Mineola hoops squads make TABC rankings

Posted 1/8/20

The year 2020 has already brought an uncommon distinction to the Mineola athletic department, as the boys and girls basketball teams were ranked in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, TABC, Class 3A Top 25 coaches poll. The Dec. 30 poll recorded Coach Brad Gibson’s Lady Jacket squad at 13th while Coach Ryan Steadman’s Yellowjacket team broke into the poll in 25th place.

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Mineola hoops squads make TABC rankings

Posted

The year 2020 has already brought an uncommon distinction to the Mineola athletic department, as the boys and girls basketball teams were ranked in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, TABC, Class 3A Top 25 coaches poll. The Dec. 30 poll recorded Coach Brad Gibson’s Lady Jacket squad at 13th while Coach Ryan Steadman’s Yellowjacket team broke into the poll in 25th place.

TABC Executive Director Rick Sherley commented how success across the realm of athletics and extra-curricular activities in general improves school performance.

“There are direct impacts on improving grade point averages, a decrease in disciplinary issues and an increase in school attendance,” stated Sherley.  

Sherley discussed, with pride, the efforts his organization expends in order to make the coaches top 25 polls as accurate as possible. Originally begun in 1982 as a weekly top ten coaches poll and published seasonally in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, the Top 25 poll is now a widely-recognized source of accurate Texas high school teams rankings. “We provide the poll every Monday to the AP and a bunch of other wire services,” Sherley noted. 

Although win-loss record is a significant part of the rankings, Sherley explained that strength of schedule plays a large part in the rankings. Quality wins and bad losses can also impact teams’ movements up and down the poll. 

The TABC, founded in 1976 as a vehicle to represent scholastic basketball, now boasts over 5,500 members. It has become the second largest such organization in the nation and hosts the largest basketball clinic in the country. Despite the numbers, Sherley admitted that at the heart of the TABC is a “desire to continue making basketball special.”

For local schools and communities, having both a boys and girls team reach the Top 25 poll is a matter of pride and an acknowledgement that basketball is indeed special this year in Wood County.