Clarendon Live

The Clarendon Enterprise - Spreading the word since 1878.

This Week

Bradford Rhea McGuire

by Leave a Comment

Bradford Rhea McGuire was born February 18, 1965, in Haskell, Texas. The son of Douglas Allen McGuire and Ann Levell Cargill Davis, Brad and his family lived in Rochester, Texas, Mannheim, Germany, Kermit, Rankin, Ballinger and Clarendon, Texas. A graduate from Clarendon High School, Brad received his Bachelor’s degree in English and Communications from Sul Ross State University.

Bradford Rhea McGuire

Brad and Karen met at the KVLF Radio station in Alpine, where he taught her to be a DJ. They developed a children’s radio program that featured Brad as the voice of a desert rat, Philo, and Karen as Philo’s wife, Prissy Sue. The program consisted of a theme song,” Smile and the World Smiles with You”-, a character-building children’s story and conversations with Philo and Prissy Sue.

In addition to a stint at the Alpine Vet Clinic and the Alpine Pizza Hut [where, believe it or not, their kids actually began to get tired of pizza!], Brad was a volunteer coach at the Alpine Jr. High and one of the favorite monitors of the students in the In School Suspension class! He also served as the Photography teacher at Alpine High School, was an aide to the Special Ed Classes, and wrote the AHS Sports Column for the Alpine Avalanche. Commenting on his time in the dark room at AHS Brad said, “The previous photography teacher gave me the textbooks and the key and said ‘Good luck’. I spent the summer teaching myself how to use the chemicals and develop pictures. It actually was a lot of fun! I put photographs of school sports events on my classroom door and the students could buy any of the prints they wanted all year long. That helped pay for the purchase of more chemicals in the dark room!”

Brad worked as grounds keeper and maintenance man for Paisano Baptist Encampment for about 8 ½ years. He and Karen established the Saturday night Chapel service at Paisano for all comers, which continued for several years after the McGuires moved to town. Brad was interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Fort Davis for 14 months and then began preaching at Hillside in 2008. Some of his best memories were working with the men of the church in ministries at Hillside, attending a Green Bap Packer game at Lambeau Field.

Lady Broncos start season with wins

by Leave a Comment

By Sandy Anderberg

The Lady Broncos are off to a flying start with two big wins over Happy and Childress last week. Happy put up a decent battle against the Lady Broncos, but the maroon and white earned the 56-44 win.

The ladies converted five three pointers with four of them coming from sophomore Kashlyn Conkin who finished with 18 points to lead the team in scoring.

The Lady Broncos got off to a slower start than head coach Korey Conkin was comfortable with but worked themselves back to only trail by two points at the break. The ladies went to work in the second half and outscored the Happy Cowgirls by 14 points to get the win. Clarendon put in seven of the twelve free shots for 58 percent from the line.

Presley Smith finished with nine points and Kennadie Cummins, Hayden Elam, and newcomer Kate Shaw put in six points each. Berkley Moore added five, Graci Smith three, Courtlyn Conkin two, and Tandie Cummins one.

Later in the week the Lady Broncos hosted Childress and completely shut down the Lady Cats’ offense.

The Lady Broncos took the win at 50-29. Once again, the Lady Broncos took control of the game with their consistent scoring and ramped up free throw shooting at 85 percent. K. Conkin, Elam, Moore, and Smith were perfect at the line hitting all of their free-throws.

Conkin hit two more three pointers for 10 points in the game and Moore added seven points that included one three pointer and both free-throws. P. Smith and G. Smith helped with six points apiece and Kenidee Hayes came off the injured list and put in five points with Shaw who added five also. C. Conkin and Elam added two and T. Cummins had one.

The Lady Broncos will play in the FUB Shootout in Canyon on November 17 at 4:30 and travel to Texline at Holy Cross on November 21 at 5:00 p.m.

Broncos advance to area round

by Leave a Comment

By Sandy Anderberg

The Clarendon Broncos claimed a big Bi-District win over the Boys Ranch Rough Riders at Dick Bivens Stadium last Friday night. The 46-6 win put the Broncos in the Area round with Seagraves in Floydada this Thursday, November 16, at 7 p.m.

The Bronco offense was on target last week and the team collected 397 total yards in the game. Senior quarterback Lyric Smith threw for 215 yards and finished with two passing touchdowns in the game.

Smith was 12 for 25 and threw strikes to Mason Sims and Quay Brown for scores and also hit Easton Frausto twice for yardage. Sims had five catches for 89 yards with 40 yards being his longest, and Smith targeted Brown five times for 108 yards. Despite throwing two interceptions, Smith had a good night in the air.

The Broncos’ running game has been good all season with help up front from the solid play of the line. Sims had 13 carries for 35 yards and Frausto carried twice for 18 yards. Smith carried the ball 19 times and finished with 129 yards and found the endzone three times.

Defensively, the Broncos did a great job of containing Boys Ranch and holding them scoreless until the end of the game. Dalton Coles led the way with 12 tackles, and Jared Musick had eight. Frausto played well on defense with seven grabs, and Sims had six. Haynes,

Shane Hagood, Kyler Bell, Tyler Cavanaugh, Heston Seay Waite Dushay, and Ranger Drenth posted at least one tackle on the night. Smith and Brown each had one interception, and Smith and Grant Haynes had a recovered fumble.

Lineman Anthony Ceniceros had three tackles and forced a fumble and recovered a fumble.

At least two Bronco scores came from the defense, and they were able to tackle Boys Ranch in the endzone for a safety in the first quarter.

The Broncos will continue to do what they know to do in practice this week and be ready to take on the Seagraves Eagles in Floydada on Thursday, November 16, at 7:00 p.m.

District Champs

by Leave a Comment

The Clarendon Broncos secured the District Championship Friday night in Wellington, beating the Skyrockets, 36-20. They will face Boys Ranch this Friday at 7p.m. at Dick Bivins Stadium in Amarillo for the bi-district title. The Clarendon defense was solid last week as seen here with Broncos Grant Haynes, Jaxon McAnear, Easton Frausto, and Colton Caudle working together to stop an advancing Skyrocket. See our complete coverage on page six.

The Clarendon Broncos had one plan last Friday, and that was to go into Wellington with a big win on their minds and get on top early. They were able to execute their game plan exactly the way they wanted and stormed the Rockets 36-20.

The Broncos not only won the District Championship. They earned the number one seed in the playoffs which will pit them against Boys Ranch Friday, November 10, at 7:00 p.m. at Dick Bivins Stadium in Amarillo.

Quay Brown earned the first touchdown for the Broncos early in the game to give the Broncos the first six points of the game before Colton Caudle hit the mark with a touchdown. Caudle did a great job all night long on both sides of the ball. He posted a 90-yard touchdown and was able to strip the football on a QB sack to give the Broncos another possession.

“We felt good about our game plan all week,” first year head coach Aaron Wampler said. “These guys did a terrific job all night long.”

Wellington was favored in the match up, but the Broncos stayed strong defensively. They held the Rockets scoreless until the end of the first quarter. The score at the break was 22-12.

Senior Lyric Smith played a great game finishing with 318 yards passing on 12 of 20 attempts and three touchdowns. He racked up 90 yards on 21 carries and found the endzone two additional times. He broke through the line several times on the night to gather up 19 tackles and one interception.

Caudle had four receptions for 184 yards that resulted in two touchdowns. Caudle was strong on defense with 10 tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble. Quay Brown made good on three catches from Smith for 78 yards and the first touchdown of the game. Grant Haynes turned in a good game with 10 tackles on defense.

The entire Bronco team contributed to the win and played strong against the Skyrockets. They will go into the game with Boys Ranch with the same determination Friday night.

Cummins runs personal best at State Meet

by Leave a Comment

Tandie Cummins

Junior Tandie Cummins made a respectable show at her first State Cross Country Meet in Round Rock and posted a personal best time of 13:01.8 for 53rd place for the two-mile course. Cummins ran in a field of 150 and the first-place runner crossed the line in a time of 11:30.8 Cummins has been running well all season and has been an asset to the Lady Bronco cross-country team.

AgriLife Extension hosts Ag Literacy Day

by Leave a Comment

5th grade students from Clarendon, Hedley, Memphis, Claude, Silverton, and Valley enjoy a day learning about agriculture hosted by the Donley County AgriLife Extension.

The Donley County AgriLife Extension hosted fifth grade students from six area schools last Tuesday, October 31, for their 20th Ag Literacy Day.

A total of 138 students from Clarendon, Hedley, Memphis, Claude, Silverton, and Valley attended the event with 29 high school students helping from Clarendon, Memphis, and Silverton.

County Agent Leonard Haynes said the students learned about agriculture from ten separate stations covering the following topics: beef cattle, small grain production, small animal livestock, rainfall effects / soil conservation, groundwater conservation, peanut production, cotton production, tractor PTO safety, stream bed formation, and Texas outdoor and game laws.

“Our overall goal is to educate kids as we have more kids away from farms who think everything originates at the grocery store,” Haynes said. “We show them that from the time they woke up today, agriculture touches their lives from clothes to deodorant to brushing their teeth. So many things come from ag byproducts.”

Demonstrations at the stations included how a cotton gin works, the effects of soil erosion, how flowing water affects topography, how small grains are milled for food, where different cuts of meat come from, and more.

Haynes said the program started as a shared activity between the Donley and Hall county extension services, but now invites schools from other areas to participate.

In addition to the ten stations students rotated through, all students were presented with a powerline and farm safety demonstration from Greenbelt Electric Cooperative, and the Southwest Mobile Dairy also presented a live milking demonstration to highlight where milk and milk byproducts come from.

American Legion to honor veterans in Hedley

by Leave a Comment

American Legion Adamson-Lane Post 287 members this week will place American flags on the graves of 250 veterans buried in the Rowe Cemetery in Hedley.

The flags will be placed on the graves on Friday November 10, at 9:00 a.m. in honor of departed veterans who have served this country’s military. Then, on Monday, November 13, 2023, at 10:00 a.m., the Post will hold its annual Veterans Day service at the Hedley Lions Club building.

The program will be led by members of the post and will include the raising of the colors, the National Anthem, the Pledge, and honoring the missing in action and prisoners of War still unaccounted for. The key address will be given by Will Thompson. The program will be concluded with the playing of taps.

Presbyterians bless Arena of Life Church with building

by Leave a Comment

An historic church building will begin a new chapter this Sunday when the Arena of Life Cowboy Church holds its grand opening in the former First Presbyterian Church at Fourth and Parks this Sunday, November 5, at 10:30 a.m.

The Arena of Life Cowboy Church sets up for services in the former First Presbyterian Church with a grand opening set for this Sunday. Courtesy Photo

With their congregation dwindling, Presbyterians recently made the decision to disband and donate their 1929 building to the Cowboy Church.

“I was surprised but extra excited,” Cowboy Church Pastor Bunk Skelton said of his reaction to the offer by Presbyterian Pastor Nancy Ruff. “I’m not one to all at once get real gung-ho about something, so I asked for time with the Lord. But the more I sought the Lord, the more I thought we couldn’t say no.”

Ruff said the Presbyterian congregation had just gotten to a point to where it was no longer viable to continue, but they had hope that they could bless another church.

“It’s not easy to close a church,” Ruff said. “But in dealing with those emotions of closing our church, we are richly blessed that God gave us the opportunity to give our building to the Arena of Life Cowboy Church. We are so excited to be a part of God’s blessing. We’re really thrilled they accepted our offer and that our legacy will continue.”

While the Presbyterian Church had a long history in Clarendon dating back to 1899, the Cowboy Church is relatively new for the community. It was founded January 5, 2013, and moved into the former Eads’ Furniture building on Kearney Street in May of 2014. Since that time, the church has been dreaming of building their own church and has even had six acres donated to it east of town on US 287.

“We’re not trashing the idea of our own new building,” Skelton said. “We’re still working toward that. This will just make it easier as we can put our lease payments into our building fund now.”

Speaking of renting their previous location, the pastor had kind words for their landlord there, saying Virginia Patten had been extremely good to the church through the years.

Skelton said his congregation first thought of making changes to the Presbyterian building but changed their minds.

“The first impulse was to make changes to make it fit us,” he said, “but then we didn’t really want to. We just make small changes to make it work for us, which mostly has amounted to running some electricity.”

The new owners are also opening up previously covered over windows on the front doors of the Presbyterian building.
The Cowboy Church held its first services in the building last Sunday, October 29, but it’s official grand opening is this weekend.

“We’re very, very excited and grateful and thankful that they have allowed us to carry on the ministry of the gospel in this church,” Skelton said.

The Presbyterian building will give the Cowboy Church more room and allow it to offer more Sunday school classes. The church has been having its youth meetings on Wednesday nights and its adult Bible study on Thursday nights, but now those activities will both be held on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m.

Skelton is inviting the community to join them as they celebrate the new location of the Cowboy Church this weekend with Sunday School at 9:30 and the service at 10:30.

Also, the Presbyterians are not completely gone from the building. Ruff said Skelton is allowing her to continue her women’s Bible study in the building. It’s a testimony to how close the community of faith is in Clarendon.

“We’re in a super good community,” Skelton said. “When He calls you to a place, He provides for you; and we’ve seen that over and over.”

Cummins runs her way to state

by Leave a Comment

By Sandy Anderberg

Tandie Cummins

Tandie Cummins has been running strong all year. The Regional Meet at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock was no different as Cummins finished 17th with a time of 13:30 for the two-mile course our of 165 runners, that was only 30 seconds off the winning time.

She will run in Round Rock at the Old Steeler Park November 4.

Six other Lady Broncos ran in the meet and turned in solid times. Berkey Moore ran 32nd at 13:52.80 and Gracie Ellis was 39th with a time of 14:05.10. Madi Benson, who has been running with an injury, was 71st at 14:33.80 and Presley Smith was 81st with a finishing time of 14:50.60. Kennadie Cummins ran 89th at 14:59.50 and Kashlyn Conkin had a time of 16:15.80 for 140th place.

Bryce Williams and Brice Wagner ran the 5K race in the meet and Wagner finished 45th with a time of 19:20.40. Williams, who has been running great his entire CC career, suffered from dehydration and could not finish the race.

Good luck to Tandie as she travels to Round Rock to run in the State Cross-Country Meet.

Broncos steamroll Irish 58-6

by Leave a Comment

By Sandy Anderberg

The Broncos have been unstoppable in District play and are currently 4-0 as they prepare for their District closer at Wellington on Friday.

The Broncos and Skyrockets are 6-3 and 7-2 overall for the 2023 football season. Friday night’s game will determine the number one seed in post-season play. Kickoff will be at 7:00pm.

The Broncos crushed Shamrock last week 58-6. Quay Brown set the tempo of the game with a huge 75-yard kick-off return to open the game and Easton Frausto converted the bonus to give the Broncos the lead at 8-0 at the 11:47 mark. Senior quarterback Lyric Smith who has been at the helm since Harrison Howard’s collar bone injury ran for an eight-yard TD for the Broncos’ second score of the game after he intercepted an Irish pass to put the Broncos back on offense. Mason Sims earned the bonus to go up by 16.

The Bronco defensive line was a stumbling block for the Irish and made great plays deep in Shamrock’s backfield and on the passing routes. As a team, the Broncos intercepted six Shamrock passes and Smith and Sims grabbed two apiece and each took one back for six. Grant Haynes stole an interception and lineman Anthony Ceniceros batted down and caught and interception near the line.

Offensively, the Broncos pass receivers did a great job putting their hands on the ball. Sims had two catches for 63 yards and Colton Caudle posted 143 yards on his two catches for two touchdowns. Sims also carried the ball for 61 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries. Smith was seven for fifteen passing for 233 yards and carried the ball eight times for 90 yards and found the endzone two times on the ground.

The Broncos have blown through their opponents and have laid it all on the line to go into the playoff season with great momentum.

The game with Wellington is crucial for seeding, but the Broncos’ plan is go deep in post-season play.

Verified by MonsterInsights