Southmoore redux: Outtakes on a complicated process
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
I must admit, summarizing the start-up process for Southmoore football into a small enough space to fit the newspaper was no easy task. Thankfully, I was given enough room to do an adequate job, but certain humorous or interesting items still had to be whittled down or cut out completely. Of course, that extra information is why we have a sports blog (or so I’m told), so here ya go.
One of the tidbits that didn’t survive the final cut was the following excerpt comparing Southmoore to Oklahoma City’s Centennial High School, which underwent a similar ‘starting from scratch’ process leading up to this past football season.
When Oklahoma City’s Centennial High School started its inaugural two-a-days last fall, 14 players showed up for the first practice. During a 1-9 opening season, the Bison often played with 20 or so players, and managed to finish the season with 34. Centennial head coach Randy Wilson said, however, that Southmoore has two distinct advantages over the situation the Bison were in. First, with the size of the Moore school district, overall numbers shouldn’t be a big problem. Second, since Southmoore head coach Chris Jensen was hired in December, he has a good head start on player identification and training.
“I was hired late (in May), and I didn’t have an opportunity to identify many of the athletes and get them in our program, and summer pride program,” Wilson said “It’s important to be able to identify your kids and know who they are, and what they can and cannot do. He’s going in knowing some of the kids, and that’s a big positive.”
Another intriguing aspect of the story that hit the cutting room floor was the situation facing the players who have a choice between going to Southmoore or staying at their original school (Moore or Westmoore). As you can see from the following excerpt, many of the players I talked to were torn in their decision, and for good reason. Choosing between the school you’ve grown up with and a new, exciting opportunity is a heavy load for a high school student. (Note: This idea was cut from the story because I’m going to develop it for a new story in a week or so, around when the players have to decide)
After several weeks of administrative discussion, it was decided that all upcoming seniors who live in the Southmoore district will have a choice between staying and switching. The only other players with a choice are upcoming juniors who lettered their first two years of high school.
Knowing which kids can choose, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Tracking them down and convincing them to play is a whole different story, especially when they’re scattered among two high schools and three junior high schools.
“We don’t get to run into them on a daily basis … that’s one of the first things that we’ve had to do is sit down and try to figure out how we’re going to go to four different schools and meet with all of these kids that are potentially Southmoore SaberCats,” Jensen said. “We want to communicate to the kids that we want them to come to Southmoore, but we’ve got to make sure that we can’t make promises that we can’t keep.”
For players who have grown up cheering and playing for Moore and Westmoore, changing loyalties can be extremely difficult. Detrek Wallace, a current Moore sophomore, has gone back and forth for weeks trying to decide.
“A lot of people are going, and I know a lot of people there. But I also know a lot of people here (at Moore),” said Wallace, who indicated he’s about 60 percent in favor of Southmoore. “It’s been one of those choices that you have to make when you grow up.”
When he chose Southmoore, fellow Moore sophomore Kyaunn Thompson felt the sting of disappointing his former teammates.
“Some of them are upset, because they really depended on me to play with them this year. It’s hard leaving because Moore is the first team that I’ve played for, and I didn’t really want to play for another team,” Thompson said. “But I wanted to try a new thing, and I’m hoping that my decision will be a good one.”
One of the more humorous stories came from assistant head coach Jason Melot. This was probably the hardest cut, just because it effectively shows just how overlooking the smallest detail could potentially cause major problems down the road for an upstart football program.
Jason Melot couldn’t believe it. Scanning the inventory – a checklist of 85 items supposedly covering all equipment needed by the team – he couldn’t find one of the most basic football items.
“The one thing I didn’t see was mouth pieces,” Melot said, laughing. “That always comes up late, you know: ‘Where’s the mouthpieces?’”
Sure enough, despite having everything from goal post covers to elbow pads, mouthpieces were nowhere to be found. Thanks to Melot’s catch, the players won’t be short in the mouth department for spring practice. Every item on the list, however, still has to be purchased, with many of them needed by May for 10 days of practice in pads.
Also, just as a reminder, you can go to gosabercats.com for more information on the team.
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I HATE COACH MELOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!