Lions, Lady Lions unleashed

By Alonzo Garza
POST-REGISTER

The Lockhart Lions and Lady Lions started their first day of practice on Monday, Aug. 6. The football coaches had their athletes out on the Lions’ practice fields working on drills and plays by 7:00 a.m.
All the boys were wearing helmets and using them effectively on each other throughout the morning. Head Coach Troy Moses a

nd his staff wasted no time in getting ready to hit the gridiron once again.
Their strategy seemed to be to work on speed to make up for the team’s apparent lack in size. The Lions always look to be a somewhat “normal” size until they go up against some of the players in their district who appear to be at least twice as big in girth and substantially taller.
That is not the case with everyone of the Lions opponents but it does happen enough times to be a factor in the outcome of the season’s record. Speed will definitely be a crucial factor in this season’s final outcome.
The Lady Lions were in the Lockhart High School gym with their newly arrived Volleyball Coach, Melinda Kirst. Kirst comes to LHS from Victoria where she coached for a total of 18 years. She spent seven years at St. Joseph’s High School and 11 years with Victoria ISD coaching in what used to be Victoria High School and is now called Memorial High School.
Lockhart is fortunate to have a winning coach join its school district. Kirst went to Regionals with her St. Joseph’s teams. She has 458 career wins.
“I’m very excited to be here in Lockhart,” she said. “I was with the Austin Volleyball Officials and all the other coaches recently and they all had great things to say about Lockhart and the volleyball program here.”
Kirst was right at home in the LHS gym as she led the volleyball teams in drills on Monday.
“I see a lot of enthusiasm here and that is what it takes to make a winning team,” she noted.
Kirst helped pick the very first All-American Team last year. About 30 outstanding volleyball players were selected for the team, five or six of whom were from Texas.
It looks like things are going in the right direction at Lockhart High School.
Let’s be proactive in supporting our new coaches, teachers and staff this year. See you at the games.
agarza@post-register.com