Funeral services set for Robinson

By Ryan Aber
raber@opubco.com

Funeral services for legendary Millwood coach Leodies Robinson will be helpd at 11 a.m. Monday at the Cox Convention Center.

Robinson, 69, died Tuesday morning of an apparent heart attack.

Robinson coached Millwood from the program’s inception in 1971 until 1993, winning a state championship in 1990. His teams compiled a 196-71-3 record during his 23-year tenure.

Robinson was inducted into the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1994.

Earlier this year, Millwood named its field in Robinson’s honor.

Millwood hosts Washington in the second round of the Class 2A playoffs Friday night.

The Falcons are expected to have Robinson’s name on the field for Friday’s game.


OKC video

There’s plenty of good news coming out of Oklahoma City public schools these days athletically, with Douglass, Star Spencer and John Marshall all still alive and All-City Athletic Conference member Millwood still playing as well. In this week’s video, though, we lead with some sad news, as legendary Millwood coach Leodies Robinson died early Tuesday:


Rankings Preview: Nov. 15

For one more time before the playoffs end, here’s the rankings in all their glory:

EDIT: I’ve got to get this in above the jump: I messed up in my Class 2A rankings this week. I initially (and in Sunday’s paper) had Washington above Lindsay. Lindsay beat Washington comfortably during the regular season in a win that started the Leopards on a 7-1 run that has them going to Heritage Hall for a second-round playoff game.

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#11-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#10-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#9-2
4. Southmoore (4)#10-1
5. Midwest City (5)#9-2
6. Bartlesville (6)#9-2
7. Lawton (8)#9-2
8. Edmond Memorial (9)#8-3
9. Putnam North (10)#7-4
10. Mustang (7)#7-4

The top six teams here all win and remain the same. I seriously considered switching Southmoore and Midwest City and would’ve if the Bombers would’ve been more convincing in their win. Mustang drops from No. 7 to 10 after a 38-7 loss to Edmond Memorial. Lawton and Edmond Memorial each moved up a spot. Putnam North, despite the loss, moved up a spot to No. 9.

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OKRankings.com Boys Basketball poll

The OKRankings.com Preseason Boys Basketball Coaches’ poll has been released. These are the rankings that eventually go toward deciding playoff pairings. So here they are (first-place votes in parentheses):

Class 6A
1. Putnam City (8)
2. Putnam City West (7)
3. Muskogee (4)
4. Southmoore
5. Tulsa Union
6. Jenks
7. Edmond Santa Fe
8. Midwest City
9. Broken Arrow
10. Putnam City North
11. Owasso
12. Edmond Memorial
13. Lawton
14 Enid
15. Choctaw
15. Del City
17. Norman North
18. Edmond North
19. Lawton Eisenhower
20. Norman

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Know of a player signing?

With signing day coming up Wednesday, The Oklahoman is once again compiling a list of players across the state who have signed to play college athletics at any level.
If you have a signing to report, e-mail it to Ryan Aber at raber@opubco.com ro post it on the comments section here (on the main high school blog at http://blog.newsok.com/highschoolsports )

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Rankings preview: Nov. 8

Sorry for the delay from my usual late Friday night posting. Combination of a long drive back from Glenpool and trying to piece together the playoff brackets left me too tired to think straight last night by the time I would’ve been able to work on them So here they are in all their glory with a little different format this week (and I hope to do Class A-C in a similar format a bit later):

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#10-0
Why they’re not lower: Because the Trojans are the only team to go 10-0 in Class 6A.

2. Tulsa Union (2)#9-1
Why they’re not higher: Because the Redskins lost head-to-head to Jenks.
Why they’re not lower: Because their only loss is to Jenks (a two-point win) and they beat Broken Arrow — and everyone else — on their schedule.

3. Broken Arrow (3)#8-2
Why they’re not higher: Because the Tigers only two losses came to Jenks and Tulsa Union.
Why they’re not lower: They beat everyone else, including Bartlesville last night. They also own wins over Owasso, Claremore and Tulsa Washington.

4. Southmoore (4)#9-1
Why they’re not higher: Because they’re the only team of these top four to lose to a lower-ranked team. The SaberCats have also found themselves in more close games than any of the top four.
Why they’re not lower: An impressive list of wins in non-district and 6A-1: Edmond Memorial and Midwest City in non-district and Del City, Lawton and Mustang in district play. Other than Jenks, Southmoore has the best list of wins.

5. Midwest City (5)#8-2
Why they’re not higher: The only thing keeping the Bombers this low is non-district losses to Del City and Southmoore and its hard to vault them over the SaberCats with their previously discussed credentials.
Why they’re not lower: They’ve gone through a relatively weak district and done exactly what a really good team should — destroy everyone. The Bombers closest district game was a 22-7 win over 6A-2 runner-up Edmond Memorial. None of the others were decided by less than 29 points.

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Rankings preview: Nov. 1

Here’s the weekly preview for the rankings.

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#9-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#8-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#7-2
4. Southmoore (4)#8-1
5. Midwest City (6)#7-2
6. Bartlesville (7)#8-1
7. Mustang (9)#7-2
8. Del City (5)#7-2
9. Lawton (10)#7-2
10. Edmond Memorial (NR)#6-3

The main shift here came with Del City dropping three spots to No. 8. Midwest City and Bartlesville move up a spot each, while Mustang jumps up two spots. Edmond North drops out after losing for the second time in three games, and not looking particularly impressive in the one win during that stretch. Lawton moves up a spot to No. 9. Edmond Memorial makes its debut. I considered Owasso for that spot, and went back and forth but Memorial’s streak and the way the Bulldogs’ defense has played this season, even in losses, wins out over the Rams.

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Tulsa Washington forfeits likely snap playoff streak

Tulsa Washington’s forfeits to Tulsa Hale and Pryor yesterday likely ended the Hornets’ playoff streak that had extended 11 seasons.

Now, Booker T. needs help now in order to make the playoffs and it’s hard to see that help coming. Here’s what needs to happen for the Hornets:

-They need to win their last two games against Skaitook and Bixby. They shouldn’t have much of a problem with Skiatook. Bixby figures to be a tough test.

AND they need one of the following to happen: Pryor loses out to Miami and Tulsa Hale (A Miami team BTW stomped 90-0 earlier this season) OR Miami (remember what I said about 90-0?) beats No. 1 Tulsa Kelley OR 0-fer Tulsa Rogers knocking off Bixby. So in other words, their only chance is hoping Pryor falls apart. Could happen, as Pryor has lost its last three after a 5-0 start, but very doubtful.

So it looks like that streak is likely over. The last time Tulsa Washington missed out on the playoffs was 1997, legendary Millwood coach Leodies Robinson’s first year at the helm there. Robinson led the Hornets to 11-2 and 5-6 seasons before Antwain Jimmerson took over the program in 2000.


What are the most impressive streaks in state HS sports?

With Shattuck about to break Morrison’s record of 90 consecutive wins, I’m wondering what are the other streaks in the state that are most impressive?

Here’s a few I’ve come up with. Let me know, either through a comment here or an e-mail (raber@opubco.com), if you have any others.

I’m sure there are plenty more I’ve missed but here are a few:

- Morrison and Shattuck’s 90-game winning streaks in football
- Tulsa Union’s and Jenks’ stranglehold on the 6A football title
-Asher and Owasso baseball dominance
-McGuinness girls cross country
-Bethel girls basketball state tournament streak
-Bartlesville boys swimming
-El Reno wrestling
-McGuinness girls tennis
-Cascia Hall boys tennis


Rankings preview: Oct. 25

Class 6A
1. Jenks (1)#8-0
2. Tulsa Union (2)#7-1
3. Broken Arrow (3)#6-2
4. Southmoore (4)#7-1
5. Del City (5)#7-1
6. Midwest City (6)#6-2
7. Bartlesville (7)#7-1
8. Edmond North (9)#7-1
9. Mustang (10)#6-2
10. Lawton (NR)#6-2 

The top seven stay the same here. Bartlesville still No. 7 after a loss? Yes. The Bruins did score 40 points on Jenks, the first team to do that in regulation since Tulsa Union scored 44 early in the 2005 season (Jenks won that game 48-44). Bartlesville lost but still put together a good showing. They do need to blowout Tulsa Memorial next week, though, and at least hang with Broken Arrow to keep that spot. Edmond North and Mustang move up a spot each. I think Mustang would beat Edmond North head-to-head now, but I’m not going to leap the 2-loss Broncos over a 1-loss Edmond North when the Huskies won the head-to-head earlier this season. It came down to Owasso and Lawton for the final spot, and I even had Owasso written in at one time, but went back and looked at both team’s schedules. Lawton has 2 losses; Owasso has 3. The Wolverines’ most impressive win was a 27-14 victory over Mustang. The Rams was … a 30-8 win over Choctaw? 20-0 over Muskogee? 19-13 over Enid? Not a whole lot to be blown away by there. The Rams are playing much better than they were before the season but Lawton has impressed more to this point. Putnam North was the team that fell out of the rankings after their 46-14 loss to Mustang.

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