Yoemen Sports Network

In any sport it’s important to take advantage of the other team’s miscues. On Monday, Yoe baseball did that and more in a 8-0 season opening victory over the Connally Cadets.

After starting pitcher Jason Llanas retired the side in the top of the first, Cameron’s first three batters of 2017 reached base via the error. The Yoemen capitalized by pushing across four runs to build all the momentum needed to move to 1-0.

“Our guys have been working hard the last two weeks,” said Yoe head coach John Broussard. “We had a big first inning and capitalized on some errors and stole the momentum right off the bat and we didn’t let off. It was a complete game and it was the first complete game I have seen these guys play. I am excited.”

Everybody knows Cameron is known for being a football town, but every once in awhile, a great coach would lead the Yoemen to some memories on the hardwood court. Like to remember a couple of them now.

The first is Bill Krueger, who started his career here at Yoe High in 1957-58. He came here straight out of Southwest Texas State, where he was a star player for the Bobcats. He had an abundance of great athletes to work with. They had just completed a tremendous 7-3 season, losing only to Killeen (10-1) Brenham (11-1), and a hard fought game in Stephenville (6-0), which I have said before was the coldest game I ever attended.

The team managed only a 9-16 record and were led by Ray Green (SMU football), Gene Hillman (Baylor football), Bobby Elliott, Warren Rinn (Del Mar junior college football) and Arthur (Monk) Marek.

Despite missing a few golfers due to varying reasons, the Yoe golfers competed in their second tournament of the year on Friday from Copperas Hollow Country Club in Caldwell.

The Yoemen finished with a team total of 411, 44 strokes behind third place Navasota. Brenham was second while Bellville won the championship.

Stockton Kruse led the Yoemen with a 99, followed by Luke Green’s 101, Kobe Young’s 105, Andrew Ortiz’s 106 and Jale Walzel’s 123.

Cameron was without their number one golfer Nikolas Keratsopoulos, who sat out the tournament due to injury. Jordan Young was also out due to basketball.

The Yoemen finished third as a team in Taylor tournament on Feb. 8. Keratsopoulos was the second medalist, finishing with a team-best 76. Kruse (91), K. Young (93), Green (98), J. Young (98) and Ortiz (105) all competed for Cameron.

Pflugerville was first with a 344, Georgetown East View was second with a 355 and Cameron was third with a 358.

In a year of many firsts, the Yoemen wrestling teams added on another accomplishment to their impressive resume as four Yoe grapplers competed in the 5A region III wrestling tournament from Bryan High School on Friday.

The tournament saw some of the best lifters from across Dallas, Houston and the Central Texas region compete for a chance at the state tournament.

Cameron did not reach that plateau, but did have all four competitors advance to the third round of competition. After dropping his opening match, Rico Bolivar rebounded with a pin in his second match. Domanique Borgas, Destiny Merrow and Johnvanique Porter all fell in their opening matches, but drew byes in the second round due to the competition not making weight.

For the first time since the 2011 season, Yoemen basketball is back in the playoffs. Cameron secured their spot in the postseason Friday with a 54-40 win over the Academy Bumblebees in a play-in game for the fourth and final spot out of 20-3A.

“The last three years we have been, in reality, a second or third place team in our district,” said head coach Ed Glendening. “We have lost so many heartbreaking games. We counted the other day at least 10. We did a great job tonight.”

Just a few short weeks ago, Cameron had dropped a heart-breaking one-point game to Academy on the road. In that contest, Academy hit nine 3-pointers, one of which was the eventual game winner with just 10 seconds remaining.

On Friday in Rogers, it appeared as if we were heading down that same path. The Bees had a 26-15 lead in the second period and had already sunk 5 treys.

The Cameron softball team took on Caldwell in the first regular season home game of the year on Friday. The Lady Yoe hung tough with the defending 4A regional finalist for four innings before giving up nine runs in the final three frames in a 11-1 loss.

Cameron, which fell to Bryan Rudder in the season opener on Monday, 12-2, drop to 0-2 on the young season.

“I think playing teams like Bryan and Caldwell are really good competition for us,” said head coach Abraham Vargas. “Like I told the ladies before the game started, we are going to face adversity. That is great for us to see how we handle adversity. We have to learn how to respond to adversity when you play a team like Caldwell. Traditionally, they have always been really good.”

When Cameron fans emptied Yoe Gym after Tuesday night’s 60-48 loss to the Jarrell Cougars, everyone thought it would be the last time a Yoemen basketball game would be played this season.

Despite losing to Academy (55-52) on Friday, Cameron entered Tuesday’s action with a one game lead over Lexington, Hearne and Academy for the third spot in the district.

The word going around the gym was that if the Yoemen lost to Jarrell, Academy beat Rockdale, and Lexington defeated Hearne, then Cameron would be the odd man out of the playoff tiebreaker.

All of those things did indeed happen, and for a good while everyone thought that the season was actually over.  However, after a more careful inspection of the tie-breaker rules, the scenario had changed.  

Driving up to Huntsville on Saturday for the 10-5A district wrestling meet, Yoe head coach Dale Keen was not sure what to expect.  It was the program’s first time to compete at the district level and it was coming against some of the best varsity grapplers at the 5A level.

It didn’t take long for Cameron to make their presence felt as Rico Bolivar pinned his first opponent in the event’s opening match.  That set the tone for things to come as Lady Yoe and Yoemen went on to win a total of 10 matches on the day and had four qualify for the regional tournament this Saturday in Bryan. 

“Going into this, I knew it would be possible to come over here and not win a match,” said Keen.  “That is very possible and there was a little fear.  We did end up finishing winning 10 matches.”

Looking back on when he was younger, one of Kevondre Wesley’s fondest memories was the trips to Cameron and the times when he was able to pick berries in his grandmother’s garden. 

Wesley had spent the first several years of his life in Bay Minette, Ala., before making the official move to Cameron during his eighth-grade year. 

“My family had some issues and my mom was forced to move here and ever since we have stayed,” said Wesley.  “It’s been my home ever since”

During his youth, Wesley got his first experience with basketball on a court down the street from where he was living.  He said his brother Robert was the one that introduced him to the game of basketball - now his favorite sport.

Cameron lifters competed in the Temple meet last Thursday.  For the boys, Joe Rangel (710 lbs.) was 3rd in the 132-pound division, Alex Aguillon (1,015 lbs.) was 7th and Kendall Fincher (825 lbs.) was 14th in the 165-pound division, Kevin Advic (1,035 lbs.) was 6th in the 181-pound division, Garrett Roeder (1,190 lbs.) was 2nd, John Santos (1,065 lbs.) was 4th and Dominic Lewis (890 lbs.) was 11th in the 198-pound division, Nico Vargas (1,225) was 4th in the 220-pounds division, Dortavis Lewis (1,365 lbs.) was 4th and Alfredo Sierra (945 lbs.) was 13th in the 275-pound division, and Adrian Lewis (1,360) was 3rd in the super heavyweight division.  The boys finished fifth as a team behind Belton, Waco, Temple and Copperas Cove. 

The girls had Faith Kistler (545 lbs.) finish 7th in the 148-pound division and Daejanay Bell (785 lbs.) was 3rd in the 259-pound division.