Sports

Seldom do sports teams get judged by the beauty of their games played, only wins count. Unfortunately the Tiger basketball team played in an ugly contest with league-leading Boerne Champion but still could not win ugly. It was another key game that could have been a win but ended up being a 34-26 loss.

Athletes in Dripping Springs are often honored with accolades like All-District. On occasion, someone will reach the heights of All-State. Adam Knutson just took that to an entirely different level.

Close still only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The Lady Tigers basketball team continues to find that out as they can not quite get over the scoring hump to win their games. Whatever the ingredients, they have been unable to get the door open for another victory and time is running out to get in the playoffs. They lost valuable ground when they dropped a 47-42 decision to Kerrville Tivy, a team in the top three, and a 66-65 loss to Hays Johnson, a team they defeated in the first round. District standings: Canyon 9-0, Boerne Champion 7-2, Kerrville 6-2, Seguin 7-3, Johnson 4-5, DS 3-6, Veterans Memorial 2-5, Alamo Heights 1-8, Lehman 0-8.

The Dripping Springs boys basketball team has started their push for the playoffs with another pair of wins. They started off district with four losses but have evened the mark. This puts them two games shy of fourth place and will have to be made up during the second half. The first half standings: Boerne Champion 7-1, Alamo Heights 6-1, Hays Johnson 5-2, Veterans Memorial 4-2, DS 4-4, Kerrville Tivy 3-4, Canyon 2-6, Seguin 1-6, Lehman 0-6.

The soccer season is underway and both teams look ready to start up where they left off last year. And that is a pretty high start considering the finish from last year. The Lady Tigers are the defending 5A state champions, having only 1 loss, 1 tie on their record 27 wins. The Tigers were eked out in the regional semis round. Those goals are not out of question as many veterans return from those squads.

It seems a very cruel misnomer to call our outdoor sports spring when they all take place in mid-winter and one does not get spring-like weather until late April when most of them are winding down. Nevertheless, all have started their seasons. The soccer seasons have begun with district games already starting. Softball has begun, baseball one week later and track meets coming up soon. Tennis and golf are in season. Because there are nine teams in district all sports start district play almost immediately after the season opens. Basketball, wrestling and swimming are winding down. Take your pick, you have plenty of school activities to follow until school is out in May.

In a conversation during the Holidays with Coach Jordan Batson, he said despite their record, he could see marked improvement in the Lady Tigers. What he saw in the Hays tourney playing some pretty good teams was his team playing longer and longer stretches of good basketball. Now what he is looking forward to is seeing those stretches reach into full games. When that happens the victories will start showing up. While watching the last district game loss to Seguin 51-45 it was obvious they were not quite there but close. In fact the Lady Tigers have been involved with some very close losses that could have drastically changed the 8-18 record they now have. They have a very legitimate shot at still making the playoffs. All the more reason for continuing the process of daily improvement. With the second half of district left here are the standings: NB Canyon 8-0, Boerne Champion 6-1, Kerrville Tivy 4-2, Seguin 4-3, DS 3-4, Veterans Memorial 2-4, Alamo Heights 1-6, Lehman 0-7.

Traditionally, the Tigers basketball teams have played very few home games before entering district play. No different this year. They got off to a slow 0-6 start. Since then they improved to a 6-7 record, three of those wins came in home games. Two in district play. They are 6-13 on the season and 2-4 in district.

It was certainly the way to come back from the holiday break and start off the new year. The DSMS Lady Tigers hosted Lake Travis MS and was able to come away with a sweep of all four games, an accomplishment done for the first time this year.

Dripping Springs High School girls’ soccer coach Bailee Perrine has been recognized as a 2021 High School Girls Regional Coach of the Year by the United Soccer Coaches organization.

It was back to district action for the Lady Tigers basketball team. The team continues to improve their brand of play as they were involved in two close games, one a heartbreaker. They would eke out a 51-47 victory over Alamo Heights but failed to hold off a late basket in the Veteran's Memorial 47-46 loss. They are now 2-3 in district and 6-12 overall.

The second half of the basketball season will probably be an adventurous route for most teams due to Covid. The schools have been having to deal with it for most, if not all their season to date. We can expect the numbers to only go up for the next two months and cause much havoc in the schedules.