Q.M o s tp e o -p l e

pegged the teamas a squad thatwould have tosqueak into thep l a y o f f s .Instead youcame out andwon a share ofthe districtchampionshipfor one of thebest seasons inprogram history.Do you feel youe x c e e d e dexpectations?

A.W ef e e lgood.

Those seniorscame in, they wanted to win a district champi-onship and that’s what we had talked about doingall year and they did that. Like I’ve said, youalways want one more. Unless you win a statechampionship you always say man if we had wonone more game, or two more games or somethinglike that. But we’re proud of them and what theydid. And we’re looking forward to next season.

Q.You guysseemed tolive and die

by the last secondplay. Do you thinkthat kind of caught upto you at the end ofthe season?

A.Sometimesyou worryabout that.

Your nine lives, ifyou’re done with that.It’s funny, the veryfirst year we did that itseemed like everyfourth quarter. Thenlast year it was just theopposite. It seemedlike it didn’t go. Butthen this year it did. Idon’t know if it’s justa mentality deal withthe kids believing thatwe are going to winthis thing and just find

a way. You hope that it is and you hope you canincorporate that in to them in the offseason and beready for it next year.

Q.Defensively you had some relativeunknown seniors step up and post someall-district

worthy numbers. Howglad were you to havethat leadership andplay from them?

A.They reallystepped up,s t a r t i n g

with the two outsidelinebackers, PrestinGranzin and SergioMunoz. Man youknow, comparing theirstats, their number oftackles and leadershipcompared to last yearit was just tremendousthis year. And thenyou look for the cor-nerbacks MarkThomas and JasonDaughtry that reallycame on, you throwJosh Day in there andhe did a great job. And

then Alex McGraw kind of took Victor Cooper’sspot and kind of got us lined up back there. Butthose guys are going to be missed. And then youeven throw in Cody Monnette in the middle, talkabout getting us lined up. His stats may not havebeen there with the tackles and everything butknowing what defense we wanted and to be inthose formations, those guys are going to bemissed.

Q.Quarterback Travis Wallis really carrieda lot on his shoulders this year. Was thatsurprising considering it was a battle up

until the season open-er?

A.We wentinto the sea-son not

knowing who wasgoing to be quarter-back, let them battle itout and we thoughtTravis stepped for-ward and I think heshowed that.

Now we hopeJames Sadderwhitecan do it next year,step forward and leadus and have a goodyear.

Q.Has the sen-ior leader-ship rubbed

off on the youngerplayers who will be

asked to step upnext season?

A.Y o ualwaysw a n t

to see that. Wethought some ofour juniorsstepped up thisyear. And hope-fully they sawthat and sawwhat it takes towin a districtc h a m p i o n s h i pand hopefullywe’ll see it again.You know, anumber of thoseguys, Granzin,Sergio andMonnette, didn’tplay anothersport, so theywere in here inthe offseasonleading us andstuff and youneed guys likethat.

Q.A loto funder-

classmen con-tributed, evenstarted, this sea-son. How impor-tant was it forthose guys togain experiencemoving forward?

A.I think it’s a real big part of the planbecause that’s what my goal was. I did-n’t know we could win a district cham-

pionship andsaid, ‘Hey, thegoal is get theseguys in the play-offs and givethem experienceat it so that theyjust get betterand better andstart believing.’

And by doingthat, when thekids believe init, they obvious-ly play betterthan when theydon’t. Hopefullythose youngguys did that andit’s going toshow the nextcouple years.

Q.I ’ ms u r et h e

kids wanted tokeep playingbut with the sea-son over, how’sthe locker roomvibe now, espe-cially with thesuccess you didhave?

A.There’s disappointment because we’renot playing but I think as soon as we getback from Thanksgiving it’s a season to

build on as they say. We can get them going, get

If Lake Dallas was theturning point thenForney was the precursor

— the Red Oak footballteam had turned the cornerbut eventually the well hadto run dry.

After living on the edgefor much of the season, thenarrow numbers game final-ly caught up to the Hawks.And it couldn’t have hap-pened at a worse time.

As Richie Barentios’ low-lining, knuckle-ball typekick inched over the cross-bar, you had that feeling thatRed Oak had found a littlebit of thatmagic leftthat hadled themto aDistrict15-4Atitle.When youlive anddie bymakingthe lastplay themostimportantone,you’re bound to end up onthe losing end at some point.Forney had showed that.

So with a 9-7 lead witharound five minutes left inthe first round of the play-offs, no one could have seenRyan Smith’s run coming.He had amassed 15 yardsrushing for the whole day.His 51 yards passing werenothing. And as he rolledright, the Hawk defense hadhis receivers covered.

However, there was theleft side of the field.

What Smith found was anopening, the only oneHewitt Midway was givenall day. But in the end, thatone play was the difference.

Red Oak out hustled, outworked and out playedMidway from start to finish.The defense got timelyturnovers. The offense madeplays when it needed to. Yetfor one play, the Panthersgot the better end of it.

So with a 7-4 record, RedOak was sent home from thepost season. A sad ending toa season that was so muchbetter than that one play.

While it is what the play-ers will think about for now,one can only hope that whentime has passed they willsee the bigger picture. Aseven-win season, the firstdistrict championship since1982 (and the first ever as a4A school) and a thirdstraight appearance in theplayoffs.

But most importantly theseniors created somethingthe program hadn’t seen indecades – a foundation. Afoundation for a programthat has talked about build-ing and becoming. Thanksto the 2009 team, thatopportunity is now in frontof them. Thanks to thissquad, the time for talk isover. Now comes the doing.

What this year’s teaminstalled might come downto attitude, specifically awinning attitude. The veter-ans showed swagger andclass at the exact same time.They didn’t have to say theywere the better team, theylet the play do the talking.

If those traits rubbed offon the younger players whowill line up between thehashes next fall, then theHawks are in good shape.And then that magic will behere to stay.

Alex Riley is a sportswriter who cover Hawkssports for the Ellis CountyChronicle. Contact him atalex.riley@wninews.com orat 469-517-1456.

Sports6 Ellis County Chronicle, Wednesday, November 25, 2009

ALEX

RILEY

CHRONICLESPORTSWRITER

Magicruns out,now timeto build

The viewfrom thepress box

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Red Oak coach Mike Shields guided the Hawks to a district championship in his third year at the helm. Red Oak had not won a dis-trict championship since 1982 prior to this season and had never won one as a 4A school.

A year of risk and rewardChronicle sports writer Alex Riley sits down with football coach Mike Shields to talk about the

Hawks’ 2009 district championship season, pulling wins out of the fire and the future of the team

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Replacing the senior leadership of players like (from left) ColbyHouston, Alex McGraw, Sergio Munoz and Travis Wallis will be a bigfactor in Red Oak’s continued success next season.

Photos by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Senior linebackers Cody Monnette andPreston Granzin were key to the defensivesuccess this season. The pair combined for141 tackles for the Hawks.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Red Oak quarterback Travis Wallis startedoff the year battling for the starting job.He finished the season as the team’s lead-ing rusher and guided the Hawks to a 7-4record in his only season as a starter.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Getting players like juniorJeremi Lewis playing timethis season should helpthe Hawks as they go intonext fall. Lewis finishedas the third leading rush-er for Red Oak this yearwith 333 yards and threetouchdowns.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Red Oak juniorMandel Dixonscored the go-aheadand winning touch-downs in two games.The Hawks won sixgames by single dig-its this season.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Despite battling earlyseason injury, juniorreceiver IshmaelHarrison led the Hawkswith 376 yards receivingand was a factor in therunning game with 204yards on the ground.

See SHIELDS, Page 7

11-25 sport 3/10/10 1:29 AM Page 1

Q.As disappointingas the endingwas with the loss

to J.J. Pearce that close tothe state tournament, whatdo you hope these playerstake away from the year?

A.Before wewalked out of thelocker room, I

told them, ‘Look, I knowyou’re upset. I know you’rehurt. Cry, do whatever youneed to do.’

I said, ‘But when youwalk out that door of thislocker room, you hold yourhead up high. You have notone thing to ashamed of.Be proud of what you’veaccomplished, know thatyou’re a great team.

‘Every match has tohave a winner and everymatch has to have a loserand this match could have went either way on any given day so don’t walkout of here feeling bad about what you’ve done this season.’

Q.A lot of teams in the area were forced to playyounger players in major roles. While some jun-iors did play and were starters, the majority of

your lineup was senior laden. How big of a deal was it tohave those veterans around?

A.We had nine seniors on the team so we had an oldteam and they’ll definitely be missed in allaspects of the game whether it’s just physical tal-

ent or the personality they bring to the team or just leader-ship with the way they are on and off the court. Every oneof them has something they contributed to the team, regard-less of whether it was on the stat board or on the court itself.Everybody that was a senior this year did something thatcontributed to our success.

Q.I know youwere ana s s i s t a n t

here for a long time,but does the record asa first-year coach sur-prise you? How easyof a transition was it?

A.Well youknow, when Itook the posi-

tion or when I appliedfor this position, I knewthere was a talentedbunch of girls cominginto this year. So I knewthey would need a littleguidance, a little coach-ing here and there butfor the most part it wasa talented group ofgirls. They jumpedright in whole-hearted-ly, bought in to what Iwas trying to sell themand did what I asked todo and it all cametogether in the end.

There were timeswhen we thought, ‘Oh,we’re not going tomake it through this.’But for the most part itcame together and theyperformed phenomenalif you ask me. I couldn’task any more than whatI got out of them.

Sports8 Ellis County Chronicle, Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Readyfor moreChronicle sports writer Alex Riley sitsdown with volleyball coach Hope Porter totalk about the 2009 success, first-yearcoaching and what to expect next season

Photo by Lezley Noris/Special to the Chronicle

Seniors Jennifer Lawson (left) and Breanna Saum (right)provided the Red Oak volleyball team with a tremendousfront line height advantage this season. The pair combinedfor more than 135 blocks this year.

Photo by Mike Sackett/Special to the Daily Light

Red Oak senior Tara McKenney spentthe majority of the season at libero forthe Lady Hawks. Her backline defensewas a big part of the team’s run toanother district title.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

In her first season as head coach of the Red Oak volleyball program, Hope Porter guided the LadyHawks to a 20th straight district title and advanced to the regional finals in the state playoffs.

Photos by Gary Puckett/ and Lezley NorrixSpecial to the Chronicle

Juniors Morgan Watts (15) and Hunter Porter(6) played major roles in the starting lineup.Gabby Pena (left) figures to become a majorplayer next season.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Chronicle

Red Oak junior varsity player Caleah Wells was one ofthree players called up to the varsity roster for the play-offs. With her length, Wells could factor into the varsityroster next fall.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Daily Light

Junior setter Kaycie Bird led the LadyHawks in assists and points served.That experience will be key for thesquad going into next season.

Photo by Lezley Norris/Special to the Chroniclet

Senior Andrea McQuaid’s play will be hard toreplace for Red Oak next season. McQuaid,who led the team in numerous categories,will play for Oklahoma next season.

Q.In the preseason, I think some publications mighthave written the team off because of the coachingchange and such. Did you see the success you did

have this year coming?

A.It doesn’t surprise me. I think it surprises someof the people. I think maybe they thought it’sdownhill from here.

Like I said, I knew what talent was out there, that it couldbe a great year. With the last match aside, it was a great yearand I’m very proud of the girls.

Q.While it was mostly seniors, some juniorsdid play major roles. How important is thatfor next season?

A.We have three kids that really played majorroles this year and we have two other juniorson the team that got as much playing time as

I could get them that will have major roles next yearthey’ll have to step up and take charge of.

There’s a little bit of talent coming back but we’relosing a ton. We have to get to work. We started thismorning. We’re back at work and going to try to keepit going again.

Q.Your sub-varsity teams started off kind of slow butrebounded for big seasons in district play and finishedwith great records. How does that bode for the rest of the

program in the future?

A.I think the mental aspect of it is really important for thosekids. I know they were struggling mentally at the begin-ning of the year but we play a tough preseason schedule

and there’s a lot of those kids that are multi-sport kids, that do otherthings, that have to put a lot into volleyball. I think maybe it was alittle bit of wake up call for them that look if we’re going to contin-ue to be good, I have to work a little harder than I’m working.

So, I did see some improvement on both of the sub-varsity teamsthis year and some highlights that I’m looking forward to getting achance to work with this season and hopefully can keep our little tra-dition going.

11-25 sport 3/10/10 1:29 AM Page 2