After 30 years of coaching and teaching, Tascosa head girls’ basketball coach Chris Sumrall is hanging up his whistle officially announcing his retirement Tuesday morning.
Sumrall has spent 30 years in the coaching profession with 28 of those as a head coach earning an impressive 643 career wins. Sumrall simply said he felt like this was just the right time to move forward in his life.
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“There are multiple reasons for why I felt I wanted to retire,” Sumrall said. “One is a financial reason. I’m young enough at 52 to still go out and find something else. If I’m being honest, I feel like I’m tired and I wasn’t looking forward to the off-season and even my wife thought, I needed a sabbatical. We also have some family things to do and we needed the flexibility.”
Sumrall has had many stops along the way with coaching stints at Electra, Groom, Idalou, Coahoma, and Clyde. Sumrall led the Garden City girls basketball team to the UIL state tournament in 2015. He’s best known around the Texas Panhandle for his seven years coaching the Wellington Lady Skyrockets girls programs. In those seven years, Sumrall led the Lady Skyrockets to three regional finals and helped the Lady Skyrockets cross country team to the UIL Class 2A state cross country championship in 2021.
“Winning a cross-country state championship was one of the more special things I’ve done as a head coach,” Sumrall said. “I’ll never forget that. I’ll never forget being at Wellington. Wellington became our home. Both my daughters graduated from there and some of my best friends still live there. I love Wellington and I was really proud to be a part of that community.”
Three years ago, Sumrall made the move to take over the Tascosa Lady Rebels program that was struggling at the time. Over those three years, Sumrall turned Tascosa around winning 87 games and leading the Lady Rebels to the regional semifinals last year and then making the regional championship game this season.
“I said when I took the job at Tascosa I thought it was a gold mine,” said Sumrall, who led the Lady Rebels to 33 wins this past year. “I still think it is. There is great administration there and great kids all-around. The girls worked hard and the program is in a great place for whoever takes over to go do something special.”
As for what’s next, Sumrall doesn’t really have an answer to that question, however, he is at peace knowing what the coaching profession gave him over the past three decades.
“I’ve loved every second of coaching,” Sumrall said. “I love the relationships I’ve built with players, coaches and the opposing coaches. I was able to coach both of my daughters and that meant the world to me. That is what I’ll take most with me.”
