Marcus’ Heather Foust and Flower Mound’s Taylor Hoagland were named Co-MVP’s on the recently-announced District 6-5A All-District softball team.

     League officials opted to split the yearly honor given both standouts led their respective teams to 9-1 district records and a share of the league title. It is Foust’s first MVP selection while Hoagland won the award outright a year ago.

     “No one else was up for MVP because both girls were so obvious of a pick,” Marcus head coach Christy Tumilty said. “We as coaches knew there are a lot of talented players here, so it’s definitely an honor for both of them to get MVP.”

     Foust was 17-3 during the regular season and was instrumental in leading the Marauders to their second regional finals appearance in the last three years. Two years ago, she was part of the first Marcus team to advance to the state tournament. This year, they lost to Plano East 2-1 in a best-of-three series.

     With Foust on the mound, Marcus ripped through playoffs practically with ease. She struck out 13 and allowed one hit in a first-round win over Euless Trinity and also shut out Lubbock Coronado 11-0 in Game 1 of a best-of-three series. She went on to with Game 2 of that series 7-4, striking out eight.

     “She is a leader for us, and she knows how much hard work it takes to win,” Tumilty said.

     Though Flower Mound lost in the first round of playoffs to Grapevine, it has been hard to ignore Hoagland’s contributions during her high school career. The Texas signee finishes with a .450 career batting average and had four doubles, three triples and four home runs this past season.

     But perhaps her biggest contribution in 2009 was her switch to short stop and her move to the leadoff role in the batting order.

     “She had never played short stop before and she ended up being one of the best in the area at it,” Flower Mound head coach Mark Larriba said. “That, plus her move to leadoff just shows her versatility even more than before. It helped us because she had speed, and it put teams in an awkward spot because if they pitched around her, they still had to deal with the rest of our lineup. Most teams went right at her.”

     Both Marcus and Flower Mound combined for seven superlative honors. Flower Mound’s Ashley Rother won Pitcher of the Year while Marcus’ Sarah Draheim and Devon Wallace took home Catcher of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year, respectively. Tumilty and Larriba were Coach of the Year.

     Rother finished the season with a 17-4 record (including playoffs), and easily adapted to being the Jags’ No. 1 pitcher after being one of three standout pitchers the year before. In district, she pitched in nine games and had four shutouts.

     “I have no complaints with our representation,” Larriba added. “The coaches in this district are very fair and I think they did a good job considering how many great players there are.”

     Overall, Marcus garnered just two first team selections (Courtney Flanary and KelVon Greer) compared to Flower Mound’s four. Those that made it for the Jags were Kaleigh Walts, Jordan Jennings, Bethanie Hardzinski and Kim Ingram.

     Flower Mound had three more make second team compared to Marcus’ two. Katie St. Pierre, Natalie Huse and Stacia Boeckstiegel made it for the Jags while Hailey Winter and Danielle Blocker represented Marcus.