Daniel Luster helped lead the Princeton football team to a 6-4 record for its first winning season since 2015. Photo by Jerry Winfrey / C&S Media
By David Wolman
Princeton held its own during its second year in Class 6A, highlighted by several clutch team and individual performances.
The Princeton Herald is proud to introduce the first installment of a three-part series celebrating the best teams, athletes, moments and performances from this past school year. The categories and winners for the second annual C&S Media High School Sports Awards were chosen by sports editor David Wolman, with winners being published over three weeks.
Part 1 (July 16) includes the Biggest Story, Breakthrough Moment, Newcomer of the Year and Best Team
Part 2 (July 23) will highlight the Best Game, Best Finish, Biggest Upset and Multi-Sport Athlete of the Year.
Part 3 (July 30) will wrap up the series with Coach of the Year, Most Improved Athlete, Best Male Athlete and Best Female Athlete.
These are the winners of the first installment of the series.
Biggest Story: Longtime athletic director Dillard retires
It was a decision that longtime Princeton ISD athletics director Stacey Dillard struggled with over the last two years.
But when it came to decide his future, family was the tipping point for Dillard. With his wife, Vickey, having retired last year, his oldest son almost done with college and the grandfather of a one-year-old boy, Dillard decided that it was time for him to focus on the next phase of his life.
Dillard officially announced his retirement last November after 25 years in coaching and school administration, including the last 18 at Princeton. Princeton’s ISD Board of Education accepted his resignation at a school board meeting Nov. 18.
He was hired as Princeton’s head football coach in 2008. Dillard led the Panthers to their first playoff win in 35 years during the 2011 season. He remained in that role until 2013, when he was promoted to the school district’s athletics director.
Former Denton ISD assistant athletics director Dr. Chivonne Kiser was hired as Princeton’s next athletics director in February.
Breakthrough moment: Softball team earns 1st District 6-6A victory
It had been a struggle for the Lady Panthers ever since they moved up to Class 6A two years ago.
Princeton didn’t win a district game in all of 2025 and scored just 26 runs in 16 district contests. However, the one team the Lady Panthers nearly beat was McKinney. Princeton and McKinney played a nine-inning thriller that was won 11-9 in nine innings by the Lionettes.
Those same two teams met again March 31.
Princeton not only got the better of McKinney this time, but did so in dominating fashion, with the Lady Panthers cruising to a 12-2 victory.
Princeton jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead and never looked back.
Eight different Lady Panthers had at least one hit. Lead-off hitter Valentina Beltran notched three hits and four RBIs. Zaniya Passini collected three hits. Meghan Gilbert, Fernanda Rodriguez-Fierro, Zoie Rainey, Camila Beltran, Dahlia Gutierrez and Hailey Highbarger each had two hits.
Newcomer of the Year: Sydney Smith, girls’ track and field
Smith was already an accomplished runner when she first arrived at Princeton.
She is an eight-time Junior Olympic All-American and nine-time USA Track & Field All-American in the long jump and girls 100-meter hurdles.
At her previous high school, Allen, she won the district title in the hurdles, in both her freshman and sophomore seasons, and placed seventh in the Class 6A state meet last season.
Success continued to follow Smith.
During her first season at Princeton, Smith broke the school record in both the long jump and 100 hurdles.
Smith entered the postseason ranked No. 1 in Region I-6A in the girls 100-meter hurdles. She won her third straight district title after posting a time of 13.7 and broke the school record the following week at the area meet, clocking a 13.67. However, she was unable to qualify for the state meet.
In the long jump, Smith won the district title after posting a leap of 19-10.25 and qualified for regionals after placing fourth in the area meet, but she fell short of qualifying for state.
Best Team: Football
With a significant amount of talent coming back from the 2024 team that finished 2-8 in the Panthers’ first season in Class 6A, former head coach Ervin Chandler said Princeton had the potential to have a breakout 2025 season.
The Panthers not only protected leads far better than they had the previous season, but also developed a winning mentality.
Led by a high-powered offense that averaged 32.4 points per game, Princeton finished 6-4 for its first season with a winning record since the Panthers went 6-5 in 2014.
The Panthers were 3-1 to begin district play, jump-started by a 57-55 double-overtime win over Plano East. The following week, alum Jordan Mosley made a goal-line interception with less than one minute remaining to preserve a 41-34 road win over Prosper Rock Hill. Two weeks later, Princeton outlasted McKinney 30-21.
Although injuries to key players hurt Princeton’s chances to make the playoffs, the Panthers rallied to defeat McKinney Boyd 28-24 in the final week of the season to clinch the program’s first winning season since 2014.
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