San Jacinto County Sports

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Pirate Jesse Valerie shoots a lay-up around the Coldspring Defense. Shepherd’s Tangela Yates stops just inside the 3-point line and tosses up a jump shot. Luke Monroe goes coast to coast and finishes with a layup. Photos by Charles Ballard

By Charlie Ballard
SJNT correspondent

COLDSPRING — With the 66-58 win over the Coldspring Trojans on Friday, the Shepherd Pirates earned a berth in the playoff bracket.

The game was a lot closer than the previous one earlier this year but both games ended up with a win for Shepherd.

Head Coach Jeremy Bennett said the difference came when the team made a few adjustments after the first quarter in its offense and defense.
“All that matters is we made the playoffs,” he said.

Jesse Valerie and Tre Patterson both said they were excited making the playoffs in their senior year.

Top producers for Shepherd were Valerie with 14 points, Braydon Mettlen with 11 points, Payton Burton with 12 points and two 3-pointers, Tristen Cullum with 27 points and Patterson with a 3-pointer.

For Coldspring, Jacorrion Jackson had 20 points, Josh Brimsey had 2 points, Luke Monroe had 17 points and three 3-pointers and Kelvin Harden had 14 points.

On Feb. 7, Shepherd downed the Anderson-Shiro Owls 60-45 after a slow start.

“The Owls came out tough in the first few minutes of the game, so we re-did our defense to stop them,” Bennett said.

The Owls started hitting treys with success and the Pirates adjusted to stop the 3-point attack.

Valerie had 14 points, Mettlen had 15 points, Burton had 12 points and two 3-three pointers, Cullum had 12 points, and Patterson had 5 points.

Girls
Shepherd

The Lady Pirates ended their season with a 59-29 loss to the Anderson-Shiro Lady Owls on Feb. 7.

Mckayden Nelson said the team had a hard time hitting shots, making it tough to be competitive.

Grace Ramos had 12 points for the night including three 3-point shots, Nelson had 4 points, Tiana Clark had 4 points, and Sydney Gonzales had a nice 3-point shot go in.

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Special to the News-Times

COLDSPRING — Family and friends, coaches, students, and administrators were on hand as seniors Chrishun McGowen and Jaylon Bradford signed their letters of intent to attend Tyler Junior College and Cisco College, respectively.

Coldspring-Oakhurst High School celebrated two outstanding athletes on National Signing Day, Feb. 1, as they committed to play college football.

Athletic Director/Head Football Coach Ken Stanley said it was the first time since his tenure (nearly five years) that two COHS athletes had signed their letters of intent on the actual date of National Signing Day.

He described the work ethic of both athletes in an address to the crowd before the signing.

“Crishun came in as a freshman with great potential but suffered an injury that required major surgery,” Stanley said. “When he was able to return to school, even though he wasn’t released medically yet, he showed up at every practice and stood on the sidelines fully dressed out with his helmet on. He never missed.”

Stanley said that once Chrishun was released, he played one game on JV and we realized he was something special, so he was pulled up to varsity and he played every game on the way to the Trojans’ playoff game against East Chambers.

When COVID hit, Chrishun wasn’t able to attend school in person his sophomore year due to safety concerns, but he started working out after Christmas and played his junior year with outstanding potential.

Stanley said he was being scouted by Division 1 schools including El Paso University and SFA, but he injured his knee again at the end of his junior year and wasn’t able to work out his lower body for a long time.

“He still had a great year this year, but it wasn’t indicative of what he can really do,” Stanley said. “Still, Tyler JuCo is a major Division 1, so hopefully he will do well there and transfer to one of the 4-year division universities.”

Stanley said that Jaylon Bradford was an average player in his first year, but hard work gave him strength.

“He started doing competitions in the off-season and started winning contests most players aren’t able to win,” Stanley said. “He started this year as an inside linebacker on defense and ended up being named all-district linebacker. He had a lot of great highlights film and ended up with this great opportunity at Cisco College, a really good school.”

Both athletes will be attending college on full football scholarships.

“These are two fine young men who have overcome a lot of obstacles, worked hard and now they will be rewarded by having their educations paid for through football,” Stanley said. “They deserve to be congratulated.”

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Efreauna Baines (No. 1) stops just outside the free-through line stops and launches a rainbow at the basket. Brianna Shaw-Rucker (No. 3) Drives the ball around McKayden Nelson during the Coldspring VS Shepherd District Basketball game. Luke Monroe goes in for a nice layup during the district game against the Shepherd Pirates. Photos by Charles Ballard

By Charles Ballard
SJNT correspondent

COLDSPRING — The Lady Trojans extended their win streak to three games with wins over Shepherd and Onalaska last week.
The wins set the team up for a shot at a playoff spot for the ‘23 season.

Brianna Shaw-Rucker said, “We don’t care where we are located in the playoff lineup but we just want to make the playoffs this year.”

Coach Monique Whittaker said the team had a slow start, but the ladies regrouped and set the momentum going in the right direction.

“It was my responsibility to get the girls motived and that is what I intended to do,” Shaw-Rucker said.

The Lady Trojans made a gallant 48-43 winning statement against the Onalaska Lady Wildcats on Friday.

After losing their center with in the first few minutes of the game to an ankle injury, the first half became a toss-up but the second half was clearly in the Lady Trojans. Next up will be Tarkington at home on Tuesday and then At Crocket on Friday.

Efreauna Baines had 3 points; Shaw-Rucker had 8 points; Mariah Major had 16 points; Shantel Goffney had 15 points which included four 3-pointers; and Lillie Williams had 2 points.

On Tuesday, The Lady Trojans downed county rival Shepherd 46-36 on Jan. 17.

Coldspring center Ella Phillips said, “We did not let down the entire game. It was a good win for the Lady Trojans.”

For Coldspring, Baines had 4 points for the night; Shaw-Rucker had 14 points; Phillips had 6 points; Major had 9 points; Goffney had 9 points; and Williams had 4 points for the night.

For Shepherd, Grace Ramos had 9 points, Richardson had 5 points; McKayden Nelsen had 2 points; Daci Theissen had 12 points; and Tangela Yates had 5 points.

After the loss, the Lady Pirates downed the Trinity Lady Tigers 65-23 on Friday.

Boys
Coldspring fell to Onalaska 66-62 on Friday in a game that went down to the wire.

After leading 30-21 at the half, the Trojans could not close the door on the Wildcats 3-point shots.

Josh Brimsey had 10 points; Luke Monroe had 11 points; Tyga Parker had 13 points; T.J. Johnson had 3 points; Caden Barton had 11 points; and K.J. Darden had 12 points.

Against Shepherd, the Trojans fell to the Pirates 70-54.

Shepherd Coach Jeremy Bennett said, “Our strategy for the night was to stop Luke Monroe. He has hurt us in the past and we wanted to stop him getting to the basket.”

Tristan Cullum said, “We wanted to come out hard and fast and get a lead as quick as we could and play as hard as we could.”

For Coldspring, Monroe had 11 points; Joshua Brimsey had 6 points; Parker had 9 points; Johnson had 8 points; Barton had 11 points; Kelly had 7 points; and Bookie Barnes had 2 points.

For Shepherd, Jaylon Perkins had 4 points; Jesse Valerie had 25; Braydon Mettlen had 5 points; Payton Burton had 8; Tristen Cullum had 19 points; and Anthony Patterson had 3 points.

On Friday, Shepherd downed the Trinity Tigers 58-51.

Top scorers were Burton with 21 points, Cullum with 16 points and Jesse Valerie with 12 points.