LEWIS: We’re already better than we were at the end of last year

By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com

(August 7, 2017) — Ryan Lewis is beginning her sixth season as head coach in Dublin and says she’s never been this excited going into a regular-season opener.

Her Lady Lions have 10 letter winners returning from their fifth consecutive playoff team under Lewis and host Hico at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Roy and Lynn Neff Gym following a junior varsity match at  5.

“It’s kind of flip-flopped since we opened against them last year. They had everybody back and a strong senior class and we were starting over,” Lewis explained as she recalled losing the opener in Hico last season. “Now we have everybody back and they are more or less starting fresh.”

Hico even has a new leader in rookie head coach Brittany Davis, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant at Brownwood. She replaces Julia Reynolds after the past coach made a career change, stepping way from coaching. (Read more about Davis and the Lady Tigers here on The Flash Today.)

Lewis put the Lady Lions through a grinder of a preseason, with Friday and Saturday scrimmages against schools in conferences 1A through 5A, all at beautiful Tiger Arena in Glen Rose. Dublin faced 4A Venus, 3A Tolar, 1A Blum and 5A Red Oak Friday and then it really got tough on Saturday with highly-ranked 4A GlenRose, 4A Mineral Wells and 3A Brock on Saturday.

“We faed really good competition that  showed us the things we have to work on, but we also looked good in a lot of areas. I was very pleased with where we were after Saturday,” said Lewis. “We’re already better than we were at the end of last year. I’m more excited than I’ve ever been to begin a new season.”