From Ed Beans, LH Wildcats

The Liberty Hill Lady Wildcats Basketball teams and guests head out to Six Flags for a club outing. The girls were rewarded for a very successful tournament season.
“This program has quickly become more than a basketball club,” Program Director Ed Beans stated. “It is about community and giving all the kids in the city something to during the summer. The bus trip was open to all that wanted to come enjoy the day with the Lady Wildcats.”

Sunday's Results - Team finishes summer season with 38-6 record

WON: 46-32 over Arkansas

Justin Green 12, Sam Beans 7, Will Stephens 7, Ty Dean 5, Stephen Graves 5, Josh Woodbury 4, Shane LaCaille 4, Aaron Russo 2

WON: 51-45 over Triumph Yellow Jackets

Ty Dean 17, Will Stephens 10, Stephen Graves 7, Sam Beans 5, Josh Woodbury 4, Justin Green 4, Shane LaCaille 2, Aaron Russo 2

WON: 66-41 over Texas War Eagles (Consolation Championship)

Ty Dean 16, Justin Green 12, Sam Beans 10, Aaron Russo 8, James Freed 7, Josh Woodbury 5, Stephen Graves 3, Shane LaCaille 3, Ethan West 3

Saturday's results

LOST: 36-32 to Argyle

Ty Dean 13 points; Sam Beans 5; Justin Green and Will Stephens, 4 each; Josh Woodbury 3; Aaron Russo 2; James Freed 1

LOST: 59-54 in Double OT to Dallas Ambassadors

Stephen Graves 11; Ty Dean 10; Justin Green 8; Ethan West 6; Sam Bean, Josh Woodbury and Shane LaCaille, 3; James Freed 2

WIN: 54-49 over Liberty Christian

Ty Dean 14; Justin Green 12; Stephen Graves 7; Sam Beans 5; Josh Woodbury 3; Will Stephens, Shane LaCaille, James Freed and Ethan West, 2 points each

The Liberty Hill Lady Wildcats 7th grade girl’s team went undefeated this past weekend in Georgetown. In the championship game, the Lady Wildcats beat the Hays Rebels 29-21 .This is their 3rd championship of the 2010 summer season. Way to go Lady Cats!!!

Thanks to Blaine C. Woodbury/Tim Dean

The Liberty Hill Wildcats took to the road this past weekend and won yet another basketball tournament. This time the 'Cats mowed down 5 opponents on their way to a perfect 5-0 record and another tournament championship at the San Marcos tournament.

The Wildcats beat a previously-unbeaten USA team out of San Antonio twice this weekend. The Wildcats are now 34-4 on the year. They will next play June 16-18 in Denton.

LibertyHillSports.com received this write-up from the Wildcats.

From the Liberty Hill Wildcats:

The Liberty Hill Wildcats Boys’ Varsity team is showing this is the team to beat in the 2010-2011 season.

The Liberty Hill Wildcats have played in 15 games the past two weekends. They went 14-1 and won 2 championships.

The first tournament was the very tough Abilene Tournament played at McMurry University. The Wildcats had to play 10 games in 3 days and they compiled a 9-1 record and won the championship over the team (Wall) that gave them their only lost.

Next up was the very tough Juneteenth Tournament in San Marcos. The Wildcats played in the top division - AAU Gold. This division had mostly top-ranked travel teams including the highly-ranked Team USA (45-0), an AAU travel team that just returned from playing in tournaments in Japan and Punta Rico.

Well that team now stands 45-2 as our Liberty Hill Wildcats beat them twice!

The ‘Cats won once during pool play, 56-42, and then again in a very tough defensive championship game.

Photos by Thunderstruckphotos.com

As the 8th Annual Panthers Basketball Camp finishes up today (Thursday, June 17) with camp awards, it’s a good time to re-visit the origins of the camp.

Did you know the camp was actually started as a combination of boys and girls?

That, according to the camp’s founder, Liberty Hill High School boys’ basketball head coach Barry Boren.

“This camp is patterned after the long-running and well-heeded Lone Star Hoop Camp,” Boren explained. “Jan Jernberg, now the coach at LakeTravis, and I worked many years ago. He set the format for what we do now.

“The first year here at Liberty Hill, Tanya Lott was the (girls’) coach. I asked her about starting a camp, she said she’d like to help out. We had about 100 campers combined and we were able to grow it over the years.”

The combined camps actually separated a couple of years ago; new girls’ coach Matt Kirschner now runs the Lady Panther Hoop Camp, which ran last week.

“Matt’s done a good job with the girls’ camp since he took over two years ago,” Boren stated of Kirschner, who was his assistant until he took over the reigns of the LHHS girls’ team. “They had over 130 campers last week. Now Matt and some of his family and kids are here working this camp this week.

“That’s what Matt talked about (in last week’s article in LibertyHillSports.com) the camp having a ‘family flavor’ to it.”

That includes having current and former players being involved as camp coaches – and with 155 campers at this year’s event there’s plenty of need for extra instructors.
“Michael Farace, Elio Suarez and Patrick Graves are a few of the many former and current players helping with the camp,” Boren revealed.

The LHHS mentor has a few assistants like Kirschner who have taken over other programs. They include Trace Ellis at Westlake; Tim Kaman at Fredericksburg; and, Rusty Walker at Waco Midway.

Plus, Keith Allen – now the head boys’ coach at Llano – and Owen Clifton (Hyde Park) have worked camps with Boren.

Of course, Boren’s own son – Blake – has made a name in his own right. He’s been coaching for years and last week coached the Liberty Hill Wildcats select team – made up of many current and soon-to-be LHHS varsity players – to the championship title in the Abilene Tournament.

“Liberty Hill is a unique – and special – community,” Boren said. “Kids and parents both get very involved and give a lot towards a common goal. It’s great to be part of this community.”

(Please notify us if you believe we have anyone's name wrong)

While the “Sounds of Summer” are upon the Central Texas area (as well as the rest of the hemisphere), the pounding of basketballs on the hoops court can be heard at Liberty Hill High School this week.

In fact, about 123 girls – in grades 2nd through 9th – are gathering each day this week at LHHS for the 8th annual Lady Panther Hoop Camp (June 7-10), run by LHHS women’s basketball coach Matt “Pierogi” Kirschner.

“We have girls here from second grade through ninth grade, including sisters from the same family,” stated Kirschner who just finished his first year as the girls’ head coach at LHHS. “We have 17 instructors here and each and every one of them works very hard to keep the camp running fluidly.

“We try to keep this organized. Our camp is designed to give the kids a great tutorial on all the fundamentals of basketball as well as improve their skills.”

Kirschner, who “employs” his wife (Laura), his Dad (Rod), his brother (Rodney, Jr.) and his LHHS coaching “family” (includes Coach Kim Holt and Coach Lang), declared the camp is a family event.

“We have an extended basketball family here, both on and off the court,” Kirschner said Monday afternoon. “Coaches like Coach Holt, Blake Boren (son of LHHS boys’ coach Barry Boren) and Coach Lindsey Martin (who’s leaving LHHS to get her doctorate at OhioState) help us out a lot.

“But we have other area coaches (such as Keith Allen, new head boys’ coach at Llano), others from the LHISD community (including Kasey Faurie from Bill Burden Elementary; Sue Davidson from LH Junior High; DeAnn Chianese and Shay Thomen, members of Barry Boren’s family) and current and former players (including Kylie Prior, Bridgette Perez, Kristen Ebner, Holly Ragsdale, Paige Purvis, Kathy Johnson and Chyanne Hernandez) who come in and give the campers a bit of their expertise.”
While some summer camps run for 3-4 hours a day, the Lady Panthers camp runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – with the understanding that parents can work with the camp’s staff for early/late pick up.

“There is a method behind our madness," Kirschner explained. "By running a day-long camp, we give our campers time to absorb what they’re taught and time to practice what they’ve learned. We feel the kids get better because they’re not ‘rushed’ through a time-constrained camp and we can see the results.”

The camp runs through Thursday with awards and closing ceremonies scheduled for 4 p.m. that afternoon.