Newcastle’s state appearances highlight winning year of athletics

Newcastle’s state appearances highlight winning year of athletics News Staff Tue, 05/28/2024 - 10:34 am

• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Newcastle Ladycats listen to their coach during a timeout in the state championship game. The Ladycats won the first basketball championship in Newcastle history, and this state run was one of five state appearances for Newcastle during the 2023-2024 school year.
• (DAVID FLYNN | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Ty Strawbridge worked his way into the state competition for track and field in the discus event. Strawbridge showcased his abilities in that event and competed in the state golf tournament, as well.
• (DAVID FLYNN | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) Aubree Clayton represented Newcastle at the state track and field competition in high jump. As a sophomore, Clayton was one of a handful of Newcastle athletes to represent Newcastle at a state sport competition in the 2023-2024 school year.

TC Gordon sports@grahamleader.com

In the fall of the 2023-2024 school year, Newcastle had one of its athletes represent at the state cross country meet.

Then a few months later, the girls basketball team not only made it to state, but they made some noise and ended up bringing home a state championship.

A couple more months after that, the Bobcats and Ladycats were represented, once again, by a handful of athletes in track and field, tennis and golf.

For most schools across Texas, just making it to the state competition is one of, if not the highlight of the year. Newcastle didn’t just do it once, but the school went to state in five different sports.

Not only did the small town of a little over 500 people have several representatives at competitions featuring the best of the best, but the Ladycats basketball team brought home the first basketball state championship in school history.

Overall, it was a banner year for the Cats as they made themselves known among the elite athletes across Class 1A schools.

Starting with cross country, junior Mattie Dollar made things look easy on her way to the state meet. She finished in first place in the district meet, came in seventh in the regional meet and earned her trip to Round Rock for state. Out of 145 total runners, Dollar came in 43rd and set a high bar for herself and the Newcastle cross country team in the future.

Jumping around a bit, Newcastle had three representatives from the school qualify for the state track meet in seniors Isaac King and Ty Strawbridge and sophomore Aubree Clayton. King competed in pole vault, Strawbridge threw the discus and Clayton did high jump.

Track and field has often provided some challenges for Newcastle’s teams as they don’t have a track of their own on which to practice.

“We’re busing kids back and forth to Olney…and we try to be real sensitive of our kids’ time and their families’ time,” track coach James King said at the Newcastle sports banquet. “So by the time that we got there, a lot of times we’re having to cut things or cut our practices short, and not really getting in that full kind of workout that we wanted.”

Plenty of athletes dealt with injuries including some of the state qualifiers. Difficulties with practice situations led to a slow start to the season, but it didn’t matter. King, Strawbridge and Clayton had done enough and put together solid performances in the regional meet to get to state. And although they didn’t make any podium appearances, it was another big win for Newcastle.

Newcastle’s golfers hit the links this season and had a successful year for their teams. Both the boys and girls improved throughout the season, including those who had played before and the newcomers.

Strawbridge led the boys side and made his way through postseason play to earn his second trip to the state golf competition in his four years of high school. The senior finished third overall at district, second overall at regionals despite not having the best day by his or his coach’s standards and had an impressive showing at the state competition on a difficult course in Leander. Strawbridge finished 20th in a field of 72 golfers to conclude that chapter of his athletic career.

Tennis is a sport that hasn’t always drawn a ton of attention in Newcastle. It’s been hit or miss for the school as some years students will want to play and others they won’t. This season, Newcastle had four players give tennis a go and the mixed doubles duo of King and Dollar made yet another state appearance.

Newcastle’s players only got to practice about once a week in between track practices and everything else going on in the players’ lives. But Dollar and King just kept winning in the few competitions they went to and that carried on through district and regionals. Although they lost in the first match at state, they still finished as one of the top eight teams in the entire state of Texas in Class 1A.

And finally, it’s time to circle back to those state championship-winning Ladycats. But what can be said about that team?

Head coach Ryan Dollar arrived in April 2023 with his daughter, Mattie, and they were determined to win. That’s all they had really done before and that’s all they were planning to do here. And that started on the defensive end.

“I said you will be the best defensive team in the state of Texas… We just preached it and we preached it and we preached it and so we kind of took that motto and said, ‘If they can’t score, they can’t win.’ And I’ve seen we gave up about 28 points a game,” Coach Dollar said.

The Ladycats finished the year with a 35-1 record, with that singular loss coming by four points in just the second game of the season. But not only were Newcastle’s girls winning, they were dismantling opposing teams.

“At some point throughout the playoffs, I think it was probably the second or third round in the locker room before the game it was, ‘Hey, somebody’s going to go home crying today and it’s not going to be us,’” Coach Dollar said. “... Our playoff run, our whole year we had two or three games that were (decided by) less than 10 points, and everything else we just smoked them.”

Newcastle’s Ladycats brought home a state title, created individual and team memories that will last a lifetime and made their school and community proud.

All of Newcastle’s teams, even those that didn’t make it to state, represented their school well. But those state appearances push to the top and bringing home a big, gold trophy and earning some shiny championship rings take the top spot.

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