Burnet girls coordinator Cavender accepts Cedar Park job
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
BURNET — Burnet High School girls coordinator and head basketball coach Mike Cavender will still be wearing green next year, but it will feature more of a timberwolf motif than a bulldog.
Cavender is headed to Cedar Park Middle School where he will coach football and track as well as be a member of the Cedar Park High School boys basketball staff.
The move allows Cavender to spend more time watching his own sons Cory, a junior, and Kyle, a freshman, compete in athletics.
The BHS athletic department confirmed the resignation May 30.
“I am making this move to spend more time watching my boys play and actually get to coach with them in basketball instead of missing what they do because of my own job,” he said. “It was a family-oriented decision.
“This is extremely difficult for me,” he added. “I’m not leaving because of one single thing about the girls athletic program. I love those kids.”
The coordinator said he will receive a little bit of a pay raise but noted the No. 1 reason for the move is because he will have the time to watch his sons play without having the responsibilities of coaching basketball teams in holiday tournaments or missing track meets and football games because of being the varsity head coach.
Both Cavender boys will enroll at Cedar Park High, the Class 4A Division II defending state football champion.
Cavender has been a member of the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District for 11 years. Originally hired as the girls coordinator at Burnet Middle School by former athletic director Bob Shipley, Cavender accepted the position of high school girls coordinator and head basketball coach when it opened up in 2007-2008.
At that time, athletes were leaving the Lady Dawgs program, and underclassmen were elevated to the varsity level in order to fill out rosters. It didn’t help that Burnet was playing in District 25-4A, which has sent at least one team to the regional tournament every year for the last seven years.
Cavender made it no secret his top priority his first year at BHS was getting more girls in the athletic program.
“I inherited a program with 13 kids from the year before,” he said. “Over the last six years, we have averaged 45 or kids a season.”
Since the 2008-2009 season, Burnet has been a member of Class 3A, and Cavender has guided the Lady Dawgs to some historical moments.
Burnet has been to three regional tournaments and played for the right to go to the state tournament in 2011-2012.
“I felt like we had the kids to become very successful,” Cavender said. “I coached them all at the middle school. Now, if we don’t get to the regional tournament, they always look at it like we had a bad year. We turned the corner. Now, it’s not about just getting in the playoffs. It’s about getting to The Dance and going somewhere.”
He noted that kind of success wasn’t possible without assistant coach Doug Messer and Lisa Skupin.
“Coach Cavender did an outstanding job of bringing stability to the girls side of our program,” athletic director Kurt Jones said. “The expectations in that program are high, the bar is set. We appreciate everything he’s done.”
Cavender said he hopes to be remembered for a couple of things.
First is that all of his athletes, regardless of sport, knew that he cared for them as people.
And second, that the Lady Dawgs made the playoffs in the other sports. Former volleyball coach Bethany Grissom guided Burnet to the 2009 regional tournament and was in the playoffs each year she was the head coach. And the softball team ended a streak of four consecutive playoff appearances this year.
“Everything that has happened in the girls athletic program during my 11 years was because of the outstanding coaches that I worked with and absolutely the best girls that I have ever had the pleasure to coach,” Cavender said. “It’s easy to be successful when you have great kids. I’d like to hang my hat on that. I hope people say I left the program better than I found it.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com
[tabs style=”default”] [tab title=”ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT BCISD”]2002-2007: Burnet Middle School girls athletic coordinator. Named Middle School Basketball Coach of the Year and Burnet Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2003-2004
2007-2013: Burnet High School girls coordinator and head basketball and assistant track coach.
2011-2012: Dean Weese Award from the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches for Class 3A High School Basketball Coach of the Year
Never had a losing record at Burnet High School with five consecutive playoff appearances resulting in 13 postseason victories, including three trips to the regional tournament and one regional finals appearance. [/tab] [tab title=”SEASON FINISHES”]2012-2013: lost to Wichita Falls Hirschi 60-52 in area
11-12: lost in the Class 3A Region IV final to Liberty Hill 58-36
10-11: lost to Yoakum 47-42 in area
09-10: 1st district championship in 24 years, lost to Abilene Wylie in regional semifinals 56-39
08-09: lost to Lubbock Estacado in regional semifinals 65-50. The Lady Dawgs beat Hirschi 46-44 in the regional quarterfinals.
07-08: posted program’ first winning season in five years at 17-16. “We did it against 4A competition. That was a building stone,” Cavender said. [/tab] [/tabs]