Morgan Wheatly

The Clarendon College Meat Judging team brought home the championship when they competed at the American Royal this weekend in Kansas.

The team won by a margin of 110 points.

Individually, Clarendon College had the top 4 high individual placings.  Dyllan Galligan was 1st high individual, Taylor Studenbordt 2nd high individual, Courteney Walker 3rd high individual, and Thackary Mayer 4th high individual.

On the Alternates Team, Austin Trent was 1st High Individual.

The Sophomore Livestock Judging Team competed in Stillwater this weekend at the OSU Mock Contest where they ended up 5th high team overall and were the High Team in Swine.

By Sandy Anderberg

The Clarendon Broncos are not only winning football games, they are growing as football team as well, according to head coach Gary Jack.

With the senior leadership that the Broncos are providing and the depth of the underclassmen, the Broncos are a solid, confident team going into the last three games of their regular season. The 67-0 shutout of the Chieftains at home Friday night not only allowed them to remain perfect, but also gave a boost to the entire team and fans.

“It has been since 1981 that a team has had this kind of start,” Jack said. “We (the coaches) are so excited to see this. I have been a part of a lot of good teams, but this team is getting better and better as we go. Not many teams show as much improvement as this team has. We were expecting a pretty tight game, but we dominated them.”

Jack and the other Bronco coaches have reason to be excited. Not only did the team score 10 touchdowns against Crosbyton; they used seven different players to do it. After going scoreless in the first quarter, Damarjae Cortez ran it in from 40 yards out for the first Bronco score in the second eight minutes and Clay Koetting added the kick. Bear Smith earned the second TD on a 53-yard pass from Cortez with Koetting adding the kick.

The Broncos went on a scoring frenzy in the third quarter putting 40 more points on the board.

“We scored four times in the first half, but two were called back,” Jack said. “But, Clint Franks took the third quarter kickoff and ran it back to the seven-yard line and then Keandre Cortez scored. Our offensive line did a great job and our backs and receivers did, too. We were able to rack up 574 yards of offense and hold them to 141 yards.”

Daquawne Oliver turned a 14-yard run into six points for another score and Koetting caught a 41-yard pass for the next touchdown. D. Cortez passed to Bryce Grahn for the two-point bonus. Preston Elam scored twice on a 58 and 53 yard run and K. Cortez took it in from 29 yards out. Grahn then took it in from 62 yards out and Noab Elam made good on a two-yard run with Franks adding the bonus kick for the final Bronco score.

“So many guys did a great job,” Jack said. “And our younger players jumped right in there and did a great job, too. Everyone fell into place on both sides of the ball. Our younger guys that are going in are playing lights out as well. It’s fun for all of us.”

The Broncos will travel to Ralls Friday night and will take care of business to come home at 8-0.

“We don’t want any let downs,” Jack said. “We want to keep the streak going.”

The game will be at Ralls beginning at 7:00 p.m.

It’s time to saddle up and get ready for a fun ride as the Clarendon College Stampede welcomes more than 540 contestants to its NIRA rodeo this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 13-15.

With contestants from 16 colleges and universities in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association involved, qualifying events will be held all day with nightly performances being held at 7:30 p.m. each evening.

Tickets for evening performance are $5 in advance from Clarendon College, the Clarendon Visitor Center, or the Enterprise and will be $10 at the gate.

All activities will be held under the roof of the CC Livestock & Equine Center.

Activities will include bull riding, barrel racing, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, and more.

Clarendon College officials are excited to be hosting the NIRA rodeo.

“Obviously we’re very proud of our opportunity to host this event with our partner schools,” CC President Robert Riza said. “It’s a chance to showcase not only our college and facility but also our community as well.  We greatly appreciate the support from our local merchants and vendors who’ve helped us offset the expense of this event.  We look forward to great weekend.”

Rodeo coach Bret Franks and nearly the entire staff at Clarendon College have been working for weeks to make sure the event comes off without a hitch.

Local and area sponsors have also lined up to support what promises to be one of the most exciting rodeos the town has seen since the Stampede last hit Clarendon in 2012.

Under Franks’ leadership, Clarendon College has reached new levels of success with the most notable being the national bronc riding championship won by Wyatt Casper last year. With the Stampede, CC looks forward putting on a successful rodeo in front of local supporters and also is hopes to boost local businesses with a large out of town crowd coming for the event.

The college is anticipating an attendance of about 1,000 to 1,200 over the three days.

For more information about the Stampede, call Ashlee Estlack at 806-874-4808.

A vision of a revitalized downtown Clarendon received its first public viewing during the First Friday Art Trail event in Lubbock last Friday, October 7.

More than a dozen renderings were on display at the Urban Tech office in the Texas Tech University Downtown Center, and TTU architecture students were on hand to discuss their ideas for storefronts on Clarendon’s Kearney Street. The exhibit was part of a larger walking art show that had several displays in different locations in downtown Lubbock.

The Clarendon plans were prepared as part of an agreement between the Clarendon Economic Development Corp. and Texas Tech’s College of Architecture that was signed about one year ago.

University personnel and students performed laser scans of buildings along Kearney and Sully streets between First and Fourth Streets. Those detailed measurements and images were then paired with historic photos of Clarendon, and students created new drawings of what a rehabilitated and revitalized Clarendon could look like. A target date of 1927 was chosen as a restoration point to work toward.

The $17,000 project will be used as the basis for the CEDC to revamp its popular Façade Grant Program guidelines to provide great incentives for property owners to rehabilitate their buildings in keeping with the plans developed by the Tech students.

The CEDC is also working with the Texas Historical Commission to possibly create a historic district designation for downtown, which would not put any restrictions on property owners but would open up the possibility of state and federal historic preservation tax credits for property owners in the district.

The Clarendon drawings will remain on display at the Urban Tech office for about one month as final revisions are made to the plans.

A local viewing will be scheduled in Clarendon after the CEDC finalizes incentives to be offered under the project.

The eighth annual Clarendon Arts Festival will be held next weekend, October 22-23, and officials with Les Beaux Arts Club are inviting everyone to participate in the Mac & Cheese Cookoff held in conjunction with the event.

The cookoff will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Donley County Activity Center and will be fun for all ages. All funds go towards the production of Clarendon Arts Festival.

Members of the public will be given voting tokens to vote for their favorite Mac & Cheese. The People’s Choice Award will be given to the cook that receives the most votes. Sample Cups will be sold at the door (five for $5) for the public tasting, starting at 11:00 a.m. and concluding at 3:00 p.m.

The entry fee is $25, and the deadline to enter is October 19 at noon.  A cookoff registration entry form is available online at www.ClarendonChamber.com or check out their Facebook page at Clarendon Arts Festival.

Creative twists on a culinary classic are welcome. All cooks must prepare two quarts of prepared Mac & Cheese delivered to the Donley County Activity Center between 10:00 and 10:45 a.m. the day of the event. You must bring a copy of your recipe with you upon check-in. However, if you do not wish for your winning recipe to be published, the event organizer will honor this request. Each cook must provide warming tray and utensils to serve.

For additional information, call 806-654-2993.

The Clarendon Arts Festival opens to the public Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday the arts festival resumes at 11 a.m. and runs until 4 p.m. Those attending the Sunday can enjoy St. Mary’s famous Annual Enchilada Dinner.

Clarendon College is ahead of the game in positioning itself to meet higher education goals now being pursued by the State of Texas.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s 60x30TX plan calls for 60 percent of the state’s 25- to 34-year-old population to hold a college certificate or college degree by 2030, and CC President Robert Riza was in Lubbock recently to help find ways to reach the state’s goal.

Also attending the meeting were representatives from Texas Tech University, West Texas A&M University, Amarillo College, Frank Phillips College, South Plains College, Midland College, and Odessa College. They were joined by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund A. Paredes and Assistant Commissioner Rex C. Peebles.

“It was a good meeting,” Dr. Riza said, “and much of what we talked about will make it into Clarendon College’s next strategic plan. In fact, a lot of what we’re doing already aligns with these goals.”

The 60x30TX Plan, which is now in its second year, is broken into four distinct goals with the first being the overarching goal of having 60 percent the aforementioned age group holding a degree or certificate by 2030.

The second goal is for at least 550,000 students in 203 to complete a certificate, associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s from a higher education institution in Texas.

The third goal focuses on making sure all graduates from Texas colleges and universities have marketable skills, and the fourth goal is for undergraduate student loan debt to not exceed 60 percent of first-year wages for graduates Texas public institutions.

The state’s 15-year plan is crafted to position Texans to benefit from the modern economy in which statistics show that workers with a high school diploma or less have seen virtually no growth in jobs. According to the Higher Education Coordinating Board, out of the 11.6 million jobs created in the post-recession economy, 11.5 million went to workers with at least some college education. Workers with an associate’s degree saw job growth of 3.1 million, but workers with a high school diploma or less grew by only 80,000 jobs.

CC is giving its students a head start toward advanced degrees through its collaborations with area school districts and programs that feed directly into four-year programs in health care professions and technical occupations, which are two areas that are seeing the second highest job growth in the nation.

Clarendon also has worked hard to get out in front of these trends, doubling dual credit enrollment in the CC service area since 2014, reducing the hours needed to complete a degree, and restructuring developmental education, Riza said.