Final Score by Chuck Licata
Not surpisingly, there are plenty of reason for Liberty Hill ISD sports fans to be excited about the current basketball season.
But I’m not just talking about the two varsity squads, coached by Barry Boren (coming in with three straight 30-win seasons) and Matt Kirschner (two years coached, two playoff berths including one regional championship game).
Oh no.
We’re talking excitement at the Junior High School level. If you don’t believe me, just check out this paper and LibertyHillSports.com – each week, Linda Lattanzio and Allison Weirich (Abarw.com Photos) will provide coverage of the Junior High hoopsters.
Down the road at the high school, there will be some boring games in the sub-varsity level. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll be worth watching – it’s just that the LHHS freshman and JV teams are so good they’ll be winning games by big margins.
The freshman girls’ team, especially, has dominated its opponents so far. Coach Jamie Junkin’s squad very well might not lose a game with their loads of talent! And that’s not being a Liberty Hill “homer” by any stretch. Have you seen those girls play?
And by the way – the JV squads are in great hands. Blake Boren takes over the boys’ squad; yes, he’s the son of Barry Boren. He’s pretty talented in his own right; I got to talk to him this weekend at the Marble Falls tournament and I doubt there’s any high school JV coach as fired up about his squad as him.
Kim Holt is the long-time girls’ JV coach. What’s amazing about Holt (outside of the fact she’s really turned the LHHS cross country program into one of the best 3A programs in the state!) is she “flies under the radar” with her JV teams’ accomplishments. Do you realize she’s had long winning streaks each of the last three seasons?
I’d highly encourage everyone reading this to show up for all Liberty Hill Junior High and High School games, at all levels.
As for those varsity squads: well, the boys are flying under the radar to a lot of folks outside of Liberty Hill. It seems once everyone hears Boren’s squad graduated 10 seniors from last year’s team, they write off the Panthers.
I think their 5-0 showing (and tournament championship) at last weekend’s Marble Falls/McDonald’s tournament made a big statement. The Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) has been listening as the Panthers are ranked #17 in the TABC’s current weekly poll (they’ll probably move up in this week’s poll).
Boren’s objective, though: to not only win the District 25-3A title, but get over the “hump” of having his team win a first-round playoff game, something they haven’t done in two years.
The varsity Lady Panthers are already in TABC’s Top 10 –and they buzzed through two over-matched opponents last week in Hyde Park and Wimberley, knocking on the door of 100 points against each of them.
As mentioned, the Lady Panthers played in the regional tournament just two short years ago. This senior class (in alphabetical order: Kourtney Bevers, Macy Floyd, Jessica Green, Lauren Jackson, Stephanie Metzger, Lorrie Potts, Jordan Redmond and Taylor Russell) may be one of the most talented, collectively, in recent LHHS history – if not ever.
It’d be a shame (and waste) if this group doesn’t at least make it back to the regional tournament – and those aren’t my words, they’re the words of a couple of seniors I’ve taked with this season.
