Sports

The Newcastle Bobcats are rounding the corner on their summer season and marching full steam ahead for the start of the regular season. 

The team has high expectations, which is reflected in their Dave Campbell’s preseason district ranking. 

In the latest edition of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football 2025 season preview, the Bobcats were predicted to finish in first place in District 6-1A DI. 

Bobcats head coach Isiah Archer said this ranking coincides with the team’s goals once again this season. 

Lady Blues volleyball season is right around the corner and with that comes one of the biggest events of the Graham community’s calendar year – the annual Lu Allen Memorial Volleyball Tournament.

Head coach Marci Faulk said this latest entry into its history will be the 22nd year the tournament will be hosted in Graham.

The tournament will take place towards the end of August, with a set up date Thursday, Aug. 21, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and the actual tournament taking place Friday and Saturday, Aug. 22-23.

While the Lady Blues varsity team wasn’t able to compete in the second slate of games for summer league this past week, the ninth grade team took center stage with their performance. 

The second night of summer league games this past week, which the ninth grade team participated in, took place Thursday, July 17 at Wichita Falls Legacy High School. 

This was a night that coach Kendall Zimmer said was a great development experience for the team. 

The Graham Lady Blues volleyball team has had a busy second half push in the summer season as they prepare for regular season action. 

The team has been participating in team camp and skills practices to sharpen themselves while also partaking in summer league volleyball play in Windthorst and Wichita Falls. However, their latest venture brought them to Abilene this past weekend. 

That venture was the Jon Smith Memorial Volleyball tournament. This two day tournament took place Friday, July 19 and Saturday, July 20. 

The community of Graham is starting to turn the corner on the summer season and churn towards regular season play.

In the coming weeks, Graham High School will take its first major step towards that with football two-a-day practices. 

This period is always an exciting time of the year for the Steers and teams across the state in general, according to head coach Clay McChristian. 

“The start of two-a-days is always an exciting time for every team in the state,” McChristian said. “Every team is 0-0 and feel like they have a chance to be successful.” 

The Lady Blues volleyball team continued to prepare for the regular season this past week with the start of their team based camp practices. 

These camp practices were the first step in a busy second half of the summer for the Lady Blues. 

This team camp was held Monday and Tuesday, July 14-15.

However, this camp is different from the volleyball camps that have been held so far this summer. 

This camp is specifically for high school students looking to play for Graham next year. 

After the conclusion of summer league volleyball in Graham back in June, the Lady Blues are still finding ways to stay active and focused by locking in on new summer leagues to participate in. They did just that by participating in Windthorst’s summer league. 

The Lady Blues opened up to a fresh slate of games Tuesday, July 15, against Holliday, Burkburnett and City View and proceeded to dominate going 3-0 on the evening.  

Their first game took place against the Holliday Lady Eagles and they came out to a hot start winning 33-22. 

Despite it being early July, football season is turning the corner as Dave Campbell’s has released its Texas football 2025 preview magazine. For District 3-4A Division II one of the Steers leaders for next season got a special recognition as preseason offensive most valuable player. 

That player is Jace Gill, the team’s starting quarterback going into next season. Gill is next in line following a long list of successful players at the position. He is the direct successor of former quarterback Ty Thompson. 

As Graham enters the month of July, many fall sports are starting to turn the corner out of the offseason and prepping for the next academic year. 

With each new year comes official rankings which analysts make at the start of the season trying to determine the strength of each roster. For Graham, they’ve already made a strong impression without so much as taking a single regular season snap yet. 

It’s always pleasant for a school institution when one of its alumni decides to give back to the community that brought them up. For Newcastle High School, that came this past week in the form of Mya Cabrera. 

The district held volleyball lessons for girls in the community Monday, July 7, and Wednesday, July 9. 

The lessons were originally announced on a Facebook post through the Newcastle ISD Facebook page Monday, June 30. 

The school held three sets of group sessions for student athletes based on their grade and skill level.