By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (June 2, 2017) — The University Interscholastic League has corrected an error in its scoring system and found that Stephenville High School actually finished as Conference 4A State Academic Runner-Up.
The UIL was quick to correct the error, and SHS principal Stephanie Traweek opened a box in her office this week that contained the runner-up trophy, which will forever be displayed at the high school.
“They forgot to add the points for theatrical design, and when they added in all the points we had with our state championship in that, we moved into second place,” Stephenville ISD superintendent Matt Underwood said proudly in a Friday morning phone interview. “I’m so proud of all our students and our faculty for their commitment to these activities and their dedication to becoming the best in everything they do”
Later, conversing about the number of students now labeled state champions at SHS, Underwood said via text message, “I’m just happy to be associated with kids this amazing!”
The added points in theatrical design pushed Stephenville past third-place Salado, but there was no catching Argyle at the top.
“Argyle has been there for a while, but second in the state, what an accomplishment,” Underwood said.
Indeed, Stephenville filled its trophy cases and champions’ displays like never before in the Spring, 2017 semester, academically and athletically.
It was the first year that theatrical design was held as a statewide competition counting toward UIL Academic point totals, and Stephnville has already commemorated its championships in that and other events with plaques placed on permanent display in the high school foyer.
In addition to the theatrical design team title, there are individual state champions in that and literary criticism. Coaches of state championship teams, students winning individual championships and principals from the high school, Henderson Junior High, Gilbert Intermediate, Hook Elementary and Chamberlin Elementary all received SISD Core Value medals for Excellence at the regular May meeting of the district’s board of trustees.
Add a group winning state and qualifying for nationals in FFA, a robotics team headed to the world championships, a dance team championship won by the Stingerettes. a sweepstakes honor awarded to the Yellow Jacket band and so many other accomplishments along the way, and it was already a spring like no other in Stephenville.
And then you have athletics.
The Stephenville Honeybees made believers out of everyone when they upset two-time defending state champ and No. 1 ranked Kennedale in a 3-1 shootout following a scoreless draw in regulation and overtime to capture the Region I-4A title, but they weren’t done. The Bees headed south to Georgetown to knock off Athens, 2-0, and Boerne, 2-1, to capture the program’s first state title, the third for the school’s girls athletic programs and the eighth overall team athletic championship in school history. As if that wasn’t enough the Texas Girls Coaches Association enshrined Honeybee sweeper Savannah Alford as the best senior girls soccer player in the state, naming her 4A-6A Player of the Year.
Stephenville students, teachers, coaches, administrators and everyone else involved must have felt as if they were
Blake Aragon proved to everyone that kids in Stephenville were soaring to new heights indeed when he was the only 4A athlete at the UIL Track & Field State Meet who could successfully leap over a bar 6 feet, 8 inches off the ground to capture a gold medal and put an exclamation point on a semester for the history books.
Perhaps it was high jump coach Joe Carter who best summed up the spring semester at the high school.
“Stephenville is the City of Champions,” boasted Carter moments after watching a UIL official drape a gold medal around the champion’s neck. “It runs throughout the community and into the school system. It’s a great atmosphere because the competitiveness in everything we do is just phenomenal.”
Phenomenal, historic and, of course, golden.
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