The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hometown Horns: Rockwall, Texas
10.27.2006 | Texas Athletics
Twenty-five miles northeast of Dallas one will find Rockwall, Texas -- home to Lake Ray Hubbard, a new Bass Pro Shop, and one fine baseball program. In fact, four current Texas Baseball players hail from the town with an estimated population of 30,000: senior , junior and sophomores and .
Last season, Clark cemented himself into the role of starting catcher and looks to follow his recent predecessors at the position with a potent bat to go along with his powerful arm. In 2006, he started 61 of UT's 62 games, hitting .273 with 12 doubles, five home runs and 30 RBI.
Bishop has been described as a power pitcher and adds another quality arm to the Longhorns bullpen. He was sidelined his freshman year due to an injury incurred in high school.
Lewis is a versatile player who not only serves as backup catcher, but also saw action at second base, shortstop, and third base for the Longhorns. Last season, he appeared in 38 games for Texas, including 25 starts. He hit .247 with 13 runs, three doubles and 11 RBI. Prior to playing for Texas, Lewis lettered two seasons at UT-Arlington. He recorded a .986 fielding percentage his sophomore year committing only 4 errors in 292 chances and finished fourth on his team with a .258 batting average in 2005.
A hard-working scholar and athlete, Newton works as a reserve catcher with the UT pitching staff and pitching coach, Skip Johnson. He did not see action during the 2006 season, but in high school he not only lettered two years in baseball, but was a four-year letterwinner as a linebacker in football and a two-year letterwinner in powerlifting.
Their shared time together has granted them not only great team camaraderie, but friendship. All but Bishop have lived the majority, if not all, of their lives in the small city, though Bishop said he regularly attended camps run by Rockwall coaches when he was little. At some point in high school, he remembers, his dad told him that he and Clark had played over 1,000 games together.
Rockwall's roots run deeper than America's favorite pastime. The first settlers of the area began arriving in the late 1840s to inhabit the area near the East Fork of the Trinity River. The town itself began like The University of Texas -- on forty acres. The land was donated by Elijah Elgin and Rockwall was officially established April 17, 1854. The name of the town was chosen by the townspeople due to the unusual topographical formation that lay beneath the surface of the proposed town site.
It functioned as a business and community center for area farmers and in 1886 when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line reached Rockwall, it became a shipping point for cotton, wheat and corn. Although originally part of Kaufman County, the surrounding area was established as its own county in 1873 and Rockwall County became the smallest county in Texas. People from neighboring towns Blackland and Heath moved to the new county seat and by 1890 Rockwall's population had grown close to 1,000 people.
Rockwall's real growth came in the 1970s and 1980s with the construction of Lake Ray Hubbard and business opportunities in Dallas. In 1988, the estimated population of Rockwall was 5,939 and it has grown exponentially since then. According to the Dallas Business Journal, Rockwall is the fastest growing county in the state and fourth fastest in the country in recent years with an increase of 7.74% between July 2004 and July 2005.
A new construction project on Lake Ray Hubbard, called The Harbor, is underway which will offer 120,000 feet of new shopping, dining, entertainment and office space.
Hopefully Rockwall will keep its small town feel despite this recent growth spurt. Bishop says that this is what gives the community its character.
"It has a small town atmosphere," Bishop said. "A lot of the people are pretty involved with the community so they really support athletics."
Clark agrees and added that one of his favorite memories in Rockwall was making it to the semi-regionals in baseball.
"The crowds were so huge for a high school game," Clark reminisces. "It was really such a great environment to play in."
"Even in a football-crazy environment like East Texas, our baseball crowds rivaled those of the football team." Lewis said.
Before the recent expansion on the lake the players noted that there was not much to do in Rockwall for recreation besides baseball. When asked what they would take their friends to do or see their answers varied.
"I guess we'd go out on Lake Ray Hubbard," Bishop said. "I wouldn't say there are too many tourist attractions."
"I'd take them to tour Rockwall High School," Clark noted with a laugh.
Tyler Newton looked to his friends for an answer when he couldn't think of the new attraction, The Harbor. He asked, "What's that new place on the lake?" to which Bishop guessed, "Bass Pro Shop?"
Bishop noted how Rockwall influenced not only his athletic career, but his life.
"We were real close with our high school coaches because we had been in camps and stuff with them since we were little," Bishop said. "It really was like a big family and it kind of continued on here [at Texas]."
