Sports

On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, Coach Jim Longbotham took the Groesbeck Goats tennis team to compete in the Corsicana Mertz Invitational. The long time tournament had a field of 11 high schools competing this year. The field included some of the top programs in Texas including 6A Waco Midway, 5A Texas High in Texarkana, China Spring, Ferris, Midlothian, host 5A Corsicana, Trinity, Ennis, Kaufman, Groesbeck and Vanguard Preparatory. The one day tournament was spread out over three sits in Corsicana. They were Corsicana High, Corsicana Middle School and the Mertz Tennis Center, a public court donated to the city by longtime Corsicana physician Robert Mertz who has more than one tennis tournament named for him. The tournament has been played since the early 1990s.

New Groesbeck golf coach and athletic trainer Alan “Doc” Davis got off to a great start in his debut as a golf coach when six boys on the Goat team went to the Blackcat Invitational at the Tri County Golf Club on February 10 and tied the Whitney Wildcats for first place. The bad weather forced the Invitational to be called after only 15 holes had been played. The finish was then determined based on the results after the first nine holes. Groesbeck and Whitney were tied with 180 scores each. It was determined after two playoff holes that Whitney won and Groesbeck finished in second place. In addition to those two, four other boys teams competed including host Mexia.

For a half, the Groesbeck Lady Goats matched and surpassed the play of the highly-favored Franklin Lady Lions in a bi-district game at Leon High School Monday night. Franklin the 19-3A district champion trailed after the first quarter 19-17. At the half, Groesbeck led the Lady Lions 35-34. Then the Lady Goats opened the third period making seven turnovers while Franklin took the lead for good on two treys.