Coach Trey Bale and the Lockney Lady Horns during a timeout on January 28, 2022. (Ryan Crowe/FCR)
LOCKNEY – Changes are taking place in the Lockney basketball and track programs, according to LISD Athletic Director Jonathan Thiebaud.
Chris Mann is coming from La Pryor in South Texas to take over the Longhorns boys basketball program. At the same time Trey and Devin Bale are departing for Wink, where he has accepted an assistant basketball coaching position. She will take some time off as an educator to be a full-time stay-at-home mom to their three young children.
Mann replaces Kelan Verette, who moved to Anson with former Lockney Athletic Director and football coach Corey McCombs.
Mann has been an assistant coach in both boys basketball and football and head baseball coach for the past two seasons in La Pryor. He has also been employed part-time at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde with their GED program for high school students. Other coaching stops for Mann have been at a pair of 1A schools in Rocksprings and Detroit. Mann was the head boys basketball coach at Detroit.
La Pryor is located between Uvalde and Carrizo Springs in South Texas. Rocksprings is also in
South Texas between Junction and Del Rio. Detroit is in North Texas, east of Paris.
Thiebaud says Mann will also be the offensive coordinator for the Longhorns football team. “I’m excited about having him,” Thiebaud said, adding that he will continue to make calls as the defensive coordinator in addition to being the head coach.
Bale tells the Floyd County Record it was a tough decision to leave, especially with the amount of returning experience on the Lady Horns basketball and softball teams. The basketball team that went 24-9 and made a trip to the Area round is losing only one senior in Gabby Cervantes. The Lady Horns softball team is returning in its entirety.
Bale is not for sure if we will be an assistant basketball coach in the boys or girls programs. That will be determined when Wink gets their vacancies filled. He coached both at Lockney.
Devin Bale has been Lockney’s head cross country and girls track coach. Those positions are
also posted as a vacancy.
