Boerne Little League, Smithson Valley HS, UTSA football and Wemby’s rise (of course) among San Antonio’s top sports stories of 2024

SAN ANTONIO — As we prepare to ring in the new year, take a trip down memory lane as we reflect on some of the biggest local sports headlines of 2024. 

From a viral video of a huge college basketball brawl that made national headlines to San Antonio natives making waves in the big leagues and of course, some of the biggest Spurs announcements, here’s a recap of the top sports stories of the year.

“I think it’s best that I move on from football and move onto the next chapter of my life,” former UTSA quarterback Frank Harris said.

In a major announcement on social media at the beginning of the year, Harris said he would be retiring from the sport, marking an end to his long and successful college career.

The former Roadrunner cited his several surgeries. “My body has been through a lot,” he said. “I don’t regret anything, for it has made me the man I am today.” 

The Converse native holds dozens of school records, and he’s responsible for 14,007 yards of offense and 120 total touchdowns in his career. He also led UTSA to back-to-back CUSA titles in 2021 and 2022.

 “I’m excited to see what God has in store for me!” Harris said.

In February, as football fans gathered for Super Bowl watch parties, friends and family of a San Antonio native and former UTSA football player celebrated history in the making.

San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Spencer Burford became the first UTSA football alumnus to play in the Super Bowl as the team took on the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas.

The 23-year-old making waves in the NFL has roots that run deep in the Alamo City.

“Kirby Middle School, Wagner High School, UTSA, 49ers,” Neal Burford (Spencer’s uncle) said.

Spencer’s mother, a teacher at Wagner High School, where Spencer graduated from in 2018, cheered on her son in Las Vegas.

“He always gives credit to where he came from,” Burford’s mother, Baretta, said. “I told him to never forget where you come from.” 

Back home, watch party chants of “Go Spencer Go” accompanied the intense football finale as Spencer helped execute plays early on in the game.

Ultimately the Chiefs took the victory, 25-22 in overtime, becoming the first team to win two consecutive Super Bowls in 19 years. Still, the big game marked a huge milestone for Burford and made his community back home very proud!

A traditional handshake line after the Cardinals’ OT loss to the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions in February turned aggressive when players, coaches and referees became embroiled in an all-out brawl lasting about 90 seconds.

Within moments, the handshake line turned into a tangle of bodies, with some caught in the middle trying to break up the fighting.

“This is not good. This is really not good,” an ESPN commentator can be heard saying. “We’ve got punches being thrown, this is really bad. Oh my goodness.”

The chaotic scene caught on camera made national headlines and resulted in a total of eight players from both schools being suspended by the Southland Conference for “flagrant unsportsmanlike actions,”

“There is no place in college sports for such actions,” UIW Athletics said in a statement. “The unsportsmanlike conduct that occurred after the game does not reflect the values of the universities involved.”

In April, a new advertisement from Nike fueled the cosmic hype as San Antonians looked toward the sky for the 2024 solar eclipse.

In its first marketing campaign in collaboration with the Spurs star, Nike unveiled its new Victor Wembanyama “alien” logo.

The advertisement featured an alien face on a basketball with Nike swooshes on the side, which is also featured as a crop circle.

Another sportsman with San Antonio roots made waves in the big leagues this year.

In April, Forrest Whitley, who was a right-handed pitcher for Alamo Heights High School back in 2016, was called up from the minor leagues to play for the MLB’s Houston Astros.

Whitley appeared at all levels of the Astros’ minor league system since 2016. He had pitched for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys in Triple-A since July 2021.

This year, the long road to the majors for this Alamo Heights alum finally came to an end. 

In April, the San Antonio Spurs gave fans of the Silver & Black an early heads-up to start planning their trips to Paris as the team is set to take on the Indiana Pacers in the French capital early next year.

The Spurs will head across the pond as part of The NBA Paris Games 2025 presented by Tissot, marking the first time the NBA will play two regular-season games in the French capital in the same season. 

Not only is this great for the Spurs, but it is also an opportunity for Victor Wembanyama (and Sidy Cissoko) to play an NBA game in front of the home crowd.

“I’m looking forward to it very much,” Wembanyama said.

Tipoff is set for Thursday, Jan. 23, at 1 p.m. CST, and Saturday, Jan. 25, at 11 a.m. CST. Both games will be shown on KENS 5, the official TV station of the Spurs.

The Smithson Valley golf team took care of unfinished business at the Texas 5A tournament. Back in May, they shot an overall score of four-under-par to secure the first state title in program history. 

The Rangers were just six strokes short of victory in 2023, coming away with a second-place finish. 

“I have amazing trust in these guys,” Ryan Griff said. “I knew they did well. I couldn’t see the scores, (but) I just knew they were going to do well today.”

Griff, Anniston McIlwain, Cole Cantu, Aiden Page and Zach Seader combined to shoot 572 over the two-day tournament at Georgetown’s Legacy Hills Golf Club, 14 strokes better than second-place Frisco Wakeland. 

“Winning a state championship when you play the best golf and shoot the best rounds of your life, it was a very special moment,” said head coach Jason Pape. 

Smithson Valley was the only team to finish under-par for the two-day tournament. Walnut Grove, Lake Creek and Georgetown rounded out the top five team finishers. 

Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama ran away with the NBA Rookie of the Year award in voting results that were announced by the league in May.

The 7-foot-4 French forward/center lived up to the hype in an otherwise tough season for the Spurs, finishing with 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists and an NBA-best 3.6 blocked shots per game.

Wembanyama is the third Spurs player to win the award, following in the footsteps of David Robinson in 1990 and Tim Duncan in 1998. He’s also the first to win Rookie of the Year unanimously – meaning he received all 99 first-place votes from a panel of journalists – since Karl-Anthony Towns in 2016. 

Wembanyama also was one of three finalists for NBA Defensive Player of the Year, but it ultimately ended up being awarded to Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“He’s a multi-talented young man,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Wembanyama at the end of the season. “And he’s going to show us things that none of us have ever seen before. … He’s getting more and more solid, more and more disciplined, getting more and more used to the contact that he gets, the attention that he gets. It’s a tough position for him to be in. But he handles it with class and with pretty good smarts.”

Among the highlights — a 40-point, 20-rebound game against the Knicks; 10 games of at least 30 points; 40 games of at least 20 points; two triple-doubles (one with 10 assists, one with 10 blocks); and what’s known as a 5×5 game — five or more points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in the same contest.

His rookie performance garnered high praise from some of the league top stars, including arguably the best to ever lace ’em up, LeBron James.

 “He doesn’t have a ceiling,” Lakers star LeBron James said that night. “He can do whatever he wants to do in his career.”

That’s what the Spurs are banking on.

A Texas Hill Country town went all out for its all-star athletes as the Boerne Little League team was welcomed home with a police escort, parade and party at Main Plaza after their historic run through the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in August.

Boerne made it to the LLWS U.S. Championship game before losing to Florida. They finished fourth, but still came home winners.

“This is monumental for any city that has a little league team or little league organization,” said Boerne Mayor Frank Ritchie. “You heard the commissioner say 7,000 little league teams try to make it to Williamsport every year. We were one of the 20, and ended up being fourth. That’s amazing! It’s a life-time experience for those 12 young men and those coaches. It’s something they will cherish for the rest of their lives, but it’s also something the community will always cherish. We are going to put a banner up at Northrup Park where the little league is. We are also going to have a proclamation declaring a week for the Boerne Little League.”

The players have become local celebrities. Many were seen signing autographs and taking pictures with fans at the packed plaza.

“It was insane,” said Kole Newson. “I just waved [in the parade] to a lot of people and had a lot of fun.”

The team’s legacy will live on to inspire the next generation of little league players, city officials say.

“The [league] had 1,200 athletes this year,” said Mayor Ritchie. “That’s probably going to double by next season.”

San Antonio Spurs‘ Victor Wembanyama and Team France could not topple Team USA in August at the gold medal basketball game at the Olympics, losing 98-87.

Wemby did all he could, recording a game-high 26 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and one steal.

After the final buzzer sounded, Wembanyama and his French teammates were in tears, coming up short in front of the home country crowd.

Wembanyama won silver and was named to the Olympic All-Star Five team along with Nikola Jokic, Curry, James, and Dennis Schroder.

He was also named a rising star following his performance throughout the Olympic basketball tournament.

All-Star point guard Chris Paul signed on with the Spurs in August, joining the team as Victor Wembanyama looked for veteran leadership to step up the team’s aspirations in his second season. 

With the Spurs still looking to emerge from their rebuild, the team’s new point guard admitted he watched in 2023 and noticed a few things that can help sharpen the squad.

“I played against, these guys last year. I watched them. I watch film,” Paul said. “I saw how a lot of games last year they’d be winning, and then, you lose it down the stretch. 

During his introductory news conference, he did say he embraces the challenges of mentoring young players “very seriously.”

That was apparent at Media Day when he pinpointed another area the Spurs can improve in this new season: Being vocal with each other.

“Allow them to use their voices and make sure that we grow as a team more than anything,” he said.

So far in his first year with the team, he has proven to be a great complimentary piece next to Wembanyama and the rest of San Antonio’s young squad.

The Rangers defeated the Highland Park Scots from Dallas 32-20 to win the school’s elusive first state title in December.

It represented a successful yearlong journey for this team, which was blown by a 51-8 loss in the title game just a year prior, and the culmination of a much longer endeavor for head coach Larry Hill: This is his first time winning it all, in his fifth title game appearance and 32nd season at the helm for Smithson Valley.

Smithson Valley has made it to back-to-back state championships on the backs of their defense and phenomenal running game, helmed by elusive QB Cade Spradling and big-time RB Brad Sowersby. Spradling led the way with 147 rushing yards and two touchdowns while Sowerby had 152 rushing yards of his own.

Smithson Valley finished the season on an 11-game winning streak and overall mark of 14-2. They outscored their opponents 262-89 in their playoff run, and allowed 20-plus points just three times all year. 

“We’re not leading the area or the state in anything. It’s just a bunch of grunts that are playing hard,” Hill said after the victory at AT&T Stadium. “There’s still a place for old-school football. These guys epitomize that as much as anyone.”

The Roadrunners had their way with Coastal Carolina in the 2024 Myrtle Beach Bowl in December as they were able to put up the most points ever scored in the school’s bowl game history.

It started in the second quarter where UTSA broke the game open by scoring 21 unanswered points before halftime on the backs of QB Owen McCown and RB Brandon High.

The defense was able to hold Coastal scoreless through the first three quarters before a 50-yard touchdown pass to start the fourth ended an oppritunity for a shutout.

Regardless of completing the shutout or not, UTSA won the game by the largest margin of victory in the five-year history of the Myrtle Beach Bowl.

The Roadrunners have now won back-to-back bowl games and look to add to that streak in 2025.