Yoemen Sports Network

There are a lot of positives surrounding the Yoe baseball program at the moment. The Yoemen went a perfect 3-0 in the first annual Tournament of Champions hosted by both Cameron and Rogers. In addition, Cameron entered TxHighSchoolBaseball.com’s top 25 rankings released on Monday. Cameron (6-3) is tied for 24th in 3A ball with Rogers (4-2-1) and Clifton (7-2).

Tournament Play

After finishing 2-3 in the Marion tournament the previous week, the Yoemen rebounded with wins over Gatesville, Giddings and Burnet in their own tournament.

“I think our guys bounced back big time from last weekend,” said Yoe head baseball coach John Broussard after the wins. “We didn’t particularly play great, and we made a lot of strides. We still have a lot of things to work on, but it’s nice to be rolling in that direction heading into district.”

Whenever you hear Yoe High Band and competition in the same sentence, all you have to do is look at the trophy case to see what the expectations are surrounding the program.

At last week's UIL concert and sight-reading contest, the longstanding tradition of excellence was upheld as both the junior varsity and varsity level bands captured sweepstakes awards. Both bands received one-division ratings in the concert and sight-reading portions of the contest.

“I couldn't be more proud of the kids,” said director of bands Craig George following the contest. “This is why we work so hard the entire course of the year.”

The band competed in two different UIL events this year. The first came back in the fall when the band received straight ones from the marching band competition at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Now, the band has accomplished its ultimate goal.

This past week, C.H. Yoe High School was recognized by Side-Out as one of top fundraising schools for breast cancer research. According to the organization, thousands of volleyball players, coaches, and families in all 50 states join together to participate in the program.

Each year, the Lady Yoe will raise funds from September up until the deadline at the beginning of December. This year, the Dig Pink game came against Rogers, where their was a silent auction, a raffle, pink treats, and other events on hand. In addition to the Dig Pink game, funds were also raised from t-shirt sales and donations at sports events heading up to the big game. Over the previous six years, the Lady Yoe have earned over $59,000 dollars towards breast cancer research.

According to the foundation, the top five winners will receive safety pads and net tape to use for their 2017 Dig Pink game. Cameron finished 5th in the standing in 2015. Below is full list of winners.

This past Thursday through Saturday, Cameron participated in the Caldwell tournament.  The ladies had a solid stretch of play over three days, finishing with a 4-2 mark.  Cameron returned to action on Tuesday in the district opener at number #8 Academy, and fell 18-0.  

Caldwell

Thursday (W 16-4 over Caldwell, L 5-0 to Milano)

Just two weeks of play remain in 2017 for the Yoe soccer programs. There have been high’s and low’s over the past two months, but both teams look to close out the season on a positive trend.

On Friday, Cameron hosted Smithville in 26-4A action from Yoe Field. In the first match, the Yoemen fell behind early, 4-0, and after the break gave up 4 more goals in an 8-0 loss.

“We’ve got some injuries and it’s late in the year and that is hurting us,” said head coach Kevin Webb. “It seems like the people that are going through those injury problems are some of our most valuable people. We at least are getting some experience with our younger guys. They are getting in there and are playing hard like Yoemen and I could not be more proud of them.”

Cameron has yet to win a 26-4A district match at 0-7, but the experienced gained throughout the final four matches of the season should prove to be beneficial.

On Tuesday, it was announced that five Yoe powerlifers would be competing in regional meets in the coming weeks. For the girls, Selene Vargas and Daejanay Bell will participate in the regional meet at Academy on Mar. 4. For the boys, Garrett Roeder, Dortavis Lewis and Adrian Lewis will be in the regional meet at West on Mar. 11.

On Feb. 17, the total number of Yoe High athletes signed to play at the next level went to four as Savannah Kruse officially signed with Texas Lutheran to play volleyball.

Kruse has been one of the main threats for Cameron the past two years and wrapped up her career as a first team all-district selection.

“I voted for her as MVP,” said Lady Yoe volleyball coach Kamol Nohe. ‘She is one of those players that has passion to play. She did everything I asked her to do. I needed her to do certain things that were awkward and maybe different than what she was used to, and she didn’t hesitate. She was ready to perform up to her best.”

Though Nohe has only worked with Kruse for one year, he feels the soon-to-be Lucky will be successful at the next level.

The Yoemen and Lady Yoe golf teams took home plenty of hardware from Monday and Tuesday’s golf tournaments from the Cameron Country Club. The ladies set the tone, finishing first as a team on Monday while the Yoemen kept the bar high with a second place finish on Tuesday.

LADY YOE

When play had ended on Monday, Cameron had finished tied with Rockdale with a score of 432. The tiebreaker favored Cameron with the fifth golfer having the lower score.

Alexis Magre led not only Cameron, but also the entire field on the day with a 90. The finish was two strokes better than Rockdale’s Annie Hasselbach for the number one spot.

“I was really excited, especially for Alexis,” said golf coach Pete Magre. “That was the first time she had got a medal and she ended up winning the tournament, which I thought was awesome.”

After dropping the first three games of pool play in last weekend’s Marion and Navarro tournament, the Yoemen closed on a high note by winning their final two games to finish with a 2-3 mark. Cameron now sits at 3-3 on the season. Below is a capsule from each contest.

Game 1: Navarro (L 3-0)
Cameron began tournament play with quite possibly the most talented team in the field with 4A Navarro, which entered the season #15 in TxHighSchoolBaseball.com’s preseason poll. The Yoemen fell behind 2-0 after one frame and could not get the offense going in a 3-0 loss. The Yoemen’s lone hit came in the top of the 4th, when Jason Llanas singled to right field. Navarro added on one run in the fifth before the game was called in the sixth due to the time limit. Anthony Layne and Ty Moore gave up only 1 earned run apiece on their time on the mount.

Game 2: Lago Vista (L 6-5)

Trialing 45-35 with just three minutes remaining in Tuesday’s bi-district matchup with the Marlin Bulldogs, Cameron was in a do or die situation with the continuation of the season on the line. The next two and a half minutes are what the fans in maroon and grey were looking for, as the Yoemen had stormed all the way back to take a 47-45 lead with just 33.75 seconds remaining on the clock. However, it was the Bulldogs that recovered late with free throws in a 51-48 victory.

“That sums up our season right there,” said Yoe head coach Ed Glendening. “You can’t ask our kids to play harder. They gave total effort. We were never out of the game and we were never out of it.”

The loss ends the Yoemen’s season at 22-12. The Bulldogs, 16-10, now advance to the area round of the playoffs to take on the Malakoff Tigers.