From district champions to state champions, the 2023-24 high school varsity athletic season in Killeen ISD was jam-packed with memorable moments.
There were exciting achievements, lessons learned, thrilling outcomes, and non-stop effort by talented student-athletes, who earned countless athletic and academic awards from district to state levels. Plus, nearly 90 seniors this school year signed letters of intent to continue their athletic and academic journeys in college.
The hundreds of student-athletes were guided by a group of coaches that diligently tended to their craft and were committed to ensuring a valuable athletic experience that will last far beyond the final buzzer.
Here’s a quick walk down “Accolade Avenue.” And, remember, there’s plenty more where this came from in Killeen ISD. Follow along on X @KilleenISD_ and on killeenisd.org/news.
Fall
The start to the 2023-24 school year couldn’t have been more thrilling.
The Ellison and Chaparral volleyball teams qualified for the playoffs, Ellison swept the boys and girls cross country district titles before Harker Heights’ Ella Perry and Ellison’s Ethan Carranza ran all the way to the UIL Cross Country State Championships, Shoemaker and Harker Heights ––which defended its District 12-6A title –– were postseason football teams, and Killeen High’s football team played its 1,000th game.
Perry, who is headed to Baylor, was a three-time state qualifier in cross country. She saved her best appearance for last, finishing 25th in a personal-best time.
Carranza, making his first appearance, placed 36th while setting the tone for a go at making it back as a senior.
Also of note, in Year 2 as a program, the Chaparral football team won its first district and road games.
Winter
The basketball season offered some incredible competition and yielded six playoff teams from KISD –– the Chaparral, Ellison and Shoemaker girls, and the Ellison, Shoemaker and Harker Heights boys.
The Lady Bobcats, who claimed the 22-5A championship, won the program’s first playoff games and advanced to the 5A Region III semifinals. The Lady Eagles closed the regular season on a long winning streak and advanced to the area round. The Lady Grey Wolves finished fourth in 22-5A and nearly won their playoff opener.
On the boys side, the Knights grabbed a share of the District 12-6A title, and the Eagles (repeated as district champions) and Grey Wolves marched their way to the 5A Region III tournament in Cypress where there almost was a regional final matchup between the two KISD squads.
Instead, Ellison advanced, defeated Fort Bend Marshall on a game-winner with less than 1 second remaining by JoJo McIver and headed to its second consecutive state tournament in San Antonio.
In the Alamodome, the Eagles stormed past San Antonio Veterans Memorial in the state semifinal before falling short against Lancaster.
A couple weeks earlier, 20 KISD wrestlers advanced to the state wrestling tournament in which six placed in the top six and earned medals.
Chaparral’s Ava Milliner highlighted the haul, winning gold in the girls Class 5A 126-pound division. Ellison’s Aodhan Jimenez was second in the boys 5A 106-pound weight class.
Prior to the state tournament, the Harker Heights Lady Knights wrestling team repeated as district and regional champions.
And there’s more.
Ellison’s Alyssa Ifill and Chaparral’s Christine Kim advance to the swimming state meet, the Shoemaker and
Chaparral boys soccer teams made the playoffs with the Grey Wolves advancing past the first round for the very first time, the Ellison girls soccer team qualified for a second straight year, and Shoemaker’s Ashlynn Famule was crowned the Texas High School Women’s Powerlifting Association 181-pound unequipped state champion.
Spring
What a closing stretch it was indeed.
A pair of Ellison and Harker Heights golfers advanced through district tournaments to regional events, with Lady Eagles’ Keely Nichols and Jayla Moore-Duchane participating in the 5A-III tournament and Heights’ Jonathon Baumann and Lillian Moss competing in the 6A-II rounds.
Shoemaker’s baseball and softball teams put together storybook seasons, with the Grey Wolves recording a program-best 19 wins and the Lady Grey Wolves finishing a program-best second in district. The Chaparral baseball team joined the Grey Wolves in the playoffs, marking the first postseason trip for the Bobcats in school history.
State champions were crowned at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin during the UIL Track and Field Championships.
Maddie Fey made it four consecutive gold medals in the 5A discus while becoming Chaparral’s first track and field
state champion. Fey also grabbed the silver in shot put to close her four-year career with seven state medals.
Fey along with fellow senior Trinity Brown became the first Chaparral athletes to qualify for the state meet. Earlier in the season, the duo helped the Lady Bobcats win the 22-5A title.
Also claiming team track and field district championships this season were the Harker Heights boys and Shoemaker boys.
Shoemaker’s Malik Esquerra dealt with an injured hamstring for much of the season, but the Texas Tech-bound senior didn’t let it keep him from chasing down state gold in the 110-meter hurdles, an accomplishment that was preceded by district, area and regional championships in the 110 and 300 hurdles, in which he took bronze at the state meet to close his career as a two-time medalist.
The Grey Wolves 4x200 relay also medaled at the state meet, sprinting to bronze.
Last but not least, Shoemaker sophomore Hsin-Yun Chang, a foreign exchange student from Taiwan, became the program’s first tennis player to qualify for state. She made her way to the UIL tournament in San Antonio by winning the 22-5A singles title and finishing second at regionals.
Whew!
And, now, here’s to what 2024-25 might have in store!
Academic excellence
Not only did KISD student-athletes excel in their sports, they also thrived in the class room. According to data from the first three nine-week quarters of the school year that was submitted to the athletic department, the combined number of A and A/B honor roll recipients (including multi-sport athletes) was 5,246.
A campus breakdown of combined A and A/B honor roll student-athletes is below.
Middle school: Nolan, 192; Smith, 152; Patterson, 115; Union Grove, 101; Audie Murphy, 87; Eastern Hills, 74; Liberty Hill, 70; Manor, 62; Palo Alto, 47; Rancier, 45; Live Oak Ridge, 40.
High school: Harker Heights, 1,132; Shoemaker, 938; Killeen, 844; Chaparral, 691; Ellison, 656.
There were 487 high school student-athletes who received academic all-district recognition and 78 academic all-state honorees.
Middle school champs
District champions at the middle school level for 2023-24 were:
Boys –– Patterson (football, eighth); Patterson (football, seventh); Patterson (cross country, seventh); Patterson (cross c
ountry, eighth); Patterson (basketball, eighth); Patterson (basketball, seventh); Union Grove (swimming); Union Grove (golf); Smith (soccer, seventh); Nolan (soccer, eighth); Patterson (track and field, seventh); Palo Alto (track and field, eighth).
Girls –– Patterson (cross country, seventh); Patterson (cross country, eighth); Smith (volleyball, seventh); Manor (volleyball, eighth); Smith
(basketball, eighth); Patterson (basketball, seventh); Smith (Swimming); Patterson (tennis); Union Grove (golf); Nolan (soccer, seventh); Patterson (soccer, eighth); Patterson (track and field, seventh); Patterson (track and field, eighth).
