Five student-athletes join college ranks in final signing ceremony

By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press

Summer has officially begun for Copperas Cove High School, but five student-athletes will get one more chance to represent their schools, their faith, and their communities this weekend at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes annual Victory Bowl games. 
Senior utility player Russel Cochran will represent the Copperas Cove baseball team while Brooke Schmidt will represent Cove softball.
Representing the Copperas Cove football team are defensive linemen Ayden Paquette and Jalen Jones, along with defensive back Isaiah Chisolm.
The FCA will kick off their 13th Victory Bowl week tomorrow with media day from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the Midway Middle School Gym.
The festivities start on Thursday with the Pancake Eating Contest and Rodeo and a pep rally will be held Friday at Midway Middle School from 3:30-4:30 p.m. prior to the first pitches set for 6:30 p.m. at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Red Murff and Dee Dillon Fields for the baseball and softball games, respectively.
Cochran will look to help the Red Team continue their dominance as they lead the series 4-1. The Red Team is coming off their first loss in the series in a 9-4 loss in 2019. Schmidt will try to help the Red Team break the 2-2-1 tie.
Chisholm, Jones, and Paquette hope to increase the Red Teams’ slight advantage and make it three in a row after losing six-straight prior to 2019.
For the first time in recent memory, the Copperas Cove volleyball team will not be represented in the volleyball game. The volleyball game will be played at 3 p.m. at Midway High School.
Players and cheerleaders will arrive in Belton and Waco on June 9th, 2021 for three days of practice. Each participant will stay at the home of a host family throughout the city of Belton and Waco. In addition to practices and team fellowship, members of each team will participate in service projects.   
Tickets for volleyball, baseball and softball games are $5.  For football, they are $5 (students), $10 (adults) and will be sold on game day.  The volleyball game will be played on Saturday at 3:00 pm at Midway High School, doors will open at 2:00 pm. The football game will be played on Saturday at 10:00 am at Midway, gates will open at 9:00 am. Baseball and softball will be played on Friday at 6:30 pm at UMHB, gates will open at 5:00 pm.  Game programs and merchandise will be available for purchase. All proceeds go to support the local FCA Ministry. All of the community is welcome and encouraged to come support these local athletes.
Other area athletes competing in the Victory Bowl are: FOOTBALL – Ellison: Jaeshawn Johnson; GATESVILLE: Zach Bates and Luke Mullins; HARKER HEIGHTS: Cameron Drayton; LAMPASAS: Lane Haviland, Keagan Richardson, Ian McKinney, Anthony Harris, and Hayden Waldrip and SHOEMAKER: DaShawn McCubbins, Vontez Martin, and Brandon Cray. CHEER – GATESVILLE: Alleigh Necessary; and HARKER HEIGHTS: Camdyn Brothers. SOFTBALL: GATESVILLE: Kendall Villagrana; and HARKER HEIGHTS: Ka’Dazjah Trimble and Marissa Stillwell. BASEBALL: BELTON: Ben Jones and Scotty Gurnett; ELLISON: Julian Vascot; HARKER HEIGHTS: Austin Mitchell; and TEMPLE: Aaron Wagaman. VOLLEYBALL: GATESVILLE: Madi Ward and HARKER HEIGHTS: Cati Bakken.
The coaches are: BLUE FOOTBALL: Brad Talbert (Holland), Paul Williams (Troy), Wade Morton (Meridian), Travis Kaddatz (Texas Wind) and Rafael Williams (Axtell). RED FOOTBALL: Mark Byrd (Whitney), former Cove Bulldawg Keith Stifflemire (Riesel), Lonnie Judd (Moody), Luke Pilant (Vanguard) and Rusty Reynolds (Axtell). BLUE VOLLEYBALL: Ashley Montalvo (Teague) and Kelbi Holcolmb (Connally); RED VOLLEYBALL: Shauna Steinmetz (Italy) and Melissa Cole (China Spring); BLUE BASEBALL: Evan Simpson (Mexia), David Anderson (Bosqueville) and Garrett Vail (Academy); RED BASEBALL: Dallas Robertson (Temple), Robert Gough (McGregor) and Mitch Guerra (Bruceville-Eddy); BLUE SOFTBALL: Keith Ryno (Blooming Grove), Brad Kennedy (Connally) and Manny Ordonez (Waco); and RED SOFTBALL: Johhny Jones (Abbott), Don Johnson (Riesel) and K.L. Groholski (Bremond).
The cheer squads will once again be led by Patricia Leach from Hamilton High School.