FCA Baseball Coaches Clay Haltom (Van), Wes King (Frankston), Justin Stanfield (Van), Bryan Schneider (Chapel Hill) and Dustin Russell (Tatum).

Hailee Hollan Oney was selected to play in the second annual FCA Heart of a Champion All-Star Softball Game in 2016 when she was a senior at Hallsville High School.

Now as the head coach at New Diana, Oney will be coaching in the 10th edition of the game, which will take place May 31 at Tyler Legacy High School.

“I’m so excited, especially since it hasn’t been that long since getting to play in it,” Oney said. “It is really cool. It’s going to be totally different from being the athlete and getting to connect with these kids and telling them my story. It’s going to be really neat.”

Oney was one of several coaches introduced on Friday morning at First Christian Church for the annual FCA Heart of a Champion All-Star Games.

Oney is one of the assistant softball coaches on the Blue Team, along with Katina Cooper (Edgewood) and Justin Kniffen (Tyler Legacy). Russell Smith (Canton) is the head coach of the Blue Team.

“It’s fantastic,” Smith said. “It’s such a fun weekend. I’ve gotten asked to do it a couple of times and getting asked to do this and kind of lead my team is a fun thing to do. And I do take it as a great honor. It’s kind of a sign of respect from the FCA and fellow coaches.”

Coaching the softball Red Team are head coach Ronny Grandgeorge (Beckville), Baleigh Briggs (Van), Donald Gray (Spring Hill) and Rebecca McGough (Brownsboro).

“For me, it is a humbling opportunity to be selected,” Grandgeorge said. “There are a lot of great coaches. I’m excited about seeing kids all over East Texas and get the opportunity to invest in them a little bit and work with them. It’s great to give them one more opportunity to suit up for some of them and be able to play the game they love and just be able to pour into them and encourage them as they go off in the next chapter of their life.”

Game directors for the softball game are Paul Roberts and Meredith Grant (Lindale). Consultants are Mark Chitty (Grand Saline) and Colby Sales (Mabank).

Clay Haltom (Van) is the head coach of the baseball Red Team. He will be assisted by Wes King (Frankston) and Justin Stanfield (Van).

“It’s awesome,” Haltom said. “It was such a great even last year for everybody, for coaches and for players. Just to be a part of it last year was awesome and then to get the invite to come back and be a head coach of it, I’m ecstatic and honored to be here.

“Last year was kind of just eye opening. I got a chance to grow in my faith, and I’m just looking forward to do that again this year personally and get to do it with a bunch of new kids that I get to meet.”

Bryan Schneider (Chapel Hill) is the head coach of the baseball Blue Team. He will be assisted by Shane McQueen (Chapel Hill) and Dustin Russell (Tatum). The baseball game director is Jeff Lee, and the consultant is Rich Sanguinetti (Lindale).

“It’s a blessing,” Schneider said. “I’m so excited. I got to do it last year and it was a blast, especially getting to do it with great coaches and around some of the best players in the state of Texas. I was going to text Robert (Bardin) and ask him if I could just be a part of it, and he texted me first and asked me if I was interested to do it, and I said absolutely. And especially getting to coach against my buddy, Coach Haltom, who I worked for and now we’re in the same district, so getting to be able to play and coach against each other, there’s a little bit of bragging rights.”

The head coach of the football Blue Team is Sabine head coach Cody Gilbert. Phillip Anderson (Sabine) will be the offensive coordinator, and Josiah Bone (Sabine) will be the defensive coordinator. Others on the Blue staff are Tyrin Evans (Hallsville), Alex Guerra (Edgewood), Keith Guthrie (Tyler High), Conner Sharp (Carlisle) and Zach Spears (Gladewater).

“It’s really awesome to be back and what an honor to be named as a head coach,” Gilbert said. “I think it’s going to be a really neat experience for our coaches, my OC and DC, and just an opportunity to be with those kids in their last high school football game.

“It’s powerful. We have the opportunity to share the love of Jesus, which is really special to be able to do. It’s part of our calling. And then for a lot of these kids, it’s their last opportunity to play a football game. To be a part of that makes it really unique and special.”

The head coach of the football Red Team is Overton head coach Scotty Laymance. Josh Furlow (Overton) will be the offensive coordinator and Roderick McKnight (Overton) will be the defensive coordinator. Others on the Red staff are Brandon Alvarez (Garrison), Rafe Mata (West Rusk), Jaron Rainey (Van) and Josh Rankin (Longview).

“It’s a great honor to be able to be a part of the FCA All-Star Game,” Laymance said. “FCA, for so many kids in East Texas and across the nation, plays such a huge part in their lives. And to be able to be a part of it with other coaches in East Texas, we have such great ball here and so many great players. To get to coach some kids that we normally don’t get to coach at our schools and make an impact on them is great.”

Bardin is the game director of the football game, and coordinators are Scott Callaway (Bullard) and Luke Blackwell (Mineola).

Not only were the coaches introduced on Friday, but they also got to draft their teams, something they all were ready to do.

“I’ve got my eyes on some people that I’ve seen in the other dugout a few times that I would like to be in my dugout this time,” Smith said.

“I kind of looked over the draft sheet when they sent it out,” Grandgeorge said. “A lot of the names I’ve seen, I’ve read about in newspaper articles and watched them play or heard my girls talk about so and so from this school. It’s a great opportunity, an exciting opportunity.”

“There’s plenty of guys we’ve got circled we’re going to try to get,” Haltom said. “I’m tired of dealing with those Lindale kids, so we’re going just try to get them on our team.”

“He (Coach Haltom) already said he would try to get a few of mine, and I said I’ve got some eyes on a few of his players,” Schneider said. “And we were all fighting for some of those guys in our district we know can swing the bat and pitch a little bit. There’s a lot of great talent out here.”

“There are so many talented kids in East Texas,” Gilbert said. “Our coaching staff is such a huge fan of the kids that we play against, so the opportunity to coach those kids in the game is really cool.”

“We got the list I think on Wednesday, and our staff has been poring through it,” Laymance said. “We’re like NFL guys going through scouting, watching HUDL film and trying to find stats on MaxPreps on guys we don’t normally play against or see. It’s really exciting for us, especially the Class 2A Division II coaches, to be able to coach these guys at this level. We have some talented players in East Texas. It’s going to be super fun to coach these guys.”

The cheerleading coaches are Cheryl Trimble (Harmony) and Summer McCartney (Big Sandy).

The softball (10th year) and baseball games (ninth year) are scheduled for May 31 at Tyler Legacy High School. The football game (14th year) will be June 1 at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium.