3-Peat Possible
Ponder Lions win Regional Tournament for the third year straight
By Emily Liberto

This weekend, the Ponder Lions varsity boys basketball team competed in the Regional Tournament in Stephenville.  Ponder has been to the Regional Tournament for three years in a row now.  The Lions entered the tournament determined to win and advance to the State tournament at the capital in Austin.

For the Regional semi-final game, Ponder was faced with was the Edgewood Bulldogs, a team that has also been to the Regional Tournament for three years straight. Ponder started out strong with two 3’s by seniors David Robertson and Kaleb Broadstreet. By the end of the 1st half, Ponder was leading Edgewood 33-18.  For the rest of the game Ponder remained in control, refusing to allow Edgewood to come close. At one point, the Bulldogs cut the lead to 8 points in the third quarter, but the Lions pulled away and defeated Edgewood with a score of 75-47.

On Saturday, the Regional Final game was between Ponder and the Brock Eagles. The day before, Brock had defeated Godley in a close game with a score of 48-45. After a couple tries, the Lions won the tip and scored the first points of the game. By the end of the first quarter, the guys kept the Eagles scoreless, the score was 6-0. Ponder continued to dominate, forcing the Eagles to struggle and by the end of the first quarter, Ponder was leading by 13 points. After halftime, the boys came out ready to play and led the remainder of the game, beating the Brock Eagles 65-42.

A highlight of the Regional Final game was when former injured player, senior Jarryd Shirley entered the game in the first quarter. After tearing his Achilles tendon early in the season, Jarryd has been unable to play but continued to attend the games and root for his team. Up until recently, Jarryd has been cleared to play, for safety reasons, only a small amount of playing time.  Immediately when Shirley stepped on the court, the Ponder fans began to chant “Jarryd!” Soon after he entered the game, Shirley scored a basket and the crowd went wild.

So after an extremely successful Regional Tournament, the Ponder Lions now advance to the State Tournament in Austin, for the third year in a row. Seniors Scott Gregg and Kaleb Broadstreet will compete in hopes of getting their third state ring. After only one year as head coach at Ponder, Coach Jude Stanley has led the team to the State Tournament. The tournament will be next weekend at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. The only words to describe this Ponder Lions victory are the words “Three peat!” that were chanted by the Ponder fans at the end of the game.

PHS Hosting Region VI Division III Powerliftting Championships
Lions look to leave their mark on meet
By Micah Easterling

On March 13 , Ponder will host its first ever Regional Powerlifting Meet. The Region VI Division III Powerlifting Championship will be held in the high school gym from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with over 100 lifters from  different classifications and weight classes . The festivities will start at 6 with the official weigh-in, followed by several meetings, the invocation, and the National Anthem sung by Ponder High School student Taylor Durrett at approximately 9:02AM. From then on it is all lifting all the time, ending in a Coaches Meeting and the Awards Presentation.

 Within the 113 lifters, PHS has 4 students representing their school.  Senior Cody Cossman, junior Tyler Ashman, and sophomores Clay Futch and Brandon Gee have all qualified and look to put on a good performance at the regional meet.

The Ponder Powerlifting team welcomes the community to experience this new sport and watch the Lion lifters at the regional meet. Ticket prices are $5 for adults and $3 for students.

Lions Baseball to Open District Tuesday

By Jacob Dow

This past Thursday and Friday, the Lions baseball team participated in the Sunnyvale tournament.  It was a rough two days as the team tied Prairiland 11-11, lost 4-11 to Fort Worth Christian, and was also defeated by Canton by a score of 0-10.  At this point of the season, the Lions bats have improved greatly over the past year.  Also, the pitching as a whole is doing well and the staff is deep. 

“I was disappointed in how we played in Sunnyvale,” freshman Ethan Easterling said.  “It was tough, but it’s going to help us get ready for district.”

The Lions were slated to kick off district play tomorrow night, but the heavy rains have postponed the game. The rescheduled game date and time will be posted on the Roar Sports page when it is set. 

“After how last season played out, I’m very excited about district games,” junior Logan Loiselle said.  “Playing Krum is always a fun game and they give us some great competition to open up district.” 

Golf: Round 1
By Aubrey Antle
           
On Thursday Mar. 4, the Ponder Lions golf team competed at the Muenster Invitational. This was their first meet of the 2010 season and they won 6th place out of the 21 teams there, 8 of them were 2A teams and the Ponder golf team placed 1st out of these teams.
           
“We did pretty well, but not our best,” head coach Time Liberto said.
           
The team consists of freshmen Jonathan Prince, Jonathon Sidler, and Trey Melton, sophomore Cameron Kitten, junior Colton Moore, and senior Dakota Dixon. Kitten surprised Coach Liberto by shooting an 89, which was the lowest score on the team for the meet.
           
“Now we just need our older players to lower their scores,” Coach Liberto said.
           
The next meet is tomorrow Mar. 10, at Lake Park. This is just the beginning of the season for the Lions, so there are many more opportunities for the golfers to improve on their scores.
           
“We did okay for our first meet,” freshman Jonathan Prince said.

Tennis Team Excels in Ponder Tourney
By Erika Sparkman

The Ponder tennis teams had one of their best tournaments thus far in the season. Ponder competed against other 2A teams including Godly, Callisburg and Pilot Point.

“I think it went very well for most of the Ponder teams and singles because most made it all the way to the finals,” junior Trevor Watson said.

The results for the meet are as follows: seniors Yvonne Michaud and Chelsea Pardue placed third for Ponder in girls doubles, Junior Taylor Gonzales placed second for the boy’s singles consolation. In first place for girls singles was senior Jessie Galant. In mixed doubles, sophomores Arianna Hawkins and Jacob Hawkins made it all the way and won first place. Junior Ashley Darby and Freshman Noah Hemker also did well making it the Simi-Finals in the consolation bracket for mixed doubles.

“I was really excited about this tourney because me and my brother made it so far and for the first time won first place ribbons,” Arianna said.

Softball Update
By Chris Bean

The Lady Lions Softball team started district competition last week against the Callisburg Lady Wildcats, but came up short losing 1-7.

“Even though we lost I think we made some improvements. Aubrey Antle stepped it up and hit very well, and Emily Liberto was forced to play third base for the first time,” Coach Wells said.

The played a non-district game on Friday against Boswell, but lost that one 1-7. Although they got beat, it was a very eventful game. Junior Morgan Stover slid into third and got tagged in the facemask. The facemask then hit her in the face and caused some very painful dental and shin injuries.

“I had two teeth that were almost knocked completely out, and one chipped. When I slid in I also split my shin open. All in all, not a good day,” Stover said.