John Fields: In area high school sports, a year of near misses ends in painfully fitting fashion

It’s an age-old phrase coaches and players alike fall back on when their seasons come to a close without a state championship. Just one squad in each classification of every sport gets to call themselves state champions at the end of the year. The rest are left short of their ultimate goal by varying degrees.

Quite a few teams hailing from the 11 UIL schools in the Denton Record-Chronicle’s coverage area came painfully close to standing triumphantly atop the mountain this school year.

Look no further than Argyle’s baseball program, the final local squad to conclude its campaign.

The Eagles trailed Magnolia West 3-0 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning of the 5A state championship game Saturday, but rallied to put the potential tying run on third base and possible winner on second.

Perhaps their hardest-hit ball of the day could have won the title if it had gone a little more to the right or left. Instead, Magnolia West’s center fielder stepped slightly to his left and ran in to corral a line drive for the final out.

Misses don’t get much nearer than that.

For local squads, though, it was merely the latest gut-wrenching end to a school year full of almosts and what-could-have-beens.

Although Pilot Point’s Addison Hite (girls cross country), Ryan’s Josiyah Taylor (boys 100 meters) and Argyle’s Meghna Arun Kumar (girls tennis singles) and Gator Young (boys pole vault) each took home individual state titles, no local team was able to achieve such a feat, despite many coming close.

That run of close calls began in November, when Aubrey’s volleyball team ran through the Class 4A playoffs before falling to Canyon Randall in the state title match.

Then Guyer’s football program lost in the state semifinals to eventual 6A Division II state champion DeSoto, and Argyle dropped its state semifinal to eventual 5A DII state champ South Oak Cliff.

Aubrey’s boys track and field team finished second to Gilmer by just three points after a strong showing at the 4A state meet. Ryan’s boys track and field team appeared to have tied with Fort Bend Marshall for the area’s first team track title, but a disqualification dropped the Raiders to fourth place.

Argyle’s boys golf team led the 5A state tournament after one round of play, but slid to a fifth-place finish on the second day.

Finally, Aubrey’s softball team fell to eventual 4A state champion Corpus Christi Calallen in the state semifinals, then Guyer held an early lead before succumbing to Pearland’s rally in the 6A softball championship game.

Even beyond those several close calls, a pair of the top local basketball teams saw their playoff runs end sooner than expected in heart-wrenching fashion.

Argyle’s No. 5-ranked girls basketball team suffered an early postseason end in an overtime loss to Justin Northwest, while Ponder’s No. 8-ranked boys basketball program upset No. 1 Dallas Madison before falling to Hooks on a double-overtime buzzer beater in the regional semifinals.

This year’s close calls ended a streak of 10 consecutive school years — not counting the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 year — in which at least one local program brought home a state championship.

In fact, since 2000, only three school years have not featured a title-winning team from the Record-Chronicle’s coverage area — 2004-05, 2006-07 and 2010-11.

If history serves as a barometer for the future, it may not be long before the next squad surmounts the state. The area’s long-running record of success speaks to the wealth of talent in a region that continues to grow as fast as almost any in the nation.

Even as several teams came up short of their final goals this year, they left themselves and their schools with plenty to be proud of. As any coach will tell you, it is supremely difficult just to be among the last teams standing in any sport across this talent-rich state.

There is ultimately no shame in a year of near misses, despite the agony those defeats certainly caused. The pain inflicted might even fuel the next contender’s fire.