Hard work, winning are on tap in Shiner
Roy Bragg, San Antonio Express-News
August 27, 2015
MySanAntonio.com Article | St. Paul Cardinal Sports | Shiner Comanche Sports
SHINER — As is the case with most small Texas towns, this rural community takes high school sports very seriously.
Shiner’s Chris Baer is stopped by Falls City’s Derek Sturm during a game on Dec. 5, 2003. photo by Kerri Besio, Victoria Advocate (2003)
And nothing is more serious than high school football, which kicks off this week all over the Lone Star State.
In this part of Texas, that means the Shiner Comanches play Vanderbilt Industrial at home. St. Paul’s High School, a Catholic prep located across town, i.e. two miles away, plays Yorktown on the road. Both games start at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
In Shiner, a Czech-German town of 2,107 located halfway between Houston and San Antonio, football comes with certain expectations.
For one thing, it’ll be easy to find everyone Friday night.
"The streets will be empty," says Travis Kremling of Texas Thunder Radio 94.3 FM, the local radio station. "Everyone will be at one of the games."
Secondly, there will be Czech music in the air. That’s not a cheap shot at an ethnic stereotype. Both schools use the "Shiner Song," which was originally a polka called "Road to Praha (Prague)" as their fight song. They sing it before, during and after games.
Given that these are scholastic sports, there will be no beer allowed, even at the Catholic game. But beer will be on everyone’s subconscious.
That’s because the Comanches’ helmets sport the longtime Shiner Beer insignia, minus the word "Premium" in the middle and "Football" in place of "Beer" at the bottom. The Spoetzl Brewery, which makes the state’s best mass-marketed beer, sits on the edge of town.
And finally, people will expect the Comanches to win, because that’s what they tend to do. The school won last season’s UIL Lone Star Cup for Class 2A schools. The award is the all-sports trophy given to the high school in each division with the best all-around program.
It wasn’t a fluke.
Here are the Comanches’ state championships in recent years: football (2004), baseball (2002, 2004), softball (2001-02, 2008, 2011, 2015), and mixed doubles tennis (2007).
Last season, the Comanches went 10-2 in football. This season, Shiner comes in as the fourth-ranked team in Class 2A Division I.
People here are so accustomed to winning that a visitor this week was hard-pressed to find signs that football kicks off Friday.
Unlike other towns, where downtown merchants decorate their storefronts and cheerleaders put school- colored ribbons on anything that isn’t moving, I saw no signs in Shiner that football season was here.
Shiner, in other words, acts like it’s been there … because it has.
"I guess we’re spoiled," said mayor Fred Henry Hilscher, chuckling. "We’ve been very lucky."
It’s a simple formula, Hilscher said.
"The deal is that here, right off the bat, in Shiner, we start them young," he said. "We’ve got great youth programs for kids. These kids, especially the girls, are so prepared when they get to high school to play volleyball and softball. They get used to winning."
Shiner also benefits from being on U.S. Highway 90 rather than on Interstate 10, the newer, parallel road. There’s less traffic, worse accessibility to larger cities and fewer distractions for the kids than in neighboring towns on the interstate.
The same holds true for adults.
"The parents around here are involved," Hilscher said. "We’ve got great volunteers. That’s a key to it."
High school and youth sports are, for the most part, the only show in town.
Shiner also has benefited from consistency. Head football coach Steve Cerny has been here for 28 years. He has coached entire families on the gridiron and on the diamond.
Diamond? Yes. He’s also the softball coach, which means he has guided multiple state championship teams and in three sports.
The school wins, Cerny said, because the whole town works hard.
"It’s not just about athletics," he said. "It’s academics, it’s music, it’s everything. It’s about the work ethic of the town. It starts in the homes and carries over to the school."
Roy Bragg / rbragg@express-news.net / Twitter: @roybragg
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