Plano East incoming senior outside hitter Simone Heard helped to lead the Lady Panthers’ volleyball team to the third round of the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Photo by Roosevelt Joubert / C&S Media
By David Wolman
After the Plano East girls’ soccer team defeated Plano 4-0 on April 7 to clinch their first playoff berth in 15 years, the players decided to celebrate with a postgame meal at BJ’s Brewhouse and Restaurant.
“I think that they got some ‘Pizookie’s,’” said Cristy Cooley, Plano East head girls’ soccer coach and girls’ athletic coordinator.
Cooley has witnessed the program’s highs and lows since being named interim head coach in 2014. While the Lady Panthers had come close to qualifying for the postseason several times, she said this year’s team was the most cohesive during her tenure.
That same sense of cohesion extended across Plano East’s entire girls’ athletic program.
In addition to the girls’ soccer team’s breakout season, the Lady Panthers’ volleyball team made it back-to-back third round playoff appearances, the fall team tennis reached the postseason for the second consecutive year, the softball team advanced to the regional final for the first time since 2012, and the girls’ basketball team made its first-ever appearance in the state semifinals.
“It was truly the ‘Year of the Lady Panther,’” Cooley said.
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