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Warhorses Football: Team chemistry at an all-time high

Be there or be square….The Warhorses will kick off their first game at 7:30 at Warhorse Stadium. Photo by Brigid Howard.

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.”

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Mustang XC kicks dirt in Karnes City

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Natalia got their 2024 season underway as the Mustangs ran in the Badger Cross Country Invitational this past Saturday.
Sebastian Soto led his squad by placing 39th with a time of 17:27. Juan Gonzales was next in for Natalia in 60th place and crossing the line at the 18:33 mark.
Denton Nelson placed 70th in the field of 87 coming in at 19:46 followed by Jacob Banda who placed 85th with a time of 22:57.
Natalia makes the short trip to Castroville this Saturday to participate in the Panther Invitational.

Pirates runner-up, Lady Pirates 3rd @ Class 6A Steele XC Invitational

Svetlana Lopez captured 19th place for the Lady Pirates, running a 18:33.

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Lytle Head Coach Gilbert Ruiz continues to positively challenge his band of runners as he shuttled his teams to Class 6A San Antonio Steele’s Cross Country Invitational this past Saturday.
His runners more than accepted the challenge as the Pirates placed second overall in the team standings with all five runners finishing in the top 20 of 95 competitors while the Lady Pirates fared well also placed third overall with three runners netting top 20 status among 74 runners in their division.
“I told our kids this past week if they wanted to get noticed, they needed to go catch a big fish. In order to catch a big fish, they need to go to the deep end and that meant taking our ship deep sea fishing. And so off we went to 6A Steele HS for the first time to try and get people to take notice, and by the end of the meet, we did get just that!”
Johnny Rey Alvarez, Bryan Montes-Rodriguez, Yandel Esquivez, Diego Reyna, and Lucas Salazar all medaled while Frances Scotello, Svetlana Lopez, Elyse Cortinas, Kaycee Galindo, Addison Wagner, Klayre Cook, Annika Robles, and Sophia Herrera teamed up for an extremely nice showing as well.

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JV Horses at Randolph ThursdayKickoff at 5pm

The JV A Warhorses making the handoff in the Navarro Scrimmage. Photo by B Howard.

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.” 

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Freshman volleyball sports spotless3-0 record

Freshman Arabian Maddie Hester has been very strong from the serving line, with several great aces in last weeks game against Ingram.

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.”

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Arabian volleyball puzzling it together

Battling it out at the net Arabian #9 Brooke Thompson and Lady Mustang #7 Emilee Martinez as their teammantes back them up.

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.

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Natalia Football hits the road to open 2024

The Mustangs prepare to recieve the punt in the scrimmage against Hondo. Photo by KK C

Eric Smith
Staff Writer
The Natalia Mustangs will hit the road to Bee County this coming Friday, August 30th to open the 2024 Texas High School Football season against the Skidmore-Tynan Bobcats (16-2A (Div.I). This will mark the first time the two programs have faced off since 2019-2020 district loss on the road 52-21. Natalia has lost their three most previous meetings vs the Bobcats.
Hondo Scrimmage
The Natalia Mustangs wrapped up scrimmage play in God’s Country last Thursday against the Hondo Owls. Natalia Head Coach Jason Reynolds was asked his thoughts on the performance of his young squad and had the following to say: “”This was a great final tune-up against another tough opponent in Hondo,” Reynolds said. “Coach Templin does a great job in Hondo and he had his guys ready to play.”
The Varsity Owls were able to find success on a number of drives offensively, as they held the upper hand with their passing game scoring a total of 4 touchdowns vs. the Mustangs. Despite the scoring, Reynolds felt there was overall growth from the scrimmage.

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Pirate Football: Year Two of “Digging Deep” begins Friday at Walter Joyce Stadium

Lytle Pirate Chase Guevara catches a touchdown pass. Photo by L Wilson

7pm kickoff vs Llano
Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
In 2023, Coach Mike Trevino and his staff created a monster as they took a Pirate Football program that went from a 1-9 record in 2022 to a 7-4, State Playoff qualifying break out season. The seven wins were buoyed by an incredible 4-0 start that included outscoring opponents by a combined score of 72-21, while getting their proud fan base back in their hip pockets.
After not sniffing a district win in ’22 when they went a woeful 0-5, The Pirates went 3-2 a year ago with two of those victories coming against former 4A programs in Poteet and Crystal City.
So, with more than a full year under his belt, Coach Trevino is ready to “Dig Deep” and attack Year Two and the expectations that come with sustained success.
“Our team has continued to make great strides throughout fall camp and our two scrimmages,” Trevino stated. “The energy, effort, and enthusiasm we have seen from our kids has been nothing short of inspiring and impactful! Every day, they have shown up ready to work, ready to serve, ready to love, and ready to care; pulling each other through places we have never been before and enjoying the journey.”

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JV Arabian volleyball begins season 3-0

The JV Arabians come together to celebrate a great kill by Kyrie DuBose against San Antonio Wagner! Coming in to celebrate are Brooke DuBose, Jane Outlaw, MargaritaVizcarra, and Jayme Moralez.

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.

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Devine XC making the turn

Devine Warhorse Cross Country runners line up for a snapshot.

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.

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