This past week the Concordia Lutheran Crusaders took on the St. Pius X Panthers for their Homecoming Football Game!
Check out the highlights from the game below!
This past week the Concordia Lutheran Crusaders took on the St. Pius X Panthers for their Homecoming Football Game!
Check out the highlights from the game below!
CROSS COUNTRY IS A TOUGH SPORT.
The early hours, the heat, the distance, the mental toughness.Don’t let Flo Shirley’s sweet personality fool you, she’s a beast.
“I really got into the sport because of my sister (Fern),” she laughed. “She quit dance and needed something to do and started cross country. We are really competitive between each other. Whatever she’s doing, I have to do better.”
Entering her senior season, Flo is looking to go out with a bang.
“I’m trying to set a personal record for myself and finish in the Top 10 at districts,” she said. “The State Meet is a tough course, and the conditions were pretty bad last year, so I’m just looking for a much better time this year.”
Outside of the sport and team she loves, Shirley is much more that running.
Bradley C. Collier (VYPE)
“If I could meet anyone dead or alive?” she was asked. “Probably Abby Lee Miller of Dance Moms. I watch that show every night. I love it. Maybe Sabrina Carpenter too. I love her music."
Her sister Fern goes to the University of Tennessee, so that could be her future destination.
“I like the Vols but could also end up somewhere like Oklahoma,” she said. “I want to go to nursing school in the future after interning at a doctor’s office this summer. I fell in love with the medical field and know I want to go that way. I think running will always be in my life, however, maybe I’ll run intramurals in college.”
As her high school chapter begins the close, Shirley hopes to have left her mark at TWCA.
“I’ve been here forever, and it feels like home,” she said of her school. “It’s a family and I know I’ll come back and visit when I’m in college. I love this place.
“I hope I’ve set a good example here... always pushing when things get hard and being a good leader. Cross country is a team sport and I know our team has always pulled for each other. We put in so much work when no one is watching. That is the legacy I hope to have left here.”
Mission accomplished.
Coach Shaun Stephens is in his first year at St. Pius X after coming over from the Heights High School.
Up next is a Home game against St. Michael's. Coach Stephens talks about Senior leaders stepping up on young team.
VYPE's Matt Malatesta caught up with Coach mid-week as they prepare for the Warriors.
BEAU ELLIS. THE NAME SOUNDS LIKE FOOTBALL, RIGHT?
The Woodlands Christian Academy captain can do just about anything on a football field, hence his position... athlete.
The 6-foot-1 senior lives, breathes and bleeds the sport.
“Football just teaches you so many life-lessons,” he said. “It’s about the brotherhood that it creates when you go to battle against other teams. It’s also about discipline. After a hard day of school or not feeling 100-percent, still throwing on the pads and going out in the hot Texas weather is what it’s about. It’s those habits that I can apply outside of football throughout my future.”
2024-25 TWCA FootballBradley C. Collier (VYPE)
It goes even deeper than that. It’s about the people and their influence.
“Coach (Steven) Svendson has played a huge role in my life,” he said. “He’s been my football and track coach and is always there to lift me up when I’mdown. He also baptized me last year.
“I’ve also loved watching videos of Troy Polamalu (former Pittsburgh Steeler). His Christ-like attitude on and off the field is something I really inspire to be. Football is a very intense and heated sport, and his ability to be such a great leader and encourage his teammates is something I look up to.”
Beau Ellis. Sounds like an outdoorsman, right?
Bradley C. Collier (VYPE)
“My dream?” he thinks about. “I want live in a quiet place with a family in the mountains, where I can start a business that makes the world a better place.
“I just have to be outdoors. I can be doing anything... paddle boarding,hiking, skiing, something. That’s justt he way I’m built.”
For now, Ellis will be an integral part of the Warriors’ playoffs goals, while pursuing any opportunity to play the game that has molded him for over a decade.
The mountains are just going to have to wait.
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