Henrietta tops Howe, 54-39; season over for 'Dogs

That final moment when you realize that you'll never play again for the Howe Bulldogs rarely deeply sets in with high school seniors Its only years later that they look back and realize that it wasn't the games so much that they remember, but it's the bus rides with their teammates, the jokes in the locker room, the bond that they shared conforming from individuals to a full-scale team operation. The seniors went through that flurry of emotions on Tuesday night in Valley View in their bi-district playoff loss to Henrietta and saw the successful season end with a 19-12 record

The Bulldogs, who generally have all five starters at or near double digits in point barely had one with Sam Akins leading the team in points with 10. It wa a third quarter epic collapse that saw the Bulldogs shutout by Henrietta, 130 that turned out to be the deciding factor in the game Howe and Henrietta were tied, 13-13 at the end of the first period Henrietta held a one-point advantage at the half, 25-24, but the third quarter was something very few teams could pull themselves out of to mount a monumental comeback for the ages

Howe played much better in the fourth quarter with Henrietta winning it 15-14 for a final score of 54-39

Henrietta's basic zone defense forced Howe to shoot a lot of long jumpers which the Bulldogs are normally very good shooters in tht situation However, one bad shooting night on the wrong night can lead to doomsday for a jumpshooting team

The great thing about high school sports is that there is no time to ly around and wish for another shot Players have already moved on to the next sport, whether that be baseball or track or both The sting of not getting to play basketball again in the black and white is one that will not fully set in for about eight months

Coach Tim Short has now taken Howe to the playoffs in consecutive years in his first two years This after Howe had gone 9-19 before his arrival

Howe High School Cheerleaders announced for 2016-17

Erin Ansley

Mikayla Doty

Kaylee Dwyer

Lydia Hagan

Taylor Hartsfield

Gianna Henry

Natalie Honore

Varsity

Madison Kehrer

Allison Morgan

Ashley Pelt

Riley Potter

Jorie Seibold

Mascot –

Chris Blaszak

Paetyn Ford

Shaylen Garrison

Mikayla McGuffin

Amanda Miller

Natalie Murphy

Kaley Norton

Catherine Switzer

Jamie Taylor

Riley Underwood

Ashlyn Wahrmund

Mascot – Karsyn Fleming

Howe schools in 1964 He took a football program that was on the verge of collapsing due to the lack of willing participants and grew it to a District, Bi-District and Regional Champion team just six years later After 12 years as head coach of the Howe Bulldogs, he holds the most most wins of any football coach in school history with 51 After spending time as a coach, math teacher, counselor, interim principal, interim superintendent, and three-time interim athletic director, Dickey retired from the school district in 1996 In addition to his accomplishments, Dickey spent countless hours mowing Bulldog Stadium, working on the scoreboard, running the clock, officiating junior high games, keeping the stats and everything in between

Fred Holcomb, Sr. served Howe as a member of the city council and as Howe Volunteer Fire Chief During his tenure on the city council, Howe installed the central sewer system He built 54 homes with the majority of them in the Howe ISD He built commercial buildings including a large shop for Johnny Thompson that later became Price Hanning's Garage He also built the old Dairy Queen building that is currently under renovation The former Church of Christ building was also constructed by Mr Holcomb He was an elder of the Church of Christ for 35 years

Glen Hestand was a former mayor of Howe and also served as city council member He was a longtime member of the First Baptist Church of Howe where he served as deacon and part-time song leader Mr Hestand was a successful builder who constructed many homes in Howe He was a graduate of Howe High School and

Howe Bulldog football team

Otis Lamb served as a director of Howe State Bank during its conception He partnered with Lowell Thompson in 1958 to provide much needed housing to the Howe area Their good quality fair priced homes became the foreunners to the "Fox and Jacobs" concept Mr Lamb's wholesale contacts and banking connections allowed them to open up new houses in Howe that sold quickly

Jean Norman has been instrumental in a number of major events in Howe's history Her, along with her friends were able to create the Howe Community Library in the 1980s The longtime school teacher has also been a longtime member and church leader at First Baptist of Howe Her work with the Howe Historical Society had great ambitions and collected many Howe artifacts Her work helped saved the old First Christian Church building (twice) Most recently, Norman served as president of the Save the Church committee which raised over $25,000 Norman was named Norma J Wallace Citizen of the Year in 1992

Steve Simmons came to Howe in 1987 as a coach for Howe ISD His motivating nature has inspired a couple of thousand kids and adults to be highly motivated, truly dedicated as well as rough and tough Perhaps no one in Howe's history has held so much pride and love for their community and the children of Howe He has served as the elementary physical education instructor for Howe ISD for nearly 30 years As well as his work with children, he's also been a varsity football, powerlifting and baseball coach and junior varsity basketball coach. As a longtime member of First Baptist Church in Howe, his faith is unquenchable It is only a matter of time before something in this town is named Steve Simmons something.

Lowell Thompson is one of many of the Thompson family to make such an impact on Howe His vision to see the growth in the late 1950s provided the city with construction of well-built quality affordable homes Serving as a council member and an active member of the Howe Volunteer Fire Department It was Mr Thompson who helped to organize and sponsor the Fireman's Barbecure in the fall and Fireman's Watermelon Fest in the summer. He was an active supporter of the Howe Boy Scouts and even helped to construct the first wooden racetrack for the Pinewood Derby. His forethought and vision of expanding the borders of Howe with O W Lamb helped Howe grow at an important time in the town's history.

Online voting will take place at howeenterprise com and a ballot box will be located at Howe's Post Office starting this week. The chamber will induct the top three vote-getters on May 6

In 2015, the first class of the Howe Hall of Honor were 12 members - Jabez Haning, WP Thompson, A M Ferguson, Mame Roberts, Charles R Thompson, Arthur Boyle, Tony Brinkley, L B Kirby, Norma Wallace, Ray Bledsoe, Carrie Waller and Elmer Schenk