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Head coach Scott Tankersley (background) watches as Deedra Puentes (middle) and Melissa Holley practice technique during a workout.
Dreams come true for Caprock's 'Coach Tank'
By STEVE BELVIN 3/8/2000
Globe-News Sports Writer
Caprock wrestling coach Scott Tankersley has had two of his dreams come true in the past two years.
First, he was named wrestling coach at his alma mater, Caprock High School. The second was when his Caprock girls were proclaimed champions at the state wrestling tournament Feb. 26.
Tankersley, who was born deaf, was a successful wrestler and football player at Caprock in the late 70's. In fact, he was successful wrestler before high school, winning the state meet when he was 13 while wrestling for the Maverick Club. He qualified for the national tournament.
He channelled his success in high school to the coaching field. At West Texas Christian and San Jacinto Christian Academy he fielded successful football and basketball programs, winning a state championship at San Jacinto in basketball and football in 1995. At West Texas Christian, his basketball team was ranked as high as 11th in the nation.
`Coach Tank,' as he is called by his friends and athletes, wanted another challenge - to teach history and coach in a public school. In 1997 he resigned his San Jacinto position, hoping to get a job in Amarillo or the surrounding area. He was somewhat disappointed when he didn't get any offers for a year.
Then the call came from Caprock, wanting to interview him for a wrestling job.
"It was a dream come true," said Tankersley when he was offered the job. "I think the other schools didn't want to give me a job because I was deaf. I'm so thankful Amarillo gave me a chance. I look at it as being deaf is not a handicap, but an opportunity."
Tankersley has made the most of his chance with a public school. Not only is he a good history teacher, a state championship in wrestling two years later isn't bad either.
It has also encouraged other deaf wrestlers to come out and compete. In two years at Caprock, Tankersley has had seven deaf wrestlers compete for him. Carmella Gonzales is one of the deaf wrestlers. She finished third at regional this year.
Tankersley and assistant coach T.J. Johnson work well together. Johnson, who was already at the school when Tankersley got there, has a deaf son, Chris.
"I think maybe the good Lord had a plan for us," said Johnson. "Having a deaf son I know what it takes. I can relate to a lot of things that coach Tankersley does. Sometimes I think he's harder on the deaf wrestlers."
Tankersley admits he was somewhat tentative when he got the wrestling job.
"I had been out of wrestling for about 22 years. There were some things I had to catch up on," he said. "The people at Caprock told me it was like a bike, once you learn how to ride, you never forget."
But just to make sure he read lots of wrestling books and watched many videos on wrestling. He would get in front of the television and read the lips of the speakers. Or if he couldn't read the lips he would get Johnson to interpret the video to him.
He calls Johnson, a native of Claremore, Okla., his public relations man, strength and conditioning and equipment coach.
Johnson, along with Perry, Okla., native Mickey Ripley, gives Tankersley two knowledgeable coaches. Ripley serves as scout, scorer and wrestling technician. Carol Hildebrand also helps out as the girls assistant. Ripley didn't get to make the trip to Austin for personal reasons, but Johnson said he was sorely missed.
"If we had coach Ripley there we would've known where the scoring mistake was made,' he said concerning the scoring error at the state meet.
But without Ripley, Tankersley and nine other supporters had to work for three hours to find the scoring error. The officials in Austin wanted "concrete evidence" of where the mistake was made.
Ironically, it was two coaches from Arlington High, along with Gary Adams of Amarillo, who found the error and showed Tankersley. Tankersley and Johnson pointed it out to the scoring officials.
Tankersley was still cautious when the officials told him they had made the mistake. He still didn't tell the girls they were the state champs.
`'Everything was so emotional. I didn't want them to be hurt again. I wanted them to hear it over the loudspeaker." Tankersley said.
Finally the announcement: `There's been a correction. After re-totaling the points, the Caprock girls are the state champions.'
"When they said that I just said Thank you God," Tankersley said. "I had tears coming down my face because I was so happy for the girls. They have worked so hard this season.
"Besides", he added with a smile, "this is redemption for the time I got pinned in 40 seconds at the national meet."
Caprock coaches knew they had the talent to win state
By STEVE BELVIN 3/8/2000
Globe- News Sports Writer
The year 2000 is one for the sports history books at Caprock High.
On Feb. 26 at Austin's Convention Center, the Caprock Lady Longhorns wrestling team stood above the rest by scoring 90.5 points to beat Arlington Sam Houston by 2.5 points to win the girls state wrestling title. It was just the second year for the sport in Texas.
Head coach Scott Tankersley and assistant T.J. Johnson molded this team of young ladies into state champions.
They had an idea they would have a good squad. With a foundation of four young ladies returning from a squad that finished second in the state in the sport's first year, they felt confident. But they also knew this year would be tougher because there would be more girls teams competing.
"We had a pretty good idea we would be pretty successful," said Johnson. "Well, to be truthful, we knew we were going to win. I don't want to sound arrogant but that's the way we felt. We were never cocky. We just believed in ourselves. When he had the four girls coming back, we knew we would be good. We didn't realize we could win the state tournament until we won the R.L. Turner Invitational in Carrollton."
Counting dual matches and tournaments, the Lady Longhorns tasted defeat only twice. One of the losses was to Palo Duro.
But in mid-December at the 15-team R.L. Turner Invitational the Lady Longhorns proved their mettle by downing the field. A week later they proved it was no fluke, winning the 18-team Woodlands Tournament in Conroe.
"We have to travel so far because there are not many girls teams in our area," said Johnson. "At Carrollton we stepped up and won that. We knew then that probably nobody could compete with us. At The Woodlands we just kind of overwhelmed those girls. Even our first year girls who were just starting out beat them pretty bad."
The Lady Longhorns had the `Murderer's Row' and no one would stop them: Deedra Puentes in the 105-pound division; Stephanie Olivas (110), Jennifer Johnson (119), Miny Garcia (128) and Tori Adams (148).
To show just how serious the school was about the sport, Tankersley invited teams from around the country to compete in the Caprock Invitational. Some of the top wrestlers from New Mexico, Ohio and Colorado showed up. The Lady Longhorns walked away with the team title.
But sometimes a team can lull itself to sleep with success, and apparently that's what the Lady Longhorns did. They suffered their first defeat of the year when they were outpointed by upstart Palo Duro 30-29 in a district dual meet. The loss would be detrimental to Caprock because it gave Palo Duro the district title and a trip to the state dual tournament, where the Lady Dons finished second.
The Lady Longhorns avenged the loss with a 30-24 non-district win over Palo Duro two weeks later.
"The loss to PD was probably the best thing to ever happen to us," said Johnson. "The girls knew they were good. Sometimes you can slip through the crack and you need a wake up call. They needed to know every time they stepped on the mat they could be beaten if they didn't wrestle to their potential. PD really snuck up on us. Nelson (Palo Duro coach Steve) did a really good job of preparing his girls to come to our school and beat us."
The Lady Longhorns other loss came at the district meet but it didn't hurt as much. Caprock knew it would be between themselves and Palo Duro, simply because the other local schools didn't have enough wrestlers to fill every weight division. At district, Caprock had all 10 weight division filled; Palo Duro had eight.
"That (loss) wasn't too bad," said Johnson. "We had some problems with girls making their weight. We were kind of expecting it (loss), but we thought we might win."
At regionals, the Lady Longhorns returned to form, scoring 148 points to 109 for second place PD.
"We knew we could win regional because we had some other girls (other region teams) doing some pinning for us. It would be more than just us and PD," Johnson said.
The Lady Longhorns won the title in late February. And strangely enough, it wasn't a member of the `Murderer's Row' who came through with the big win. It was unsung heavyweight Marie Hernandez who pinned Sam Houston's Latosha Gillian, giving the Lady Longhorns the deciding points.
"That was the biggest match of the tournament." Johnson said. "Marie gave us all that we asked of her and more. She turned it up another notch. A notch we didn't even know she had."
A notch that wrote the Caprock Lady Longhorn wrestling team into the history books.
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Wrestling program gave Garcia direction
By STEVE BELVIN 3/8/2000
Globe-News Sports Writer
Miny Garcia was glad just to be able to compete at the state wrestling tournament this year. She's even more happy just to be out of trouble.
The Caprock senior was an instrumental force in the Lady Longhorns' drive for a state title. Wrestling in the 128-pound division, she was one of the `Murderer's Row', a group of five Caprock wrestlers who were almost unbeatable.
The group included: Deedra Puentes (105), Stephanie Olivas (110), Jennifer Johnson (119) and Tori Adams (148). The five had a combined record of 119-7. Garcia was 25-2 this year, finishing second at the state meet, losing a 9-8 decision to Brenda Malott of Arlington Sam Houston.
But Garcia has come a long way in a short time. Two years ago she was hanging out with the wrong crowd and doing the wrong things.
"My freshman and sophomore years I didn't list to anyone," she said. "I skipped school a lot and all I thought about was fighting. Sports changed me around. If I hadn't gotten into sports I would be in a lot of trouble."
Now sports keeps her plenty busy. She works out with the wrestling team in the morning and practices with the soccer team in the afternoon.
She said last year when they found out Caprock was going to field a girls wrestling team, she and her sister Norma, a state champion at 119-pounds last year, jumped at the challenge.
"Sometimes you hear how they always put girls in the sorriest stuff," she said. "We thought wrestling was a cool sport."
Sports also taught Garcia the value of hitting the books. She learned the hard way last year when she was ruled academically ineligible just before the state meet.
"I had a geometry class I was borderline in. The week before I was passing with an 80. Two days before leaving they told me I was failing," she said. "I was mad. I couldn't understand how I failed."
A valuable lesson was learned.
"Get tutoring if you need it. If you miss any days of school for sports activities or anything, go back and ask for your work. You don't want them to hand you that little piece that says you fail."
Garcia says she was looking forward to wrestling Malott at the state tournament. They had wrestled twice this season with each getting a win.
`'I wanted to wrestle her again," said Garcia. "I didn't go to state to wrestle anybody else. `'When I shot at her she got back points. Then I started wrestling upper body and I got my points. She was stalling at the last. If I only had 10 more seconds I could've done it. I was good to go."
So this remarkable turnaround has this young lady thinking of bigger and better things. She wants to continue her wrestling career. Minnesota has contacted her.
"My mom probably doesn't want me to go there because it's so far away. But I'd like to go to college and wrestle," she said.
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Scoring error nearly cost a state title
By STEVE BELVIN March 8, 2000
Globe-New Sports Writer
When it was announced that Arlington Sam Houston had won the girls' state wrestling title by 1.5 points over Caprock, coaches Scott Tankersley and T.J. Johnson took the advice of Tascosa coach Johnny Cobb - stay until you're satisfied.
Cobb spoke from experience. The same thing happened to him two years ago at the state tournament.
In 1998 the boys' final team scoring results had Irving McArthur outpointing Tascosa by a half point. With the score being that close, Cobb knew he was going to get a recount just to make sure.
So when he got back to Amarillo after a 14-hour bus ride from Houston, he got a chance to recount the scores, and he discovered that Tascosa had indeed been slighted two points, which would makes the Rebels state champs. Cobb called the state officials and told them about the mistake. They discovered it was true.
Sorry Tascosa, too late. It seems that the Texas Interscholastic Wrestling Association, which ran the state wrestling tournament at the time, said a team had a 48-hour time limit to file a protest. The 48-hour time limit had passed.
That's why Cobb came quickly to his ex-student's (Tankersley) defense.
"I knew from just a rough figure in my head, that with the kids Caprock had in the finals and the number of pins they got, there was probably a scoring error," said Cobb. "I went to Scott and T.J. and told them do not leave this gym until you are satisfied with the scoring count."
Tankersley and Johnson had been doing some figuring of their own, and they knew their score was miscalculated.
Caprock went into the final with four wrestlers, trailing by 10 points. Three of them got pin wins. Sam Houston got one first place win and three second place wins. Caprock wrestlers got the maximum six points each for pin wins, giving them 16 points right there. That alone was enough to get the Lady Longhorns title.
The officials had it Sam Houston 88, Caprock 86.5. How did that happen?
Computer error, said UIL Assistant Athletic Director Mark Cousins.
"The scoring is run by computer," said Cousins."We have a bout sheet for each individual. When a match is finished we have a person bring it to the scorer's table. The resulted are entered into the computer. For some reason it tabulated the team score wrong. Caprock came to us and said they thought the had won the meet. We rechecked the scoring and found out they had indeed won the tournament."
Tankersley tried to keep his cool.
"I knew we had won the meet," he said. "Then they announced the team scores and the girls came to me and said `we got second? How could we get second?' I wasn't mad, but I was thinking where did the four points go? I knew we were missing four points."
Two hours later, scorers told Tankersley his team had won the state championship with 90.5 points.
"I got nervous," admitted Tankersley. "They told me we had won but I didn't say anything to girls just yet. They were already emotionally down. I just wanted to make sure it was right this time. I didn't want to come back to them and say we lost again."
So at about 9 p.m. it was officially announced that Caprock was the state champion. Then the celebration started.
Cousins said the UIL can learn from that incident.
"I think we'll have some kind of manual back up system that we'll do by hand. We'll look into it," he said.
