Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byGraham Neal
In Lake Travis High School’s football locker room, one locker stands out. It is filled with flowers, teammates’ signatures, letters and equipment left untouched.
The locker belongs to Odin Hensley, a senior offensive lineman who died on Aug. 12, two days after suffering a cardiac emergency during a preseason practice.
Odin Hensley’s locker still sits in the Lake Travis locker room. According to Coach Carter, the locker is signed by the team, and parents come in weekly to place fresh flowers inside. Graham Neal/Reporting Texas
“He’s still with us,” Cavaliers head coach Hank Carter said. “I know if Odin were here… he’d be wanting to work and get after it. So our best way to honor him is to get after it.”
Nearly three months after Hensley’s death, the Cavaliers are playoff-bound, touting a 5-3-1 record, including a 4-2 record in district play after a dominant 58-0 victory over Westwood on Friday. They will enter as the top seed in District 25-6A Division I after winning three of their last four games.
byIsabella Schultz
Twenty years ago, Tracey Brown and her husband, Steve, opened Austin’s first-ever Miracle League branch.
The Miracle League is a nonprofit sports organization that caters to the needs of those with cognitive and physical disabilities. Participants say it provides them with a sense of community while playing America’s pastime, baseball.
“What we didn’t understand was the impact it would have on parents,” Brown said. “Being the parents of healthy children, we took for granted sitting on the sidelines, eating popcorn.”
byBayliss Flynn
A 20-year-old Austin man known for his mountain climbing videos died this week after a rockfall on the Matterhorn, his family and authorities said Thursday.
Kieran Liner, who moved to Austin in 2020, was climbing Tuesday with his roommate Eli Hawkins at an altitude of about 11,500 feet when the rockfall occurred, his sister, Precenia Newman, told Reporting Texas.
Valais Cantonal Police said one of the climbers on the Hörnli Ridge route up the Matterhorn, a peak in the Alps between Switzerland and Italy, lost sight of his companion due to rockfalls and immediately called authorities about 6 a.m. Tuesday. Formal identification of the deceased was underway, police said.
Newman said Liner’s family was notified of his death by the U.S. consulate in Switzerland.
“You don’t cage a beautiful bird.” Newman said. “We weren’t going to stop him no matter what. If he had something in mind, he was going to do it.”
byJackson Bauer
The crack of a wood bat is drowned out by chatter, laughter and live music at a small field 12 miles east of Austin where baseball is secondary to community.
“For me, it’s about creating an inclusive environment and something that feels really homegrown or authentic,” said Matt Orr, 39, who manages events at the Long Time, a baseball-themed event space.
Over the weekend, as the Brewers and Rays began the major-league World Series, the Long Time hosted its own Fall Classic. Seventeen teams from as far as San Francisco and Minneapolis played in the “Sandlot World Series,” a three-day event of baseball, good vibes and fun.