Category: Warhorses & Arabians

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Arabian volleyball may be on what many call a “rough patch” as the losses are outnumbering the wins at this point in the season. Head Coach Leigh Anne McIver is fully aware of what lies ahead for her team as the tough “tournament season” portion and pre-district schedule is almost complete.
“I understand that we do not have the full concept of ‘how to win’ right now, but that is why I scheduled these tough-type games and tournaments that lead into District 29-4A,” McIver said, confident in her team’s ability to learn on the fly and to be ready for what is still to come during the 2024 campaign.
Recent games against perennial playoff teams like Crystal City, Canyon Lake, San Antonio Christian, Hondo, Medina Valley, and last year’s 29-4A winner Floresville has helped the Arabian squad come together as a team more than any normal fan can probably see at this point.
“Our confidence is not shaken; it is actually…

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Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Nine Devine Cross Country runners competed in the Panther Invitational at Medina Valley this past Saturday and they combine to place fourth overall as a team. The Horses tallied 113 points.
Donovan Dixon continues to pursue his quest for the State Meet in early November as he finished third of 117 runners in his division. Dixon ran a time of 17:48 and racked up the lowest team-point available as he was first as far as teams that…

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Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Devine has numbers on their sub-varsity teams for the first time in quite a while. Unfortunately, some other towns are continuing to struggle to get their fair share of players in order to have true freshman and JV teams.
The Warhorses ran into that problem last week as the Randolph Ro-Hawks only had enough players for one squad, forcing Devine to combine their JV1 and JV2 football teams for their Thursday evening contest.
Devine returned home with the decisive 24-0 victory
“We platooned it,” Coach Lon Cozby simply stated. “JV1 played offense for a series then JV2 played the following series. We did the same thing on defense.”
Even though Randolph won the toss, they elected to defer which gave the Horses the first possession of the game.
“Alejandro Ramirez ran it 18 yards for the first touchdown on the third play of the game, then, as quarterback, he found Cole Reyes on a slant route to add the two-point conversion.”
The quick start continued on the next series as it took a mere three snaps for Devine to find the end zone once again.
“Enock Hall, behind a great lead block from…

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Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Ask any coach that ever had to face a Devine football team over the last 25-30 years what was one thing they would remember, and it would always be how physical those Warhorse kids were even though they were undersized a majority of the time.
New Devine Defensive Coordinator Danny Sanchez had heard those same rumors prior to accepting a position on Head Coach Paul Gomez’s staff, and now, he has seen it up close and personal.
“One of the main reasons I came to Devine was to coach tough nosed kids,” Sanchez stated after the Warhorses battled perennial-powerhouse Navarro in their second and final scrimmage prior to their season-opener versus Randolph. “This past Thursday, the Warhorses did not disappoint!”
Coach Sanchez’s deep and multiple-styled defense flew around the field relentlessly against the Panthers, something he hopes to see much more of over the course of the next 10-plus ballgames.
“I feel confident that the defense will contribute mightily to the team as we expect to create turnovers, and to pressure offenses with multiple looks and various stunts.”

Continue reading “Physical Warhorse defense no surprise to new DC Sanchez”

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Warhorse Stadium will be rocking this Friday evening as Devine takes on Randolph to begin their 2024 march towards a district championship and a berth in the state playoffs. Two-a-days and scrimmages against Cotulla and Navarro have hopefully set the tone for Head Coach Paul Gomez and his team.
“I feel really good about where we are right now,” Gomez said while reflecting over the last four weeks. “We have shown marked improvement, and our work ethic has been great.”
The Horses had several chances to take the Cowboys to the woodshed in their initial scrimmage but were held back by minor mistakes that can be corrected as a season unfolds.
“Against Cotulla, we played well, and we were just one block away from having several big plays on offense while defensively, other than the second play where we missed some tackles and utilized poor technique, our defense was ahead of our offense, and we were pleased with that side of the ball.”

Continue reading “Warhorses Football: Team chemistry at an all-time high”

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
After two scrimmages from his team, Coach Lon Cozby has his squad ready for the season-opener Thursday at Randolph as JV1 and JV2 teams combine for one game at 5pm. The JV Horses traveled to Geronimo to take on the Navarro Panthers last Thursday in their final tune up for the 2024 season.
“Navarro was a good, physical team and I have to admit they did have our number in the beginning,” Cozby said to begin his weekly recap.  “We continued to battle hard and even though it may have taken a while, we did find our groove.” 
Ryan Weinkam scored the first touchdown for Devine on a 60-yard run as he “was able to highlight his speed” on the play.
“We were able to get in a set that gave the defense fits.  Ryan did a great job jumping inside of Steven Montes’ block, followed Ivan Iglesias, then bounced back outside and outran the safeties.  Cole Reyes also had a key block on the outside to keep the corner out of the play.” 

Continue reading “JV Horses at Randolph ThursdayKickoff at 5pm”

Freshman volleyball sports spotless
3-0 record
Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Devine freshman volleyball coach Kara Stacy has her team off to a perfect 3-0 start to the 2024 season. With varsity tournaments taking the forefront early on, games have been hard to come by, but it quickly heats up as a home tournament and District 29-4A action will soon be upon the young Arabians.
“We definitely had to work out the nerves as we were getting our first games of the season officially in the books,” Stacy began. “We saw lots of great things in the opener against Southwest Legacy and I am proud of how the girls fought all the way to the end!”
Devine topped Legacy in a three-set thriller, winning the first game 25-21 before dropping the second game 25-20.
  “We had to battle in the first set to come out on top but in the second set we struggled quite a bit on our side with unforced errors and miscommunication. We fought hard but could not finish off the set.”
The third set provided plenty of nail-biting moments as both teams gave their all in trying to get the first “W” of the season.
“Going into the third set, we knew it was going to be a battle and had to take it just one play at a time.”

Continue reading “Freshman volleyball sports spotless3-0 record”

Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
Devine volleyball head coach Leigh Anne McIver and her squad went through a rough patch last week as they went 2-4 over that period of time, picking up their two wins over Three Rivers and Natalia in their home tournament.
McIver and the Arabians were in “puzzle-making mode” as they had to mix in a couple of new players with their existing group as injuries sidelined more than one starter at various times.
Preseason and tournament games lay the foundation for the rest of the season, and with their third and final tourney of the season this weekend in Seguin and their final two preseason games against McMullen and Navarro, the time is now for the kinks to be ironed out and Devine to begin its usual march toward a district championship.

Continue reading “Arabian volleyball puzzling it together”

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
New Devine JV volleyball coach Alejandra Mora has her team off and running with a smashing 3-0 record through the early part of the season. The JV picks up in their number of games soon as they host an upcoming tournament before District 29-4A gets underway.
“We were all anxiously excited to get the season started, and we got it started the right way winning in two sets over Southwest Legacy,” Mora stated.
The anxiousness quickly turned to confidence as the Arabians won set one 25-15 before shaving off a Titan point on the second set by winning 25-14 to claim the first victory not only the team this season, but also Mora’s first in what will be many as an Arabian coach.
“Margarita Vizcarra had awesome assists to set up our front for some kills and our back row players made some outstanding plays as well.
Jayme Moralez also held serve eight times in a row at one point.
San Antonio Wagner came knocking on the DSAC door in game two of the season. Devine was once again up to the task as they thwacked the Thunderbirds in straight sets 25-15, 25-8.

Continue reading “JV Arabian volleyball begins season 3-0”

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Devine Cross Country teams got the best of both worlds Saturday as the Warhorses competed in Cibolo at San Antonio Steele’s meet while the Arabians went into Comal County Fairgrounds to run in the Unicorn Meet hosted by New Braunfels High School.
Donovan Dixon led the varsity Horses placing 23rd in a field of 95. Brody Lane, Shawn Lowe, Jesus, Cisneros, Jake Riou, Ryan Botello, Zane Fritz, Jonathan Moralez, Caleb Maxwell, and Ian Rodriguez also competed.
The Arabians had tons of competition as there were 126 runners in the varsity girl division. Hailey Montes and Kourtni Geyer each finished in the top 100 while Camila Sierra, Angelina Garcia, Aaralynn Garcia, Emily Morris, Lexi Perez, Jovianne Gomez, and Madison Saenz also made the trip.
Urijah Velasquez finished in the top 10 in the JV division as he placed 8th of 71 runners. Zach Guerra cracked the top 20 at 20th place. Daniel Ballesteros, Christian Ross, Rylan Cortinez, and Carlos Jimenez also ran.
The teams travel to San Antonio Saturday, August 31 to compete in the FEAST Patriot Invitational.

Continue reading “Devine XC making the turn”