The gaggle of five-year-old boys couldn’t help but snicker when they first heard there was a girl on their youth league basketball team.

On the first day of practice, the coach lined everyone up and had them race from one baseline to the other and back again. 

The lone girl lapped the field.

The boys weren’t happy. They wanted another shot. 

The girl won again.

By that point, the coach put an end to the footraces and practice got started, as the boys — and one girl — ran some basic drills as they got to know each other at the start of the basketball season.

The boys were still preoccupied with the pre-practice races. So they lined up to race one more time.

And Jana Van Gytenbeek won. Again.

Bella Fontleroy had the world at her fingertips going into her sophomore year of high school.

She was coming off a really strong freshman high school season, was in line for a big year on the AAU circuit, had just gotten an invite to the Team USA camp and was excited about the whole process.

During a tournament in Louisville, she got a steal and started driving the other way when she was bumped by an opponent.

Fontleroy went one way. Her knee went the other way.

“It was an injury that a lot of people don't come back and play basketball from,” Fontleroy said.

Baylor women’s basketball fans haven’t been treated to many dunks since Brittney Griner was dominating on the court in Waco.

That is, until head coach Nicki Collen saw poor Craig holding a donut.

Whether she’s encouraging dunks, driving the lane or taking charges, Collen can add actor to her impressive coaching resume after starring in a series of commercials for Central National Bank over the last two years.

“To see people lean in, especially with Craig and the donut, and to have fans have signs that say, 'Take the Charge,' it’s been really clever,” Collen said. “It’s been a good connection for our program, the bank and the Waco community. I tried to have fun with it and lean into the role.”

Rob Wright knew exactly what he was walking into in his return to Waco on Tuesday night.

With Foster Pavilion erupting in boos every time the former Baylor point guard touched the ball, Wright dropped a career high 30 points for BYU to help the Cougars get a 99-94 win over the Bears. 

“That’s definitely what I expected,” Wright said. “I remember when we played LJ (Cryer and Houston) here last year, so I was expecting that. I think I handled it pretty well.”

Well before Tuesday’s game between Baylor and Texas Tech, Red Raider head coach Grant McCasland spent some extra time greeting the coaches and support staff on the Bears’ bench.

He went into the stands just off the floor and greeted some more people.

After all, McCasland was molded in Waco.

McCasland was a point guard for the Bears and graduated in 1999. After spending more than a decade coaching at the lower levels, he returned to his alma mater and spent five years as an assistant coach under Scott Drew.

“I think God’s given all of us clarity with what this is,” McCasland said. “This is competition. If you ask me about Coach Drew as a husband and a father and as a friend, I don’t know anybody better. He’s a joy to be around.”

When tight end Michael Trigg first got to Baylor ahead of last season, he was assigned an unoccupied jersey number with the rest of the incoming transfers.

He was given No. 86, but it wasn't the number he wanted.

At Baylor, single digits mean something.

They’re voted on by the team and assigned based on leadership and accountability. Not every team leader wears a single digit, but every player who wears one does so for a very specific reason.

“When he got there, Coach Aranda did the best thing he could have for Mike,” said Trigg’s dad, Michael Trigg Sr. “He made him earn that No. 1 jersey. If he had just given it to him, it would’ve been like every other school.

“When he didn’t start right away, that was even better. It got his mind right.”

In the days leading up to Baylor’s game at SMU earlier this season, Kobe Prentice couldn’t help but notice all the red birds seemingly following him wherever he went.

“The way my mom instilled the Lord in us growing up, whenever you see a red bird, it means a loved one is thinking about you in heaven,” Prentice said.

His older brother, Tyler Olds, was watching.

All Andrea Cameron could hear were the cheers.

As she was riding through the concourse at Rice-Eccles Stadium in a golf cart, she was only partly paying attention to the game on her phone as she talked to the medical person helping her get back to her hotel.

“I look at my phone and I say, ‘Huh, it looks like we scored.’” she recalled. “Then I said, ‘Gosh, that looks like my son.’ Then I realize it was Josh, and I’m yelling and screaming, ‘That’s my son!’

“It was one of those moments that I’ll never forget.”

It was the culmination of hours of hard work and a moment that was a long time coming.

For both of them.

Of course Sarah Andrews thinks about her legacy.

How could she not? 

She’s already Baylor’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made and 3-pointers attempted, and she’s played more career games than anyone in Big 12 history. Andrews is third in program history in assists and fourth in games started. 

When the Bears host TCU in the regular-season finale Sunday afternoon with a Big 12 Championship on the line, she’ll become Baylor’s all-time leader in games played, passing Suzie Snider Eppers, who set the record when Baylor was playing in the AIAW.

“I know I've done great things at Baylor, but I think the coaching staff set me up for the opportunity,” Andrews said. “They told me from day one that they had big plans for me. They trusted in me, even through the injuries, and believed I could lead a team. 

“I’ve given them my loyalty because they've had it with me since day one.”

Ed Thomas sprang out of bed in the wee hours of the morning one day when he heard a strange noise coming from the front of his house.

It was 4 a.m., and he thought someone was breaking into his house.

Instead, he found his son, Keaton, getting in an intense workout in the garage before heading to football practice and school later that morning.

“I asked him what’s going on, and he just said it’s fourth down I’ve got to make the play,” Ed said.

The phrase “slow down” does not exist in Keaton Thomas’ vocabulary.

Palmer Williams will never look at a Razor RipStik the same way.

The summer before he was set to start playing football as a seventh grader in North Carolina, he was riding the flexible skateboard-like gadget down a hill when he fell and broke his arm and had to get a cast that went past his elbow.

“When I came out for football, the only thing I could do was kick,” Williams said.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Hunched down in an active stance during a scrimmage earlier this spring at McLane Stadium, Baylor head coach Dave Aranda wasn’t shy to say how he really felt about a drill the linebackers had just run.

“Frick.”

Only he didn’t say Frick, but rather a common refrain that also starts with F and rhymes with “truck” that is uttered when something goes wrong on a football field.

For Aranda, the stoic and philosophical fourth-year coach of the Bears, to have such an outburst in a setting unprotected by locker room walls or a headset on the sidelines, represents a clear shift.

Aijha Blackwell has nothing to lose.

After three years at Missouri without a major postseason appearance and one at Baylor that was largely lost due to injury, the fifth-year senior is putting everything she has into her last year as a college basketball player.

“I have never played in the NCAA Tournament,” Blackwell said. “It would mean the world. Of course, I’ve watched them. My eyes have been glued to the TV the last four years wishing I would be in one.

“I can’t wait to give it all I’ve got. Four years of blood, sweat and tears, I’m ready to pour it all out.”

With a little over six minutes left in Baylor’s first road game of the season, Matt Jones could feel the pistons firing and the puke bubbling up in his stomach.

“I really thought about taking an injury timeout,” Jones said.

Luckily for the Bears, he didn’t.

On the next play, Baylor cornerback Caden Jenkins picked up a loose ball and scored on a 72-yard fumble recovery, and the Bears rallied for a historic 29-point comeback win against UCF.

As soon as Jones saw the ball on the ground, the sensation of puking left him. When he noticed Jenkins pick up the ball, he took off as fast as he could and followed him to the end zone, where the celebration ensued.

But adrenaline and instinct only last for so long, he still had to puke.

“I went over to the sideline and I had to get it out,” Jones said. “People were cheering and tapping me, I just told them to leave me alone. Once I puked it all out, I saw everyone cheering and I saw UCF’s energy was down. I told (Coach Aranda) that we were going to win.

“I felt much better after that.”

One summer, when Byron Vaughns was a kid in Fort Worth, his parents, Paul and Natalia, took him to a party at a water park.

Before they knew it, Byron was up on top of the diving board getting ready to jump off.

“We looked at each other and were like, ‘Can Byron swim?’ Natalia said. “The next thing you know, he’s jumping off and teaching himself to swim. He learned things on his own. He’s always been energetic and full of life.

“He’s kept us on our toes.”

Byron is a bit of a football nomad. He played high school football at Arlington Martin and Fort Worth Eastern Hills. He started his college career at Texas, where he spent three years, and has played the last two years at Utah State before coming to Baylor ahead of this season.

“He brings a mentality of, ‘I’ll show you, let me prove it to you,’” Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. “It’s been great for the defense. I think his growth off the field (has) been way cool. He’s just trending in all the right directions, and (I’m) way proud of him.”

Of all the traits that make Gyasi Zardes one of the all-time forwards in MLS history, one of the most important is his perseverance.

Things haven’t always come easy for the 31-year-old striker, especially over the first two and a half months of his career with Austin FC, but he never lost faith in his teammates or, more importantly, himself.

“No matter what’s going on, I’m always looking to keep pushing through, and I think that’s helped me throughout my career,” Zardes said.

Atlee Olofson wasn’t going to let any of her Westwood teammates be overwhelmed by the sadness of a season coming to an end.

As soon as the final whistle sounded after a 4-0 loss to Lewisville Marcus in the Class 6A girls’ semifinal Friday at Birkelbach Field, she immediately encouraged her teammates to pick their heads up.

Rodney Terry has had many titles in his most recent stint with Texas, but how he coaches hasn’t changed.

The 55-year-old joined the program as an Associate Head Coach in 2021, was named Acting Head Coach last December and was later named Interim Head Coach in January, a position he held for the rest of the season.

Finally, after leading the Longhorns to a Big 12 Tournament title and Elite Eight appearance, he was named the 26th Head Coach at Texas on Monday.

“I’ve prepared my whole life for this opportunity,” Terry said.

It took less than two years for Audrey Onyeonwu to get addicted to wrestling.

The McNeil senior took up the suggestion of a friend to come by practice before her junior year started, and in her first two seasons of high school wrestling, she has two state appearances and a silver medal in the 152-pound class at this year’s UIL Wrestling Championships.

“The first year, I didn’t know how the sport worked,” Onyeonwu said.

When things got tight for Vandegrift on Saturday, the Vipers leaned on the one group they knew would never let them down: Each other.

“We have this rule: players trust players, players trust coaches, coaches trust players and coaches trust coaches,” junior wide receiver Miles Coleman said. “We always follow that and trust each other.”