. 

Fall sports in Graham and Newcastle are in the hearts of their seasons at the moment with both district play and postseason play ongoing. 

This week, The Graham Leader is recognizing Allison Melton of the Ladycats and Macrae Menard of the Steers as this week’s Athletes of the Week. 

Allison Melton, Newcastle Ladycats Cross Country

The postseason for cross country has been quite the success story for the Newcastle Ladycats cross country team. The team has qualified Friday, Oct. 31 in Round Rock for the state meet. 

The 1A Region III cross country meet was a storied one for the Newcastle Ladycats with the entire team qualifying for state in an impressive showcase.

The team of Allison Melton, Greenleigh Moore, Kenzie King, Reese Ribble, Sarah Northington and Rae’Lyn Bennett worked hard all season long. That work has paid off in the form of impressive times across the board.