Heritage Hall sees record turnout for two-a-days
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
The first morning of Heritage Hall two-a-day football practices has come and gone, and head coach Andy Bogert is just happy he has enough equipment for everyone.
The Chargers are experiencing a record turnout for football this year, with over 80 kids arriving for the season’s first official practice. Bogert said the most kids Heritage Hall had seen previously was around 60.
“We’re close to being out of equipment,” Bogert said. “We got lucky and ordered another 20 extra helmets.”
Making matters even more interesting, Bogert moved the Chargers’ first practice to the school’s indoor facility because the outdoor fields were too wet. Squeezing 80 kids indoors, however, proved to be a challenging task.
The reason for the influx of players is simple: the Chargers have an enormous freshman class with over 30 players. The group is so large that Bogert plans on fielding a freshman team with its own schedule for the first time, well, ever.
“That helps immensely,” Bogert said. “The more you can get in the mix in a game situation, the more you can progress.”
Other interesting tidbits from Heritage Hall:
*Today marked the first high school practice for Barry Sanders, Jr., the son of former OSU and NFL legend Barry Sanders. Sanders, Jr., a 5-10, 170-pound freshman, already runs a 4.6-second 40-yard-dash and will likely see the field on offense, defense and special teams this year, Bogert said.
“He’s got loads of potential,” Bogert said. “And he’s only going to get bigger, stronger and faster. He’s going to be really good.”
*Quarterback Turner Petersen has fully recovered from a sprained ankle suffered several weeks ago. The injury, which occurred while Petersen was chasing Sanders, Jr., kept the senior out of the Top Gun Challenge in Tulsa. Other than an ankle wrap, Petersen showed no ill effects today.
“It’s fine,” Petersen said. “I didn’t sleep much last night I was so excited for today.”
*Heritage Hall players were difficult to tell apart today, as all wore shirts with the No. 43 to honor teammate Ford Price. Price, a senior, was diagnosed this spring with Ewing’s sarcoma, a cancer that has forced him to undergo chemotherapy as well as a recent surgery in Boston. Price will miss the season.
More on meningitis
Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
Last week I wrote a feature on Rick Roop, the Altus athletic director who amazingly recovered from a severe case of pneumococcal meningitis that put him in a coma. You can read that story here. Soon after it was published, I received the following e-mail from the Meningitis Foundation of America, wanting spread awareness about the disease. Here is the information in its entirety.
“The Meningitis Foundation of America (MFA), a national organization, would like the public and media to know that information is available regarding the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of meningitis.
MFA was founded by parents whose children were affected by meningitis. In addition to supporting vaccines and other means of preventing meningitis, the MFA provides information to educate the public and medical professionals so that the early diagnosis, treatment and, most important, prevention of meningitis, will save lives.
Meningitis is a dangerous and sometimes fatal inflammation of the brain and/or spinal cord that can leave survivors with serious life-long physical problems such as deafness, brain damage and other disabilities, meningitis can sometimes result in loss of limbs. MFA would like to be considered as a news resource for the disease.
If you would like to arrange an interview please call Jamie Callahan, General Manager of the MFA. For further information, visit the MFA website at www.musa.org.
MFA is proud to announce the new C.I.S.S. Container Identification Scratch System
When we participate in sporting events or mingle at social gatherings it is possible to lose track of our water bottles and/or beverage cans, especially those served in containers that are very similar or identical to a container from which you are drinking.This carries the risk of transmitting an illness, such as meningitis or the common cold or flu.
The Container Identification Scratch System, or C.I.S.S., is a fun way to make sure you always know your drink from others. Use it at sporting events or at a family gatherings and reduce the waste from forgotten drinks. Simply scratch your number from the C.I.S.S. label and identify your drink.
For more information please contact Bob Gold at Ciss.bob@gmail.com”
Roof steps down as Weatherford football coach
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
After one year back on the sidelines, Woody Roof has resigned as Weatherford’s head football coach to concentrate solely on being the school’s athletic director.
Roof announced the resignation late last week, and immediately turned over head coaching duties to assistant Mickey Seifried.
Roof returned to the gridiron last fall to coach the Eagles for the third time, and 13th season overall. Weatherford finished 8-4, losing to Broken Bow in the state quarterfinals. With a daughter in the sixth grade, Roof said he originally planned on coaching for six or seven more years, but Weatherford’s increased emphasis on fundraising and finding corporate sponsorship for athletics left him with a decision to make.
“I just felt like with the things that I’m going to have to do in the summer time and the things that I’m going to have to do through the season that I couldn’t be there all the time with the kids and they needed me to be there,” Roof said. “I just didn’t think I could be fair with the kids and be both.”
Roof steps down with 206 career wins and five state championships – two of which came at Weatherford (1991, 1992). At 58-years-old, Roof did not rule out an eventual return to the sidelines.
“I just take it one day at a time – that’s the best I can tell you,” Roof said. “I don’t know what’s in store for tomorrow, but right now I’m looking forward to trying to get the fundraisers going and looking forward to getting out and visiting with the people about corporate sponsors and doing the athletic directorship and raising some money for our program.
“We feel like we have an outstanding program here in Weatherford in an excellent community. They want us to be very successful in all sports – and to do that, it takes money. We’ve had great success in the last 20 years and been successful in quite a few sports and want to continue that.”
Seifried has been an assistant for six years at Weatherford, Roof said, and served as the offensive coordinator last season.
“Football is a 12-month around job. You’ve got to run a summer program, you’ve got to get them up and lifting weights, you’ve got to do things to try to keep up with the Joneses. That takes a lot of energy,” Roof said. “I think that’s Mickey’s deal. He’s very energetic. He loves to work in the weight room, he loves to have the time to do it in the summer time … so I think he’ll be a good fit here for us.”
5A girls semifinals definitely worth your time
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
Four games, four double-digit victories.
That pretty much summarizes my day covering the 5A girls quarterfinals.
(That is, unless you count the 30 minutes I spent frantically trying to figure out if people were just goofing off or if Putnam City really did get upset in the 6A boys tournament. Yup, they lost somehow. And I nearly lost my mind trying to send texts and call people while writing a deadline story.)
Anyways back to 5A girls. Thursday was pretty boring - just a bunch of dominant teams easily handling weaker opponents. Fortunately, this dominance means we have some pretty sweet semifinal match-ups coming up on Friday.
First, there’s Carl Albert and Coweta playing at 10:30 a.m. in the Ford Center. For starters, Carl Albert’s ranked No. 3 and Coweta is No. 2, which means fireworks should fly. What really piques my interest in this game, however, is that both teams essentially played identical games on Thursday. They came out, shot horribly in the first half, and then rebounded in the second half behind the stellar play of one particular player (Jenni Bryan for Coweta, Kylie Mayes for Carl Albert). So can both players – sophomores, mind you - keep up the hot streak? And are the teams going to come out affected by nerves again? We’ll soon find out …
(Um, sorry if I sound a bit like the 1960′s era Batman TV show there. Not intentional, I assure you. It’s just that it’s past midnight and I can’t really think straight)
The second match-up could be even better than the first. At 1:30 p.m. in the Ford Center, 5A No. 1 Tulsa Washington will square off against the only 5A team that it has lost to this year – rival Tulsa Edison. The teams have played three games against each other this season, with the Hornets winning two, but losing at Tulsa Edison. After talking to the Edison players, I’m pretty stoked. Not only did they say there’s a pretty intense rivalry, but one player told me she thinks both sides will play harder and more aggressive because of the rivalry.
Um, yeah, I think I’d like to see that, considering both teams already play extremely hard and aggressive.
Well, there’s my pointers for tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the games! Remember, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel …
Class B girls recap: What a night!
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
I’ve been involved with small-school state basketball tournaments for nearly 10 years running now, and let me tell you, there aren’t too many days like the day Class B girls had on Thursday at Midwest City High School.
For starters, the day started and ended with huge upsets. In the opening game, Mason — who hadn’t been to the state tournament since 1957 — shocked No. 3 Seiling 35-33. Having seen a lot of small-school blowouts, especially in the opening rounds, I was convinced that would be the best game of the day, hands down.
Boy, was I wrong.
The day closed out with an instant classic, as Vici’s Hannah Guthrie and Kiowa’s Katy Clift staged an epic duel that came down to the last second. Two Guthrie free throws helped Vici finish off Kiowa - the No. 2 team in Class B – by a score of 52-50.
Not only was this a huge upset, but it even had a little controversy thrown in for good measure. After a Clift jumper hit back iron with time winding down (seemingly the only shot she missed all half), Vici’s Jonna Gregory grabbed the rebound, but was then called for traveling. The officials checked with the scorer’s table, however, and determined she grabbed the rebound with 1.4 seconds remaining – meaning that by the time she was called for traveling, the clock had run out. Game over.
Um, needless to say, this did not please the Kiowa faithful, who let out a chorus of disbelief, obscenities and tears. The Vici side, however, erupted in jubilation. Understandable, seeing as how the best season in school history just got extended to the Big House.
Anyways, if those two games weren’t enough for you, the two in between were no slouches themselves. In the first, Tamara Brown helped Sentinel pulled off a semi-upset of Varnum. The same Varnum that beat defending champ Lomega by 20 in its last game. Brown absolutely torched Varnum to the tune of 22 second half points. Not too shabby, eh?
In the third game of the day, unheralded Cyril stood toe-to-toe with the very same Lomega for the better part of three quarters. Remember, Lomega has all starters returning from its state title team. But the upset wasn’t to be, as Lomega showed exactly why it is the defending champ – namely, depth.
Up by only three at the end of the third quarter, Lomega’s Britney Geis – the Raiders’ fifth leading scorer at only four points per game, mind you – drilled a buzzer-beater to stretch the lead to five. Lomega would never look back.
“That was the biggest shot of the game,” Lomega head coach Kevin Lewallen said. “If she misses that, we’re only up by three, and anything can happen.”
Instead, Lomega used that momentum to pull away to a comfortable victory.
Well, that’s a recap of the exciting day of games. If you missed it, well, that’s a shame because it was one heck of a good time.
Here’s some more tidbits that didn’t make it into the paper …
Stuck on the shot clock:
In 23 years of officiating, Rick Bales had never seen anything like it.
In the most amusing moment of the night, a fourth quarter shot by Cyril’s Shelbie Laughlin got stuck between the top of the backboard and the shot clock.
After a few moments of deliberating it was decided that A. the ball was out-of-bounds, and B. the only way to get it out was to knock it out.
So Bales began attempting what seemed like an extremely difficult shot angle. Despite missing badly on his first four attempts, he drilled it on the fifth, popping the ball free and causing the crowd to break out in applause.
“I was just hoping it would come out if I hit it,” Bales said, laughing. “I used to be a pretty good shot.”
A long ways to play Cowgirls and Indians:
While this is strictly an unofficial guess, Vici and Kiowa likely had the longest separation distance of the Class B girls match-ups. The towns are located on opposite sides of the state (Vici – NW, Kiowa SE) and are 268 miles apart, according to mapquest.com — a driving distance of four hours and 17 minutes. Thankfully, they just had to meet in the middle at Midwest City High School.
Moore to vote on Myers for football coach tonight
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
The Moore School Board will vote to approve or disapprove tonight of Scott Myers as the next head football coach for Moore High School, according to the meeting agenda.
Myers has been the head coach at Woodward for the past three years. This year, he led the Boomers to their first playoff appearance in seven seasons. Before his tenure at Woodward, he was an assistant at Moore under Tom Noles from 2001-2004, coaching the secondary. He also served as an assistant at Plainview and Chickasha.
Myers graduated from Chandler in 1985 after leading the Lions to a state title in football his senior season. He went on to graduate from East Central.
Myers was chosen from approximately 25-30 applications and eight interview candidates, district athletic director Carl Franks said.
With the new Southmoore High School (and football program) set to open in the fall, Myers would step into a competitive position. He would replace Bill Bays, who resigned at the beginning of the spring semester and has accepted the head coaching position at Choctaw. Bays — who had an 11-20 record at Moore and one playoff appearance — cited the desire to coach in a district with just one school as a part of his reason for resigning.
Alva linebacker commits to Marshall
Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
Tyson Gale, an honorable mention All-State linebacker from Alva, has committed to play football for Marshall next season.
Tyson made his decision Sunday night after a weekend visit to the school. He picked the Thundering Herd over New Mexico, his only other Division-I offer.
Tyson is the twin brother of Alva quarterback Mitchell Gale and son of Alva head coach Steve Gale. While Steve’s brother, Mark Gale, is the Marshall assistant athletic director for football operations and is the longest serving member of the Marshall coaching staff, the connection was initially just a helpful recruiting tool. Steve would send the videos to Mark, looking for his professional opinion.
“Then they started looking at the videos,” Steve said. “I was just sending it out just to get an idea, but they really liked what they saw. There was a need for them at middle linebacker, and (that connection) did nothing but help.”
Last season, Tyson had 157 tackles (16 for a loss) and five interceptions to go along with 448 yards receiving and six touchdowns. Tyson had 174 tackles and three picks his junior season.
Steve said Tyson was attracted to Marshall in part because of the impressive weight room and head coach Mark Snyder. Snyder, who visited Alva last week to watch Tyson play basketball, was a defensive coach at Ohio State from 2001-04, and coached future-NFL linebackers such as A.J. Hawk (Green Bay) and Bobby Carpenter (Dallas)
“That’s the type of player (Tyson)’d like to be,” Steve said.
Tyson will sign tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Alva, along with Mitchell (Abilene Christian,
Tex.) and free safety Derek Lohman (Emporia State, Kan.)
Stories abound at Boney Matthews Fieldhouse closing
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
I must admit, I got a little carried away at Friday night’s send-off to historic Boney Matthews Fieldhouse in Purcell. With so many old-timers, former players and coaching legends around, I ended up chatting with way more people than I needed to for the story I had to write. Because of this, I decided to put a couple of the good tales I heard here on the blog.
Former Lindsay coach Charlie Heatly provided the first laughs of the night as he presented the game ball before the girls game. Heatly is a legend in his own right in girls basketball, with around 640 wins, 14 state tournaments, and 2 titles in 28 years at Linsday. Between 1964 and 1971, however, Heatly also coached the Lindsay boys team – meaning he matched up directly with Boney Matthews’ Purcell squad around 15 times.
As Heatly tells it, it’s around ’68 or ’69, and his Lindsay squad is soundly beating Purcell late in one game. All of the sudden, Boney appears directly behind him.
“Scoot over,” Boney says. “I’m not doing no good down there on my bench.”
So Boney – the Purcell head coach, mind you – plops down on the Lindsay bench and stays there for the last couple of minutes.
“He just sat there,” Heatly recalls, laughing. “The Purcell players didn’t know where to go for the rest of the game. During time-outs, they couldn’t figure out if they should come to our bench or stay at theirs.”
I was lucky enough to stumble across 74-year-old Grant Frankenberg, a 1951 Purcell graduate, as the evening progressed. Frankenberg played on Boney’s first state championship team, and he also played alongside and graduated with Purcell’s most renowned basketball player, Lester Lane.
(For a quick history lesson, after winning the state title at Purcell, Lane went on to become an All-American at OU, and was a starting guard on the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medalist basketball team. Some of his teammates? Just a couple guys named Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas and Jerry West)
Anyways, Frankenberg had an interesting take on Boney’s legendary playing days. Although he was only 5-7 or 5-8, Boney was one heck of an athlete. While it has never been completely verified, Boney supposedly scored 98 points for Roff in a 142-0 win over Leigh in 1927 - an Oklahoma state record (I mentioned this in the regular story). As the story goes, Boney had 14 touchdowns and 13 or 14 extra points, although no statistics have ever been found of the game.
Frankenberg, however, said Boney may have nearly equaled that amazing feat while playing basketball.
“He told us he scored 99 points in a basketball game,” Frankenberg recalled of his playing days under Boney.
While I first thought Frankenberg was joking – or he was insinuating that Boney was joking – I quickly found out he was completely serious.
“I believed him,” Frankenberg said. “He was a great basketball player when we played against him. He was so small, but so quick and athletic.”
My last story comes not from an older person, but from one of the current Purcell basketball players. While most of the young people I talked to at the event had little idea of the history involved in the evening’s proceeding, not all of Boney Matthews legacy is forgotten in the younger generation. Hunter Marcum, a freshman on the team, said current boys basketball head coach Lee Reimer makes sure of that. Reimer has been at Purcell for 24 years.
“Coach talks about (Boney) a lot,” Marcum said. “A bunch of the younger guys don’t really know much about him, but we’ve learned from his stories.”
“Guys have sacrificed to make this a program,” Reimer said of his history lessons. “It’s up to us to carry on that program.”
“Tuley pulls double duty” and other Capitol Hill extras
Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
As is my norm, here are some excerpts of material that didn’t make it into Thursday’s feature on Capitol Hill head coach Donny Tuley and his efforts to reach players over the years.
The first interesting tidbit is this background info on Tuley’s early years.
In 1977, Tuley’s collegiate basketball career ended after two years at East Central. The 5-9 point guard knew he didn’t have the talent to play at the next level, but he definitely wasn’t going back to work in the oil fields or farming in his tiny hometown of Elmore City. The fiery, passionate young man with a wealth of basketball IQ was determined to make it big as a coach.
“My goal was to go as high up the ladder as I could,” Tuley recalls. “I wanted to coach in college or get even further on than that.”
That ties into this next sidebar, which was hardest part to leave out – by far - and was one of the more amazing facts about Tuley. In the story, I mention that, over the years, Tuley turned down several opportunites to fulfill his college coaching goal so he could stay at Capitol Hill.
Donny Tuley never completely gave up on coaching college hoops. While he passed up several opportunities in the mid-90s so he could stay close to and take care of his ailing parents, another door soon opened that allowed him the best of both worlds. For the past 10 years, Tuley has been an assistant coach at Redlands Community College while continuing his work at Capitol Hill.
You read that right. Not only is Tuley the head coach of a high school basketball team, he also is an assistant coach in college. Talk about a balancing act. Tuley often will leave his high school practice, take a car-load of players home, and then head directly to Redlands to help coach a game that night.
“It’s difficult (balancing the two), but the guys I work for at Redlands have given me a schedule, and I can work around their schedule,” Tuley said. “And it’s worked out quite well for us.”
At Redlands, Tuley has been a part of several successful teams, including a national champion in 2002, and has coached players like former OU standout Taj Gray.
Of course, another tough choice was picking and choosing which stories to tell. And my goodness were there stories. It seems like every person I talked to had a favorite memory of Tuley, or a touching moment to share, or a sob story to tell. Possibly one of the saddest was the following told to me by Tuley’s wife, Sherry.
Several years ago, a former player of Tuley’s named Fasha Norman was killed. The point guard was attending Langston, but his body was found in a Dallas park. At the funeral, Norman’s parents asked Donny to speak.
“Now Donny’s a very non-emotional kind of person,” Sherry said. “But at this kid’s funeral, he just broke down. He had to stop several times during this speech to compose himself.”
Unfortunately, this blog probably couldn’t hold all of the Tuley stories I heard, but I’ll close it off on a positive note. In the main story, I started off talking about the life struggles of senior forward Remy Boswell and his mother. What I wasn’t able to get to, however, was how much things have improved for the Boswell family.
Remy’s mom now has a job teaching in the Oklahoma City Public Schools system. Because of that – for the first time ever – Remy has a washer and dryer where he lives. He also believes his family’s story is a testimony, and he has a new motto for life: “The struggles are over.”
Bays to lead Choctaw football
By Zach West
zwest@oklahoman.com
Choctaw has hired former Moore and Edmond North coach Bill Bays to lead its football program. The hire was approved at a Choctaw school board meeting on Monday night. Fifty people had applied for the position, athletic director Greg Skaggs said, and eight were brought in for interviews.
“We think that with his track record of playoff experience and being a head coach … (Bays) was the best man for the job,” Skaggs said.
Bays, who resigned from Moore at the beginning of the spring semester, said getting the opportunity to coach in a school district with a single high school intrigued him. Next season, Moore will have to compete with Westmoore and Southmoore, which will be in its inaugural season.
“It’s just on this side of the state you have a limited number of single high school districts,” Bays said. “I coached at Yukon … and we enjoyed some opportunities there that the multiple high school districts don’t have.”
At Choctaw, Bays is replacing Ted Dorrell, who resigned at the end of last season. The Yellow Jackets were 13-37 in five seasons under Dorrell, including a 1-9 finish this year, and have not made the postseason since 1984.
“I like to look to the future. I’m excited about the opportunities that I see at Choctaw. We want to give the players a chance to win football games,” Bays said. “It’s a long process, but that’s fine with me. We’ve got a lot of challenges, a lot of hard work ahead of us, but that’s part of the process.”
With teaching responsibilities at Moore, Bays was unsure of when he would be able to start full-time at Choctaw.
“I can’t answer that question for you,” Bays said. “I don’t know how that’s going to play out.”
