Douglass’ Bryce Westbrook Finally Gets His State Championship

ROUND ROCK -- The old saying goes: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." But time was running out for Douglass senior Bryce Westbrook on his dream of becoming a state champion.

He had tried and failed three times before. This was his last shot.

So you could hardly blame Westbrook for wrapping his arms tightly around the state championship trophy after Douglass captured the school's first-ever baseball championship.

"Personally, I've been to state four different times in different events and I've never won gold; I've never got to hug a state championship trophy," Westbrook said following his team's 10-0 win over Flatonia in Thursday's Class A state title game.

Westbrook competed at the UIL academic meet in news writing as a sophomore and advanced to the state tournament in both basketball and golf last season. Each time he went home empty-handed.

"I think this is a perfect cap to a great high school career for myself, this class," he said. "It was just a surreal feeling when I got to hug that trophy and know that nobody could take this away from us."

For Douglass, a town of less than 1,000 residents with a high school home to fewer than 100 students, the past week will be one the community won't soon forget.

"Graduation last weekend was great," he said. "We got down here and were a little nervous because we had a target on our backs. But once we got on the baseball field -- we've been playing with these guys forever -- so it's just the game of baseball. So to cap it off like this, it couldn't be better."