The Texas Girls Coaches Association (TGCA) announced award winners for the 2020-2021 school year and two Sealy High School coaches were among the honorees. Danielle Eschenburg was named the cross country sub-varsity coach of the year and Caroline Owen was tabbed as the basketball middle school coach of the year.

TGCA, the largest association of girls’ athletics in the state, awarded coaches of the year at the sub-varsity and middle school levels for basketball, cross country, track, softball and volleyball and split up the honorees between Classes 1A-4A and Classes 5A and 6A.

Both Sealy coaches – who also serve as varsity basketball assistant coaches to head coach Anthony Branch – said it was an honor to be awarded two of the five awards given to its classification.

“I feel like I’ve just been doing my job and to be recognized is awesome,” Eschenburg said. “We have an amazing staff and I’m happy to work with every single one of these people.”

“It goes back to the community and even being put up for the award which is amazing,” Owen said. “It’s awesome for athletics, and girls’ athletics especially in the Sealy community. We’ve got some hard-working coaches here that are just trying to get the best out of their kids.”

Eschenburg, in her fifth year of coaching, helped the cross country team have another successful season that created bonds just as strong as family.

“Having four Eschenburgs on the team creates a bond there to start but being able to coach them and bringing that into the team dinners and building that bond, we’ve gotten so many runners in just from having fun,” Eschenburg said. “It’s a joint effort, just me being nominated is a great thing but it’s not just me, it’s the support of Coach Branch, Coach (Kim) Boyd and Coach (Shane) Mobley.”

Owen agreed the support system is one of the keys to the junior high’s success on the basketball court.

“He’s very supportive and anything that I need at the junior high level gets done and taken care of,” Owen said of Branch. “He’s over there drawing up plays at practice and that’s great, that’s all you can ask for is support like that.”

Of course, there were points in time that uncertainty from the pandemic clouded the season’s possibility of being played in full.

“I am really glad we got to go through the entire season and get to where we got with the two freshmen (Allyson Guerrero and Annabelle Williams) going to state and next year is going to be even better, the plan is to bring two teams to state,” Eschenburg said. “I’m also really proud we got our boys and girls to regionals as teams this year.”

“Very glad we got to have a season, especially at the junior high level you’re never sure but that group of eighth grade girls are amazing,” Owen said. “We went 20-1 over the last two seasons, they’re the real deal.”

Owen, a member of Sealy High School’s Class of 2013, is in her second year of coaching and similarly created strong bonds with familiar faces.

“I’ve had those girls for two years, I coached my sister and my cousin, I’ve known those girls since they’ve been itty bitty and that makes a difference but we have a lot of fun when we do it, it’s not just basketball we’re having fun in a family atmosphere,” Owen said. “It’s really cool for me because Sealy athletics gave me so much so it’s awesome to be honored as a coach.”