SABINE’S BYERS, PEPPER, KIRKINDOLL SIGN | Celebrated at Cardinals’ spring signing day
Three of Sabine High School’s best athletes made it official on Wednesday morning, signing letters of intent to continue their education and athletic careers on the collegiate level.
Brenlee Byers, Luke Kirkindoll and Hudson Pepper were joined by family members, friends, Sabine High faculty and coaches Wednesday morning in the school’s auditorium to a rousing ovation after they signed – Byers with Tyler Junior College, as a part of TJC Cheer; Kirkindoll to continue his soccer career at Northeast Texas Community College; and Pepper, with baseball at Southwestern Assemblies of God University.
Each of the teens’ coaches spoke briefly about them during the assembly,
Byers won’t be going far, only about 30 minutes away to TJC. Apache Cheer is about to start its 77th year, in one of the most competitive junior college cheer conferences in the nation, the Region XIV, and in football, the Southwest Junior College Football Conference.
Just a year ago, TJC – for the first time ever – won first place at nationals, at the National Cheerleaders Association’s college national competition in Daytona Beach, Fla.
with Tyler Junior College’s cheer program, a cheer team that just won the National Cheerleaders Association’s national championship in 2023. (Photo by MITCH LUCAS – ETBLITZ.COM)
The team placed second nationally in 2022.
Luke Kirkindoll will head to NTCC in Mount Pleasant, where he will continue to do what he’s done at Sabine: lead the charge on the soccer field.
Kirkindoll, the defensive player of the year on the recently-announced District 15-4A All-District Team, will go from being a Cardinal, where he was 100 percent, all the time on the immediately.
NTCC competes in the NJCAA, against programs familiar to Kilgore College and TJC fans, like Blinn, Jacksonville, Paris, and Trinity Valley. KC doesn’t have a soccer program, but TJC does, and Kirkindoll will get to face the Apaches.
Hudson Pepper will soon be off to Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, where he’ll get to do one of the things he loves the most: have fun and compete on the baseball diamond.
Pepper was first-team all-district as a third baseman a year ago and is sure to be honored in all-district again this year – although those honors are not yet public, because one team from the district (Tatum) is still in the postseason.
Pepper was an infielder and a pitcher for the Cardinals in 2024 and did everything he was asked to do and then some, coach Michael Mayfield told the assembly Wednesday morning.
SAGU competes at the NAIA level, where the Lions are coached by Matthew Cornacchione. They finished 18-8 at home, and with an 11-18 record in the National Christian College Athletic Association, against programs like Central Methodist, Central Baptist, Texas Wesleyan, Arlington Baptist, Central Christian College (Kan.), Southwestern Christian, Mid-America Christian and others.
Congratulations to these three young athletes, on behalf of ETBlitz.com.
and suits up for Southwestern Assemblies of God University. And anyone who has seen Hudson play knows that is 100 percent true.
(Photo by MITCH LUCAS – ETBLITZ.COM)