No. 2: Argyle rolls to multiple state titles
No. 3: Denton-area players taken in NFL draft
No. 4: UNT fires McCarney in middle of year
In what is becoming a trend, Argyle has put together one of the most accomplished athletic calendar years in recent memory. Culminating with the football team’s loss in the Class 4A Division I state championship game, the Eagles played in four state finals. Argyle won state titles in girls basketball, baseball and volleyball. The Eagles added a boys state golf team championship, which the University Interscholastic League classifies as an individual sport that awards a team title. The success continued a trend that goes back to 2014 when the Eagles were state runners-up in girls basketball, baseball, volleyball and football. Argyle has won four consecutive Lone Star Cups, an award given to one school in each classification that enjoys success across the athletic spectrum, along with academic and fine arts success.
Denton enjoyed one of its best years in recent memory in terms of local products receiving an opportunity to continue their careers in the NFL in 2015. Florida State product and former Ryan standout Mario Edwards Jr. was selected by the Oakland Raiders with the third pick in the second round of the NFL draft. The Carolina Panthers later selected Oklahoma offensive lineman and former Lake Dallas standout Daryl Williams in the fourth round. Missouri product and former Ryan wide receiver Bud Sasser was then picked in the sixth round by the St. Louis Rams. Edwards has started 10 games, posted two sacks and forced three fumbles as a rookie, while Williams has played a key role as a backup tackle for the Panthers. Sasser had to give up football due to a heart condition but was given a role in the Rams’ front office.
The Dan McCarney era at North Texas came to a stunning end five games into his fifth season. UNT opened the season with a 31-13 loss at rival SMU, a team it had beaten 43-6 the year before, and went on to lose its first five games of the year. The slide was punctuated by a shocking 66-7 loss to Portland State. The loss was the worst in college football history for a team competing at the Football Subdivision level in a game against a team from the Football Championship Subdivision. McCarney was fired immediately after the game, the final chapter in a dramatic decline for the Mean Green, who beat UNLV in the Heart of Dallas Bowl at the end of the 2013 season. The bowl win was the highlight of UNT’s time under McCarney, who finished with a 22-32 record at the school.
No. 5: Ryan football goes from 5-5 to 13-1
No. 6: Guyer’s Robinson named top QB recruit No. 7: Argyle’s Townsend wins 1,000th game
To say this was a highly-successful year for Ryan’s football program would be an understatement. The Raiders, fresh off a 5-5 season in 2014 that saw a 14-year playoff streak snapped, finished 13-1 under second-year coach Dave Henigan and advanced to the Class 6A Division I Region I final before losing to Allen. The Raiders’ 13 wins were a program-best as a member of the state’s largest classification. Ryan also went unbeaten in the regular season and beat rival Guyer to claim the outright District 5-6A title. The biggest difference was experience. The Raiders returned practically their entire defense, and on offense got big-time production from several players, notably sophomore quarterback Spencer Sanders and two-way star Tyreke Davis. Next year’s move down to Class 5A means only bigger things to come for the Raiders.
After bursting on to the scene at Guyer in 2014, quarterback Shawn Robinson quickly ascended the recruiting ranks on a national scale. By the time he was in spring football preparing for his junior season at Guyer, Robinson was one of the most coveted quarterbacks in the country with a laundry list of prominent college programs to choose from. The Guyer signal-caller was named the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the Class of 2017 by both Scout and 247 Sports, and he earned a rare five-star rating from Scout. Robinson shocked the recruiting world when he committed to TCU on June 26, putting a halt to heated recruiting battle between several of the country’s top programs. Robinson’s numbers in 2015 didn’t equal his stellar 2014 campaign, but he’s still listed as the top quarterback by several recruiting experts.
No. 8: Five teams make the regional finals
No. 9: Denton wins 1st district title since 1999 No. 10: UNT hires HOF member Jalie Mitchell
The goal of every football program is to win a state championship, but that’s not realistic for many. Playing in December, on the other hand, is a more attainable goal. Five area teams played December football in 2015, all reaching at least their respective region final for a level of success never seen in the Denton Record-Chronicle’s relatively tiny coverage area. Guyer and Ryan both lost in their respective Class 6A regional final games, while Krum’s magical run to the Class 4A Division II Region I final ended with a loss to eventual state runner-up Celina. Argyle and Lake Dallas each won their games and played in a state semifinal. Lake Dallas lost a triple-overtime thriller to Frisco Lone Star in the 5A Division II semifinal, and Argyle played in its fourth state championship game in five years in 4A Division I.
Denton has shown growth in each four of its seasons under coach Kevin Atkinson. The Broncos broke through for an 8-4 season and a playoff berth for the first time since 2010 a year ago. After ending their playoff drought, the Broncos backed that up this season with a 9-3 record, another trip to the playoffs and a share of the District 5-5A title — their first since 1999. The Broncos lost one district game to Saginaw Boswell, which Denton tied for the district crown. Behind all-state running back Xavier Scott, who posted over 2,200 yards and 28 touchdowns, all-state lineman Grant Polley, new quarterback Colt Atkinson and a revamped defense, the Broncos’ backed up last season’s playoff run with another run to the area round, where they fell to state power Aledo for the second straight season.
Argyle girls basketball coach Skip Townsend isn’t one for individual honors, but it’s hard not to recognize a man who has accomplished so much. On Feb. 3, Townsend became a member of a select group when he notched career win No. 1,000 in the Lady Eagles’ 82-51 district win over Sanger. Townsend, who just started his fifth season at Argyle and 43rd year of coaching, was also elected to the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016 in August — not long after winning his seventh career state title in March. Townsend won six state titles at Brock between 2002 and 2011, including three straight before he came to Argyle. He took Argyle to a state final in 2014, where it lost to Waco La Vega. In 2015, the Lady Eagles avenged that loss to La Vega, then beat Abilene Wylie for the Class 4A state title.
North Texas brought back program legend Jalie Mitchell to take over its floundering women’s basketball program in the spring of 2015. The Mean Green have suffered through nine straight losing seasons and are banking on Mitchell to help revive the program that has worked under five coaches in the last nine seasons. The former Duncanville standout is a UNT Hall of Famer and the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,764 points. Mitchell not only played at UNT, she was also an assistant coach at the school twice. She came to UNT from Texas, where she was an assistant coach under highly regarded Longhorns coach Karen Aston, who spent one season as UNT’s head coach in the 2011-12 campaign. Mitchell got off to a good start, winning five of her first 10 games, matching UNT’s win total from all of the 2014-15 season.
Denton Record-Chronicle file photos and staff reports From Page B1
Honorable mention:
Year-end
UNT is banking on Littrell to capitalize and elevate the profile of the program and the university as a whole. That’s a tall task, especially considering Littrell is in his first go-around as a head coach. The former Oklahoma running back had served as the offensive coordinator at Arizona and Indiana in addition to his one-year stint at North Carolina. That one season was a memorable one that saw the Tar Heels win the ACC’s Coastal
The following is a list of stories that just missed the cut for this year’s list of the top 10 sports stories in the Denton area: recording a program record 19 wins. The Mean n Keller Central, a team without a district win at n After suffering a devastating tear of his ACL Green fell to Texas Tech in the NCAA tournament. that point, capitalized on five Guyer turnovers to during the Lake Dallas spring game, quarterback n Due to historic rainfall in May and June, knock the Wildcats off and end their 24-game Dagan Haehn, after missing the first five games several area baseball and softball teams traveled district win streak back on Oct. 15. The streak of the season, battled back to help lead the far and wide during the postseason in hopes of began in 2012 and featured three straight Falcons to the state semifinal game and their finding unaffected turf fields to play on. Teams seasons of going unbeaten in district play, as longest playoff run in program history. faced everything from postponements to tornado well as the first three District 5-6A games of the n The UNT soccer team won the Conference scares while trying to advance to the next round. 2015 season. USA regular season and tournament titles while
Division title and advance to the league’s title game. Littrell stayed on through the journey while talking with UNT officials behind the scenes. It wasn’t until the Tar Heels fell to top-ranked Clemson in the ACC title game that Littrell was free to finalize his deci-
sion to come to UNT. The long wait UNT and Littrell endured only added to the intrigue surrounding who the school would hire. A total of 56 days passed between the time Dan McCarney was fired and the day UNT officials approved the
decision to hire Littrell. The wait is one UNT officials believe will be worth it. “We had the right guy,” UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. “We had the right guy all along.” Littrell saw taking over UNT’s program as the ideal
next step in his career. He grew up in Oklahoma, played for the Sooners and was Texas Tech’s running backs coach before his career took him away from his roots and across the country. “When this job came open, there was no doubt I wanted it,” Littrell said.
UNT wanted Littrell as well as it continues to search for the formula that will vault the school’s football program forward. School officials believe they have everything else in place to field a successful football program that will elevate UNT’s profile as an institution and are hoping Littrell is the missing piece. That decision and the long wait for UNT to reach that point was the key storyline of 2015 in Denton area sports. BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870 and via Twitter at @brettvito.
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