Year starts, ends with football titles
Region brings home plenty of hardware, sees memorable runs
Unprecedented. Unparalleled. Uplifting.
There are many words that could be used to describe the Houston high school sports scene in 2021.
But it would be remiss to forget where it all started — in 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down high school sports in the spring and left many questions for the fall season as well. Student-athletes faced plenty of challenges, from stringent health and safety protocols to a completely delayed and altered schedule. But, nonetheless, they eventually made their return to action and did not disappoint.
When 2021 rolled around, the 2020 football season was still going strong. The UIL state championships, normally reserved for the week before Christmas, were played in January for the first time ever.
Houston brought home some hardware with Katy winning the Class 6A Division II title game in Arlington.
That is where the 2021 championships wrapped up last week as well with two Houston teams vying to come out on top. Paetow made school history by winning the 5A Division I crown in overtime against College Station. North Shore captured its third championship in four years with a victory over Duncanville in the 6A Division I title game.
There were plenty of other triumphs for Houston teams and athletes in between the football bookends.
The Woodlands, which won the annual UIL Lone Star Cup for excellence in extracurricular activities, added to its résumé early on by capturing both the girls and boys state titles for swimming and diving.
Wrestling, the sport most impacted by the coronavirus scheduling changes, did not begin its season until the spring semester. But several Houston athletes rose to the top and claimed gold medals at the state meet in late April.
Atascocita and Huffman-Hargrave went on memorable runs to the boys state basketball tournament. Cypress Creek, led by AllAmericans Rori Harmon and Kyndall Hunter, did the same on the girls side before falling in the championship game.
The Woodlands, Memorial and Friendswood girls advanced to the soccer state semifinals, as did the Jersey Village boys. The Kingwood Park boys took it a step further but ultimately came up short in the championship match.
Memorial seniors Aleksandra Dimitrijevic and Drew Morris took home the lone gold for Houston at state tennis, and the Memorial boys and Montgomery girls secured runner-up finishes at the state golf tournaments in Georgetown.
The 2020-21 school year finished with a flurry of state championships. The Fort Bend Marshall girls and Summer Creek boys won titles in track and field, and Barbers Hill made history with state titles in both softball and baseball. Deer Park and Liberty also won state softball titles, and Strake Jesuit reached the state baseball tournament for the first time.
When athletics resumed in the fall, things were more or less back to normal. The last few months saw Katy Jordan, The Woodlands and Memorial reach the state tournament for team tennis. The Woodlands also had strong showings at the state cross country meet with the girls finishing third and the boys second. Bridgeland and Manvel made history by reaching the state volleyball tournament for the first time, while Ridge Point, Needville and Bellville all returned.
Overall, the year has been filled with plenty of accomplishments. There should be plenty more in 2022.