Change, perseverance dominated 2021 sports

This year saw a return to relative normality in fall sports with the football teams of both local schools advancing further than the previous year.

Mustangs football

In the 2020 football season, officials pushed back the start date due to virus concerns, and teams were still in district play when the Thanksgiving break rolled around.

In 2021, Marble Falls High School football Head Coach Brian Herman said his team earned practicing on Thanksgiving. The Mustangs secured the holiday practice with a 35-13 victory over Mission Veterans Memorial in the second round of the UIL playoffs on Nov. 19.

The win shot the Mustangs into the third round of the 5A-2 playoffs for the first time in more than 20 years. The Mustangs started their 2021

The Mustangs started their 2021 campaign on Aug. 27 against a familiar foe in Lehman. It was the second year opening the season against the Lobos, but the Mustangs dominated this season with a 20-2 win.

On Sept. 3, they traveled to the unfriendly confines of Bulldog Stadium in Burnet and defeated the rival Bulldogs 41-9. On Sept. 10, the offense again came alive for the Mustangs in a 46-6 win over Austin Akins.

Non-district play ended on Sept. 17 with a one-point loss to Nike Dallas FC in a game that the Mustangs had opportunities to win.

The Mustangs repeated the 2020 district schedule with the same results – two losses against McCallum and Liberty Hill for a third place finish.

After the loss to Liberty Hill on Oct. 15, the Mustangs didn’t allow a single point for the remainder of the regular season.

In the first round of the playoffs, Marble Falls faced another familiar foe in Brenham. They again made the nearly three hour journey to face the Cubs on their home field and again knocked Brenham out of the playoffs.

Last season, it was a last-second field goal by then-junior kicker Logan Barnes. This season, it was a defensive stop on a fourth down in double overtime that punched the Mustangs’ ticket to the second round.

The victory over Veterans Memorial erased the 2020 memory of losing in the second round at San Antonio’s Heroes Stadium. In the third round, Alamo Heights gave the Mustangs a little taste of their own 2020 medicine with a last-second field goal to send them home for the season.

“We played our hearts out, but we came up short,” Herman said after the game. “It’s a tough loss, but I’m not disappointed. I’m proud of the kids and their fight to the finish.”

The team loses several key seniors to graduation in May, including three-year starters Jake Becker at quarterback and Hudson McBryde at center.

To close the season, the Mustangs put 22 players on the All-District 14-5A-2 list.

Flames football

Faith Academy of Marble Falls football Head Coach Stephen Shipley has led his team deeper into the TAPPS playoffs each season since his return, and this year, he guided them all the way to the State title game.

In a battle of undefeated schools, the Flames fell just a little short of their championship hopes 46-41 on Thursday, Dec. 2 against Waco Live Oak Classical School. The game was played in Waco.

The Flames finished 12-1 in the 2021 season. Their playoff run delayed the start of the boys basketball season because several players play both sports.

Mustangs cross country

The football teams weren’t the only ones recording their best seasons; the Marble Falls Cross Country team, under Head Coach Chris Schrader, qualified for the 5A State meet as a team.

At the Regional meet, only four teams earn a bid to the State meet, and the Mustangs delivered their best performance of the year.

“Our strength came in the middle,” Schrader wrote in a wrap-up on Oct. 29. “Our top five were separated by 43 seconds, and this is what earned us a fourth qualifying spot.”

The entire year, Schrader preached team running, and the runners put it all together in the postseason.

The Mustangs appearance in the State meet as a team this season is only the second time the team has ever done it. They finished 12th in State. With so many underclassmen performing at the meet, Schrader believes 2021 was a foundation.

“All in all, the team effort resulted in our best year yet for Marble Falls,” he said after the State meet. “The future looks bright, and our goal is to place in the top five teams at State in 2022.”

Mustangs volleyball

The 2020 season was not kind to the Marble Falls High School Lady Mustangs volley ball team. Between the lack of games, cancellations of tournaments and learning a new system, the girls didn’t see many wins as they attempted to establish an identity.

This season, however, was different. The Mustangs snapped a pair of dreadfully long losing streaks.

“I put 32 on Twitter, but I think it was actually 34 or 35 games,” Head Coach Kaitlyn Goertz said after an early season victory.

On Aug. 20, the girls ended an almost three-year drought of home wins with a 3-2 victory over Florence. Coaches reported that the team hadn’t won at the Max Copeland Gym since September 2018.

Still playing in the daunting District 25-5A, the Lady ‘Stangs struggled after district play started. They were still able to walk away with accomplishments, including:

• Senior Alizae Rojas increased her career digs number to 487 total; she posted 26 digs in a single game twice this season and 30 in the Sept. 3 matchup with Llano; she recorded a serve percentage of 96 percent; she was named to the All District 25-5A second team; and she received Academic All-State honors’

• Sophomore Sadie Harris played more like an upperclassman. She joined Rojas on the All-District 25-5A team, in part due to her 123 kills on the season;

• Seniors Haylee Whiteside and Molly Tays and junior Dallyn Pickett were awarded All-District 25-5A honorable mentions. Whiteside set a season-high with 14 kills in the Aug. 20 win over Florence; Tays moved into second in the Lady Mustangs’ record book with 191 assists on the year, including 16 in the match against Llano; and Pickett was a defensive specialist who posted 23 blocks on the season.

The team has the opportunity to escape District 25-5A – notably, powerhouse Cedar Park – in 2022 as the UIL conference threshold numbers indicated that the Mustangs will play at the 4A level for the next two seasons.

Mustangs drop to 4A

The UIL released conference threshold numbers on Dec. 8, and Marble Falls ISD came in 70 students under the 4A maximum of 1,299. The numbers reflect students in ninth through 12th grade.

MFISD Athletic Director Brian Herman said it will benefit sports other than football the most.

“We’re looking forward to the opportunity for our entire program to compete against schools more our size,” he said after the release. “We’ll be one of the bigger schools in this new situation.”

For football, the UIL divides conferences into two divisions to alleviate differences between the top and bottom of conference numbers. Other sports are not afforded this distinction.

The potential now exists for Marble Falls to share a district with Burnet, Lampasas and Fredericksburg. Burnet submitted an enrollment number of 997; Lampasas 1,005; and Fredericksburg 1,035.

Mustangs on to college

On National Signing Day 2021, three Marble Falls student/athletes inked deals to compete at the next level, including State track champion Bailey Goggans. Goggans, who graduat

Goggans, who graduated in May, signed with Texas A&M University as a track runner.

“They have a really good track program,” she said in February. “They’re really good about workouts for the individual athlete and their performance. “I also have friends that go there so I’ll have teammates, and it’s close to home.”

She kept her options open during the recruiting process by visiting schools as far away as Eugene, Oregon.

State high jump champion Kason O’Riley committed to the University of Oklahoma.

“They have a really good program; they have a jumper that jumps 7’7” right now,” he said on signing day. “That really persuaded me to go there. I feel like I can be real successful there.”

Versatile baseball player Luke Nail committed to Blinn College in Brenham. He liked that Blinn showed interest in his talents early and often.

“They were the first school to recruit me so it felt right to go there,” he said in February. “It resonated with me because it was my chance to play at the next level.”

It also gives him an opportunity to transfer to a larger university, should he choose to do so.

The junior college is one of the best in the nation at performing this operation. In 2019, Blinn recorded an academic transfer rate of 45.4 percent – number one in Texas, according to a study by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.