Gonzales County is chock-full of contenders

The yearly cycle of spring, summer, fall and winter really doesn’t mean much to most Texans. Here, there are only two seasons: football and bikini. And a lot of us like it when the two combine.
There’s some locals who are doing their best to change that perception, however. They’d like to insert “basketball” in there between football and bikini, and they’re playing the caliber of ball which might win them a few converts.
Here in Gonzales County, we have no fewer than five teams which could win district titles this season; of those, at least one can legitimately be considered a state title contender, and a couple of the others could see some serious playoff time later this spring.
That ain’t a bad record for a county with three public and one private high schools -- and I’ve seen a few good ones over the years.
The Nixon-Smiley girls’ team entered this week 19-1 after suffering its first loss of the season, but don’t figure the Lady Mustangs are going to let that one setback get in their way.
Coach Jeff Van Auken has a bona fide prospect in post Termeka Canada, and he has a supporting cast around her that plays its roles well offensively while playing some very sound defense.
It’s the defense, in fact, which gives Nixon-Smiley its big edge. At the high-school level, especially in a small school setting, most kids simply don’t have the skills to beat a disciplined zone defense -- and there aren’t that many girls who are accurate enough from the three-point range to force them out of it.
The Lady Mustangs aren’t going to win with the run-and-gun; they’re going to smother you, make you take bad shots, and work the ball in to the post patiently. In the end, discipline  wins.
While the Lady Mustangs could go a long way in the playoffs, several other local teams should at least make the playoffs, and a couple of those have the talent to make a run deep.
Up in Waelder, coach Jared Hall has a bunch of high-jumping kids all about the same height ... and his Class 1A Wildcats could probably make a run for a title in any district short of the 5A ranks. In Class 1A, they could go a long way.
In fact, the Wildcats number several much-larger schools on their list of victims this season.
If you happen to be a college recruiter, you may want to take in a Waelder game or two. The Wildcats have two small-college guard prospects in Dontrai Houston and Corey Wilson, and the supporting cast isn’t that far behind on the talent scale.
Very similar to Waelder is the bunch coach Jeremy Mills has assembled 17 miles down Highway 97 at Gonzales. The Apaches have come on very strong in the last few weeks, and open District 28-3A play as the league co-favorite along with Edna.
Like the Wildcats, the Apaches don’t have a lot of height; their tallest player is only 6-1. They make up for it with jumping ability.
Kedrick Cray’s vertical leap is measured in yards, not inches. Mark Hastings and Blake Moore also know how to get airborne, and the Apaches can get deadly when Ckody Burton, Hastings or backup John Dubose get hot from three-point range.
Gonzales is a team which has made dramatic progress in Mills’ first season. Early in the year the  Apaches let their emotions get the better of them a couple of times; in a win over Canyon Lake on Friday, they let emotion turn to determination and instead of folding when they got down early, came back from a huge deficit to win the game.
The Gonzales girls’ team has also made huge strides for coach Steve Biddison, and entering the district race the Lady Apaches may be able to challenge for a playoff spot as well.
The big difference for the Lady Apaches from the start of the season until now has been dramatic improvement in basic skills. Gonzales started the season having a lot of difficulty moving the ball up the floor against a determined defense, but Biddson can now call on two or three other press-breakers to spell point guard Jasmine Scott and the result has been a lot of fast-break baskets the Lady Apaches didn’t get before.
I haven’t had the chance yet to see the St. Paul teams in action, but the Lady Cardinals finished last week with a 14-4 record featuring many of the same players who figured so prominently in their spectacular playoff run during the fall volleyball season. Figure St. Paul to be a contender  as well.
I have covered some very good Texas high-school basketball teams over the years, including a few which featured kids who went on to play in the big time -- Division I colleges or even in the pros.
What’s most interesting in covering these Gonzales County teams isn’t the fact that they’re all playing like they’re much larger schools -- it’s the fact that they all get so much more support from the community than you see in much larger schools.
There are, honestly, only a couple of the kids on these teams who could play big-time; the rest are out there because they enjoy it. They’re playing with their hearts.
That’s what makes it all so much more enjoyable to watch.