Argyle High School this week won its second Class 3A UIL Lone Star Cup trophy in three years for accomplishments in academics and athletics.
School officials call the 2011-12 year among the school’s most successful years, both in academic and athletic competition.
“This is probably one of our best years since I’ve been there,” said Jeff Butts, Argyle High’s principal of seven years. “It’s just an unbelievable year for us.
“It is just a total commitment by our school board, our community and our staff to have a well-balanced education, and that’s what the Lone Star Cup represents. We pride ourselves on being a balanced program and not just focusing on one area.”
Annually since the 1997-98 school year, the University Interscholastic League has recognized five high schools — one in each UIL classification — for achievement in the league’s sanctioned academic and athletic events. Lone Star Cup final standings were released Monday.
Argyle accumulated 94 points this past school year to clinch the Lone Star Cup. Abilene Wylie and Lucas Lovejoy each finished with 72 points, tying for second place.
Lone Star Cup recipients are generally finalized in July. Throughout the school year, schools in classes 1A through 5A accumulate points toward the honor based on their school’s performances in UIL academic and athletic contests.
During the 2011-12 year, Argyle finished first in the state academics and basketball contests, was state runner-up in football and is the reigning 3A marching band champion.
Argyle, which competes for the 3A marching band championship every two years, won the title during the 2010-11 school year. Golf and track teams also made it to the state competition, according to school officials.
“It’s a huge honor,” Superintendent Telena Wright said of the Lone Star Cup. “It’s an honor that has to be lived up to. To rise to the top of every 3A school in the state is a very difficult attainment.”
Four of Argyle’s five teams competing for state titles in academics — accounting, numbers sense, calculator applications and math — finished first, said Cliff McCurdy, the school’s UIL academic coordinator.
The campus science team finished third, he said. Individually, McCurdy said freshman Ross Coker was the teams’ standout, finishing first in the number sense, math and physics competitions.
“This is our best team ever,” McCurdy said. “We won district, region and state … by more points this year than ever. The margin [in] points was really big.”
Chris Schmidt, a UIL spokesman, said each school finishing first in Lone Star Cup standings receives a $1,000 scholarship and a trophy, which is generally presented at a home football game or an event of the school’s choosing.
Each year since 2008, Argyle has finished among the top two in the Class 3A Lone Star Cup standings, according to the UIL website and Argyle school officials. The school finished as the Class 2A Lone Star Cup leader in 2006 and received its first 3A trophy in 2009.
Argyle and Southlake Carroll high schools are the only two schools in the state to ever receive the Lone Star Cup in two classifications, according to the UIL.
Butts said he wants the community to appreciate the honor because it played a part in the school’s successes. Such an honor doesn’t come easy and a lot of schools can’t say they’ve ever attained such an honor, he said.
Butts said it’s easier to lose than develop such a tradition, and he doesn’t want the community to lose the focus on what it takes to achieve such success or take for granted that such a recognition doesn’t come easy.
BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com.
TOP FIVE
The top five finishers in the Class 3A UIL Lone Star Cup standings are:
1. Argyle: 94
2. (tie) Abilene Wylie and Lucas Lovejoy: 72 points
4. Liberty Hill: 64 points
5. (tie) Celina and Lubbock Cooper: 58 points
