Camps highlight busy month for Marble Falls athletes

CAPTION: Sophomore Brighton Bernard (left) and senior Kate McCary are among the returners for the Lady Mustangs in 2025. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The final weeks of July are shaping up to be especially busy for the Marble Falls Independent School District athletic department.

In addition to having two weeks remaining for Forge ’25, the department’s strength and conditioning program, three head coaches are hosting sports camps.

First up is the Lady Mustang Volleyball Camp from 9 a.m.-noon Monday-Wednesday, July 14-16, for rising ninth-12th graders. Camp director is new head coach Zoey Beard-Hanrahan, who accepted the job in May.

The primary instructor is Faith Academy of Marble Falls head coach Erin Sawyer, who guided the Lady Flames to the 2024 Class 3A state tournament of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools. Sawyer also is the founder and director of the Highland Lakes Aces club team. One of the club’s new coaches, Honey Chandler, also will be instructing.

Other instructors are Austin Performance Club coaches Sarah O’Neal and Arianna Ibarra.

Beard-Hanrahan didn’t mince words on the importance of the Lady Mustangs participating.

“Very important,” she said. “This is a big opportunity. While tryouts will still take place on Aug. 1-2, every chance to showcase your skills and standout counts — so make the most of it.”

She said she is looking for specifics from the Lady Mustangs during the camp.

“I hope to see a lot of discipline, determination and clear understanding of the fundamentals,” she said. “The (Marble Falls) coaches will be observing the camp to see how summer Forge and skills have helped this summer. Most of all we want to see how the girls encourage each other and communicate.”

Next week’s athletic department camp is the Mustang Tennis Academy led by head coach Samuel Whitley and assistant coach Nathan Redman. The academy, which is for children in grades second through eighth, is from 6-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, July 21-24. Cost is $70.

Among assistant instructors are members of the Marble Falls High School tennis team.

The camp focuses on the basics and fundamentals of the sport – footwork, the proper way to hold the racket, and eye-to-hand coordination in addition to learning all the strokes and the proper way to serve. Another big part of the academy? Agility training.

“Stuff that’ll pay off in the future,” Whitley said.

In order to make it fun, campers play a lot of games where they’re learning the basics without realizing they’re working, too.

It’s the second session of the academy. The first session, which was June 2-5, had more than 30 campers. Whitley said he believes this session will be around the same number.

He added there’s still space for more. Email him at sw******@********ed.net for more information. 

The month ends with the Mustang Football Camp for children in Kindergarten through the ninth grade. It’s Monday-Thursday, July 28-31. Camp registration July 28 is at 5:30 p.m. with the camp going from 6-8 p.m. each evening.

The camp director is head coach Keri Timmerman and the instructors are the Mustang coaching staff.

The coaches will teach the campers the basics and fundamentals of the sport as well as the base offense and defense to the freshmen. For the ninth-graders, this camp is an introduction to what they’ll experience during fall training camp that begins Monday, Aug. 4.

CAPTION: Katie Terrell is another returner who gained plenty of experience in 2024. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro