Eagle HYPE Magazine | Fall 2015

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A PROSPER Magazine Publication Fall 2015

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“Respect Is Earned Through Actions Not Through Discussions”

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Prosper’s only Dedicated Sports Magazine

Fall 2015 Executive Publishers Jason & Heather Reynolds Editorial/Marketing Director Heather Reynolds Heather@CedarbrookMedia.com Creative Director Jason Reynolds Jason@CedarbrookMedia.com Client Services Manager Marketing Coordinator Stephanie Cornelius Stephanie@CedarbrookMedia.com Client Services Beth Padilla Beth@CedarbrookMedia.com Production Assistant Tish Cama Editorial Contributors Heather Reynolds Todd Kaufmann Tish Cama Photography Contributors Cedarbrook Media Group, LLC Tish Cama Chris Fritchie Production/Design Cedarbrook Media Group, LLC Admin@CedarbrookMedia.com Editorial Please send editorial considerations to Heather@CedarbrookMedia.com Advertising Information For our current media guide, contact Advertising at

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EAGLE HYPE Magazine is wholly owned and published by Cedarbrook Media Group, LLC. EAGLE HYPE Magazine is published 2 times a year. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or copied whole or in part without expressed written permission from the publisher, Cedarbrook Media Group, LLC. © 2015.

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Prosper’s only Dedicated Sports Magazine

7 School Spirit

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10 We’re Going To Win

14 Unfinished Business

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18 Seeking A Championship

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Bringing school spirit one chant at a time By:Tish Cama Photo Courtesy of Tish Cama

Senior Austin Garcia took over as the head student section leader for the 2015-2016 school year. “It all started sophomore year”, said Garcia, “Class of 2016 had always been the loudest and had the most hype at pep rallies and games so that’s where we started our legacy after catching Mr. Wright’s attention. Dom Yeargo, Dean Smith, Dalton Knipe, and Dave Anderson really set the bar high when they became the school’s first actual Spirit Leaders and I feel like we have gone above and beyond what they did.”

With the combination of his leadership and holding up the crowd during games, Garcia keeps fans on their feet and he pumps up the athletes. While being a Spirit Leader, Austin is also the “Face of Eagle Nation News”, as he is the lead sports anchor on Prosper High School’s live daily

show. He has placed twice in state for his sports analysis, and he is also a catcher on recent state champion baseball team.

Because of his experience as an athlete, Garcia understands the need to be able to connect with the players and make the team feel like they have the entire school cheering behind them every step of the way. Garcia says, “The experience is one thing that probably makes my senior year the best I’ve ever had and I couldn’t do it without every student crowding up the Eagle Zone.” Austin moved to Prosper his freshman year. He was the new kid who hadn’t built a name for himself yet...now he’s a face people will never forget. Austin is not alone in trying to raise the spirit through the halls. He is accompanied by his best friends...senior Trey Maynard and senior Colton Neisius. Garcia says,

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“We have a bond...it makes it easy to have confidence when you know your best friends will always be there if you mess up. We hold the crowd together and it isn’t as easy as it seems. All in all, I get the opportunity to spend my senior year doing what I love with people that I love and it’s all worth it. It’s not just a chant we say in our school...it’s a connection with the students and it really makes you feel like you believe in every player and brings together that bond we always strive for. The baby powder adds a special bonus even if the taste sticks in your mouth all night and puffs of powder come off of you everytime you move. It’s my personal favorite and I think it’s also the favorite of many other students.” Austin leads by example and always tries to connect with everyone around him. Quiet and reserved aren’t words that describe him, and Austin strives to reach out and make a connection with as many organizations as possible and show them a small piece of who he is. His goal when he leaves Prosper High School is to be remembered as the guy who made people smile...not because of his jokes and wit, but because he was able to make everyone feel like Prosper is home and we are a family.

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“We’re going to win this season.”

By Todd Kaufmann

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hose were the words said by new Prosper Eagles head coach Chris Ross at an introductory meeting with parents at the gymnasium on the campus of Prosper High School.

The first time I met Coach Ross there was no indication that this guy had just been through one of the craziest weeks of his life, probably since agreeing to the athletic director job at Leander ISD in Austin, Texas.

dead last in District 10-5A. But predictions are only as good as the paper they’re printed on. They aren’t an exact science and they aren’t always accurate – just as the Texas Rangers.

When predictions like that come out, especially on a team in a small town, it

Things were about to change with the Prosper football program and it was going to start with the players.

“It is always exciting to meet the "new team,” said Ross about meeting the players for the first time. “A new team means new challenges, new relationships, new experiences, and new opportunities to work with a great group of committed young men.”

Ross was inheriting a team that finished 3-7 just a year earlier and wasn’t expected to do any better according to the predictions around Texas high school football including the one from Scout.com that had the Eagles finishing

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“We did discuss it,” Ross says of the predictions of his team. “I reminded them that respect is earned through actions not through discussions. They have proven that they will compete and play a physical brand of football. We are not a finished product, but I am pleased with their effort, heart, and unselfish attitude.”

If they were going to change what people thought of the team it was going to take a big effort on the football field and it was going to take the players buying in to what Coach Ross was installing.

But let me take you back a few months to the process of hiring a new coach because it tells a story of how excited the school district, and the town, is about having someone with this kind of reputation and experience.

doesn’t take long for it to make its way into the locker room.

And the new head coach wasn’t going to hide it from his players.

Just after the Christmas holiday was over and we were all putting up the toys and gifts we had received from family and friends, there was anticipation in Prosper about who the new head coach was going to be.

As December turned into January, a decision

had been made and the announcement came that Chris Ross had agreed to take the job as the new head coach of Prosper Eagles’ football. It wasn’t the first coaching offer he had received while he was in Austin, but as he told me back in May, this was the right move for him and the right move for his family.

But I’ll never forget talking to Prosper ISD Assistant Superintended Dr. Mike Goddard just after Ross was announced.

“We got the right guy,” Goddard told me.

That’s all anyone ever needed to know. It wasn’t getting ‘our’ guy, it wasn’t getting ‘the’ guy. It was getting the ‘right’ guy.

It didn’t take long before Ross started to make his presence, and his influence, felt within the program and with the players themselves.

“Over my career I have had the opportunity to develop close relationships with coaches at the collegiate level,” Ross said.

“I am always open and honest with them when they call me about our players or players in the area. We as coaches can get a player a look, but it is up to the college coaches to decide if they are the right fit for their program.”

SMU, Houston, Boise State, and a host of others received those phone calls from Ross and made their way to Prosper, Texas to take a look at a number of players on the 2015 Eagles’ roster.

Although Ross’ job is to be the head coach and help this team win games, it’s not just about coaching a game. It’s about doing the best he and the coaching staff can do for the players to allow them to play at the next level.

“We hope that our players enjoy their high school experience,” said Ross. “If they want to continue to play at the next level, then we as a staff will do whatever we can to assist them in their search to play at the right school for them. There are so many different levels of college football that if you want to play then there is probably a place for you.”

While most of the seniors will think about the next level of football there was still business to take care of and a full schedule of games in the 2015 season.

What Coach Ross has already done with not only the program but also the town itself is nothing short of amazing. The team matched it’s win total from all of last season (3) in just their first four games including impressive wins over Birdville and Justin Northwest.

But it may have been a loss, as strange as that seems, that told the story of the team’s turnaround.

The Highland Park Scots are one of the better 6A programs in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex and a team that had blown out Prosper just a year earlier.

AT&T Stadium was the place to be on an unusually cool Saturday morning. The Eagles fell behind early and trailed 28-6 after three quarters of play. It looked like history was going to repeat itself.

The Eagles would run off 15 unanswered fourth quarter points and, before Highland Park knew it, their 28-6 lead was now down to a seven-point, 28-21 lead.

But Highland Park would put the ball in the end zone with just over two minutes left in the game, putting it out of reach for good even with Prosper answering with a touchdown of their own.

It was that kind of rally, that kind of ‘never quit’ attitude from Coach Ross’ team that defined just what the town of Prosper had been looking forward to since the day Ross was hired.

“The biggest message we have repeated to the kids is that WE BELIEVE IN YOU! We believe in your ability to commit to a process of improvement that will make you a better football player and us an improved team,” said Ross.

It’s that belief in his players that has changed the way they approach each and every game this season and it’s why the future of Prosper Eagles’ football is as bright as it’s ever been.

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UNFINISHED BUSINESS

By Todd Kaufmann

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f the words ‘unfinished business’ could be in a sports encyclopedia it would have a picture of the girl’s volleyball team of Prosper High School and third-year head coach Erin Kauffman.

After turning the team around in 2013 in amazing fashion, a year later the Eagles found themselves in the state championship game against Amarillo, a team who already held eight state titles in their back pocket.

When the match was over, Prosper could only wonder what might have been.

A year later, back in the postseason for the second straight season, the Eagles would fall again, this time to district foe Lovejoy in the regional final.

It was a hard loss to swallow and one Kauffman says was tough even for her to come to grips with.

“I just remember the final point,” Kauffman recalls, “and the Lovejoy girls were celebrating their win, and I see Sydney Riggs lying on the ground, just absolutely devastated. While thinking about it still is gut wrenching.”

Prosper would get another chance at Lovejoy in late September and took full advantage of it, putting together a dominant four-set victory that included 51 assists from senior captain, and Oklahoma Sooners commit, Ashley Brown.

“She has been our leader on the court for a couple years now,” says Kauffman. “First of all, she’s really good! Second, she is very vocal and extremely competitive. She NEVER wants to lose, no matter what it is.

She is the gas that makes the engine go!”

That engine led the Eagles to a 13-1 finish in District 10-5A, tied for first with Lovejoy, as well as a 35-9 overall record. But it hasn’t just been Ashley Brown, with 1,129 total assists this season, who has made an impact on this 2015 squad.

“My seniors are the most competitive group I have ever coached!” says Kauffman. “However, at the beginning of this season, we actually worked on getting past last year, so that we could approach this year fresh and with no bitter feelings. We had to get “over” Lovejoy beating us last year in order to proceed with this season.”

There still has to be motivation to get to that next level and while taking down Lovejoy in the first meeting between these two teams, the next two match ups, including the 10-5A title game, didn’t go Prosper’s way.

But this team has come a long ways from what happened in back-to-back years. They’ve been so close yet so far, but even their head coach knows how important their fan support has been not only with Prosper High School but also within the town of Prosper as well.

“The crowd that we had cheering for us at the state championships two years ago, and then at the Regional Tournament both years, it absolutely gives us a home court advantage even when we aren’t playing at our place!

It drives our girls to play hard for them, but it also gets in the heads of our opponents!”

The Eagles would begin their 2015 playoff run against a talented Frisco Liberty team and after dropping two of the first three sets, it looked like the Eagles were going to be ousted in the very first round.

But Prosper battled back, winning the final two sets 25-18 and 15-13 and would live to fight another day.

The next round was much more the Prosper way – domination.

They would take down Carrollton Creekveiw in straight sets, 25-13, 2515, 25-17 to win the area championship and move on to the third round of the playoffs against a Frisco Wakeland team the Eagles had beaten in straight sets early on in the year.

But this match up was very different because Wakeland was missing their top player in the first match up but she was ready to go in this one and it showed.

Prosper and Wakeland would split the first two sets and the next two were battles that ended in two-point losses in each of the next two for Prosper, ending the Eagles hopes for another shot at Lovejoy and a trip to the state championships.

The coaching staff is proud of these girls and they should be. They are moving on to bigger and better things at the college level, and while the players wanted more from this season and wanted to go out on top, there’s nothing to hang their head about.

During this season, the Eagles had a 16 game winning streak with 11 straight set victories during that time and they were 32-4 when they won the first set in a match.

There’s a lot to be proud of with the 2015 Prosper Volleyball team but words only take you so far. They wanted a different finish to this season and it was disappointing that it had to come to end so soon.

But it leaves a legacy for the players coming up behind them to take the reigns and put Prosper Volleyball on top of the 5A volleyball world.

There’s a lot of work ahead, but as Coach Kauffman admitted to me during an interview on The Eagle Hype Show, they have a lot of talent coming back and Prosper High School has a lot to be excited about.

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Seeking A Championship

By Todd Kaufmann

T

he girls of the Prosper High School cross country team raised a district championship banner in back-to-back years but there’s an ultimate goal that’s being chased by this year’s squad.

A championship.

After finishing fifth at the state championships last season, just two spots from the podium, there’s work to be done to make sure they don’t have to watch the celebrations from the outside for a second year in a row.

They would rather be the ones celebrating and they might have every reason to be one of the favorites.

When you’re going after that elusive state title it helps to have strength in numbers. That holds true for this team as the girls return six of their top eight runners from last season and look poised to raise something other than a third straight district banner.

Even head coach Josh Allen has been looking forward to getting back into the postseason and sees a very different look in their eyes.

“We’ve been counting down the days to get back to state since the summer, so that’s been the focus all season,” said Allen. “They gotten tougher this offseason, and it’s shown in their racing. They seem to be getting more savvy each time out.”

That “savvy” racing led to an impressive showing against Hebron when they came just one point short of upsetting the defending 6A champion earlier this season.

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Then, at the McNeil Invite in Round Rock, Texas in early October, juniors Allie Taylor, one of the team captains, and Abby Williams became the first girls to break the 19:00 mark in the 5k since the race distance moved up three years ago. The Eagles also got personal best times from sophomore Emily Patterson and freshman Audrey Haugh.

But perhaps the one person who has been looking forward to this season the most is senior Captain Kyra Drobny. “Kyra stepping up as a sophomore was the catalyst in turning things around,” Coach Allen said. “She’s had a roller coaster high school career and after a rough junior year, she really got herself dialed in over the summer and has been a great captain and teammate.”

Prosper has proven that they have the strength in numbers not only in the upperclassmen leading by example but also in the underclassmen proving they can be just as good. When you have that kind of talent on one team, it becomes a hard unit to stop and the momentum is only going to continue to grow as the season rolls along.

There is always the expectation to improve,” said Allen. “Each runner has individualized paces in workouts that are prescribed based on their best performances over a certain distance. With patience and consistency, they should see steady gains, and I think we’re pretty proud of how far they’ve come.”

There is still a ways to go and business to take care of. They can’t rest on how good people say they are and they can’t assume anything. Two

straight district titles didn’t come without working for them and a third straight would take the same amount of effort.

Beginning the trip to Round Rock, Texas with a police escort is exactly how any team would want to begin a journey like this. The team knew there was a lot of work ahead of them and it would be up to them how the weekend ended.

What Prosper was up against was more than just other runners from other schools. They were up against Mother Nature as well, which had dumped a lot of rain on that area just a few days before. Coach Allen knew there was a chance that the course would be a lot more challenging than if they were facing dry conditions.

What they didn’t bargain for is even more rain the day of the state championships turning an already wet course into a mud run. “When you’re trying to run a cross country race it’s not the ideal circumstance,” says Allen about the course that day.

After jogging the course the day before, the team made the decision to switch out the spikes on their shoes, choosing the longer ones instead, and it proved to be the right decision.

As their runners finished the race, Coach Allen and his wife, who both followed the race as close as they could throughout the day, realized that they weren’t going to finish fifth again this year.

Instead, his runners did the one thing they were all hoping for from the year before – they finished on the podium in third place.

“Most people would have picked us to finish between fourth and sixth,” Allen said. “I felt like if we tried to run for a third place finish we would finish between fourth and sixth but if we tried to run to win I felt like we

could finish [on the podium] and that’s what happened.”

It was a closer finish than even Allen thought as the race came to a close. The Eagles were just four points from a fourth place finish and five points from the fifth place spot.

But it didn’t matter what could have happened or how the team could have finished. All that mattered is the team was able to celebrate as they did the exact thing they believed they could when the 2014 season came to a close.

They accomplished the goal they set out to accomplish and wearing the medals around their neck was a culmination of a lot of hard work, a lot of preparation, and a lot of belief in themselves.

It was that belief that had the entire team smiling all the way back to Prosper.

The smiles of a job well done.

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