500 and Counting

As we head down the stretch toward the postseason the soccer, volleyball and football teams are still in the hunt for conference titles.

The soccer teams have the most realistic shots at regular-season conference titles. The women’s soccer team needs three wins in their last four games to secure hosting the American Southwest Tournament for the sixth straight year. The Cowgirls have not allowed a goal in conference play this season.

The Cowboy soccer team is still in the hunt for the regular season title, but they do not control their own destiny for that title. They would need UT-Dallas to lose a game. However, if they win out they will finish no lower than second and that would get them a first-round bye in the ASC Tournament. That makes the last four games extremely important.

Saturday will mark senior day for the soccer programs and a tip of the cap goes out to the five seniors for the soccer programs. Kelly Watson, Cassie Sandifer and Morgan Loyd have all overcome huge obstacles to be factors for the Cowgirls. Watson has played her entire career despite being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Sandifer has been a solid contributor and may be one of the hardest workers on the team. Loyd has played through some chronic back pain and other painful injuries throughout the years and ranks fifth in school history in scoring with 120 points.

On the men’s side, Berto Martinez and Chinedu Okoro are a pair of players that have been significant contributors. Okoro did not play last year and has come back to lead a Cowboy defense that is one of the tops in the conference. Martinez has been a solid midfielder for the Cowboys.

The volleyball team is preparing for its final two weeks of the season. The Cowgirls play at McMurry tonight and then play in the Trinity Tournament this weekend. HSU needs to win its final four conference games and have McMurry beat Texas Lutheran to have a chance at sharing the conference regular-season title.

The football team continues to improve each week and that is a bad sign for opponents. I don’t know if it is possible to play a more perfect game of offensive football than the Cowboys played last week. The Cowboys set a school record with 499 yards rushing and set a Division III high with 692 yards of total offense. That is with starter Justin Feaster not even touching the field in the second half.
HSU needs to take care of its business the last three weeks of the season and the Cowboys would likely see themselves in the playoffs again.

I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate coach Keeling for coaching in his 500th career game this weekend. It is amazing to have the passion and longevity that Keeling has displayed. Not only has he coached for 500 games he has won over 71 percent of them. I had the chance to set down with coach this week for a story and rest assured that the legendary coach is not slowing down any at all.

Not only is Coach Keeling a great leader, he does it the right way. His players respect him, they graduate and they go on and are productive citizens. I have never heard anyone that really knows anything about coach say a bad word about him. He is tough and fair and that approach has proven to be successful.

I have had a chance to watch the men and women’s basketball team practice a couple of times over the last week and they both look to be very exciting for this year. Both teams have brought in some great new talent and with both teams returning a lot of talent it could be a VERY, VERY exciting year for both teams.

The women’s basketball team will be having a BBQ dinner this Saturday at the football game for a fundraiser. They will be serving sandwiches, chips and a drink for $5. It is a fundraiser to help support their trip to the Bahamas in December so go out and get a nice meal before the game.