Former Sequoyah-Tahlequah star Angel Goodrich helped Kansas pull off a pair of upsets to advance to the Sweet 16.

BY RYAN ABER
raber@opubco.com

Unfortunately all of the former state standouts were beat out in the first two rounds of the NCAA Men’s Tournament, with Butler’s Rotnei Clarke (Verdigris) and Iowa State’s Tyrus McGee (Stringtown) coming closest to advancing to the Sweet 16.

On the women’s side, though, three Oklahoma high school alums helped their teams advance to the Sweet 16.

None was bigger than former Sequoyah-Tahlequah star Angel Goodrich, who helped 12th-seeded Kansas pull off a pair of upsets.

Goodrich had 20 points and eight assists in a 75-69 win over South Carolina in the second round after posting 14 points and eight assists in an opening 67-52 win over Colorado.

In Kansas’ win over South Carolina, former Norman standout Ashley Bruner had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Gamecocks in the loss.

Goodrich’s Jayhawks play top-seeded Notre Dame at 11 a.m. Sunday in Norfolk, Va.

Former Star Spencer standout Sharane Campbell also had a big start to the tournament, averaging 17 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2 steals for Oklahoma in tournament wins over Central Michigan and UCLA.

The sixth-seeded Sooners play No. 2 Tennessee at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in Oklahoma City.

Duke’s Richa Jackson, a former Midwest City standout, started for the Blue Devils in wins over Hampton and Oklahoma State, totaling five points, two steals and three rebounds.

The No. 2-seed Blue Devils play No. 6 Nebraska at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Norfolk.

Madill, a program known for churning out top-notch running backs in recent years, has scored 40 points or more in seven games this season.

But on the other hand, Star Spencer held seven of 10 opponents to 17 points or fewer, a list that includes No. 1 Kingfisher and Heritage Hall.

Anchored by four-year starting linebacker Kenneth Davis, the Bobcats will need their stout defense to keep the game within reach as they try to win in their first playoff appearance since winning the 2009 4A state championship.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com
Twitter: @ScottWrightOK

That year, the Bobcats were Class 4A state champions. It seems like a long time ago, after two difficult seasons trying to rebuild.

But Davis and the other seniors are trying to lead this year’s squad back to its winning ways, reminding the younger players of just what’s possible at Star. It helps that the seniors are playing for the same coach, James Harding, for the second year — the first time during their careers.

“We’ve got newcomers every year, and I try to help them be in the position I was, to start as a freshman,” said Davis, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound linebacker. “I just try to do what I can to help the team.

“The last two years have been tough. We just have to keep going, keep getting better. We’ve got to put it all together to go win games and get back where we used to be.”

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com
Twitter: @ScottWrightOK

Awards
Coach of the Year: Lloyd Wertman, Perkins
Co-Player of the Year: Lexus Jackson, Bethel
Co-Player of the Year: Shane Taff, Perkins
Offensive Player of the Year: Travis Battles, Perkins
Defensive Player of the Year: Kris Kelly, Prague
Co-Quarterback of the Year: Gage Auld, Prague
Co-Quarterback of the Year: Austin Hodge, Little Axe
Offensive Back of the Year: Justin Vermillion, Bethel
Co-Receiver of the Year: Sam Kinzie, Perkins
Co-Receiver of the Year: Charlie Lynn, Little Axe
Co-Offensive Lineman of the Year: Dale Burch, Star Spencer
Co-Offensive Lineman of the Year: Austin Maly, Prague
Co-Defensive Back of the Year: Justus Edwards, Perkins
Co-Defensive Back of the Year: Jay Woodberry, Bristow
Co-Inside Linebacker of the Year: Walter Lynn, Little Axe
Co-Inside Linebacker of the Year: James Russell, Prague
Co-Outside Linebacker of the Year: Bubba Grotheer, Perkins
Co-Outside Linebacker of the Year: Baruck Strickland, Prague
Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year: Cody Krug, Perkins
Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year: Gant Palmer, Prague
Co-Defensive End of the Year: Chance Bunch, Perkins
Co-Defensive End of the Year: George Chacon, Bristow
Specialty Player of the Year: Quincy Riedau, Star Spencer

Coach of the Year: Tony Henry, Millwood
Coach’s Special Recognition: Mark Ryan, Centennial
Player of the Year: Cayman Bundage, Douglass
Defensive Player of the Year: Jas’Sen Stoner, Douglass
Offensive Player of the Year: Dametric Sanders, Millwood
Co-Special Teams Players of the Year: Quincy Rideau, Star Spencer; Juan Campos, Northwest Classen
Defensive Lineman of the Year: Bobby Wilkes, Millwood
Co-Linebackers of the Year: Marc Robinson, Millwood; Gumaro Murphy, Southeast
Defensive Back of the Year: O’Sha Clark, Douglass
Co-Offensive Linemen of the Year: Devin Dobbins, Millwood; Dale Burch, Star Spencer
Offensive Back of the Year: Luis Leyva, Capitol Hill
Receiver of the Year: Kameron Bryant, John Marshall

First Team Defense
Defensive Line: Christian Nicholson, U.S. Grant; Kevin Williams, John Marshall; Codie Nolan, Northwest Classen; Genaro Monter, Southeast; Justin Woody, Northeast
Linebackers: Derrick Ward, Star Spencer; Andrew Bailey, Douglass; Malcolm Scales, Millwood; Francis Taylor, Capitol Hill
Defensive Backs: TyLiq Braziell, Southeast; Brandon Morse, Capitol Hill; Derrick Young, U.S. Grant; Chris Compton, Douglass
Punter: Carlos Morales, U.S. Grant

First Team Offense
Quarterback: Christian Gorham, Northwest Classen; Michael Thomas, Northeast
Running Backs: Cory Hooks, U.S. Grant
Receivers: Trevon Willis, Northeast; Marvin Kerbo, Northwest Classen; Deonte Childs, Douglass
Offensive Line: Diamonte McClellan, Douglass; Charles Hayes, Star Spencer; Jacob Tavarez, U.S. Grant; Harvey Hightower, Millwood; Michael Holder, Southeast; David Johnson, John Marshall
Place Kicker: Antonio Cueto, Southeast

Honorable Mention
Capitol Hill: Maleke Dixon, Jerrad Fomin
Douglass: Davon Barber
Millwood: Marquise Kemp
Northeast: Savon Peevy, Demarkus Long
Northwest Classen: Marcus Ervin
Southeast: Nolan Payne, Michael McAnelly, Dominique Schweitzer, Nicholas Chamberlain
Star Spencer: Quintrae Kendrick
U.S. Grant: Eric Benevue, Javier Tarrazas

Douglass junior Stephen Clark and the two-time defending Class 4A state champion Trojans will be in action at the All-City Preview tournament, which begins on Tuesday night.

The All-City Preview, the preseason basketball tournament featuring the Oklahoma City Public Schools and Millwood, begins Tuesday evening at Northwest Classen and Capitol Hill. The tournaments will be concluded on Thursday with championship and third-place games, as well as loser’s bracket competition.

Each site will host seven games on Tuesday, between both boys and girls teams. All 11 schools from the All-City Athletic Conference will participate, including a pair defending champions, the Douglass and Centennial boys teams.

Here is the schedule for Tuesday’s games:
Girls
At Capitol Hill
5 p.m.: Star Spencer vs. Centennial
6 p.m.: Classen SAS vs. Capitol Hill
7 p.m.: Northeast vs. Star/Centennial winner
8 p.m.: Douglass vs. Classen/Capitol Hill winner
At Northwest Classen
5:30 p.m.: US Grant vs. John Marshall
6:30 p.m.: Northwest Classen vs. Southeast
7:30 p.m.: Millwood vs. US Grant/John Marshall winner

Boys
At Northwest Classen
5 p.m.: Southeast vs. US Grant
6 p.m.: Millwood vs. John Marshall
7 p.m.: Northwest Classen vs. Southeast/US Grant winner
8 p.m.: Centennial vs. Millwood/John Marshall winner
At Capitol Hill
5:30 p.m.: Star Spencer vs. Classen SAS
6:30 p.m.: Capitol Hill vs. Northeast
7:30 p.m.: Douglass vs. Star/Classen winner

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com
Twitter: @ScottWrightOK

Douglass won the All-City Preview championship once again on Friday night, but just like last year, the discussion turned to a much more important trophy than the one the Trojans claimed Friday.

It’s all about another state title for this team, which starts its season Sept. 5 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, against DeSoto High School

It won’t be an easy game, and the Trojans know that. For the sake of comparison, DeSoto’s official enrollment is 2,750. Douglass’ is 495. If you moved DeSoto to Oklahoma, they’d be the fourth-largest school, right behind Jenks (2,843) and just ahead of Owasso (2,604).

I’ll get into the game a little more throughout the week, and I’ll be traveling down to Texas for the game as well.

Here are a few other thoughts from the semifinals and finals of the All-City Preview:

-Millwood still has a lot of talent, and even though they graduated so many Division I players from last year’s squad, I don’t expect to see a ton of drop-off. Dametric Sanders is a very athletic quarterback who is dangerous when he gets to the edge. Marc Robinson didn’t get to play in the scrimmage because of OSSAA rules as he completed his required one year of sitting out after transferring from Heritage Hall. He’ll be a big boost, especially on defense. He and Larry Lambeth will be one of the better linebacker pairs around.

-John Marshall is still young, even though some of those guys, like quarterback Devion Smith, got some good experience last year. Kameron Bryant is a tall, athletic receiver with good ball skills, and he could be in for a big breakout year. He’ll be a tough matchup for any cornerback in that district. Tyler Stamm provides a big, athletic tight end target as well, so look for the passing game to take a step forward this year. Defensively, the secondary is the strenght of the team, but the front seven seems to be coming together.

-Star Spencer coach James Harding always talks about making his players accountable, and he’s clearly going to be a man of his word. The Bobcats opened fall camp with 62 players but had fewer than 40 suited up Friday night. Players who missed practices or got in trouble at school were held out as Harding implements his value system in his new program. On the field, the Bobcats will rely on defense, especially with a couple of athletic, hard-hitting players in the front seven. Kenneth Davis and Derrick Ward are two good leaders and both — but Davis especially — can pop the pads.

Lastly, don’t forget that our state-wide, class-by-class season preview publication will be included in Sunday’s paper. Be sure to pick one up. We have everything from preseason rankings, all-state teams and feature stories on some of the best dynamic duos in the state. It’s a little different than in past years. Instead of having separate sections for OU, OSU and high schools, it’s all one big section together, so don’t miss it.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com
Twitter: @ScottWrightOK

And here’s the good news for Star Spencer: if Harding does turn out to be that kind of coach, he could get the Bobcats back to making deep playoff runs before long. Because you know that the player cycle will go back up for Star. They had a huge senior class when they won it all two years ago, and they didn’t have the depth or talent to replace all of those guys. They had a small senior class last year, and an even smaller one this year.

The numbers seemed to impact Star’s boys sports across the board. The basketball team had a down year. Track didn’t have as many guys competing for state medals. But the current junior and sophomore classes have more depth — and talented depth — so the cycle looks like it will be turning back around.

As for this year, Harding only has three seniors, so he knows leadership will be vital for the younger players. And Harding quickly identified senior Derrick Ward as someone who would be valuable in that role.

“He’s been outstanding. He’s done everything we’ve asked and more,” Harding said. “He’s been the real leader on this squad. Good grades. Nobody has a bad thing to say about Derrick.”

Ward will play a variety of positions on both sides of the ball, including defensive end, linebacker, tight end and fullback.

“They’ve got me moving around a lot. I like it. Something new,” Ward said. “You’ve got to have leadership on every team, and I feel like it’s my job. So I’m just stepping up and trying to be a leader like I have my whole life.”

I think there’s an even more interesting story to be told about Ward, who runs his own mowing business, has a part-time job, attends Metro Tech and never misses a practice or workout. Hopefully I’ll be able to get into that side of his story at some point this season.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

The Wes Welker Foundation’s board of directors have approved $29,000 in grant money to four Oklahoma City-area schools, the organization announced Monday.
The grants were awarded to Star Spencer’s volleyball and athletic department, U.S. Grant’s football program, Putnam City West’s football and athletic department and Crooked Oak’s athletic department.

The foundation, founded by former Heritage Hall and current New England Patriots standout Wes Welker, was founded five years ago with the aim of helping underprivileged kids.

The foundation awards grants twice a year to schools and organizations in the Oklahoma City area. It also provides free sports camps for at-risk youth and a coach and leadership development program.

The foundation has given more than $192,000 in grant money in the past four years.

U.S. Grant is a two-time recipient.

Other organizations that have received the grants in the past have included Life Change Academy, Astec Charter School, Douglass High School, Memorial Park Boys and Girls Club and Western Village Academy.

First Team:
Dorrian Williams – Douglass, Stephen Clark- Douglass, Ramond Jenkins- Douglass, Romond Jenkins- Douglass, Tre Jordan- Southeast

Second Team:
Jamil Donovan- Northwest Classen, Marcus Johnson- Centennial, Marquis Buxton-Hill- Douglass, Nico Meadows- Capitol Hill, Dre’ Triplett- Millwood,

Third Team:
Korihon Jackson- Northeast, Dominique Manuel- Douglass, Craig Hackney- Centennial, DeSean Carolina- Centennial, DeMontrey Mitchell- John Marshall

Honorable Mention:
Capitol Hill-  Josh Thompson, Aaron Brown, Darrin Tucker
Classen- Cameron McClure, Anthony Bolar
Douglass- Darris Mitchell, DeAngelo Clark
U.S. Grant- Anthony Hartfield, G’vonte Bonds
John Marshall- Talmadge Lawrence, Tyler Harrison
Centennial- Darius Lacey, Austin Garner
Northeast- Eric Peabody, Gabe Houston,
NW Classen- Paco Jones, Anthony Hardrick
Southeast- William Brewer, Travis Morris, Jay Gogue
Star Spencer- Gary Ford, Symon Smith

Star Spencer's Sharane Campbell is the NewsOK.com Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

Much like whenever Sharane Campbell was on the floor for Star Spencer, you could never count her out. Midwest City’s Ashley Clark got off to a big lead, then Courtney Walker asserted her dominance, but it was Campbell’s grittiness that carried the day.

Receiving just under 31 percent of the more than 1,900 votes, Campbell is the NewsOK.com Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

What can you say about Campbell? She’s the ultimate competitor. Was never afraid to inside and bang and was just as comfortable playing the role of point guard.

Campbell burst onto the scene in 2008, leading the Bobcats to the state championship. Everybody knew then she would be a name to watch for her final three years. And she was. The team was never as talented as that special 2008 group, but Campbell never quit on them.

Coach Janith Johnson was always quick to say how Campbell tried to be like a big sister to the younger girls and helped them develop.

It was all worth it this year when a team that I didn’t think was going to sniff a state tournament berth upset Harrah to advance to the 4A dance. Star lost to Cache in the quarterfinals, but for an unranked team to make that run was more than enough. And it was a great way for Campbell to close out her career.

Campbell averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds for her career despite EVERYBODY knowing she was the No. 1 option for the Bobcats.

No idea what kind of impact Campbell is going to make at Oklahoma, but you know there won’t be anybody who is going to work harder than her.

NewsOK.com poll results:
Sharane Campbell, Star Spencer – 31 percent (594 votes)
Courtney Walker, Edmond Santa Fe – 28 percent (544 votes)
Ashley Clark, Midwest City – 24 percent (460 votes)
Elizabeth Donohoe, Edmond North – 14 percent (267 votes)
Marisha Wallace, Midwest City – 3 percent (54 votes)

Thanks for all those that participated and congrats to all five finalists for amazing seasons.

***

Robert Przybylo, bprzybylo@opubco.com

Will Josh Richardson overtake Ryan Spangler for NewsOK.com Boys Player of the Year?

Voting ends Friday at 11:59 p.m. for the NewsOK.com Boys and Girls Basketball Player of the Year. So if you haven’t voted for your candidate enough, well, you got four more days to get to it.

As of 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, here are the numbers:

Girls
Sharane Campbell, Star Spencer – 583 votes, 30.9 percent
Ashley Clark, Midwest City – 458 votes, 24.3 percent
Elizabeth Donohoe, Edmond North – 260 votes, 13.8 percent
Courtney Walker, Edmond Santa Fe – 532 votes, 28.3 percent
Marisha Wallace, Midwest City – 49 votes, 2.6 percent

Boys
Stephen Clark, Douglass – 452 votes, 9.9 percent
Obi Emegano, Edmond Memorial – 117 votes, 2.5 percent
Dominique Raney, Putnam City – 716 votes, 15.6 percent
Josh Richardson, Edmond Santa Fe – 1,596 votes, 34.8 percent
Ryan Spangler, Bridge Creek – 1,708 votes, 37.2 percent

Thanks for the more than 6,000 combined votes in the boys and girls polls. Once again, the voting closes Friday so you still have a chance.

***

Robert Przybylo, bprzybylo@opubco.com

Star Spencer's Sharane Campbell is one of the five finalists for the NewsOK.com Girls Player of the Year.

The response for the NewsOK.com Football Player of the Year was tremendous so we’re going to try it again. Like before, please try to keep it civil as there is a way to cheer for your nominee without bashing the others.

Here are the five nominees for the five best girls basketball players in the Oklahoma City area. Scott Wright is going to unveil his five boys choices Friday.

NewsOK.com Girls Basketball Player of the Year Candidates:

Sharane Campbell, Star Spencer: Put the team on her back and carried them to state. A marvelous career with the Bobcats and leaving in style with coach Janith Johnson. You can’t question Campbell’s toughness and want to and Star’s star (get it?) is headed to Oklahoma.

Ashley Clark, Midwest City: Wow, where did she come from? Clark is the unquestioned breakout star of the season, IMO. She won the Gatorade award as the state’s best player last week and added balance to the Bombers’ size in the post. A natural scorer who also has an all-around game.

Hard to argue with Edmond North's Elizabeth Donohoe as Player of the Year. She's one of the five finalists.

Elizabeth Donohoe, Edmond North: If there’s something to be said about consistency, then the award goes to Donohoe. What more can you say about the Huskies’ star? Averaged more than 20 points and 10 rebounds, unquestioned team leader, one of the toughest covers in the sport. Headed to Oklahoma State and established a winning tradition at North.

Courtney Walker, Edmond Santa Fe: Lightning in a bottle. Can impact the game in so many different ways.  Improved her outside shot this season to make her even more versatile. Some of the best ball-handling skills I’ve seen from a high school player. Tremendous scorer and a beast on defense in terms of getting steals. Committed to Texas A&M. Helped Wolves to first championship.

Marisha Wallace, Midwest City: With all the talk about Kaylon Williams (OU signee), it was Wallace who became the unstoppable force in the post for the Bombers. Unfortunately missed the last two games with a knee injury and didn’t get a chance to try to lead MWC to another state championship.

Polls are open. And like I said, Scott will be back Friday for the boys.

***

Robert Przybylo, bprzybylo@opubco.com

Star Spencer junior Symon Smith made seven 3-pointers to lead the Bobcats to a playoff upset of John Marshall Thursday night.

I didn’t know what to expect from Star Spencer Thursday night. Based on the last time I had seen them play, I knew it could be bad, but you always expect to see a good battle between All-City Conference teams, especially in the playoffs.

Still, it was hard to shake the memory of that 104-26 loss to Douglass back in January the last time I saw the Bobcats.

But Symon Smith helped me put that memory behind me quickly. He came out gunning from 3-point range, and I don’t think he even hit the rim on the first four he made. He hit seven in all and finished with 28 points in the 66-63 upset of No. 13 John Marshall.

This was a huge win for Star. With the season they’ve battled through, these kids deserved something good to happen.

Gary Ford doesn’t have the size some of Star’s big men have had in the last couple years, but he’s long, and he works hard on the boards. He also has the offensive skill to go out on the perimeter, which makes him a tough matchup.

It’s easy to forget how good Star was last year, and the fact that all five starters went on to play college ball somewhere. Not only did they fill up the starting lineup, they ate a lot of minutes, so Smith and Ford were the only two guys who really got a lot of varsity action off the bench.

The most impressive thing Thursday night was that after grabbing the early lead — Star went up 21-9 in the first quarter — and seeing John Marshall slowly chip away at it, the Bobcats never caved in. The Bears’ Tyler Harrison started matching Smith swish for swish from long range, and JM eventually pulled within three points late in the third quarter.

But despite the fact that they had only won five games coming into Thursday night, the Bobcats stayed focused and held on for the win.

Ford finished with 14 points and Anthony Hardimon had 13. Sophomore Jaylen Mustin only scored two points, but his two clutch free throws with less than 20 seconds remaining iced the game for the Bobcats.

“We’re just happy to get this win,” Smith said. “We’re turning it around in the playoffs. It’s been a hard season.

“Everybody’s been counting us out, and that’s why this feels so good.”

The Bobcats will be back in action Saturday night at Harrah against a stout Piedmont team. The Wildcats will pose a tougher matchup, especially with a 6-foot-5 horse like Keith Vick creating a tough matchup. But Thursday’s win guarantees Star a spot in the area tournament next week in Chickasha.

John Marshall faces McLoud in an elimination game tonight at 8 in Harrah, needing two wins to get to area.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

When Dunjee (which was also located in Spencer) closed, it merged with Star, so this is a big piece of the school’s history.

There were a few former Dunjee Tigers on hand to see the game, standing with the team in the middle of the picture. This was the second year that Star coach Patrick Cudjoe has done this.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

And yes, I hope they do. Here’s my top 7 girls games in the OKC area that need to be made up:

1. Midwest City at Edmond Memorial – Assume this is No. 1 for both the boys and girls. Bombers are still undefeated, while Memorial has shown the ability to play with the big dogs but not yet beat MWC or Edmond Santa Fe.

2. Del City at Norman – Tigers have been lurking. Some early season losses may have had people forgetting about them. Del City was one of those teams to get Matilda Mossman’s girls early. Big statement game for either team.

3. Choctaw at Putnam North – As I’ve written about a lot the last couple of weeks, the Yellowjackets are coming on strong. But so, too, are the Panthers. Both teams are playing their best ball. Hope that delay doesn’t hurt them.

4. Millwood at Star Spencer – One more go-around for the OKCPS rivals. Millwood looks like the early favorite in 2A for the crown, while Sharane Campbell you know wants to lead one last run for the Bobcats.

5. Bethel at Dale – Ye old stompin’ grounds. Back in Shawnee, this was one of the big ones. And you know what? In the state, it’s still one of the big ones. Wildcats have rightfully earned top spot in Class 3A.

6. Shawnee at Carl Albert – Gioya Carter vs. Kelsee Grovey would be a nice matchup/shootout. But really, Tim Price’s club needs this win after losing three of its last four games.

7. Western Heights at Piedmont - Oh, another big Suburban Conference showdown. Dilan Webster is extremely talented, but I think she’s too unselfish for the Jets. Kylie Boggess has been big for the Wildcats.

Will they all get made up? I don’t know. I hope so, but we’ll have to wait and see. If you know of any confirmed makeup dates, please send ‘em this way.

***

Robert Przybylo, bprzybylo@opubco.com

And if that’s the case, then it’s back to the hardwood with a full slate of games. I’ll admit that on paper, this doesn’t look like the most intriguing night of ball ever, but it should be interesting.

Still waiting on word about Tuesday’s games. That was a loaded schedule on both the boys and girls sides. Like I said before, just gonna be real tough to find a way to schedule these so close to the stretch run.

Back to Friday, there are a couple of big games to keep tabs on, but overall I’ll be looking for that whole rust vs. rest concept.

A lot of coaches felt this delay couldn’t have happened at a better time as a lot of the kids were sick in the last week. Not many teams were at full strength. A week later everybody should be good to go.

But it’s also been a week of no playing at all. Numerous kids on Facebook were expressing that cabin fever. “I need a gym now.”

Here are some of the top girls games Friday:

Millwood at Star Spencer
Ah, always good to see the longtime rivals go at it. Millwood has been every bit as good as anticipated. Great balance in terms of guard play and post presence. Love watching Teanna Reid play. Star is more than Sharane Campbell, but the Oklahoma signee is another player worth the price of admission.

Shawnee at Carl Albert
Don’t know if anybody is paying attention to the Wolves, but all they do is win. In fact, one of those wins was against the Titans in a 25-19 struggle. Micaela Yu came up big in a road win at Harrah last week. CA, led by sophomore Gioya Carter, is on a bit of a slide. Perhaps that week off did the team some good.

Choctaw at Edmond Santa Fe
Can you prove you’re for real in a loss? I thought that’s what Choctaw did in losing a competitive battle against Edmond North last Friday. I’m thinking about checking this one out myself. Santa Fe is still undefeated but doesn’t always look like it’s clicking on all cylinders.

Mt. St. Mary’s at OCS
I’m interested in seeing what makes this MSM team so good. I don’t know if OCS is the right gauge, but I’ve seen the Saints enough and know that with Dani Childress and Jordan Gooch, they’re never an easy out. The Rockets only have two losses but also (according to OKRankings) don’t have a win against a top-20 team.

***

Robert Przybylo, bprzybylo@opubco.com

Bruce Gray Invitational
Boys
McGuinness JV 55, Star Spencer 54 – seventh place
OCS 74, Western Heights 72 – fifth place
Deer Creek 53, Enid 31 – third place
Mustang 72, Putnam North 64 – championship

Ahh, so that’s why Mustang is good. I said Sunday that neither myself nor Scott Wright had seen why the Mustang boys were getting so much respect.

Monday night I found out why. They do the little things. Especially Jacob Strassle and Zac Grismer – they do the dirty work necessary to earn the tough victories.

Any 50/50 ball last night went to the Broncos, no doubt about it. Putnam North made a nice run to make it interesting in the fourth quarter, but Mustang deserved this win.

I still don’t think Mustang has the greatest perimeter shooting team out there. But it doesn’t have to be if you execute in the other parts of the game, which is exactly what Alan Green’s boys do.

Another good game from PCN’s Armon Provo and Joe Summers. And with the Panthers going east, I could definitely see this team making the state tournament.

Mustang also made its free throws to get rid of any drama. David Glidden was 7 of 8 alone in the fourth quarter. Well played game.

Deer Creek 53, Enid 31

Nice statement by the Antlers here. A well-balanced effort sparked by the post players to earn this victory.

Josh Fields and Anthony Clark are both just juniors and the last two games they both looked good. This team has to be more than Garrett Hermanski, and it is so intrigued to see what happens against Piedmont and Carl Albert later this week.

After Alex Patterson went down, seemed like Enid was a little deflated.

OCS 74, Western Heights 72

Ah, the most fun game of the day. It was all Jack Warren of OCS and Alton Whittaker of Western Heights.

Then in the second half, it was all T.J. Holland of OCS and Western Heights’ Kenneth Mayfield. Warren and Holland – 51 points. Mayfield and Whittaker – 54 points.

Mayfield went nuts in the fourth quarter. He scored 23 points and shot the lights out. He made a three and Deer Creek’s Grant Gower was trying to announce it when the lights went out.

Almost a huge comeback by Western Heights who were down 65-51 midway through the fourth.

Warren had 27 with 19 in the first half. Holland had 24 with 18 in the second half.

OCS didn’t play McGuinness JV as I thought because no matter what, the Irish were going to play in losers’ games. They understood that and were fine with it. Even if McGuinness JV had beaten Mustang on Friday, Mustang would have advanced. For what it’s worth, the JV team went 2-1 and beat Star Spencer on Monday.

***

Robert Przybylo, bprzybylo@opubco.com

Bruce Gray Invitational
Girls
OCS 52, PC West 45 – seventh place
Deer Creek 53, Western Heights 50 – fifth place
Enid 40, Star Spencer 30 – third place
Putnam North 44, McGuinness 42 – championship

There it is. Putnam North making me look stupid.

Going into the championship, I thought the Irish were going to handle the Panthers. But by the end of the first quarter, knew differently.

Was a little worried for Putnam North after Joh’Vonna Mitchell picked up two fouls in the first four minutes, but Kelsey Abraham kept the team rolling in the first half and rightfully earned the MVP honors of the tournament.

Likewise, that was the best game I’ve seen from McGuinness’ Caroline Cameron, who scored 13 of her 18 points in the first half to keep the Irish within striking distance.

Rae Rae Brannon came up huge in the second half for PCN, scoring all 12 of her points after halftime.

Tremendous atmosphere in a game that pitted two non-hosting teams in a tournament final. Great battle down the stretch. And while last year Putnam North didn’t make that final basket, this year, yep, Mitchell did it.

Enid 40, Star Spencer 30

Seriously, Enid fans are lucky to get to watch Courtney Chelf every single game. She is something special. She had 13 of the team’s 15 points at halftime.

In the second half, more Pacers got involved and Enid really took control. Kept waiting for that Star Spencer run, just wasn’t in the cards this time around.

Enid’s a solid team, but solid won’t get the job done in 6A girls competition. Gonna be a dog fight in the next month for those state berths.

Deer Creek 53, Western Heights 50

The Antlers are coming around. You look at that lineup and see a bunch of freshmen and sophomores, but it’s coming together.

Sophomore Alexa Adair looks so much more confident than she did back in December. This team is learning to win the close games, and I think they’re right back in the hunt for a state berth.

Bayli Blanchard is doing a good job in the post, and it was a good battle between Blanchard and Western Heights’ star Dilan Webster.

The Jets made a big comeback in the fourth and took a 50-49 lead, but Adair hit four free throws in the final minute to earn the win.

***

Robert Przybylo, bprzybylo@opubco.com

Bruce Gray Invitational
Monday (I’ll be there)
At Deer Creek
Seventh place: McGuinness JV vs. Star Spencer, 11:30 a.m.
Fifth place: Western Heights vs. OCS, 2:30
Third place: Deer Creek vs. Enid, 5:30
Championship: Mustang vs. Putnam North, 8:30

I felt Deer Creek would have to play a near perfect game to beat Putnam North. The Antlers didn’t, and the Panthers cruised in the fourth quarter to a 69-53 victory.

I have never seen Garrett Hermanski bottled up like that. PCN’s Armon Provo, an explosive scorer in his own right, put the clamps on one of the best juniors in the state. Provo frustrated Hermanski, was extremely physical with him and never let Hermanski get into that groove.

Hermanski had five points at halftime and nine points total. Great job by Provo.

If it was Provo on defense, then it was the Joe Summers show on offense. He hit three 3s in the first half that really set the tone for his game. Antlers had to come out and guard him, and he’s too strong off the dribble.

It was interesting because Deer Creek’s Jalen Burnett is a really talented player. However, the size of Summers was something he simply could not deal with it. Burnett still managed to have a really good game, but it was a clear difference of 5A and 6A in terms of the size there.

In contrast, the Panthers learned why the Deer Creek community goes ga-ga over sophomore Joel Blumenthal. He was trying to put the team on his back in the third quarter. He scored 11 points, including connecting on three 3s to pull the game within 41-38. However, all runs must come to an end, and Deer Creek couldn’t muster a response after JR Simon hit a three-point play and Provo drained a 3 at the end of the third to make it 50-42.

Mustang 46, Enid 38

Interesting Mustang team. First time I’ve gotten to see them. Do a lot of the gritty things, not afraid to go in there and mix it up. Not sure if the Broncos have the perimeter shooting for a long run.

Impressed with Ben Berry and David Glidden. Speaking of Glidden, he took a nasty shot to his shoulder in the third quarter but missed minimal time. After getting checked out, he was right back out there.

I see why Mustang is so highly regarded by opposing coaches, but neither myself nor Scott Wright has seen Mustang on its best day. Perhaps that will be Monday?

Looking ahead to Monday…

Rematch of last year’s final when Provo absolutely went off for 33 points and a PCN title. I don’t see this one being a blowout at all, but I stated earlier I thought Rick Harris’ boys would win it so I’ll stand by that.

Deer Creek coach Matt Bailey faces his former squad, Enid, in the third-place game. It’s not as simple as Hermanski vs. Alex Patterson and whoever has the better game, his team wins, but it’s close. They trigger so much on their respective teams when they’re playing well.

And OCS, who I almost left for dead after Thursday, has a chance to claim fifth place against a surprising McGuinness JV team. After losses to Heritage Hall and Deer Creek, big response by the Saints against Star Spencer.

Bruce Gray Invitational
Monday (I’ll be there)
At Deer Creek
Girls
Seventh place: OCS vs. Putnam West, 10 a.m.
Fifth place: Deer Creek vs. Western Heights, 1 p.m.
Third place: Enid vs. Star Spencer, 4 p.m.
Championship: McGuinness vs. Putnam North, 7 p.m.

Somebody asked me Thursday to predict the winners in the Bruce Gray Invitational, and I said the McGuinness girls and the Putnam North boys. I was three minutes away from being wrong Saturday.

The Irish girls trailed Star Spencer 35-29 before going on a 13-2 run to win 42-37 and advance to Monday’s championship game.

I’ve never seen McGuinness look so lost as it did yesterday. Coach Jennifer Burch gave Star Spencer a lot of the credit as the 1-2-2 zone befuddled the normally efficient Irish.

Burch said when the offense is down, the defense can’t let up. It didn’t. Eventually it was the defense that spurred the run. The press was able to create turnovers and Elyse Hight came up big down the stretch as she has for basically the whole season.

Another great game by Sharane Campbell of Star Spencer. She’s a fighter, no doubt. Felt like Star had set up McGuinness for that knockout blow but simply never delivered it.

Putnam North 45, Enid 37

Another two years with Courtney Chelf, Enid fans are lucky. She’s a good one and her three-pointer at the end of the third made it 30-29 Enid going into the fourth.

However, this was a good statement made by the Panthers. I always look to Joh’Vonna Mitchell and Alexis Watson, but Kelsey Abraham was the star in this one. And give a lot of credit to Blaire Hall’s eight points off the bench.

Watson took a nasty fall midway through the third with PCN leading 27-23. She missed the rest of the third and start of the fourth before coming back in. She seemed OK, hope she is for Monday night.

Looking ahead to Monday…

I think Rae Rae Brannon is going to have to come up big for the Panthers. She’s tiny, but she has more quickness than what the Irish are used to dealing with. Mitchell cannot get in foul trouble against Hight and Alexa Lienhard (and vice versa on that one).

Third-place game should be a  good battle between Chelf and Campbell. I like Enid in a close one. Fifth-place game is intriguing in the grand scheme of things as Western Heights and Deer Creek might be still standing when it comes to the 5A state tournament. I like Dilan Webster to help the Jets prevail in that one.

Bruce Gray Invitational
At Deer Creek
Thursday
Boys
Mustang vs. McGuinness JV, 11:30 a.m.
Putnam City North vs. Star Spencer, 2:30
OCS vs. Deer Creek, 5:30
Enid vs. Western Heights, 8:30
Girls
McGuinness vs. Putnam West, 10 a.m.
Putnam North vs. OCS, 1 p.m.
Western Heights vs. Star Spencer, 4 p.m.
Deer Creek vs. Enid, 7 p.m.

Ramond Jenkins and his Douglass teammates used strong defense to set up plenty of layups in a 104-27 win over Star Spencer Tuesday night.

I can’t remember exactly the last time I was at a game when a team scored 100. Pretty sure it would have been the 07-08 season when I was covering Jeff Capel’s boys — Blake Griffin among them.

Five minutes into the Star Spencer at Douglass game Tuesday night, the thought hit me that I might see triple-digits from the Trojans.

They pulled it off with a bucket from DeAngelo Clark with just under two minutes to play, finishing with a 104-27 win over Star Spencer.

It’s kind of tough seeing such a powerful rivalry be so one-sided, but that’s just the state of the two programs this season. It’s not that Star Spencer is as bad as the score might suggest, or that Douglass is 75 points better. It’s just that Star has some young and inexperienced players on the perimeter, and Douglass’ ball pressure was at its best Tuesday night.

Star is in the middle of a rebuilding year, after sending all five starters to college programs last season. And you know coach Patrick Cudjoe will have the Bobcats back to being postseason contenders in no time. Douglass is just a bad matchup for them right now.

The Trojans took advantage of the several turnovers it forced with fast-break buckets or open jumpers on the other end. The Trojans didn’t really shoot the ball incredibly well, but the size with the Jenkins twins and Marquis Buxton-Hill was another big advantage. All three big men finished with double-figure points and they were all over the glass.

Defense was the key, however. And after some lackluster defensive performances earlier in the year, the Douglass players feel like they’re getting things together on that end of the floor. It was a strong win to send Douglass into some tough competition in the Tournament of Champions in Springfield, Mo., starting Thursday.

“Defense carries over to the next game,” DeVonte Smith said. “All we’ve been talking about in practice is defense. Defense wins games.”

Douglass opens with Greater Atlanta Christian, which finished fifth in the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C., two weeks ago. Douglass finished fourth in the BBC, and both teams beat Rice (NY). Douglass knocked them off 87-63 in the quarterfinals and Greater Atlanta beat them 73-49 in the fifth-place game. The Trojans take on Greater Atlanta Thursday at 9:30 p.m.

The tournament will be the first of many games in Springfield for Douglass guard Dorrian Williams, who signed to play for Missouri State, which plays its home games at the same arena hosting the tournament. Here’s a story the Springfield paper wrote about Williams.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

The Knights took third place in a loaded field at the Edmond Open over the weekend, with T’aries Taylor leading the team in scoring in two of the three games.

Taylor scored 26 in the opener against Tulsa Central and followed it up with 19 in the third place game against Lawton Mac to earn all-tournament honors at the Edmond Open.

With Taylor providing a reliable scoring option alongside point guard Jamil Donovan, the Knights will be a team to watch in Class 5A this season. At 5-1 on the season, NWC is up to No. 4 in this week’s rankings.

Other contenders

Talmadge Lawrence, John Marshall: Lawrence averaged 18.5 points in a pair of wins over Star Spencer and Bethany last week. DeMontrey Mitchell also scored 19 against Bethany.

Caleb Crayton, Northeast: Scored 20 in a close win over Centennial, then he and Gabe Houston each had 18 in a win over Chickasha at the Harrah tournament. Crayton had 17, behind 24 from Eric Peabody, on Saturday in a close loss to Choctaw.

Delford Robinson and Michael Ervin, Millwood: Robinson led the Falcons in scoring twice at the Millwood tournament, including 14 in the opener. Ervin had a team-high 12 in the third-place game, an 18-point win over Capitol Hill.

Nico Meadows, Capitol Hill: Meadows had 24 points against US Grant as the sophomore continues to make an early impact for the Redskins.

Tona Edwards and Brianna Pendleton, Northeast: Edwards had 25 against Centennial and Pendleton had 19 in a win over Putnam City. Edwards had 15 against PC and scored 22 of the team’s 35 against Carl Albert. Pendleton led the team with 17 in the championship loss to Del City.

Sharane Campbell and LaKeitha Watson, Star Spencer: Campbell, an OU signee, had 25 in a win over John Marshall and 17 to help Star take third at the Millwood Invitational. Watson had a team-high 20 in the third-place game.

Meshelle Parker, Northwest Classen: Scored 19 points in a win over Classen last Tuesday.

Dayla Threat, Millwood:  Averaged 17.5 points over four games last week, helping the Falcons to a runner-up finish at their own tournament.

Te’era Williams, Douglass: Had a team-high 21 against Chickasha on Friday.

All-City Athletic Conference Football Team
Coach of the Year – Michael Branch, Southeast
Player of the Year – Marcus Caddell, Douglass; Brandon Swindall, Millwood
Defensive Player of the Year – Devante McKinney, Douglass; Davion Pierson, Millwood
Offensive Player of the Year – Aliston Cobb, Douglass; Kevonte Richardson, Millwood
Special Teams Player of the Year – Josh Turner, Millwood; Carlos Hudson, Star Spencer
Defensive Lineman of the Year – Clifford Lawrence, Millwood
Tri-Linebacker of the Year – Erik King, Douglass; Larry Seals, Millwood; Denzelle Johnson, John Marshall
Defensive Back of the Year – Jay Gogue, Southeast; Brison Currin, Centennial
Offensive Lineman of the Year – Ravi Riley, Douglass
Offensive Back of the Year – Kody Shields, John Marshall
Receiver of the Year – Tyrone Jones, Centennial; Michael Cole, Millwood

All-City Athletic Conference 1st Team Defense
Defensive Line – Dejon Brison, John Marshall; Shawn Hudson, Southeast; Tyrele Pendleton, Centennial; Markus Jackson, Southeast
Linebackers – Ian Robinson, Douglass; Tre Jones, Northwest; Allen Starks, Millwood; Tavin Deloney, Southeast
Defensive Backs – Donnell Ward, Douglass; Stevo Henderson, Star Spencer; Robert Bui, Northeast
Punter – Irving Roa, John Marshall

All-City Athletic Conference 1st Team Offense
Quarterback – Shon Bridges, Douglass
Running Backs – Ontinneil Zavala, Capitol Hill; Anthony Frazier, Southeast
Receivers – Johnny Do, Capitol Hill, Aljone Stringer, Centennial
Offensive Line – Michael Blackmon, Douglass; Kody Stamm, John Marshall; Spencer Davis, Centennial; Ramon Miller, Star Spencer; Kyvonta Smith, Douglass
Place Kicker – Tony Zamarripa, Northwest Classen

Honorable Mention
Capitol Hill – Deantre Williams, Brandon Johnson, Zack Dixon
Centennial – Charles Sebree, Chad Hester
Douglass – Jason Holloway
Millwood – Michael Ervin, Shevin Patton,
Northeast – Alvin Scott, Josh Ray, Justin Moore
Northwest Classen – Larry Mathis, Berkeley Lopez, Tarig Ismil
Southeast – Jovan Ramos, Nelson Williams, Jose Cardoza
Star Spencer – Marcus Singleton, Lashan Penny

It could have been Aliston Cobb, with his 240 rushing yards and two TDs. Or Donnell Ward and Marcus Caddell for the passing connection on the winning TD, as well as their stout pass defense, including Ward’s two interceptions. Or Erik King for his interception in overtime to seal the victory. Or the offensive line for their run blocking. Or the defensive front for their seven sacks. Or…

OK, so you get it. A state championship is a team effort, and that was truly the case for the Trojans Saturday night. Everyone played well, and they all get the honor as the OKC Player of the Week… though I’m sure the gold ball is all the congratulations they needed.

Other contenders

Kevonte Richardson and Brandon Swindall, Millwood football: Richardson, the Falcon QB did all he could, overcoming two early interceptions to have a strong performance, despite the loss. Swindall had six grabs for 120 yards and a TD, as well as another interception — his state-leading 18th on the year.

Marquis Buxton-Hill, Douglass boys basketball: The 6-foot-9 senior poured in 27 in the Trojans’ rout of US Grant in the All-City Conference opener.

Eric Peabody, Northeast boys basketball: Peabody had 28 points as the Vikings pulled out a 70-67 win over Wichita Falls-Hirschi.

DeQuante Taylor, John Marshall boys basketball: Taylor scored 18 to lead the Bears to a season-opening win over Heritage Hall.

Nico Meadows, Capitol Hill boys basketball: Scored 23 and 18 points as the Redskins opened the season with a pair of wins.

Te’era Williams, Douglass girls basketball: Williams had 22 in the opener, a 42-point win over US Grant.

Tona Edwards and Brianna Pendleton, Northeast girls basketball: Scored 15 and 14 sports, respectively, in NE’s rout of Wichita Falls-Hirschi.

D’Carla Kirk and Kebrina Hartfield, Centennial girls basketball: Kirk had 16 and Hartfield 14 in the Bison victory over ASTEC.

– Send POW nominations to Scott Wright at swright@opubco.com

Looking good

Douglass (6-2, 5-0)
Remaining games: vs. Glenpool, vs. Cleveland
Prognosis: Win this week and it’s all over. Douglass will sew up the 4A-2 title with a win against Glenpool on Friday. That would put them against the No. 4 from 4A-1, where Woodward and McGuinness are currently tied.

Millwood (8-0, 4-0)
Remaining games: at Northeast, at Lexington
Prognosis: One more win is all it will take to assure the Falcons of a district title and a playoff opener against the No. 4 seed from 2A-1 (right now it would be OCS or Tonkawa). Of course, that’s not what they’re chasing. Their goals are focused in December.

Barely hanging on

Northwest Classen (1-7, 1-4)
Remaining games: at Durant, at Lawton MacArthur
Prognosis: Must win out and get some help. The Knights are sitting in seventh one game behind a three-way tie for the fourth spot.

Northeast (2-6, 1-3)
Remaining games: vs. Millwood, at Jones
Prognosis: The good news is the Vikings could win twice and potentially get in. The bad news is they have to play the two best teams in the district the final two weeks.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

Cobb tacked on three more touchdowns this week in a rout of Cushing, bringing his season total to 14, which isn’t quite as impressive as Cobb’s 11.6 yard-per-carry average. Barring something unforseen, Cobb will go past the 1,000-yard mark next week.

For the year, he has 954 yards on just 82 carries. With Diontay Washington, Ian Robinson and Shon Green adding some punch in that backfield as well, then guys like Marcus Caddell at receiver, the Douglass offense is dangerous. And that’s good news, considering Willis Alexander is a guy that lives on defense. And the Trojans are pretty solid over there, too.

Other contenders

Brandon Swindall and Josh Turner, Millwood: Ridiculous, simply ridiculous. The numbers these guys are putting up, the big plays they’re making — amazing. Turner had TD catches of 43 and 81 yards. Swindall scored from 8, 33 and 74 yards, the last two in the fourth quarter to close out Millwood’s rally for a 45-38 win. Swindall finished with 189 yards receiving and Turner had 158.

Kody Stamm and Dejon Brison, John Marshall: Bruce Troxell was pleased with the play of guys like Denzelle Johnson, Kody Shields and Delante Scroggins, but it was his senior linemen who really stood out. Stamm and Brison led the way as the Bears got back in the win column.

Stevo Henderson, Star Spencer: Henderson had a 68-yard TD run in the fourth quarter, the lone offensive bright spot for the Bobcats in a 35-8 loss.

Send OKC Player of the Week nominations to Scott Wright at swright@opubco.com

Christian Gorham, Northwest Classen: The Knight QB tossed a pair of TD passes in NWC’s loss to Duncan.

Last week: Star Spencer suffered a 27-6 setback against Bristow. Perkins routed Little Axe 42-14.

Why Star could win: This team isn’t as bad as it played last week, or as bad as its record would suggest. It seemed like the Bobcats were getting on track in the district opener, so this might be a good week for a bounce-back performance.

Why Perkins could win: The Demons are rolling. Only one of their wins has been by fewer than 11 points, that being a 19-14 win against 2A power Jones. And Perkins has yet to allow more than 14 points in a game, so if they can make some big stops early, it could hurt the confidence of the young star offense.

Quote: “They’re the best 1-4 team I’ve ever seen. We’ve got our work cut out for us.” – Perkins-Tryon coach Lloyd Wertman on Star Spencer

Key matchup: Star linebackers vs. Perkins wishbone. Wertman’s teams always run the ‘bone well, so it’ll be up to the Bobcat LBs, led by Kenneth Davis — who has been playing extremely well lately — to keep it contained.

The pick: Perkins 21, Star 18. The Demons are looking like the team to beat in this district.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

Last week: Bristow edged Little Axe 27-26 in overtime. Star Spencer ended a winless start with a 28-20 victory over Chandler.

Why Bristow could win: The Pirates have been solid on defense and in the run game, led by Leonard Fullbright at 435 yards and six touchdowns so far. This district is wide-open, so anyone who can get to 2-0 will be in a good position goingf forward.

Why Star could win: The Bobcat defense, led by LB Kenneth Davis, is better than the scores show. Davis had 16 tackles, forced two turnovers, returning one for a TD and rushing for another score last week agianst Chandler. And the passing game with QB Darion Bogus and receivers Carlos Hutson, Derrick Ward and others has picked up, too.

Key matchup: Star RBs vs. Bristow run-stoppers. Star doesn’t want to have to throw more than about 15 times a game, so they need the run game to carry a good chunk of the load. If they can move the ball on the ground, they should be in good shape for the victory.

The pick: Star 21, Bristow 14. Another big week from Davis will keep the Bobcats unbeaten in the district heading into what will be a huge game at Perkins next week.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

Aliston Cobb rushed for 117 yards on 12 carries and Diontay Washington had 103 on 12 carries as the Trojans piled up 350 yards on the ground.

That run game even opened up some passing opportunities for QB Shon Bridges, who had his best game to date through the air. Bridges was 7-of-11 for 175 yards, including a 71-yard TD toss to Marcus Caddell.

Other contenders

Darion Bogus and Kenneth Davis, Star Spencer: Bogus had his best throwing week of the season, throwing for 157 yards on 6-of-12 completions in the victory over Chandler. Davis, a sophomore, forced two turnovers, scored a TD and had 16 tackles.

Kevonte Richardson, Millwood: Richardson’s season has been crazy good so far — more to come on that in Thursday’s paper — and Friday was no different. Richardson was 10-of-16 for 226 yards and three TDs. He also rushed five times for 46 yards.

Trevyone Willis and London Potts, Northeast: Willis scored twice as the Vikings fell to a top-10 team, lexington. Potts threw two TD passes, one to Willis and one to Aron Gaines.

Terry Arnold, Northwest: Arnold caught a 36-yard TD pass from Christian Gorham. Arnold has been one of the Knights’ most reliable weapons at receiver all year.

– Send POW nominations to Scott Wright at swright@opubco.com

Last week: Chandler lost to a resurgent Harrah team, 35-12. Star had one of its best showings of the year in a 27-18 loss to Douglass.

Why Chandler could win: The Lions have built a strong tradition in recent years, and they’ve always got talent. This year’s team is looking for answers after the 0-3 start in which it has scored 8.0 points per game, but the fresh start of district play should energize them.

Why Star could win: The Bobcats, too, will be pumped for the new beginning of district play. They seem to be getting things together, especially on the offensive side of the ball, the last couple weeks, so look for more progress there. Carlos Hutson has provided a spark in a variety of ways on offense lately.

Key matchup: Star RBs vs. Chandler defensive front seven. The run game is key to helping take pressure off young QB Darion Bogus, and the Lions have struggled against the run at times so far. If the Bobcats can move it on the ground, they should be able to control the game.

The pick: Star 24, Chandler 20. The ugly start makes it seem like this Star Spencer team had a horrible fall-off from last year. They’re definitely down, but they’re going to be around to challenge for the title in this district.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

So let’s take a look at what some of the OKC schools face as we get ready for the start of district play:

Millwood (3-0)

It’s going to be a while before the Falcons face a team as good as what they’ve seen the last two weeks in Douglass and McGuinness. Those are two of the best teams in 4A, and none of the competition in 2A-2 is going to exceed that.

Jones (Week 6) and Lexington (Week 10) are a couple of big games to look ahead to, but with easiejr competition, the key for the Falcons will be making sure not to let their guard down. They’ve got the talent to win every game they play. It’s just a matter of staying focused.

Week 4: The new seven-team districts in most of A-3A have led to some scheduling craziness. Millwood closes out the preseason portion of its schedule at Alva Friday night, then opens 2A-2 play at home against Luther the following week.

Douglass (1-2)

After finally getting into the win column, the Trojans are heading into district play on a high note. And in terms of west-side districts, 4A-2 is much more favorable than 4A-1, which has teams like McGuinness, Elgin, Elk City, Cache and Woodward. The Week 9 meeting with Glenpool (the two teams are 4 and 5 in the rankings this week) could be for the district title.

Though Douglass won last week, there was some difficulty, with coach Willis Alexander sending his starting QB, Shon Bridges, and RB, Aliston Cobb, to the bench at one point. But I’d expect Alexander to get everything sorted out.

Week 4: The Trojans open district play with a visit from Tecumseh, which lost 35-13 to Deer Creek last week. The Antlers hit some big plays with the run, so look for Douglass to try the same thing.

Star Spencer (0-3)

I paid a visit to Star Spencer practice on Monday, and there’s some sense of relief in the arrival of district play. After battling through a difficult preseason, the Bobcats are ready for a fresh start.

And district action gets off to a fast start, too. Friday’s game at home against Chandler pits the two teams who were viewed as the preseason favorites in 3A-4. Perkins is a team that has looked good in the first three weeks, and the Bobcats go there in Week 6.

Star gets its break from district action in Week 9 with a game against Victory Christian.

Week 4: As I said, it starts with Chandler this week. No one in the district is currently ranked in the 3A top 10, and these two teams would like to change that.

Southeast (3-0)

Michael Branch has his team off to a great start, but as we’ve discussed before, the Spartans are in possibly the toughest district around. Two top-three teams await in Guthrie and Carl Albert, as well as No. 7 Deer Creek. The move of Jay Gogue to running back seems to have inspired the running game, and the defense has been solid all year.

I won’t be surprised to see this team step up and upset someone at some point during the season.

Week 4: The district action begins with Ada coming to Southeast this Friday. This could be a more important game than it seems right now. These two teams could be battling for the final playoff spot in this district if things go well for Southeast.

John Marshall (2-1)

As expected, the Bears have been strong on defense so far this year. Even in their loss to Cache, they still only gave up 15 points. They’re stuck in a challenging district, with Heritage Hall, Kingfisher, Bethany, Newcastle and Centennial. So with opponents like that, a good defense will come in handy.

The question will be whether the young offense can come along and put up enough points to win some big games.

Week 4: The Bears open with Bethany Thursday night at Taft Stadium. It should be a good test for the JM defense. Bethany brings a balanced offensive attack with QB Ryley Claborn and RB Devin Campbell.

Centennial (2-1)

No sense in waiting around, and that’s the case for Centennial, which opens district play with one of the hottest teams in the state, No. 3 Heritage Hall.

It’s a tough district, and there are a couple of key games waiting in next few weeks, with games against Newcastle and John Marshall. Both of those games will go a long way toward separating the middle of the district. The Bison are one of the teams who got stuck with Week 10 as its district off week. They’ll close out the season against 2A Hennessey.

Week 4: The opener against Heritage Hall on Friday night will be a big test for the Bison defense, which struggled to slow down Anadarko — certainly no shame in losing to a team like the Warriors, but like Anadarko, Heritage Hall has a strong running game that few have been able to slow down.

Other OKC teams

US Grant opens district play Thursday night with the suddenly scary Putnam City Pirates, who are 3-0 and routed Choctaw last week… Capitol Hill begins district action against one of 5A’s best teams, Duncan, on Thursday… Northeast, also in 2A-2 with Millwood, will try to build on last week’s success in its district opener against a Lexington team that has earned its spot in the top 10… Altus visits Northwest Classen on Friday night for the 5A-2 opener.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

And though the numbers might not appear to make sense, I’m going with the Millwood defense as the Oklahoma City Players of the Week. Yes, the Falcon D gave up 41 points and 362 yards, but less than 100 of those yards came in the second half when Millwood needed their defense the most.

And the defense got takeaways on McGuinness’ first two possessions of the game — including the interception Clifford Lawrence took back 73 yards for a touchdown — to help the Falcons build a 20-0 lead.

Kevonte Richardson’s 200 passing yards and 144 rushing yards — including a 92-yard TD run — were ultra-impressive. Smae for Mike Cole’s three catches for three TDs. Brandon Swindall had multiple important catches and Shevin Patton averaged more than 10 yards per carry at running back.

And Millwood needed all of those contributions, but the top award goes to the defense, guys like Lawrence, Larry Seals, Josh Turner and Davion Pierson.

Seals was all over the place all night long, despite playing with a huge cast on one hand. Pierson battled dehydration throughout the night, but came up with two huge plays on McGuinness’ final offensive series, making a tackle in the backfield and sniffing out a screen pass to make another stop at the line of scrimmage.

That play came right before Swindall’s interception that sealed the victory.

Other contenders

Marcus Caddell and Diontay Washington, Douglass: Washington rushed for 60 yards on 10 carries, including two early TDs, and Caddell made the game’s biggest play, a 38-yard interception return for a score.

Jay Gogue, Southeast: Gogue led the Spartans to a third straight win, knocking off Capitol Hill. Gogue rushed for 165 yards and five TDs.

Brison Currin, Centennial: Coach Mark Ryan praised his quarterback for managing the offense well as the Bison head into Week 4 with a 2-1 record.

Aron Gaines and Migual Potts, Northeast: Each player had two TDs, with Gaines pulling in scoring receptions of 12 and 30 yards, and Potts rushing for scores of 48 and 54 yards as the Vikings defeated Riverside 38-6.

Send nominations for OKC Player of the Week to Scott Wright at swright@opubco.com

Last week: Douglass lost a thriller to Millwood, 36-31, when QB Shon Bridges was knocked out of bounds a yard short of the goal line on the final play. Star Spencer was dealt a 27-14 setback to upstart Southeast.

Why Douglass could win: With their offensive line and running backs, the Trojans are going to be able to pound the ground attack on anyone. And just when you think that’s all they’re going to do, Bridges will toss a pass to Marcus Caddell or DeVante McKinney and hit you with a big gain. They aren’t throwing a lot, but when they do, it’s productive. 

Why Star could win: There’s a lot of pride on the line in this game. After beating Douglass for the gold ball last year, Star wants to show that they haven’t suffered a major dropoff. Star doesn’t have the depth of Douglass, but if they can find a way to establish the run game and avoid big mistakes, they should keep themselves in it.

Quote: “We set up this schedule to get us ready for November. That’s why you play tough games.” — Douglass coach Willis Alexander

Key matchup: Star QB Darion Bogus vs. Douglass secondary. Millwood was able to hit some big passes on the Trojans, but Star doesn’t have the same type of weapons in the passing game. Bogus will need to complete some throws and avoid mistakes to keep running lanes open for the Bobcat backs. Otherwise Douglass will load up on the run and make it a tough day for the Star offense.

The pick: Douglass 35, Star Spencer 21. Star is still building their way back after losing so many seniors last year, and they’ve been susceptible to big run plays in their first two games. I’d look for Douglass to grind this one out and wear Star down in the end. Douglass is probably the state’s best 0-2 team.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

It was hard enough narrowing the field down to three guys, and that’s why Millwood quarterback Kevonte Richardson and receivers/defensive backs Brandon Swindall and Josh Turner must share the honor of Oklahoma City Player of the week.

Richardson threw for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 40 more yards and a score. Turner had five catches for 117 yards, including grabs of 32 and 27 yards on the final drive, the latter accounting for the game-winning touchdown. And Swindall had five receptions for 161 yards and three scores, with his shortest catch of the day going for 19 yards. Oh, and he had the game-saving tackle at the 1-yard line on the final play of the 36-31 victory.

So, yeah, they were kind of a big deal on Saturday.

A few other Millwood players who earned recognition Saturday: Nose guard Stanford Rice, linebacker Larry Seals and receiver Dametric Sanders, who had a 79-yard TD catch.

And Douglass had their share of playmakers, too. RB Aliston Cobb had 202 rushing yards and three TDs, and Diontay Washington running behind a powerful offensive line all day. DeVante McKinney was stirring up trouble at defensive end. Erik King and the linebackers were running to the ball well. QB Shon Bridges made his share of plays, though he wishes he could’ve picked up one more yard on that last play. And Marcus Caddell who made several plays, including a 90-yard kickoff return TD that kept the Trojans in the game in the third quarter.

Other POW contenders

Jay Gogue, QB/RB, and Micah Hunter, QB, Southeast football: The Spartans are 2-0 with Gogue leading the way. He has played quarterback and running back this season as coach Michael Branch looks for the best way to utilize his dangerous runner.  Hunter threw a TD pass in Thursday’sd 27-14 win over Star Spencer, helping keep the Spartans from becoming one-dimensional.

Christian Gorham and Terry Arnold, Northwest Classen football: Gorham threw five touchdown passes, hitting Arnold for three of them, on his way to a 279-yard performance on just 12-of-19 passing. Arnold pulled in scoring catches of 15, 23 and 21 yards, and also returned a kickoff 86 yards for a score as Northwest edged Northeast 40-34.

Trevyone Willis and Michael Thomas, Northeast football: Thomas threw a touchdown pass to Willis and caught another himself in the tough loss to NW Classen. Willis had the 22-yard TD catch and rushed for TDs of 20 and 37 yards.

Nico Durham and Tyrone Jones, Centennial football: Durham and Jones combined for all three Bison touchdowns in Friday’s loss to Anadarko.

GaVonte Bonds, US Grant football: Bonds rushed for 116 yards on 14 carries against Capitol Hill.

Irving Roa, John Marshall cross country: Roa won the John Marshall meet at Lake Hefner last Thursday, finishing the 4,800-meter course in 16:55.

– To nominate an OKC athlete for Player of the Week, e-mail Scott Wright at swright@opubco.com

Why Star could win: The Bobcats have had a very good week of practice in response to a bad loss in Week 1. The team is filled with new starters, so there’s a learning curve involved. The Bobcats were frustrated by how well Southeast ran the football against them in the All-City Preview, so I’d expect that issue to be resolved this time around.

Why Southeast could win: coach Michael Branch is motivated to get this team back to doing things the right way, starting with fundamentals. And that’s been a big focus after some blocking and tackling issues last week in the win over US Grant. Jay Gogue is a solid dual-threat QB, and he helps anchor the defense as well.

Quote: “I know one thing, Michael Branch will have his team ready to play. I played against Southeast last year when I was at US Grant, and they definitely look improved.” – Star Spencer coach Terrell Love

Key matchup: Star QB Darion Bogus vs. Southeast DBs. I mentioned Gogue at safety, and Nelson Williams teams with him back there to make the middle of the secondary one of the team’s strongest areas. If the young Bobcat QB leaves any passes floating too long, one of those guys could be ready to swoop in for the pick. Bogus is a talented sophomore, but he’ll need to avoid sophomore mistakes.

The pick: Southeast 21, Star Spencer 20. Southeast was genuinely bothered by its loss to Star in the All-City Preview two weeks ago. It was just a scrimmage, but the Spartans were hurt by the 7-0 loss.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

Why Star Spencer could win: Though they’ve got several new starters and a new coach, the Bobcats are a talented team. Their secondary will be able to keep up with Millwood’s speed, and the Star linebackers — though coaches were unhappy with their play last week — will be the foundation of this defense. The offense will find a way to move the ball as sophomore QB Darion Bogus comes along. Stevo Henderson will be crucial as a running back and receiver.

Why Millwood could win: The Falcons won’t face a team with more major-college prospects this season, but recruiting letters don’t always translate to automatic victories. Still, Millwood has the edge in experience, which will pay the most dividends in Week 1. Watch out for RB Shevin Patton. There wasn’t anyone more impressive last week at the Preview than Millwood’s new running back and he’ll get some help with the return of left tackle Devin Dobbins from injury.

Key matchup: Bogus vs. the Millwood secondary. The problem with playing a young, talented quarterback is that his youth contributes to as many plays as his talent does, and against a secondary with guys like Josh Turner and Kevonte Richardson, youthful mistakes turn into interceptions. Too many turnovers will do in the Bobcats real quick.

The pick: Millwood 27, Star Spencer 21. I know the Falcons fell short last week at the All-City Preview, losing to Douglass in the semifinals, but I think that’s a big reason why Millwood flips it around this week. The Falcons are a team that needs a little motivation to push them into the season. Star is still looking for some things to come together with all their new starters. Terrell Love will get them there, but I don’t know if they’ll be ready to take down Millwood in the opener.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

Your All-City Preview champs, Douglass. Douglass 12, Star Spencer 0 in the final.

You’ll have to forgive us for all the talk about the Douglass passing game. Just wasn’t expecting a passing game as solid under Shon Bridges as what the Trojans showed this summer.

But there is no mistaken the bread-and-butter is going to be the running game, and those responsibilities will belong to Aliston Cobb and Diontay Washington.

I’ve been on the Cobb bandwagon since the semifinals last season when I saw him for the first time. I don’t care that he wasn’t one of the top rushers last year, Cobb is an all-state caliber back. He showed it during the first half of Douglass’ win against Star Spencer in the All-City Preview championship.

What I didn’t know was that Washington ain’t half bad, either. Washington showed a lot of power and earned that final touchdown after having another one called back. And Ian Robinson isn’t a slouch, either.

The Star Spencer defense is going to be rock solid. The Bobcats are going to be in just about every game because of that defense.

Offense is going to take a while. No Darwin Rideau and Terence Olds, and that’s just way too tough to say ‘we’ll find other guys.’ Love Stevo Henderson and what he brings and like the approach that Terrell Love is bringing to the club.

Caught the second half of Millwood and Southeast. Like what the Spartans showed but love what Shevin Patton is bringing to the table for the Falcons.

There was good reason to think this team would be hurting without Emilio Gatewood, but it doesn’t appear so.

Wanted to watch Christian Heritage and Mt. St. Mary’s, but life got in the way. This time life was the whole K.J. Rucker situation at Idabel happening. I missed nearly the entire varsity scrimmage as I was writing away on Rucker and former Jones QB Daxx Garman.

When I was finally done, the Rockets were driving for a last-minute score and sure enough, got it. I actually thought Jake Peace had caught the game-winner a couple plays before that, but he was ruled out of bounds when he caught it.

With six seconds left, quarterback John Tener scrambled for his life before throwing the game’s only touchdown pass for the victory against the Crusaders.

Look for a video with Douglass’ Aliston Cobb on NewsOK this weekend.

Hope you guys liked the zoned tab editions that came out Friday and Sunday is the big statewide preview: ‘The Gift of Grab.’

There’s a lot of talent in the ACAC, and some good potential matchups all the way through. Here’s the schedule:

Thursday’s games
At Douglass
Game 1, 6 p.m.: US Grant vs. Northeast
Game 2, 6:45 p.m.: Millwood vs. Centennial
Game 3, 7:30 p.m.: Douglass vs. Grant/Northeast winner

At Taft
Game 4, 6 p.m.: Northwest Classen vs. Capitol Hill
Game 5, 6:45 p.m.: John Marshall vs. Southeast
Game 6, 7:30 p.m.: Star Spencer vs. Northwest/Capitol Hill winner

Friday’s games
Championship bracket at Douglass
Game 7, 6 p.m.: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6
Game 8, 6:45 p.m.: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3
Game 9, 7:30 p.m.: Loser Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8 (Third-place game)
Game 10, 8:15 p.m.: Championship game, Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8

Consolation bracket at Taft
Game 11, 5 p.m.: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Game 12, 5:45 p.m.: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5
Game 13, 6:30 p.m.: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 11
Game 14, 7:15 p.m.: Loser Game 6 vs. Winner Game 12
Game 15, 8 p.m.: Consolation championship, Winner Game 13 vs. Winner Game 14

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

So you wanna be a high school sportswriter, huh? If your answer to that was a resounding yes, then last week was your dream. Few weeks are better than the start of football practice. And my answer was yes, and I had a heckuva time.

There are more important weeks, but the second week in August tells ya ‘it’s time to get back to work.’

And for me (and fellow chum Scott Wright), that’s exactly what we did.

While Scott was back in his old stomping grounds of the West Metro and getting acquainted with OKCPS schools, I went wherever the wind blew me.

OK, that’s not true, but here’s a short account of the week that was for The Boneman:

Tuesday
- Got things started at midnight at Star Spencer. Good food, great energy, a lot of fun. For a short video with Stevo Henderson, here ya go.

- An OSSAA meeting took up most of the day but did hit Heritage Hall at night. Those sophomores are now juniors and getting bigger every time. For a short video with Sterling Shepard, here ya go.

Wednesday
- Started with a trip to Millwood for our HS cover photo shoot with Josh Turner and Brandon Swindall. Always good to talk with those boys. For a short video with Turner, here ya go.

- From there, time to hit the Mid-Del area and Midwest City. Love the speed, love the talent on this teams, hated the 2 p.m. start. For a short video with Ricky Reeves, here ya go.

- Closed up the day with a trip to Bishop McGuinness. Coach Kenny Young can talk your head off, but it’s always entertaining. For a short video with Quinn Shanbour, here ya go.

Thursday
- Started at Edmond Memorial. The atmosphere under second-year coach Justin Merideth is incredible, love watching the ‘Dogs. For a short video with Cale Olbert, here ya go.

- Went straight from Memorial to Guthrie and catching up with Rafe Watkins and the boys. And it was starting to get a little hot around this time. For a short video with Bryan Dutton, here ya go.

- Up next was my first trip to Santa Fe South for a photo shoot with Abraham Luna, the best WR you haven’t heard of. Like this team’s attitude. For a short video with Jameson Ballinger, here ya go.

- After a trip to Heritage for a photo shoot with Barry Sanders, time for another midnight practice. Edmond North does it right. You get da pads, let’s go at midnight. For a short video with Jared Benway, here ya go.

Friday
- First time to Cashion. Not to sound elitist, but I was very impressed with the facilities at Cashion. No video with Jeremy Seaton because it was incredibly windy but look for a future story.

- Wanted to go to Deer Creek, signals got crossed. Instead, went to Edmond Santa Fe. Bruce Gowen’s boys are young, but they’re going to be good – just a question of how soon? For a short video with Patrick Hinton, here ya go.

- And concluded the week with a stop at Casady for the Blue-White scrimmage. Only three seniors, but coach Koby Scoville has done a good job with the Cyclones. For a short video with Garrison Lee, here ya go.

And then all day Saturday and all day today (Sunday), just working on the football preview. Back to the grind Monday as I still wanna hit Deer Creek (always feel better after talking to Grant Gower) and Del City, among other spots.

- The offensive line will be a big key to the Bobcats’ success this season as they try to replace all five starters from last year’s 4A championship team. But coach Terrell Love is pleased with the progress of that group. There’s not a lot of depth there, but Love has some big, strong kids to work with.

- Some of the seniors, like Stevo Henderson, Kenneth Turner and Carlos Hutson are pushing the younger players to make sure there’s not the major drop-off some people might expect from a team that lost three-quarters of its starting lineup to graduation.

- There are also some young guys stepping into a leadership role, like linebacker/running back Kenneth Davis, who contributed to last year’s team as a freshman. And another sophomore, Darion Bogus, has pulled to the front for the quarterback job. He’s only 5-foot-7 and can’t weigh more than 150 pounds — if that — but he knows he needs to be a leader and be in control of the offense.

“I’m young, and the seniors told me I’ve got to step it up a lot and be a leader now,” Bogus said. “It’s real hard. I didn’t really think I could be the starter, but it happened. I’m ready to start improving on our passing game. Last year, we didn’t do too much passing, because we were such a good running team, but I’m ready to step that up.”

- Bogus sees the defense as the strength of the team, and it seems there’s a good collection of experienced players starting on that side of the ball, including most of the guys I’ve mentioned. Davis, Montrell Alexander and Jamonte Mitchell anchor the middle at linebacker, which is an important part of coordinator Mike Washington’s defense.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com

Doesn't do it justice. Some good food under there at Star Spencer's midnight practice.

And football practice is officially underway. Star Spencer, the reigning 4A champs now playing in 3A, kicked it off tonight/this morning as the Bobcats got things rolling at midnight.

The new class isn’t the only change, of course, as the Bobcats have a new coach, Terrell Love, replacing Darrell Hall. Hall is now the head coach for Booker T.

We say new coach, but Love is definitely familiar with Star, having been an assistant there before becoming the head coach at US Grant last year.

So why the midnight practice:

We got to keep the fire and the passion going. We lost a lot of seniors and a lot of leaders. But I look out here and see how many showed up at midnight, I think that fire is there.” – Love

Love felt it all day, especially getting closer to practice as his leg just kept bouncing, he said. Wide receiver Stevo Henderson was in the same boat, saying there was no way he took a midday nap or anything like that.

No way. I was way too anxious for this. I’m a senior, now it’s time for me to be a leader.” – Henderson

The Bobcats won’t be doing this every night, but I love a night like this. Star will practice from 7 a.m. to noon with a one-hour break, beginning Wednesday.

I’ve been to Star plenty of times, but if you’ve never been, you would have been OK Monday night. Pitch black everywhere and then, boom, the stadium lights.

I wanted to stick around a little longer, but I got me an OSSAA board meeting to attend in the morning. However, there was some good food waiting for those kids, too.

Song of the day on my travels: T.I. feat. Keri Hilson “Got Your Back”

But to kick off the opening of two-a-days on Tuesday, here are a few points of interest on some of the top teams in that group:

- Star Spencer has some rebuilding in a couple crucial areas, quarterback and offensive line, as Terrell Love tries to keep the Bobcats moving forward from last year’s state championship in Class 4A. Down to 3A, Star will hand the QB job to either a senior or a sophomore, with Carlos Hutson (the senior) and Darion Bogus (the sophomore) battling it out through the next few weeks.

The offensive and defensive schemes at Star will look basically the same as what former coach Darrell Hall ran. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Love said.

Of course, Love was his offensive coordinator two years ago before spending last season as the US Grant head man.

The Bobcats will get after it early, hitting the field for Midnight Madness Tuesday at 12:01 a.m.

- At Millwood, the time to talk is over, and the time to play has arrived. I remember watching the Falcons in the 7-on-7 Oklahoma Showdown in Edmond last month and one of the players claimed “We’re the best team in the state!” Then they lost to Class A Cashion in the quaterfinals.

More importantly for them, the Falcons have to develop on the offensive and defensive lines, which is where Kingfisher was able to overpower them.

- Douglass’ offense will be more based in the pass than last season and Shon Bridges showed during the summer that he’s ready to handle it. The expectations will be high again for the Trojans after last year’s runner-up finish and they have some holes to fill, especially in the trenches.

- At John Marshall, the defense will be solid, with six returning starters, so it will be up to them to keep the offense from getting in too many bad situations and let the new QB — either a junior (Dion Vickers) or a freshman (Davion Smith) — gradually work into the system.

The defense will be anchored by LB Denzel Johnson and DT Dejion Brison, a fourth-year starter.

Star Spencer was one of the more fun teams to watch this season in basketball, and a big reason was the play of point guard Kendre Talley.

He stood out because of his high hair (hey, he wanted to add a couple of inches), but his shot and quickness really made him stand out.

It’s great to see someone of his stature get a chance at the next level as Talley has signed with Oklahoma Christian.

Here is a short video with Star Sepncer graduate Kendre Talley, following the Large West’s 91-67 win in the all-state basketball game Thursday at Oral Roberts.

With 18 starters graduating from the Class 4A state champion, Love expected some areas to progress slower than others as he tried to fill all the holes.

But on the offensive and defensive lines, where several starters were lost, growth has gone well in spring practice and summer camps.

“I’ve been really pleased with our lines on both sides,” Love said. “They’re progressing faster than I thought they would, and that’s important for this team.”

A couple of standouts in the trenches have been Kenneth Turner and Derrick Ward.

The Bobcats strength will still be at the skill positions, with players like receiver/defensive back Stevo Henderson, and up-and-coming running back Kenneth Davis, who will be a sophomore. Love also touted linebacker Jamonte Mitchell as a strong player in the middle of the defense.

This season will be unique for Love and the Bobcats with the move to Class 3A. Love was an assistant at Star in 4A before taking the head job at US Grant last season, which is in Class 6A. So this will be a new experience at the 3A level.

Star is in a district with Bethel, Chandler, Bristow, Perkins-Tryon, Prague and Little Axe.

And Class 3A is loaded, with 3A’s four semifinalists from last year in the classs, along with the 4A champ and the 2A runner-up, Kingfisher.

Star Spencer product and Oklahoma Christian signee Kendre' Talley in the Faith 7 dunk contest.

The Faith 7 game has always been one of my favorite all-star type events, going all the way back to my days working in Shawnee, so getting the chance to go cover it again was a lot of fun, even though most of the fun for Oklahoma ended shortly after the dunk contest.

So let’s start there… Kendre’ Talley was as much fun to watch as any player I saw this year because of all the things he can do, and his performance in the pregame dunk contest showed it.

The Star Spencer product who has signed with Oklahoma Christian is only 5-foot-9, and he even looks shorter than that now that he lost the flat-top haircut. He used his creativity and his leaping ability to earn a second-place finish behind Texas’ Trevor Fuller. After Talley jumped over a kid with his final dunk, Fuller won it by jumping over a taller kid.

I wish that either Xavier McClish or Amric Fields would have joined the dunk contest, because both of them put on a good show at the Big All-City game.

Aside from that, it was fun watching Fields and PC West teammate Tyler Neal play together again.

One of the most impressive high school basketball duos to come through in recent years, Fields and Neal are enjoying their last few opportunities to play on the same team before Fields heads off to TCU and Neal to Oklahoma.

While Neal’s future teammate — fellow Oklahoma signee T.J. Taylor — was on the other side of the Faith 7 Basketball Bowl in Shawnee Saturday night, Neal relished the opportunity to team with Fields again.

Fields played well around the basket on both ends and scored 24 to earn team MVP honors. Neal had 13 with the pair combining for 19 rebounds, though it wasn’t enough for Oklahoma in the 130-88 loss. The PC West duo will be back together for the All-State game in late July.

“Anytime you get to play with somebody like that is fun,” Neal said of Fields. “We play together so well after playing so long together. I’m excited for him. I think he’s gonna do well at TCU.”

Overall, the Oklahoma team wasn’t as bad as the score might sound. It’s just that the Texas squad had more talent, and a lot more guys heading off to D-I programs.

But the Okies had some strong efforts. Muskogee’s Oren Faulk played well, finishing with 10 points and four rebounds. Talley and Garber’s Bryce Lamer combined for 13 points and five assists, and neither missed a field goal try. Oklahoma couldn’t buy a 3-pointer, going 2-of-22 while Texas was 8-of-29.

And Texas hit more than 50 percent of their total field goals. They got to the line more, they didn’t turn the ball over as much… all the things you would expect in such a lopsided game. It was the biggest margin of victory in the game’s 45-year history, which previously belonged to Oklahoma in a 35-point victory in 2007.

In that game, the Okies had future Sooner Cade Davis, future Cowboy Nick Sidorakis, as well as Midwest City star Xavier Alexander who went on to George Washington and is now at Southern Nazarene. Oh, and some kid named Blake Griffin.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

For local college fans, there are four players in the game who have signed with the three of the state’s Division I programs. That includes Putnam City West product Tyler Neal, and 6-foot-4 T.J. Taylor of Denison, Texas, who will be opponents next week and teammates the next four years at Oklahoma.

Also playing for Team Texas will be Oklahoma State signee Michael Jamal Cobbins out of Palo Duro High School in Amarillo. A skinny 6-foot-10, Cobbins can step outside and shoot a little, too. And Jordan Clarkson, a Tulsa-bound Texan from San Antonio, is a 6-foot-4 scoring machine. He is the all-time leading scorer at Wagner High School.

Overall, both rosters sound pretty impressive — and big. Texas has five guys 6-foot-8 or taller, and the Okies have five who are 6-foot-6 and up. As for the Oklahoma squad, it seems like a pretty complete team. If y ou were trying to put the best team together — not just the five best players, but fill each position to fit a team’s needs — this would be pretty close to what you’d come up with out of Oklahoma’s class of 2010.

You’ve got a couple of point guards in Star Spencer’s Kendre’ Talley and Enid’s Chris Fitzpatrick who can run an offense and score on their own, as well as a third point guard in Garber’s Bryce Lamer who is a glue guy and will do a lot of different little things to help a team. Xavier McClish is a pure shooter/scorer with good size at the 2-guard, and Tulsa Washington’s Tharone Chilton is a solid combo guard.

Inside, you’ve got two strong big men in Tulsa Memorial’s Cameron Downing and Muskogee’s Oren Faulk who are solid on the block at either end of the floor. Either one of them is a double-double waiting to happen.

The other three forwards — the PC West duo of Neal and Amric Fields with Roff’s Dylan Lemley — give you a set of bigs with some inside-outside game, whether it be shooting the 3 or driving to the bucket from the perimeter.

Obviously, I haven’t seen the Texas kids, but I would expect a fun game. Below are the player capsules for the game, as provided by the Faith 7 folks:

Oklahoma Players

Tharone Chilton, Tulsa Booker T. Washington High School, 6-2, 160 pounds

An All-State and All-District player for 2010 state champion Hornets, Chilton averaged 15.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and had 68 assists. He shot 43 percent from the field and 77 percent from the line. Under coach Shea Seals, Chilton has never failed to reach the State Semifinals in the last three years and has twice played in the state championship game. The Hornets were 20-9 this season. He is undecided on his college choice.

Cameron Downing, Tulsa Memorial High School, 6-9, 245 pounds

Downing earned Conference and Region Player of the Year honors and was Tulsa World Player of the year and Oklahoman All-State. He led coach Eric Savage’s Chargers to the state finals in 2010 after helping the team to a 6A State Championship in 2008 and three Green Country Conference championships. He averaged 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds and collected the school record with 896 career rebounds. Downing shot 72 percent from the field. His next action will be at the University of Buffalo.

Oren Faulk, Muskogee High School, 6-7, 225 pounds

Bound for Hartford University, Faulk led Class 6A in rebounds with 9.6 per game and was in the top five in blocked shots with 2.5 per game. He averaged 12.1 points and shot 58 percent from the field on his way to All-State and All-District honors under coach Terry Scott. Faulk led the Roughers to back-to-back State Tournament appearances with a two-year record of 39-14. He is a two-time first-team All-Conference selection.

Amric Fields, Putnam City West High School, 6-9, 215 pounds

Fields led Putnam City West to the Class 6A semifinals and the Patriots’ second state tournament appearance in 33 years. He averaged 19.3 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game on his way to All-State and All-District Honors. He shot 62 percent from two-point range, 34 percent from the arch and 75 percent from the free throw line. Bound for Texas Christian University, Fields was coached in high school by Tim Stogsdill.

Chris Fitzpatrick, Enid High School, 6-1, 180 pounds

Fitzpatrick led the Plainsmen to a 17-10 record under coach T.J Scholz, averaging 24 points, seven rebounds and three assists on the season. He shot 43 percent from the field and 81 percent from the line on his way to OCH, Tulsa World and Daily Oklahoma All-State honors, including an Oklahoman Super 5 award. An All-Region pick, Fitzpatrick is headed to Kilgore Junior College.

Bryce Lamer, Garber High School, 5-10, 145 pounds

Lamer was All-State and All-District while leading Garber to a State Championship in 2010. Coached by Dusty Torrey, Lamer has played in three state semifinals and two championship games for the Wolverines. He averaged 11.6 points, three rebounds and had 120 assists while shooting 75.8 percent from the line and 48.7 percent from the field. He was Northwest Oklahoma Player of the Year, MVP of the Skeltur Conference and was Class A All-State Tournament, Daily Oklahoman All-State, OBCA All-District, OCA All-Region OCA Small West and OBCA Second Team Academic All-State.

Dylan Lemley, Roff High School, 6-6, 195 pounds.

Lemley helped coach Kale Simon’s Tigers win the 2010 Class B State Championship with a 27-4 record, capturing conference regular season and tournament titles along the way. An All-State and All-District honoree, Lemley averaged 15.8percent from the field. Lemley is headed to St. Gregory’s University.

Xavier McClish, Midwest City High School, 6-3, 165 pounds

Bound for Northern Oklahoma College in Enid, McClish averaged 16 points, 4.8 rebounds and had 70 assists for the Bombers under coach Dewayne Bradley. McClish shot 51 percent from the field on his way to All-State and All-District honors and leading his team to the state finals with a 23-6 record.

Tyler Neal, Putnam City West High School, 6-7, 220 pounds

The 2010 Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year, Neal has signed with the University of Oklahoma. He is the Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Association Player of the Year and Metro Conference Player of the Year. He averaged 19 points, nine rebounds, 2.2 assists and shot 64 percent from two-point range, 42 percent from three-point land and 80 percent from the free throw line. The All-State and All-District selection led coach Tim Stogsdill’s Patriots to a 22-7 record and the state semifinals. It was the second appearance at the state tournament in 33 years for PC West.

Kendre’ Talley, Star Spencer High School, 5-9, 150 pounds

Talley was OCA All-State and an All-Region 8 honoree after leading coach Patrick Cudjoe’s Bobcats to the 2009 state championship and a 2010 state semifinal appearance. He average 17.2 points, four rebounds and seven assists. His next stop is Oklahoma Christian University.

Texas Players

Stephen Baird, Home School, 6-8, 200 pounds

Baird was home schooled in San Antonio after his sophomore and junior seasons at Madison High School. He led Coach John Valenzuela’s team to the State Final Four. He will play college basketball at Liberty University.

Jordan Clarkson, Karen Wagner High School, 6-4, 188 pounds

Clarkson led San Antonio’s Wagner High School to a 107-14 record in his three seasons and is the school’s all-time leading scorer. He averaged 22 points, six rebounds and 2.1 assists last season while shooting 58 percent from the field and 79 percent from the free throw line. A two-time All-State and All-District, Clarkson led coach Clifton Ellis’ Thunderbirds to two state tournament appearances, two district championships and two regional titles. He is headed for Tulsa.

Michael Jamal Cobbins, Palo Duro High School, 6-10, 205 pounds

Cobbins led Palo Duro (Amarillo) to the regional finals under Coach Jeff Evans with a 17.2 scoring and 11.1 rebounding average. A two-time All-State and All-District pick, Cobbins shot 64 percent from the field and 45 percent from three-point range. The Dons were 21-7 this season. Cobbins will continue his basketball career at Oklahoma State.

Trevor Fuller, Episcopal School of Dallas, 6-8, 215 pounds

Fuller, a resident of Carrollton, Texas, led Coach Corey Henderson’s Eagles to back-to-back State Championship with a 20-7 record in 2010. Fuller was named TABC All-State, All-SPC All-State, SPC All-Region and ESPN Rise Fourth-Team All-Area after averaging 16.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game He shot 63 percent from the field and was captain and Co-MVP of his team. A McDonald’s All-America nomine and TABC Player of the Year nominee, Fuller is headed to the University of San Diego.

Nick Hinton, Frisco Wakeland High School, 6-8, 220 pounds

Hinton was a four-time First-Team All-District selection at Wakeland under coach Brent Benningfield. He set the school record for blocked shots and rebounds. He averaged 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists for the season and shot 83 percent from the free throw line for the Wolverines. He is headed to Texas State University.

Tanner Milson, Cedar Hill High School, 6-2, 175 pounds

The District Offensive Player in the Year and First-Team All-Region selection, Milson averaged 15 points, three rebounds and three assists while leading Coach David Milson’s Longhorns to the 2009 State Finals and 2010 District title. Cedar Hill was 28-5 his senior season and 35-4 in 2009. He scored 214 three-pointers in the last two seasons and is a 48-percent shooter from the field and an 88-percent free throw marksman. He will play college basketball at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Andre Roberson, Karen Wagner High School, 6-8, 195 pounds

The all-time leading rebounder at San Antonio-Wagner with 748 boards, Roberson was the district MVP and a first-team All-State selection. He led Coach Cliff Ellis’ Thunderbirds to a 38-2 record this season and a pair of State Semifinal appearances and was named Super Team Newcomer of the Year in 2009 and a Super Team selection in 2010. He averaged 16 points, 12 rebounds and 2 assists while shooting 65 percent from the field and 70 percent from the free throw line. He has signed with the University of Colorado.

K.C. Ross Miller, God’s Academy, 6-1, 185 pounds

Ross Miller was NCSAA All-America, NPA All-Tournament MVP and he finished with more than 2900 points and 1200 assists. An All-State player, he led Coach Tim Miller’s Ambassadors to the NPA and TPA Championships and a No. 1 national ranking among small private schools. He averaged 27 points, 12 assists and four rebounds, while shooting 56 percent from the field and 88 percent from the free throw line. Miller’s next stop is Louisiana State University.

Rickey Scott, Irving-MacArthur High School, 6-3, 195 pounds

A First-Team All-State and All-Region, Scott was District MVP with a 22.7 scoring average to go along with his 6per game. He shot 45 percent from the field and 70 percent from the line and led Coach Stephen Hamrick’s Cardinals to a 21-11 record. His next stop is the University of Arkansas.

T.J. Taylor, Denison High School, 6-4, 215 pounds

Bound for the University of Oklahoma, Taylor is a three-time All-State and four-time All-District selection for Coach Jody Bass’ Yellow Jackets. He averaged 20.4 points, seven rebounds and five assists while shooting 50 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free throw line. He is the all-time leading scorer at Denison High, leading the team to four Bi-District titles.

Looked at moments 15-8 on Saturday, let’s finish the countdown. Like I said before, I had to witness these moments for them to be included.

No. 7 – Perry’s Ian Fisher and El Reno’s Cory Dauphin become four-time state champions

I always feel like Saturday night wrestling finals take forever, but they really don’t. Dauphin was absolutely incredible in his four years with the Indians while Fisher was so steady with almost like stoic presence. The two became No. 26 and No. 27 as Oklahoma four-time champions. Neither had any difficulty in achieving the feat.

No. 6 – Casady beats Heritage Hall 7-0 in 2OT

The term ‘Redeem Team’ wasn’t coined here, but this was the moment where you knew Casady was not going to be a pushover this  season. This game was full of great defense. Heritage’s Cale Courtney almost scored on a long fourth down run before the Cyclones finally found the end zone on a TD pass from Cale Shivers to Travis Hibdon.

Star vs. Douglass was memorable for many reasons - one of them was Darwin Rideau's performance. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman

No. 5 – Championship Monday: Boys Tennis

Even if they’re not, when events run longer than they’re supposed to, it gives that feeling of being special. And for me, the tennis nut, this was like a dream to just go back and forth from four courts to watch one championship after another. Putnam North’s Chris Haworth reclaim his title, Nate Roper of Edmond North show he’ll be a force in years to come and the Huskies finishing a crazy-good season.

No. 4 – All-OKCPS Class 4A football championship (Star Spencer beats Douglass)

Maybe Stillwater wasn’t the best site for the two schools, but it was still a magical night at Boone Pickens Stadium. I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like that ever again. It was a track meet in the first half before Terence Olds and Darwin Rideau powered the Bobcats to the victory and the state championship. Truly a great night for Oklahoma City Public Schools.

No. 3 – Edmond Santa Fe girls basketball beats Memorial in OT (aka the Arielle Cooper game)

Not only was this one of the best moments of the year, it was easily the best basketball game I saw the entire year. This was phenomenal with both teams taking shots at each other. Memorial is more than Alie Decker and Santa Fe is more than Courtney Walker, but they were phenomenal. Cooper, a sophomore, banked in a 3 to send the game into OT where the Wolves pulled it out. Even Memorial coach Shane Coffey couldn’t say anything bad about this one.

No. 2 – Booker T. boys basketball team wins state championship

Under Shea Seals, the Hornets had been so close in the last couple of years. Then this year, they clearly weren’t supposed to win against Tulsa Memorial. But Tharone Chilton and the rest of the BTW kids didn’t care about losing three times to the Chargers in the regular season. What sets this moment apart was the great celebration that included all the students there in the stands singing while the team had the gold ball. Really a special moment.

No. 1 – Edmond Memorial defeats Edmond North in biggest regular season Edlam game ever

OK, admit a little bias here. Being the Edmond writer, I admit to seeing the Bulldogs and Huskies (and Wolves) more than any other school. But this game had the feel of a big-time moment. North was 7-1 and off to its best start ever. Memorial was 5-3 and on a four-game winning streak. It was a battle for second in District 6A-2. And it was a defensive performance by the ‘Dawgs for the ages, culminating in Nelson Medeiros intercepting a pass in the fourth quarter and returning it for a touchdown in a 10-0 victory. It wasn’t a fluke as Memorial advanced to the quarterfinals and was tied with Jenks in the fourth quarter. And perhaps attending many practices and a pep rally for this game had my psyched as I remember saying this to one of my best friends: “I’m more pumped about Edlam than I was about OU-Texas. Is there something wrong with me?”

Now that we’ve looked back, time to look ahead to what should be a great 2010-11 high school sports year.

The Oklahoma City Player of the Week is shared by John Marshall’s Steven Bay, Keyair Bolden, Emmanuel Denson, Elijah Gill, James Green, Keene James and the other members of John Marshall’s boys relay teams.

Those athletes all won events at Saturday’s Rock Creek Invitational in Sulphur, helping the Bears dominate the event in beating second-place Tecumseh 217-82 in the overall standings.

Bay and Denson won multiple events. Bay won both the 3,200 and 1,600 meter runs, while Denson won both the 300 and 110 hurdles.

James won the 100-meter dash as the Bears swept the top three spots in the premier event, with Bolden coming in 0.05 seconds behind and John Marshall’s Delante Scroggins finishing third.

Bolden on the 200, Gill won the 400, Green won the 800 and the Bears won the 400, 1,600 and 3,200-meter relays.

Others:
Zekeria Chism, Temisha Shoals and Jordan Smith, John Marshall: The trio each won events in helping the Bears complete the sweep at Sulphur. Shoals win the 200, Chism the 400 and Smith the long jump.

Deandre Vick, Douglass: Vick won both the 110 (15.39) and 300 (41.30) hurdle events at last Tuesday’s meet at Shawnee’s Oklahoma Baptist. His wins played a big part in the Trojans winning the meet, beating out Millwood 117-107.

Wisby, Douglass: Wisby won both the 200 (25.16) and 400 (59.04) at last Tuesday’s meet at Shawnee’s Oklahoma Baptist.

Have a player of the week nomination for an Oklahoma City athlete? E-mail raber@opubco.com

The rosters for the 45th Annual Faith 7 basketball game were recently announced. The game, featuring a team of Oklahoma all-stars against an all-star team from Texas, will be played June 5 at Shawnee’s Oklahoma Baptist University.

Here’s the Oklahoma roster:
Tharone Chilton, Tulsa Wahsington
Cameron Downing, Tulsa Memorial
Oren Faulk, Muskogee
Amric Fields, Putnam West
Chris Fitzpatrick, Enid
Bryce Lamer, Garber
Dylan Lemley, Roff
Xavier McClish, Midwest City
Tyler Neal, Putnam West
Kendre Talley, Star Spencer

The game, featuring all-star teams from Oklahoma and Texas, will be played June 12 in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Two players on the Oklahoma team will be heading to Texas to play for Big 12 teams–Clinton’s Delans Griffin (Texas Tech) and Midwest City’s Dominque Jones (Baylor).

Other notable names on the team include Oklahoman All-State running back Darwin Rideau of Star Spencer, Southmoore’s Mason Myers and Del City’s wide receiver tandem of Chris McAlester and Donavan Dan.

Kingfisher’s Jeff Myers will coach the team.

Last year’s game was canceled due to lightning in the area.

Oklahoma roster

QB: Jack Cameron, Tulsa Kelley; Matt Oberste, Sallisaw

RB: Delans Griffin, Clinton; Darwin Rideau, Star Spencer

WR: Donavan Dan, Del City; Joe Dowdell, Tulsa Kelley; Chris McAlester, Del City; Ronnie Price, Broken Arrow; Trey Wiley, Sallisaw; Jordan Woods, Kingfisher

OL: D.J. Brown, Lawton; Kevin Duke, Shawnee; Cohle Fowler, Verdigris; Alec Henry, Tulsa Union; Mason Myers, Southmoore; Tanner Nerby, Enid; Jarrett Richert, Clinton, John Saint, Tulsa Kelley; James Stephens, Broken Arrow

DL: Justin Butterfield, Bartlesville; Devon Harris, Lawton MacArthur; Dominique Jones, Midwest City; Sonny Puletasi, Lawton; James Renfrow, Broken Arrow; Lamares Shields, Del City; Kyle Williams, Broken Bow

LB: Ethan Biddy, Tuttle; Rhett Blundell, Kingfisher; Mike Lunsford, Catoosa; Emmanuel Maxwell, Midwest City; Jericho Rogers, Davis

DB: Dustin Bohanan, Guthrie; Nelson Medeiros, Edmond Memorial; James Roberson, Tulsa Union; Luke Snider, Tulsa Union; Markell Walker, Carl Albert

K/P: Cole Way, Tulsa Union

Coaches: Jeff Myers, Kingfisher; Mike Mobra, Catoosa; Brad Farrow, Broken Arrow

Region One
Chris Fitzpatrick, Enid
Trevon Hartfield, Watonga
Seth Heckart, Woodward
Jabe Karr, Okarche
Bryce Lamer, Garber
Dakota Martin, Chisholm
Chris Mustain, El Reno
J.D. Pugh, Texhoma
Rhett Radcliff, Forgan
Hayden Vencl, Garber
Player of the Year: Tyler Miller, Garber
Coach of the Year: Dusty Torrey, Garber

Region Two
Chris Boyd, Okemah
Patrick Buntt, Frontier
Bryan Champion, Perkins
Tyler Dean, Prague
Jordan Gipe, Yale
John Lazenby, Glencoe
Alex Moore, Cleveland
Chase Mongold, Ponca City
Kalian Watkins, Preston
Dillon Worley, Mason
Player of the Year: Ralston Moore, Pawnee
Coach of the Year: John Lazenby, Glencoe

Region Three
Parker Ballard, Pryor
Robert Boyles, Claremore
Jake Bullard, Vinita
Dakota Caudill, Claremore
Cale Elam, Oktaha
Oren Faulk, Muskogee
Courtney Gaston, Fort Gibson
Jon Griggs, Tahlequah
Devon Rinehart, Gore
Pud Ross, Locust Grove
Billy Waltrip, Fort Gibson
Player of the Year: Courtney Gaston, Fort Gibson
Coach of the Year: Gary Hendrix, Fort Gibson

Region Four
Derrick Bull, Altus
Nick Herrington, Erick-Sweetwater
Tevin Johnson, Binger-Oney
Dee Robinson, Lawton MacArthur
Kas Sanders, Fletcher
Gavan Steinmetz, Fort Cobb-Broxton
Josh Sweat, Big Pasture
Tanner Thompson, Cache
Dane Thrash, Cheyenne
Clay Walker, Hammon
Player of the Year: Levi Richardson, Mangum
Coach of the Year: Jeff Carlisle, Mangum

Region Five
Jared Beal, Norman North
Tanner Bell, Purcell
Blaine Brooks, Blanchard
Corbin Byford, Bray-Doyle
Trey Cohee, Ardmore
Conner Davey, Washington
Kyle Forehand, Lexington
Zach Hibbard, Lindsay
Gary Inglett, Plainview
Shea Longman, Newcastle
Dalen Qualls, Stratford
Player of the Year: Ryan Spangler, Bridge Creek
Coach of the Year: Jason Sanders, Bridge Creek

Region Six
Jordan Burrell, Valliant
Dwight Camp, Red Oak
Jimmy Doolin, Dale
Jordan EagleRoad, Talihina
Kchris Griffin, Haworth
Kolby Johnson, Caddo
Dylan Lemley, Roff
Taggart Lockhart, Talihina
Dayne Parker, Roff
D.J. Shanklin, Hugo
Player of the Year: Cale Jackson, Bethel
Co-Coaches of the Year: Kale Simon, Roff; Troy Miller, Holdenville

Region Seven
Adrien Anderson, Tulsa Memorial
Desmond Butler, Tulsa Edison
Jack Cameron, Tulsa Kelley
Quan Carter, Tulsa Union
Tharone Chilton, Tulsa Washington
Steven Hamilton, Tulsa Edison
Braeton Hightower, Owasso
Damian Hooks, Tulsa East Central
Jake Toupal, Broken Arrow
Drew Wilson, Tulsa East Central
Player of the Year: Cameron Downing, Tulsa Memorial
Co-Coaches of the Year: Eric Savage, Tulsa Memorial; Beau Wallace, Tulsa East Central

Region Eight
Stephen Clark, Douglass
Trez Colbert, Midwest City
Larry Cunningham, Carl Albert
Obi Emegano, Edmond Memorial
Amric Fields, Putnam West
Xavier McClish, Midwest City
Dominique Raney, Putnam City
Josh Richardson, Edmond Santa Fe
Kendre Talley, Star Spencer
Jameel Whitney, McGuinness
Player of the Year: Tyler Neal, Putnam West
Coach of the Year: Terry Long, Douglass

CLASS 3A
Jordan Burrell, Valliant
Hayden Darst, Antlers
Marlo Harden, Hartshorne
Christian Hill, Mount St. Mary
Gary Inglett, Plainview
Cale Jackson, Bethel
Brandon Kirkland, Heavener
Dalton Newsome, Mount St. Mary
Noah Polk, Haskell
Jordan Woods, Kingfisher

CLASS 2A
Austin Collins, Pioneer
Jimmy Doolin, Dale
Cale Elam, Oktaha
Kchris Griffin, Haworth
Trevon Hartfield, Watonga
Kyle Klaus, Pawnee
Nic Lappke, Cordell
Dakota Martin, Chisholm
Ralston Moore, Pawnee
Dustin Shade, Hulbert

CLASS A
Jabe Karr, Okarche
Zach Medley, Stuart
Tyler Miller, Garber
Andrian Mosley, Porter
Joey Powers, Welch
J.D. Pugh, Texhoma
Zach Samaha, Fort Towson
Dane Thrash, Cheyenne-Reydon
Hayden Vencl, Garber
Jason Wixon, Porum

CLASS B
Dylan Baker, Fargo
Aaron Cornell, Roff
Roper Cunningham, Waynoka
Drew Fischer, Timberlake
Nick Herrington, Erick-Sweetwater
Dylan Lemley, Roff
Adonis Sumlin, Coyle
Josh Sweat, Big Pasture
Colby Walker, Hammon
Dillon Worley, Mason

Tulsa Washington made it official Monday, naming Star Spencer coach Darrell Hall as the Hornets’ coach.

“It’s one of the top jobs in the state,” Hall said Sunday evening.

Hall acknowledged some internal conflict between staying at Star Spencer and leaving for Tulsa Washington.

In the end, the draw of one of the most successful programs in the state was too much to pass up for Hall.

The Hornets have won seven championships in their history, the last coming in 2008.

Last year, Washington was expected to contend again for a gold ball. But those hopes came crashing down when head coach Antwain Jimmerson was suspended without pay  for the rest of the school year on Oct. 27. Jimmerson’s Hornets were forced to forfeit three games, eventually keeping Washington out of the playoffs for the first time in Jimmerson’s 10 years there.

Hall’s Bobcats finishes last season on an 11-game winning streak, culminating in a Class 4A state championship, the school’s first in football.

He coached Star Spencer for seven seasons, going 57-28.

The Bobcats beat Douglass 34-21 to bring home not only Star’s first football title but the first for Oklahoma City Public Schools since 1995.

Star Spencer coach Darrell Hall will be named the football coach at Tulsa Washington, the Tulsa World reported Sunday.

“There’s a chance something could happen,” Hall told The Oklahoman, while emphasizing that nothing was official. “I’m pretty content at Star.

“We’ll see.”

Tulsa Public Schools has called a press conference at 1 p.m. Monday at Tulsa Washington to announce the school’s new football coach.

Hall would replace Antwain Jimmerson, who resigned in January after being suspended during the season following an eligibility scandal at the school.

In a press release issued Sunday, TPS athletic director Stephanie Spring said “school administrators want to keep a tight lid on the new coach’s identity. Suffice it to say, he’s no stranger to the winner’s circle and certainly has what it takes to lead the Hornets to another championship game.”

Tulsa Washington won the Class 5A title in 2008, its first championship since 1984.

Hall coached the Bobcats to the Class 4A title–the first football championship in school history–last year.

In seven seasons at Star Spencer, Hall is 57-28.

Tuesday
Baseball: Santa Fe South at John Marshall
Soccer: Capitol Hill at McGuinness
Soccer: Southeast vs. U.S. Grant at Speegle
Tennis: Capitol Hill at Millwood
Tennis: Centennial at Northwest
Tennis: Classen at Northeast
Tennis: John Marshall at Douglass
Tennis: Star Spencer at Southeast

Wednesday
Baseball: All-City Tournament at Dolese
Soccer: Classen vs. Harding at Taft Stadium

Thursday
Baseball: All-City Tournament at Dolese
Soccer: Capitol Hill at Edmond North
Tennis: Douglass at Classen
Tennis: John Marshall at Capitol Hill
Tennis: Northeast at Star Spencer
Tennis: Southeast at Northwest
Tennis: US. Grant at Centennial

Friday
Baseball: All-City Tournament at Dolese
Soccer: Capitol Hill boys at Kings of the South Tournament at Speegle Stadium

Saturday
Baseball: Northwest at Mustang
Soccer: Capitol Hill boys at Kings of the South Tournament at Speegle Stadium
Track: John Marshall at Tiger Track Classic at Stroud

After offseason surgery, Anderson has come back to become one of the favorites in Class 5A at 215 pounds.

In last week’s regionals, Anderson pinned Deer Creek’s Alex Christensen at 3:50 to win the region and earn the West’s No. 1 seed.

At the state tournament beginning Friday, Anderson (30-3) will start off his quest for a title against Grove’s Weston Culvey.

Anderson’s brother, Antwan, was a state champion wrestler for Capitol Hill.

Look after the jump for other Oklahoma City players who turned in impressive performances in the last week.

OTHERS

Jeremy Anderson, Capitol Hill: Anderson (23-4) qualified for the Class 5A state wrestling tournament at 140 pounds. He’ll begin the tournament against Claremore’s Nick Haugen.

Marquis Buxton-Hill, Douglass: Buxton-Hill led the Trojans with 17 in Friday’s 91-39 district win over Little Axe.

Darrius Bryson, Star Spencer: Bryson scored 22 points in the Bobcats’ 80-55 win over Bristow on Friday night.

Sharane Campbell and Dejrah Payton, Star Spencer: The pair teamed up to score 52 points in the Bobcats’ win over Bristow on Friday. Campbell scored 28 and Payton added 24.

Travis Carbajal, Southeast: Carbajal scored 25 to lead the Spartans to a 95-44 win over SeeWorth Academy on Tuesday. Carbajal and Southeast begin the Class 5A playoffs Friday night against Northwest.

Deangelo Davis, Star Spencer: Davis (24-4) qualified for the Class 4A state wrestling tournament at 215 pounds.

Quira Demery and Dayla Threatt, Millwood: The Falcons’ tandem combined for 25 points in Millwood’s 61-26 district win over Lindsay on Saturday night. Demery had 13 while Threatt added 12.

Jazer and Jemuel Duran, Southeast: The sophomore duo each qualified for the 5A state wrestling tournament. Jazer (24-6) qualified at 125 pounds and will start the tournament against Grove’s Zach Housley while Jemuel (24-2) qualified at 130 pounds and will begin the tourney against Tulsa East Central’s James Duncan.

Tavion Fleeks and DeAndre Prince, John Marshall: Fleeks (19) and Prince (25) combined for 44 points in the Bears’ 85-27 district win over Santa Fe South on Friday. The duo helped turn what was a close game through one period into a blowout as John Marshall outscored the Saints 26-2 in the second.

Darrius Gates, Millwood: Gates scored 21 points to lead Millwood in a 75-32 district win over Lindsay on Saturday night.

Breanna Giddens, John Marshall: Giddens scored 19 in the Bears’ 35-point win over Santa Fe South on Friday night.

Denzel Pugh, Northeast: Pugh scored 33 for the Vikings in a 112-69 win over ASTEC on Friday night. Pugh was one of five Northeast players in double figures in the win.

Phillip Schmidt, Northwest: The sophomore (25-10) qualified for the Class 5A state wrestling tournament at 112 pounds. He’ll begin the tournament Friday against Claremore’s Calib Freeman.

Antonio Simpson, Southeast: The senior (20-7) finished second in the Class 5A regional at 189 pounds, advancing to this weekend’s state tournament. He’ll begin the event against Skiatook’s Cody Salyer.

Te’era Williams, Douglass: Williams continued to shoulder the scoring load for Douglass’ girls, scoring 28 of the Trojans’ 62 points in a 12-point district win over Little Axe.

With all the small schools in the playoffs, there won’t be another power poll for them. It’s time to forget rankings and go prove something for real in 3A and below. That also means this will be the last poll for the big boys. Good luck in the postseason, everyone.

Boys basketball power polls

Big schools

1. Douglass, 4A (23-0): The Trojans haven’t faced any of the state’s other elite teams, but they have all the tools to compete with the best.

2. Edmond Santa Fe, 6A (19-3): Two road losses in last two weeks, but the Wolves are still among 6A’s favorites.

3. Putnam City West, 6A (13-10): Went 2-1 last week with one of its two stars, Tyler Neal, out with an ankle injury.

4. Putnam City, 6A (19-4): Pirates seem to be coming together at the right time; fourth shot against PC West could be waiting in area playoffs.

5. Tulsa Memorial, 5A (20-2): Thirteen straight wins heading into the playoffs after beating Tulsa Washington Saturday.

6. Broken Arrow, 6A (19-3): Limping into the playoffs after losses to Union and Lawton Eisenhower last week.

7. Muskogee, 6A (17-4): Could get a chance to avenge last week’s one-point loss at Jenks in the area playoffs.

8. Tulsa Edison, 5A (19-3): Won three straight games over 5A top-15 teams to close the regular season; top candidate to challenge Memorial for title.

– Scott Wright, swright@opubco.com

With the first round of playoffs out of the way in Classes 4A-2A, it’s time to look ahead at this weekend’s regional action:

CLASS 4A
Boys
Douglass at Byng, 8 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Cache-Bethany winner at 8 p.m. Saturday in Elgin; Loser plays Lone Grove-Elgin winner at 8 p.m. Friday)

John Marshall at Anadarko, 8 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Woodward-Elk City winner at 8 p.m. Saturday in Clinton; Loser plays Guymon-Clinton winner at 3 p.m. Friday)

Star Spencer vs. Mannford at Harrah, 8 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Hilldale-Stilwell winner at Okmulgee at 8 p.m. Saturday; Loser plays Okmulgee-Checotah winner at 8 p.m. Friday)

Girls

Douglass at Byng, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Cache-Elgin winner at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Elgin; Loser plays Dickson-Little Axe winner at 6:30 p.m. Friday)

John Marshall at Anadarko, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Guymon-Clinton winner at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Clinton; Loser plays Woodward-Elk City winner at 1:30 p.m. Friday)

Star Spencer at Harrah, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Okmulgee-Stilwell winner at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Okmulgee; loser plays Hilldale-Checotah winner at 6:30 p.m. Friday)

CLASS 3A
Boys
Centennial at Bethel, 8 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Perry-OCS winner at 8 p.m. Saturday; Loser plays Chandler-Stroud winner at 3 p.m. Friday)

Millwood vs. Marlow at Lindsay, 8 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Purcell-Bridge Creek winner at 8 p.m. Saturday at Purcell; Loser plays Riverside-Sulphur winner 3 p.m. Friday)

Northeast at Kingfisher, 8 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays St. Mary-Prague winner at 8 p.m. Saturday; Loser plays Jones-Meeker winner at 8 p.m. Friday)

Girls
Centennial vs. SeeWorth Academy, 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Bethel (Winner plays Perry-Stroud loser at 6:30 p.m. Friday; Loser is eliminated)

Millwood vs. Marlow at Lindsay, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Riverside-Sulphur winner at 6:30 p.m. Friday; Loser plays Purcell-Bridge Creek winner at 1:30 p.m. Friday)

Northeast at Kingfisher, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays St. Mart-Prague winner at 6:30 p.m. Saturday; Loser plays Jones-Meeker winner at 6:30 p.m. Friday)

Also this weekend, playoffs in Class 6A and 5A begin. Here’s a look at the city schools involved in those classes:

CLASS 5A
Boys
Capitol Hill vs. Duncan at Western Heights, 6:30 p.m. Friday (Winner plays Durant-Western Heights winner at 7 p.m. Saturday)

Northwest vs. Southeast at Guthrie, 6:30 p.m. Friday (Winner plays Guthrie-Noble winner at 7 p.m. Saturday)

Girls
Capitol Hill at Carl Albert, 8 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Northwest-Lawton MacArthur winner at 1:30 p.m. Saturday)

Northwest vs. Lawton MacArthur at Carl Albert, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Carl Albert-Capitol Hill winner at 1:30 p.m. Saturday)

Southeast vs. Durant at Deer Creek, 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Winner plays Deer Cree-Noble winner at 1:30 p.m. Saturday)

The Oklahoma City player of the week is Douglass’ Marquis Buxton-Hill.

Hill scored 22 and pulled down 12 rebounds in the Class 4A No. 1 Trojans’ 84-73 win over Star Spencer on Saturday night.

After the win, Buxton-Hill said he believed the Trojans were the best team in the state regardless of class and it’s hard not to agree with him right now.

The Trojans will enter the playoffs undefeated and Buxton-Hill is a huge reason why.

Others:

Adeshola Adebayo, Southeast: A perennial part of this list, Adebayo averaged 27 points per game for the Spartans in three wins last week. Adebayo scored 30 against John Marshall, 29 against the Wichita Defenders and “just” 22 in a win over Centennial on Tuesday.

Aubrey Brown, Classen SAS: Brown scored an average of 14 points in Classen’s three games last week, including a game-high 19 in Friday’s 52-13 win over Harding Arts.

Sharane Campbell, Star Spencer: Campbell scored 18 on Tuesday to lead the Bobcats to a 67-37 win over Northwest, then battled through shooting problems (and a physical defense) to score 16 in Star’s win at Douglass on Saturday.

Travis Carbajal, Southeast: Carbajal averaged 17 points per game in Southeast’s three games last week.

Tavion Fleeks, John Marshall: Fleeks averaged 18 points in John Marshall’s three games last week, including a game-high 24 in an overtime loss to Millwood.

Breanna Giddens, John Marshall: Giddens led the Bears in scoring in all three of their games last week, including a 19-point performance against Southeast.

Travon Grant, Capitol Hill: Hill scored a game-high 29 in Capitol Hill’s 65-59 win over Northwest on Friday. Earlier in the week in a win over Millwood, Grant also had a game-high, scoring 19.

Ramond Jenkins, Douglass: Jenkins scored a game-high 17 in a win over Northeast on Friday night, then added 15 the next night in Douglass’ win over Star Spencer.

Trai Jordan, Southeast: Jordan scored 18 in a Tuesday win over Centennial, added 8 in a Thursday loss to John Marshall, then bounced back by scoring a game-high 24 in Friday’s win over the Wichita Defenders.

Jordan Leggins, Northeast: Leggins averaged 20 points per game for the Vikings last week during a brutal stretch of schedule that included Class 4A No. 1 Douglass and Northwest. Leggins scored 29 in a win over U.S. Grant, 25 against Northwest, 12 against Douglass and 14 against Heritage Hall.

Kevin Parker, Northwest: Parker averaged more than 15 points per game in the Vikings’ four games last week.

DeAndre Prince, John Marshall: Prince scored game-highs in the Bears’ wins over Classen (25) and Southeast (24)last week, and added 14 in an overtime loss to Millwood on Friday night.

Delford Robinson, Millwood: Robinson led the Falcons with 19 in a 65-60 overtime win over John Marshall on Friday night.

Kendre Talley, Star Spencer: Another player who could get the award most every week. Last week, Talley scored 23 (13 in the second half and 8 in the fourth quarter) in the Bobcats’ 83-81 win over Northwest. On Saturday, Talley scored 25 in Star’s 84-73 loss to Douglass.

Taries Taylor, Northwest: Taylor averaged 20 points per games as the Knights played three games last week in a stretch that included Star Spencer on Tuesday, Northeast on Thursday and Capitol Hill on Friday. Taylor scored 25 against Star, 15 in the first half.

Te’era Williams, Douglass: Williams scored 24 of Douglass’ 33 points in Saturday’s loss to Star Spencer. The night before, Williams had 22 in a win over Northeast.

The Douglass-Star Spencer boys game that was originally scheduled to be played Jan. 30 will be played Saturday night, though the venue has been changed.

When the game was canceled the first time, the game was moved to Northwest, where the teams played one of their regular season games last season. But the game has now been moved to Douglass.

The girls game will start at 6 p.m., followed by the boys game at 7:30.

When these teams met earlier this season in the All-City Shootout at Northwest, fans were being turned away by the time the game started so I would advise getting there as early as possible to ensure a seat.

Centennial’s Caitlin Copeland took over Friday night’s game against Northwest, scoring 37 of her team’s 55 points in a 55-50 double overtime win on the road.

No other Centennial player scored more than six points.

Centennial plays at Southeast tonight.

Others
Adeshola Adebayo. Southeast: In a 63-48 loss to Northeast on Friday, Adebayo scored half of her team’s points.

Markus Clark, John Marshall: Clark won the long jump at last weekend’s 4A-3A state indoor track championships in Enid with a jump of 19 feet, 7 inches.

Emmanuel Denson, John Marshall: Denson won the 55-meter hurdles at last weekend’s 4A-3A state indoor  track championships in Enid. Denson had a time of 7.90, beating out teammate Jonathan Barber, who finished second, by more than two tenths of a second.

Romond Jenkins, Douglass: Douglass continued to show why some consider them the best team in the state regardless of class, as Romond Jenkins scored 18 in an 87-63 win over Capitol Hill on Friday. Jenkins was one of six Trojans in double figures in the win.

Delford Robinson, Millwood: Robinson scored 18 in the Falcons’ 57-54 win over Star Spencer on Friday. Millwood trailed by 12 points at halftime and by five at the end of the third quarter but came back to win their 11th game in their last 13.

Bryan Steele, Trai Jordan and Travis Carbajal, Southeast: Steele scored 26, Jordan 25 and Carbajal 19 as the trio nearly outscored Northeast by themselves in an 87-77 win over the Vikings on Friday.

Jeffery Trailer, John Marshall: Trailer won the shot put with a throw of 50 feet 1.5 inches but had plenty of company on the leaderboard, with each of the top three spots going to Bears. Ken Berry (48-11.75) and A.J. Clark (48-6) rounded out the top three, helping John Marshall win the 4A-3A boys championship.

All Oklahoma City Public Schools athletic activities scheduled tonight have been postponed. As of right now, the games scheduled for tomorrow are still on as scheduled.

Star Spencer-Douglass, which was originally scheduled for two weeks ago, will be played Saturday at Northwest.

Ga,es scheduled for tonight included: OKC Storm at Douglass girls basketball and Southmoore at Southeast wrestling.

Tomorrow’s schedule:
BASKETBALL
Centennial at Southeast
John Marshall at Classen
Millwood at Capitol Hill
Northwest at Star Spencer
U.S. Grant at Northeast

WRESTLING
Northwest at Western Heights

At least three Oklahoman All-Staters have yet to decide where they will play college football.

Still pondering things are Midwest City linebacker Emmanuel Maxwell, Del City wide receiver Donavan Dan and Star Spencer running back Darwin Rideau.

With the possible exception of Dan, the group is likely to end up at junior colleges. Rideau certainly would’ve wound up at a Division I school had he qualified and Maxwell is on the fence academically and would’ve received moer Division I attention had he been a sure-thing qualifier (and an extra couple of inches of height certainly would’ve helped).

Despite some reports, neither Maxwell or Dan have signed with Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. NEO is certainly a tempting place but they’re both pondering several options. Dan is considering walking on at a Division I school.

Also, Millwood’ s Trayvon Henry signed at Butler County Communicty College. Henry was briefly committed to OU and was committed to Kansas as well before academic and other issues changed things. If Henry goes to junior college and takes care of things there in the classroom and doesn’t have any other issues, there’s little doubt he’ll wind up with another chance in Division I football. He might’ve been the best defensive player in the state before a suspension after week two kept him out for nine games.

In case you missed it, I wrote about Star SPencer standout Sharane Campbell in today’s Hoop Dreams feature.

Hoop Dreams: Breaking horses old hat for Star Spencer’s Sharane Campbell

I’ve always enjoyed talking to Campbell and it wasn’t any different for this story. One of the things I didn’t get to write about in the story was about how she wound up on the Air Oklahoma Stars summer basketball team.

Campbell was playing summer league basketball with a group of girls she played softball with several years ago when they played the Stars. The Stars won comfortable but Campbell clearly proved she belonged on the same court with the team made up of elite players from around the state. A parent from her team told her father Paul that they should play with the team but Paul wasn’t so sure.

“To be honest, I didn’t like the Stars,” Paul Campbell said. “I thought they were too arrogant.”

But after talking to one of the team’s assistant coaches, they decided to play in the AAU state tournament with the team. Campbell played, started and won the MVP in the tournament. So she stayed on for the national tournament that year in Springfield, Mo. The Stars wound up finishing as runner up in the tournament.

“From then on, we were hooked with them,” Paul Campbell said.

Alumni Football USA is looking for former players from at least 30 local high schools to participate in full-contact alumni football games in May.

Cost for the game is $75 per player with equipment provided. The first 40 players to register from each school will be accepted.

Among the rivalry games open for registration are: Millwood-Douglass, Moore-Westmoore, Carl Albert-Guthrie, Casady-Heritage Hall, Del City-Midwest City, Putnam City-Putnam West, Southeast-Northeast, Norman-Norman North, Yukon-Mustang, Edmond Santa Fe-Edmond North, McGuinness-Tulsa Kelley, Edmond Memorial-Putnam North, John Marshall-Star Spencer, Little Axe-Washington and Tuttle-Blanchard.

Additional games may be added if there is interest.

There will also be a series of games featuring Tulsa area high school alumni, also in May.

To register or for more information, call 877-578-8576, e-mail tjcavender@sbcglobal.net or register online at AlumniFootballUSA.com.

FOOTBALL
Ken Berry, John Marshall (ECU)
Kenyad Blair, Northeast/NEO (Nichols State)
Irvin Caldwell, Star Spencer (NEO)
Arthola Clarke, John Marshall (NWOSU)
Kevin Forbes, Douglass (Langston)
Teontez Fortune, Douglass (Langston)
Rico Ivy, Douglass (Langston)
Miles Jackson, John Marshall (ECU)
Aaron James, Douglass (UCO)
Franky Jamison, Star Spencer (NEO)
Emmitt Jones, Star Spencer (NEO)
Brendon Jordan, John Marshall (NEO)
Lucas Miller, Capitol Hill (NEO)
Corey Mitchell, Douglass (Weber State)
Nic Nealy, Douglass (Grambling State)
Terence Olds, Star Spencer (NEO)
Andre Thompson, Douglass (Langston)
Raphael Watts, Capitol Hill (NEO)
Norris White, Douglass (Weber State)
James Williams, John Marshall (NEO)
Jeff Wright, Star Spencer (Langston)

TRACK AND FIELD
Antonio Taylor, Northwest (Okla. Christian)

FOOTBALL
Henry Alexander, Ardmore (SEOSU)
Jake Alexander, Jenks (Tulsa)
Jamaal Allen, Lawton (SNU)
Joe Alston, Berryhill (NSU)
Daryn Alves, Durant (NSU)
Gerard Anderson, Tulsa Central (NEO)
Matthew Anderson, Sand Springs (Pittsburg State)
Joe Aska, Edmond North (Garden City)
Brad Avery, Madill (SWOSU)
David Balenseifen, Mustang/NEO (SNU)
Tyler Barnes, Enid (SNU)
Calvin Barnett, Tulsa Washington (Arkansas)
Josh Barrett, Wayne (SNU)
Skylar Bartlett, Ringling (SNU)
Jason Bear, Stillwater (SNU)
Eric Bennett, Tulsa Washington (Arkansas)
Que’Shaun Bennett, Enid (NWOSU)
Matt Berrey, Purcell/NEO (ECU)
Ken Berry, John Marshall (ECU)
Ethan Biddy, Tuttle (Air Force)
Michael Billingsley, Southeast/NEO (Nichols State)
Qumain Black, Ada (NEO)
Kenyad Blair, Northeast/NEO (Nichols State)
Kenneth Blake, Davis (ECU)
Mason Blake, Lindsay (NWOSU)
Rhett Blundell, Kingfisher (NWOSU)
Brenton Bogar, Muskogee (Tulsa/NEO)
Hunter Bohannan, Yukon (Southwestern, Kan.)
Zach Boren, Southmoore (NEO)
Austin Brasher, Edmond North (BYU)*
Julian Brockington, Del City (NEO)
D’Juan Brooks, Edmond Memorial (NEO)
Brenden Brown, Norman North (ECU)
LaBron Brown, Southmoore (NEO)
Jon Bullock, Broken Arrow (UCO)
Jeremy Burton, Muskogee (La.-Monroe)
Justin Butterfield, Bartlesville (NSU)
Troy Buffington, Southmoore (SNU)
Tate Byers, Tulsa Kelley (Washington, St. Louis)
Colton Byford, Edmond North (UCO)
Irvin Caldwell, Star Spencer (NEO)
Chris Campbell, Enid (NWOSU)
Nick Canavan, Norman North (Missouri State)
Michael Cane, Okmulgee (ECU)
Chance Carey, McAlester (ECU)
Londre Carson, Muskogee (NEO)
Luke Chalfant, Hinton (SWOSU)
Mark Chestnut, Miami/NEO/OSU (Pittsburg State)
Keldin Choate, Shawnee (ECU)
Chris Clark, Moore (NWOSU)
Arthola Clarke, John Marshall (NWOSU)
Colton Cline, Norman North (Sam Houston State)
Alex Cochran, Broken Arrow (SWOSU)
Demarco Cobbs, Tulsa Central (Texas)
Aaron Colvin, Owasso (OU)
Tuswani Copeland, Lawton MacArthur (Baylor)
Jacoby Crowley, Lawton Eisenhower (SEOSU)
Nathan Crownover, Del City/NEO (SNU)
Dakota Crumbie, Tulsa Washington (ECU)
Clayton Cunningham, Ringwood (NWOSU)
Roper Cunningham, Waynoka (NWOSU)
Steven Daniels, Tulsa East Central (UCO)
Robert Dansby, Tulsa Memorial (McPherson)
Nolan Davenport, Seminole (Southwestern, Kan.)
Dakota Davis, Broken Arrow (SWOSU)
Dalton Davis, Tulsa Union (SNU)
Niko Davis, Millwood (NEO)
Ryan Day, Tulsa Union (SNU)
Johnny Deaton, Sand Springs (OSU)
Gregory DeLozier, Seq. Claremore (Pittsburg State)
Terrance Dixon, Sand Springs (NSU)
Colton Dost, Tulsa Union (Western Kentucky)
Joe Dowdell, Tulsa Kelley (Dartmouth)
Brandon Downing, Edmond North (Washburn)
Alex Dowty, Mustang (Washburn)
Dalton Duckett, Tulsa Union (NSU)
Stephen Eastham, Dewey (NEO)
Bryce Ebbs, Vinita (NEO)
Cole Eddy, Midwest City (UCO)
Jordan Edwards, Washington (NEO)
Brandon Elmore, Blanchard/Coffeyville (SWOSU)
Josh Engert, Nowata (NEO)
B.J. Evans, Tulsa Union (Garden City)
Ryan Feller, Altus (SWOSU)
Darryl Fields, Madill (SMU)
Aaron Fisher, Tulsa Central (Ga. Southern)
Drew Fischer, Timberlake (NWOSU)
Blake Fogle, Caney Valley (NWOSU)
Kevin Forbes, Douglass (Langston)
Adam Ford, Broken Arrow (NEO)
Teontez Fortune, Douglass (Langston)
Donnie Fuston, Enid (NEO)
Ruben Gaines, Muskogee (UCO)
Eric Gardner, Lone Grove (ECU)
Jake Garrett, Tuttle (SNU)
Courtney Gaston, Fort Gibson (Arkansas)
Blake Gatewood, Edmond North (UCO)
Kimes Gilbert, Southmoore (SWOSU)
Jaimon Gilstrap, Tulsa East Central (NSU)
Zakk Gipson, Pryor (NWOSU)
Cord Gothard, Velma-Alma (SWOSU)
Gimo Grace, Tulsa East Central (Emporia State)
Bob Graham, Jenks (Iowa State)
Cale Grauer, Lincoln Christian (Mo. Western)
Delans Griffin, Clinton (Texas Tech)
Logan Grinstead, Sulphur (UCO)
Colby Hager, Sayre (NWOSU)
Justin Harmon-Brewer, Edmond Santa Fe (SNU)
Rowdy Harper, Broken Arrow (Houston)
Demantre Harris, Del City (Garden City)
Devante Harris, Duncan (SEOSU)
Halston Harris, Marlow (SEOSU)
Michael Harris, Edmond Santa Fe (Washburn)
Austin Haywood, Southmoore (OU)
Haden Hedges, Pioneer (SNU)
Alec Henry, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Trayvon Henry, Millwood (Butler County)
Aries Herrion, Tulsa Washington (Pittsburg State)
Rylan Hess, Metro Christian (Colo. School of Mines)
Steven Hopper, Broken Arrow (Vian)
Brett Horn, Waynoka (NWOSU)
J.J. Hugine, Del City (New Mexico)
Caleb Hulva, Enid (SNU)
Chris Hummingbird, Seq. Tahlequah (NEO)
Dalton Hunter, Maysville (ECU)
Derrick Hurst, Millwood (NWOSU)
Taylor Inman, Seq. Claremore (SWOSU)
Bronson Irwin, Mustang (OU)
Royal Isokariari, Tulsa Memorial (McPherson)
Rico Ivy, Douglass (Langston)
Miles Jackson, John Marshall (ECU)
Aaron James, Douglass (UCO)
Ethan James, Gore (NSU)
Franky Jamison, Star Spencer (NEO)
Antonio Jenkins, Putnam North (NEO)
Dewitt Jennings, Bixby (Tulsa)
Kenny Johnson, Weatherford (SWOSU)
Jace Johnson, Bethel/ECU (SWOSU)
Tyler Johnson, Berryhill (NEO)
Willie Johnson, Tulsa Memorial (NEO)
Dominque Jones, Midwest City (Baylor)
Emmitt Jones, Star Spencer (NEO)
Gus Jones, Wagoner/OU (NSU)
Brendon Jordan, John Marshall (NEO)
Jordan Karriman, Grove/NEO (La.-Monroe)
Jacob Keller, Tulsa Union (La.-Monroe)
Jake Kelley, Beggs (Peru State)
Brandon Keplinger, Watonga (NWOSU)
Kyle Keplinger, Watonga (NWOSU)
Johnny Ketterman, Timberlake (NEO)
Drake Keys, Skiatook (SWOSU)
Chris King, Jenks (UCO)
Cecil Kirkendoll, Clinton (SWOSU)
Jarrett Lake, Jenks (Arkansas)
Alex Land, Edmond Santa Fe (Weber State)
Ricky Lawyer, Edmond North (NEO)
Justin Lepley, Seq. Tahlequah (NEO)
Chris Littlehead, Seq. Tahlequah (OSU)
David Lore, Jenks (Air Force)
Matt Luetjen, Hennessey (Army)
Randy Mack, Edmond Santa Fe (Washburn)
Tyler Mackey, Afton (NEO)
Dalton Mahoney, Alva (NWOSU)
Mike Major, Tulsa Kelley (Princeton)
George Mallett, Southmoore (SNU)
Beau Marsaln, Metro Christian (NEO)
Dominique Massengil, Lawton (ECU)
Mason Mathews, Yukon (Mid-America Nazarene)
Ty Matthews, Choctaw (SNU)
Chris McAlister, Del City (Central Arkansas)
Ryan McCaul, Moore/NEO (La.-Monroe)
Shawn McIntosh, Lawton MacArthur (SNU)
Nelson Medeiros, Edmond Memorial (Fort Hays State)
Ryan Merrill, Cordell (NWOSU)
Clifton Miller, Atoka (SEOSU)
Lucas Miller, Capitol Hill (NEO)
Brian Mills, Edmond Santa Fe (Princeton)
Corey Mitchell, Douglass (Weber State)
Deonte Morris, Tulsa Union (Tulsa/NEO)
Cory Mosely, Midwest City (Hutchinson)
Cole Mount, Deer Creek (Washburn)
Mason Myers, Southmoore (Colorado State)
Cody Nall, Ardmore (ECU)
Josh Napper, Lawton Eisenhower (SEOSU)
Carlos Nazario, Lawton (ECU)
Nic Nealy, Douglass (Grambling State)
Marco Nelson, Glenpool (Tulsa)
Chase Neuman, Dewey (SWOSU)
Jordan Newby, Southmoore (SNU)
Tanner Newby, Enid (NEO)
Justin Nole, Washington (SNU)
Alex Oden, Victory Christian (NEO)
Terence Olds, Star Spencer (NEO)
Cade Oller, Billings (NWOSU)
Tyler Ott, Jenks (Harvard)
Johnny Pack, Seminole (Southwestern, Kan.)
Dustin Parks, Waukomis (NWOSU)
Chris Patterson, McAlester (NEO)
Chris Peoples, Vian (SEOSU)
Richard Peoples, Norman North (ECU)
Gordon Perry, Weatherford (SWOSU)
Brandon Piercy, Muskogee (NEO)
Tre Porter, Carl Albert (Texas Tech)
Zac Powell, Garber (NWOSU)
Scott Powers, Sperry/NEO (Emporia State)
Ronnie Price, Broken Arrow (NEO)
Cody Pritchard, Stroud (NWOSU)
Sonny Puletasi, Lawton (Wyoming)
Chris Ramey, Wagoner (Arkansas Tech)
Sean Reed, Shawnee (ECU)
James Renfrow, Broken Arrow (NSU)
Joel Reser, Del City (NEO)
Sean Rigney, Shawnee (ECU)
James Roberson, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Thomas Roberson, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Kevin Roberts, Madill (SWOSU)
Brady Robinson, Broken Arrow (NEO)
Howard Roebuck, Tulsa Washington (Prairie View A&M)
Carl Salazar, Broken Arrow (Air Force)
Ian Sanders, CHA (SNU)
Kale Sawatzky, Weatherford (OU)*
Austin Schultz, Chisholm (SNU)
Taylor Schuyler, Bixby (Central Arkansas)
Tye Scott, Salina (NEO)
Derek Serowski, Southmoore (UCO)
Burgess Shaw, Sand Springs (ECU)
Tyler Shaw, Edmond Santa Fe (ECU)
Lamares Shields, Del City (ECU)
Denton Simek, Prague (Arkansas)
Ethan Simpson, Claremore (Pittsburg State)
D.J. Sims, Edmond Santa Fe (ECU)
Richard Sims, Edmond North (Dordt)
Kyler Skinner, Weatherford (SWOSU)
Ryan Smith, Muskogee (NEO)
Travis Smith, Durant (NEO)
Tyler Smith, Sand Springs (Pittsburg State)
Xavier Smith, Edmond North (Missouri)
Luke Snider, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Anthony Sparks, Stillwater (NEO)
Trent Spurgeon, Owasso (Arizona)
James Stephens, Broken Arrow (UCO)
Matt Stevenson, Edmond Memorial (Baker)
P.J. Stimson, Pryor (NWOSU)
Tyler Stitt, Mustang (NWOSU)
Ray Stovall, Tulsa Washington (La.-Monroe)
Jake Streck, Kremlin-Hillsdale (NWOSU)
Ricky Streck, Kremlin-Hillsdale (NWOSU)
Casey Strate, Dewey (NEO)
Clint Strate, Dewey (NEO)
Ryan Stringer, Clinton (SWOSU)
Caleb Sullivan, Seminole (Deer Creek)
Garrett Sullivan, Deer Creek (UCO)
Jon Swanfeld, Tulsa Union (SNU)
Nyko Symonds, Southmoore (OU)*
Kwame Tate, Elgin (UCO)
Dylan Taylor, Vian (NSU)
Matthew Tingle, Putnam North (NEO)
Robert Thomas, Sulphur/Cowley County (ECU)
Andre Thompson, Douglass (Langston)
Mike Thompson, Bartlesville (Pittsburg State)
Taylor Thurman, Seq. Claremore (Haskell)
Reuben Tiller, Ardmore (ECU)
Corey Todd, Hilldale (NWOSU)
Kobey Trower, Hominy (NEO)
Zach Trujillo, Deer Creek (Kansas State)**
Hayden Vencl, Garber (NWOSU)
Eddie Venters, Muskogee (NEO)
Markell Walker, Carl Albert (ECU)
Dillion Wallace, Tulsa East Central (NEO)
Patrick Wallace, Tulsa Central (NEO)
Nick Walters, Edmond Memorial/NEO (Arkansas)*
Davis Walton, Tulsa Kelley (NEO)
Raphael Watts, Capitol Hill (NEO)
Cole Way, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Clifford Weatherford, Muskogee (NEO)
Dane Weippert, Guymon (Panhandle State)
Stanley West, Westmoore (SNU)
Scott Whitaker, Norman North (Drake)
Norris White, Douglass (Weber State)
Jameel Whitney, McGuinness (ECU)
Ryland Widener, Southmoore (Northern Colorado)
Blair Williams, Beggs (NEO)
Kyle Williams, Broken Bow (SEOSU)
James Williams, John Marshall (NEO)
Terry Williamson, Broken Arrow (UCO)
Julian Wilson, Southmoore (OU)
Roman Wilson, Lincoln Christian (Princeton)
Ray Wolber, Tulsa Kelley (Drake)
Josiah Woodard, Stillwater (SEOSU)
Jordan Woods, Kingfisher (NWOSU)
Jeff Wright, Star Spencer (Langston)
Clayton Yancy, Seminole (Southwestern, Kan.)
Collin Yeary, Norman North (NEO)

BASEBALL
Wade Ambrose, Tulsa Union (Northeast Texas CC)
Tyler Carter, Ada (NOC-Enid)
Caden Cleveland, Christian Heritage (Morehead State)
Braden Cook, Chickasha (Connors State)
Cale Coshow, Deer Creek (OU)
Casey Coyle, Putnam North (OU)
John Davenport, Jay (NOC)
Luis DeJesus, Collinsville (EOSC)
Cale Elam, Oktaha (Wichita State)
Brad Fisher, Jenks (ORU)
Jonathan Furlong, Bixby (Neosho)
Nick Goza, Collinsville (EOSC)
Jonathan Gray, Chandler (OU)
Josh Halbert, Choctaw (Wichita State)
Landon Hallam, Edmond Memorial (Seminole)
J.R. Head, Midwest City (NOC-Enid)
Mason Justice, Holland Hall (Kansas State)
Shane Kinnear, Tulsa Union (Harding)
Jordan Lopez, Edmond Santa Fe (Texas Tech)
Joe McGee, Tulsa Washington (Connors State)
Jose Olizagosti, Collinsville (Seminole)
Mitch Osburn, Broken Arrow (Seminole)
Dillon Overton, Weatherford (OU)
J.T. Realmuto, Carl Albert (OSU)
Jacob Rice, Tulsa Union (Arkansas)
Dillon Robinson, Broken Arrow (Fort Scott)
Brandon Ruiz, Yukon (NOC)
Garrett Schaede, Owasso (Neosho)
Taylor Schneeberger, Broken Arrow (Connors State)
Cayle Shambaugh, Jay (OU)
Andrew Smith, Tulsa NOAH (Coffeyville)
Tyler Smith, Kelleyville (NOC)
Logan Taylor, Jenks (Texas Tech)
Billy Waltrip, Fort Gibson (New Mexico State)
Ryan Wilson, Owasso (Seminole)
Kyle Wood, Owasso (Fort Scott)

BOYS BASKETBALL
Will Baysinger, Owasso (MIT)
Cameron Downing, Tulsa Memorial (Buffalo)
Amric Fields, Putnam West (TCU)

GIRLS BASKETBALL
Ashlie Baker, Tulsa East Central (Fort Scott)
Jimi Blagowsky, Edmond Santa Fe (Air Force)
Desiree Bradley, Carl Albert (USC)
Brenna Burnett, Dale (Palm Beach Atlantic)
Y’Cedria Devers, Bixby (Pittsburg State)
Lindsey Hammer, Seq. Tahlequah (Mercer)
Meagan Henson, CHA (TCU)
Whitney Hocutt, Claremore (NOC)
Aianne Hunter, Putnam North (Dartmouth)
Ebonie Jackson, Tulsa East Central (Friends)
Richa Jackson, Midwest City (Duke)
Kortni Kendrick, Kansas (John Brown)
Christian Key, Victory Christian (ORU)
Kalie Lucas, Harrah (Missouri Southern)
Sophia Mahmoodjanloo, Edmond Santa Fe (State Fair College)
Mylie Mayes, Carl Albert (UCO)
Jessica McCarville, Sulphur (Southwestern, Kan.)
Ashlee Pitts, Tulsa East Central (SW Baptist)
Cara Pugh, McGuinness (OCU)
Lacy Reinke, Lawton (Cameron)
Hannah Ritter, Jay (Fort Hays State)
Kendra Suttles, Lawton (OSU)
Morgan Toben, Owasso (New Mexico)
Talor Ward, Beggs (Okla. Christian)
Kala White, Claremore (Labette)

EQUESTRIAN
Kelly Bovaird, Tulsa Kelley (Kansas State)

FIELD HOCKEY
Amanda Adwon, Holland Hall (Michigan)
Maggie Brady, Holland Hall (Brown)
Lauren Hauge, Holland Hall (Michigan)
Natalie Hood, Holland Hall (St. Louis)

GOLF
Lindsey Bensch, Broken Arrow home school (UCO)
Tressa Brumley, Chouteau (UCO)
Ian Davis, Deer Creek (OSU)
Macy Douglas, Broken Arrow (SNU)
Talor Gooch, Carl Albert (OSU)
Brad Hager, Bartlesville (NSU)
Matt Helms, Edmond Santa Fe (Wichita State)
Lauren Michael, Jenks (Drury)
Taylor Neidy, Clinton (UCO)
Cody Reed, Edmond Santa Fe (NSU)
Jade Staggs, Westmoore (OSU)
Shelby Stavely, Sallisaw/Harding (NSU)
Zach Tucker, Putnam North (NSU)

GYMNASTICS
Brittany Harris, Tulsa Union (Oregon State)

ROWING
Courtaney Miller, Jenks (SMU)

SOCCER
Jennifer Abernathy, Tulsa Union (ORU)
Ashley Bechtold, Putnam North (Missouri Southern)
Bobby Behrens, Sand Springs (John Brown)
Ashlynn Betts, Jenks (William Penn)
Leah Bickers, Victory Christian (ORU)
Rochelle Bohuslavicky, Edmond Memorial (Troy)
Bailey Boulware, Mustang (OU)
Whitney Brannon, Victory Christian (ORU)
Matt Bray, Putnam North (Missouri State)
Devon Bullard, Sand Springs (Rogers State)
Corbin Campbell, Deer Creek (OBU)
Sara Chalmers, Tulsa Kelley (Abilene Christian)
Sherri Collins, Edmond North (UCO)
Madison Cook, Tulsa Union (SWOSU)
Kyle Craft, Tulsa Kelley (Notre Dame)
Natalie Crosslin, Bixby (SWOSU)
Jessica Dale, Wagoner (Neosho)
Sam Diacon, Tulsa Washington (Missouri S&T)
Sam Duininck, Summit Chr. (Liberty)
Krista Dyess, Broken Arrow (NSU)
Kelsey Godfrey, Tulsa Union (SNU)
Tyler Groh, Putnam North (Missouri State)
Austin Gross, Jenks (Memphis)
Ashley Haines, Jenks (NSU)
Drew Hall, Edmond Santa Fe (OCU)
Mary Kate Halsmer, Jenks (ORU)
Jordan Harris, Claremore (UMKC)
Hayley Harryman, Edmond North (OSU)
Garron Hayes, Tulsa Union (Rogers State)
Hailey Haynes, Seq. Claremore (Central Arkansas)
Madi Hillis, Edmond Memorial (Kansas)
Bradi Hinch, Jenks (Tulsa)
Tyrell Jackson, Tulsa Union (Rogers State)
Morgan Jones, Jenks (Mid. Tenn. St.)
Kristen Kelley, Tulsa Kelley (OSU)
Kelsey Killion, Broken Arrow (Tulsa)
Preston Langholz, Tulsa Washington (Stanford)
Logan Lax, Putnam North (OBU)
Loren LeForce, Coweta (Rogers State)
Lindsey Lofton, Skiatook (NSU)
Omar Mata, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Sally Matthews, Owasso (NSU)
Shelby Martin, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Meghan McMahon, Putnam North (OCU)
Tori Peters, Tulsa Union (Tulsa)
Amy Petrikin, Tulsa Kelley (OU)
Caitlin Phillips, Claremore (UCO)
Jessy Phillips, Bartlesville (NSU)
Kristin Pollard, Broken Arrow (Central Arkansas)
Brandon Reed, Owasso (Drury)
Stephanie Romera, Tulsa Kelley (Lipscomb)
Aubrey Roth, Tulsa Union (SWOSU)
Camille Sanders, Edmond North (OU)
Ryan Sanders, Broken Arrow (OCU)
Brianna Shamblin, Miami (Rogers State)
Jessica Sisney, Broken Arrow (Rogers State)
Dillon Stallings, Putnam North (OBU)
Alex Starrett, Tulsa Kelley (Arkansas)
Andrew Stone, Cascia Hall (St. Edward’s)
Jeremy Swift, Bixby (Rogers State)
Jenna Taylor, Bartlesville (Harding)
Alex Tiem, Broken Arrow (Rogers State)
Addie Tipton, Metro Christian (USAO)
Claire Walker, Tulsa Washington (Penn)
Carley Yates, Edmond North (OU)
Miranda Zoller, Jenks (Tulsa)

SOFTBALL
Kacey Acker, Guthrie (SNU)
Jessica Barnes, Pawhuska (Pittsburg State)
Shelby Blanton, Newcastle (Tulsa)
Kristin Blasingame, Carl Albert (Rogers State)
Page Boling, Hilldale (Connors State)
Sierra Bronkey, Edmond Santa Fe (Arkansas)
LaDarra Brown, Muskogee (Carl Albert)
Tiffany Brown, Catoosa (Pittsburg State)
Julie Brunk, Mustang (SNU)
Bailee Cartwright, Moss (Northwestern St., La.)
Tara Chatkehoodle, Tulsa Rogers (Haskell)
Jordan Clark, Muskogee (Carl Albert)
Kylee Cole, Collinsville (NEO)
Lacie Cook, Collinsville (Labette)
Aimee Creger, Mustang (Tulsa)
Morgan Deerinwater, Savanna (Carl Albert)
Kaiti Dutton, Tulsa Union (Tennessee-Chattanooga)
Hannah Edmiston, Coweta (Independence)
Allison Edwards, Duncan (Oklahoma Wesleyan)
Katie Ellington, Tulsa Kelley (NOC)
Lindy Fluman, Cleveland (NEO)
Shelby Foreman, S. Coffeyville (Coffeyville)
Dani Fox, Yukon (Washburn)
Devon Frazier, Little Axe (St. Gregory’s)
Sydney Garcia, Moore (OCU)
Shaylee Griffin, McAlester (OCU)
Sutton Halferty, Harrah (St. Gregory’s)
Meagan Hardy Fry, Checotah (Haskell)
Ashley Harper, Drumright (Carl Albert)
Haley Henshaw, Catoosa (Tulsa)
Javen Henson, Red Oak (OU)
Paige Hightower, Chickasha (Washburn)
Whitney Hocutt, Claremore (NOC)
Jordan Jones, Skiatook (Connors State)
Hannah Justus, Catoosa (UCO)
Candace Kellar, Coweta (Rogers State)
Jamie King, Tulsa Union (NEO)
Miranda Kiser, Tulsa Union (NEO)
Kayce Long, Moss (Carl Albert)
Beth Manship, Harrah (Southeastern)
Mya Mahsetky, Little Axe (NOC)
Mary Kate McKay, Madill (Angelo State)
Alex Milligan, Moore (Cameron)
Taylor Mills, Fort Gibson (Austin Peay State)
Holly Mock, Drumright (Carl Albert)
Candace Monigold, Broken Arrow (NEO)
Shelby Morose, Seq. Claremore (Concordia)
Ashlee Nation, Tulsa Union (William Jewell)
Jeneva Nelson, Frontier (Lipscomb)
Shylar Nichols, Carl Albert (USAO)
Caitlin O’Hagan, Midwest City (St. Gregory’s)
Sam Oxford, Adair (Fort Scott)
Katie Parsons, Pryor (NWOSU)
Ashley Paxton, Mustang (Okla. Christian)
Sarah Peoples, Piedmont (Okla. Christian)
Allyson Pogue, Claremoer (NEO)
Lauren Poole, Putnam North (Seminole State)
Natalie Powers, Holland Hall (Tennessee-Chattanooga)
Hillary Price, Moss (Carl Albert)
Sarah Raunikar, Coweta/Connors State (Central Baptist)
Shelbi Redfearn, Stillwater (Baylor)
Madison Reed, Muskogee (Missouri Southern)
Megan Robison, Catoosa (NEO)
Morgan Rockwell, Coweta (Rogers State)
Kylee Rounsaville, Mustang (OCU)
Meghan Russell, Bristow (Farleigh Dickinson)
Kenna Self, Madill (OBU)
Carly Skinner, Verden (UCO)
Megan Sullivan, Broken Arrow (NEO)
Cheyenne Thomas, Coweta (Labette)
Jessica Turner, Broken Arrow (Santa Clara)
Lauren Tyndall, Edmond Memorial (Northwestern, Ill.)
Tara Underhill, Henryetta (Central Arkansas)
Shelbie Wagnon, Beggs (NEO)
Brianna Walker, Rogers (Haskell)
Emily Wares, Morris (Connors State)
Hillary Weatherford, Carl Albert (Washburn)
Shelby Wheeler, Westmoore (St. Gregory’s)
Kala White, Claremore (Labette)
Hannah Wilkinson, Coweta (Rogers State)
Briana Williams, Midwest City (Western Illinois)

SWIMMING
Dakota Wheeler, Westmoore (South Dakota)

TENNIS
Brandon Champagne, Jenks (OSU)
Logon Collins, Tulsa Union (Marquette)
Ashley Coleman, Owasso (Seminole State)
Emily Conrad, McGuinness (Abilene Christian)
Casey Distaso, Edmond North (Georgetown)
Cale Hammond, Tulsa Kelley (Duke)
Mia Lancaster, McGuinness (OU)
Evan McElwain, Tulsa Washington (Cornell)
Whitney Ritchie, McGuinness (OU)
John Harry Warden, Tulsa Union (OU)
Danielle Whitehorn, Tahlequah (OU)

TRACK AND FIELD/CROSS COUNTRY
Beau Brown, Edmond Santa Fe (Bethany)
Dewayne Golbek, Claremore (Arkansas)
Jenna Griffin, Pawhuska (Southwestern, Kan.)
Rozlyn Hamilton, Idabel (Okla. Christian)
Brock Hime, Woodland (Cowley County)
Hillarie Kessler, Deer Creek (WOSC)
Michelle Marcha, Altus (Okla. Christian)
Ryan Minkley, Ardmore (Tulsa)
Erin Patterson, Tulsa Union (ORU)
Rachel Roberts, Guthrie (Harding)
Darren Ross, Edmond Memorial (Okla. Christian)
Michael Spencer, Edmond Memorial (Okla. Christian)
Emma Steele, Holland Hall (Dartmouth)
Antonio Taylor, Northwest (Okla. Christian)
James Turner, Plainview (Okla. Christian)

VOLLEYBALL
Ashley Acklin, Carl Albert (Radford)
Tyler Cockrell, Tulsa Washington (Gardner-Webb)
Jordan Cook, Broken Arrow (NOC)
Sarah Groesbeck, Jenks (SNU)
Tate Hardaker, Edmond Santa Fe (UCO)
Julie Labarthe, Heritage Hall (Quinnipiac)
Sallie McLaurin, Carl Albert (OU)
Laura Taylor, Tulsa Union (ORU)
Alyssa Wilson, Clinton (Northern Colorado)

WRESTLING
Christian Bailey, Davis (OCU)
Ronnie Balfour, Tulsa Union (OU)
Justin DeAngelis, Jenks (OU)
Greg Delk, Skiatook (OCU)
Quincy Mondaine, Muskogee (OU)
Dax Perrier, Pawhuska (OU)
Jared Porter, Carl Albert (Central Michigan)
Dustin Reed, Choctaw (OU)
*Will walk on
**Graduated last year, currently enrolled at Kansas State

Star Spencer running back Terence Olds was one of four Bobcats who signed with Northeastern Oklahoma A&M on Wednesday.

Olds, an Oklahoman All-State player, ran for 1,209 yards and 17 touchdowns despite splitting time with fellow standout Darwin Rideau at running back.

“Terence wants to go D-I so it should be a great fit for him there,” Bobcats coach Darrell Hall said.

Also signing with NEO from the Class 4A champions were Franky Jamison, Emmitt Jones and Irving Caldwell.

Jeff Wright signed with Langston.

Rideau is expected to sign with a junior college soon.

Seems like the biggest thing from an OKC boys  standpoint is McGuinness, Douglass and Heritage Hall all being in separate areas. John Marshall and McGuinness figure to be the favorites in Area I, Douglass and Blanchard in Area II, Fort Gibson and Tulsa McLain in Area III and Star Spencer and Madill in Area IV (Although Roland and Stilwell will be dangerous as well)

Note: Districts 3, 4, 7 and 8 play Friday, Feb. 19. Districts 1, 2, 5 and 6 play Saturday, Feb. 20. Girls play at 6:30 p.m., boys play at 8 p.m.

Class 4A
AREA I
Dist. 1: Guymon at Woodward
Dist. 2: Harding Prep at Anadarko
Dist. 3: Santa Fe South at John Marshall
Dist. 4: Clinton at Elk City
Dist. 5: Blackwell at Cleveland
Dist. 6: Classen at McGuinness
Dist. 7: Heritage Hall at Piedmont
Dist. 8: Cushing at Perkins

AREA II
Dist. 1: Cache at Lone Grove
Dist. 2: Dickson at Byng
Dist. 3: Little Axe at Douglass
Dist. 4: Elgin at Bethany
Dist. 5: Weatherford at Tuttle
Dist. 6: Pauls Valley at Newcastle
Dist. 7: Seminole at Tecumseh
Dist. 8: Blanchard at McLoud

AREA III
Dist. 1: Vinita at Miami
Dist. 2: Tulsa McLain at Tulsa Webster
Dist. 3: Oologah at Jay
Dist. 4: Dewey at Locust Grove
Dist. 5: Metro Christian at Seq. Claremore
Dist. 6: Catoosa at Berryhill
Dist. 7: Inola at Fort Gibson
Dist. 8: Glenpool at Wagoner

AREA IV
Dist. 1: Harrah at Mannford
Dist. 2: Okmulgee at Hilldale
Dist. 3: Checotah at Stilwell
Dist. 4: Bristow at Star Spencer
Dist. 5: Atoka at Madill
Dist. 6: Sallisaw at Roland
Dist. 7: Poteau at Muldrow
Dist. 8: Idabel at Broken Bow

Earlier tonight, I talked to Star Spencer standout Sharane Campbell and one of the things I asked her about was the layoff that most teams around the city area have gone through over the past week.

“I’m ready to get back to playing,” Campbell said.

Campbell said since her team hasn’t been able to practice this week, she’s spent as much time as possible at a local gym, although not nearly as much as she’d like to.

Oklahoma City schools figure to be back in action Friday. Most of the games canceled last Friday will be made up Saturday with the exception of Star Spencer-Douglass. That game will be played Feb. 13 at Northwest. That’s not unusual for those teams to meet in the Knight’s gym. Last season’s second regularly scheduled game between the two was also played at Northwest.

Friday’s schedule:
Centennial at Northwest
Douglass at Capitol Hill
Northeast at Southeast
Star Spencer at Millwood
U.S. Grant at John Marshall

After 24 games in three days, I admit to being basketball-ed out on this day. It was a great tournament at the Bruce Gray Invitational, and I learned a lot about a lot of teams/players.

Here are just some of my thoughts, observations on the three-day affair.

- The No. 1 thing I’m taking is how GREAT Enid’s Chris Fitzpatrick is. After the first day, I knew he could shoot from anwhere past half court. No longer wowed by him, I watched him more intently in the final two days.

He’s better than I thought.

He’s quicker than you think. He has good size. He can pass, and he’s, let’s say crafty. He knows how to get open as all the great scorers do.

Star Spencer coach Patrick Cudjoe couldn’t say enough about Fitzpatrick while Deer Creek coach Matt Bailey (who used to be at Enid) told me Fitzpatrick is something special. Yep, he is.

- Putnam North may very well be the third-best boys team in the PC triangle of terror. But that doesn’t mean Rick Harris’ club can’t compete or won’t make state. A lot of balance on this team between Armon Provo, Joe Summers and Devin Harris. Size could be an issue, though.

- Won’t spend too much time on Deer Creek girls as I’ve written a big piece on Totsy Manning’s girls for Monday’s paper.

- Can’t say a bad thing about Star Spencer and Mustang. That is two of the better 2-1 tournaments I’ve seen from teams. Mustang shocked a lot of people making it to the final while SS did it without Darrius Bryson. Glad to finally see Kendre’ Talley LIVE and in living color. I could watch Cudjoe coach/teach all day, one of the best around.

- The McGuinness girls showed strong character in taking out Star Spencer for third. Everyone involved wants to forget that Friday game vs. PC North. Limiting Star’s star Sharane Campbell and making some big shots is a good last impression. Big game with Union on Tuesday.

- Really enjoyed watching Western Heights play. Fellow chum Scott Wright is pretty high on Tyrone Nash’s team, and I get it. Came away the most impressed with Devin Aughenbaugh. Not a bad post scorer, but he is one of the best post defenders I’ve seen lately. He does a fantastic job of blocking shots and doing it CLEAN.

- The final day of boys games was good stuff. Deer Creek and OCS was quality stuff for seventh place. Star and Enid was tremendous, best game of the day. The Jets came up big to take third while PC North made another big statement. Never know what you’re going to get on the final day, and these teams brought everything they had.

- Best girls player I hadn’t seen: Jhonita Smith of PC North. I don’t know how she does it with her 5-4 size, but man, she gets the job done. Honorable mention to freshman Courtney Chelf of Enid. Yet another Chelf is ready to dominate the scene.

- OCS just has to learn how to finish. The Saints were tied at halftime against PC North and Deer Creek and up one after three quarters vs. Enid. Those final eight minutes are the toughest. Hope the Saints don’t view the eighth-place finish as something demoralizing.

- Special thanks to the Deer Creek officials and volunteers who made the weekend so enjoyable. Good food, great company, solid basketball = great weekend.

Up next: Edlam battle between Memorial and Santa Fe. How will the Wolves bounce back after losing their first game of the season and in double overtime?

I normally don’t do this, but I’m tired and I know the paper was short on space and most of this didn’t get in. So here are the bare bones (no pun intended) look at the Deer Creek Invitational.

But of course, here are the scores.

Girls
Thursday
Bishop McGuinness 47, Putnam West 30
Star Spencer 53, OCS 39
Putnam North 58, Western Heights 50
Deer Creek 56, Enid 42
Friday
Semifinals: Putnam North 32, McGuinness 25
Semifinals: Deer Creek 54, Star Spencer 52
Enid 50, OCS 36
Western Heights 63, Putnam West 51
Saturday
Finals: Deer Creek 46, Putnam North 45
Third Place: McGuinness 52, Star Spencer 44
Consolation championship: Enid 55, Western Heights 40
Seventh place: Putnam West 48, OCS 38
Boys
Mustang 74, Star Spencer 65
Capitol Hill 64, Enid 47
Putnam North 77, OCS 60
Deer Creek, Western Heights 46, Deer Creek 44
Friday
Semifinals: Putnam North 58, Capitol Hill 53 – OT
Semifinals: Mustang 67, Western Heights 54
Enid 56, OCS 48
Star Spencer 58, Deer Creek 51
Saturday
Finals: Putnam North 76, Mustang 50
Third place: Western Heights 46, Capitol Hill 37
Consolation championship: Star Spencer 74, Enid 65 – OT
Seventh place: Deer Creek 59, OCS 41

Boys

Panthers make it four in a row

The Bruce Gray Invitational may be at Deer Creek, but it’s been dominated by Putnam City North.

For the fourth year in a row, the Panthers are the champions as PC North took out Mustang 76-50 in the championship Saturday night.

“We feel like this is our home away from home,” tournament MVP Armon Provo said. “We knew it would be tough to bounce back after last night, but we play our best on that third day of the tournament.”

Mustang, the No. 8 seed, made the championship because of its great shooting from the perimeter, but the Broncos didn’t make their first three until third quarter.

The Broncos got to within 50-41 early in the fourth before the Panthers put it away.

Joe Summers scored 20 points while Devin Harris had 19 for PC North. Jacinto Biorato led Mustang with 13 points.

Jets take third

Western Heights went on a 15-2 run in the fourth quarter lead the Jets to a 46-37 win against Capitol Hill for third place in the Bruce Gray Invitational at Deer Creek.

D.J. Taylor scored nine of his 12 points in the fourth quarter for Western Heights, who trailed by seven at halftime.

Capitol Hill’s Trevon Grant had 17 points while Alton Whittaker had a team-high 13 points for Western Heights.

Star downs Enid in shootout

It was a consolation championship game played at a championship level as Star Spencer defeated Enid 74-65 in overtime at the Bruce Gray Invitational at Deer Creek.

Star’s Deontae Thomas and Enid’s Chris Fitzpatrick each hit seven 3-pointers in the game. Fitzpatrick finished with 28 points while Thomas had 26. Kendre’ Talley poured in 24 points for the Bobcats.

Girls

Antlers claim first crown

Despite the proud tradition of Deer Creek girls basketball, the team had never won its own tournament.

That changed Saturday night.

Deer Creek’s Jasey Jackson hit the game-winning free throw with 24.6 seconds left to give the Antlers a 46-45 victory against Putnam City North in the championship of the Bruce Gray Invitational.

“We wanted to break the streak,” coach Totsy Manning said. “We’re excited because the girls have worked so hard for this.”

The Panthers had two shots for the win in the final 4.9 seconds but couldn’t convert.

Alexis Watson led PC North with 13 points while Jalyn Jackson had a game-high 17 points, including 14 in the first half.

Irish bounce back

McGuinness coach Jennifer Frakes challenged her team to stop Star Spencer star Sharane Campbell.

The Irish rose up to the challenge in a 52-44 win against the Bobcats to claim third place in the Bruce Gray Invitational at Deer Creek.

“We mixed it up on her (Campbell). We had guards on her and post players. Kamber McMaster and Mary Beth Canfield were on her almost the whole game and did a great job,” Frakes said.

Campbell finished with nine points after scoring 54 points in the first two games. McGuinness was also able to make some shots after shooting 6-for-53 on Friday night. Alexa Lienhard had a game-high 17 points for the Irish.

***

Much more coherent thoughts Sunday. Also shot video with Deer Creek’s Jasey Jackson and Putnam North’s Armon Provo, the tournament’s MVPs.

A miracle comeback falls just short, and the last game of the night once again provides fireworks are the highlights of Day 2 of the Bruce Gray Invitational at Deer Creek.

But first, your scores and schedule.

Girls
Thursday
Bishop McGuinness 47, Putnam West 30
Star Spencer 53, OCS 39
Putnam North 58, Western Heights 50
Deer Creek 56, Enid 42
Friday
Semifinals: Putnam North 32, McGuinness 25
Semifinals: Deer Creek 54, Star Spencer 52
Enid 50, OCS 36
Western Heights 63, Putnam West 51
Saturday
Finals: Deer Creek vs. Putnam North, 7 p.m.
Third Place: McGuinness vs. Star Spencer, 4 p.m.
Consolation championship: Enid vs. Western Heights, 1 p.m.
Seventh place: OCS vs. Putnam West, 10 a.m.
Boys
Mustang 74, Star Spencer 65
Capitol Hill 64, Enid 47
Putnam North 77, OCS 60
Deer Creek, Western Heights 46, Deer Creek 44
Friday
Semifinals: Putnam North 58, Capitol Hill 53 – OT
Semifinals: Mustang 67, Western Heights 54
Enid 56, OCS 48
Star Spencer 58, Deer Creek 51
Saturday
Finals: Mustang vs. Putnam North, 8:30 p.m.
Third place: Western Heights vs. Capitol Hill, 5:30 p.m.
Consolation championship: Star Spencer vs. Enid, 2:30 p.m.
Seventh place: Deer Creek vs. OCS, 11:30 a.m.

Deer Creek 54, Star Spencer 52 (Girls)

This is your late comeback that was thwarted. Midway through the fourth quarter it was 51-35 Deer Creek. I, and probably 99 percent of the people in the gym, thought the game was over.

That’s how good Star’s Sharane Campbell is. She put the team on her back and said ‘c’mon, let’s go.’ Campbell was sensational, scoring 28 points.

She scored 21 in the second half and that was 21 of the team’s 27 points in the half. It was incredible. Thought I was witnessing another ‘holy cow’ moment.

Deer Creek’s A.J. Miller ended up scoring the game-winning bucket with around 10 seconds left and Star never got a shot off. There was a lot of contact and Campbell stumbled to the ground as the horn sounded.

Miller had 19 points for Deer Creek while Jasey Jackson came up huge with 14 points.

The Antlers will look to do what they’ve never done before: win their own tournament when they play the Panthers for the championship.

Putnam North 58, Capitol Hill 53 – OT (Boys)

I thought I had another winner in the video department when CH’s Trevon Grant went up for the potential game-winner. It was great out of bounds play that fell just short.

The Redskins seemed a little deflated after that and PC North executed well in the fourth quarter and overtime to walk away with the win.

CH simply didn’t have any legs left in OT as everything was coming up short. The Redskins also missed a lot of crucial free throws.

For the Panthers, a nice balanced effort with Devin Harris, Joe Summers and Armon Provo leading the way.

PC North plays upstart Mustang in the championship. On Tuesday, it was PCN 85 and Mustang 67. What will it be Saturday night?

Other observations

- The Bishop McGuinness girls didn’t improve their play and PC North took advantage. Arianne Hunter was huge on defense and Jhonita Smith was big down the stretch.

- Where did this Mustang team come from? Jacinto Biorato and David Glidden have been amazing in the first two days. Big starts have keyed things, but the Broncos have shown great composure.

- Star and Deer Creek boys had a pretty good one. All drama was taken away by Star’s Kendre’ Talley who was 14-for-16 from the free throw line. But yet another fun one with the Antlers.

- Weird to think it will be DC and OCS for seventh place. Both teams haven’t played poorly, but I guess that’s just the way it goes, huh?

- For those that don’t know, I’ve been tweeting with all final scores and any pertinent updates on Twitter.

- Pumped up for what should be good championships with PC North vs. Deer Creek (girls) and PC North vs. Mustang (boys).

All good things come to those who wait, right? Well, I arrived at Deer Creek at just past 9:30 a.m., and I got what I was looking for right around 10 p.m.

A great final game between Western Heights and Deer Creek highlights Day 1 of the Bruce Gray Invitational Tournament.

First, the scores.

Girls
Thursday
Bishop McGuinness 47, Putnam West 30
Star Spencer 53, OCS 39
Putnam North 58, Western Heights 50
Deer Creek 56, Enid 42
Friday
Semifinals: McGuinness vs. Putnam North, 7 p.m.
Semifinals: Star Spencer vs. Deer Creek, 4 p.m.
OCS vs. Enid, 1 p.m.
Western Heights vs. Putnam West, 10 a.m.
Boys
Mustang 74, Star Spencer 65
Capitol Hill 64, Enid 47 (scoreboard said 62, but CH (and myself) think it was 64)
Putnam North 77, OCS 60
Western Heights 46, Deer Creek 44
Friday
Semifinals: Capitol Hill vs. Putnam North, 8:30 p.m.
Semifinals: Mustang vs. Western Heights, 5:30 p.m.
Enid vs. OCS, 11:30 a.m.
Deer Creek vs. Star Spencer, 2:30 p.m.

Western Heights 46, Deer Creek 44

If you weren’t there to see D.J. Taylor’s game-winning three with 1 second left, shame on you. I kid, but you can watch it on NewsOK as I was there and videoed the thing.

As soon as he let it go, I thought it was good. However, Deer Creek wasn’t done as Jurrell Calloway’s heave from half court hit off the back of the rim (that, too, is on NewsOK).

Whew, lemme catch my breath for a minute.

Deer Creek obviously isn’t the best team ever, but man, are they fun to watch? This is just another great Antler game I’ve seen this year.

Western Heights came out early and led 21-12, but the Antlers went on a 22-6 run and looked like they were in control.

However, the Jets had tremendous composure in the fourth quarter and rallied for the win. Taylor ended up with 13 points while Hayden Wagner had 15 points for Deer Creek.

Fun game.

Mustang 74, Star Spencer 65 (Boys)

No, don’t adjust your computer screen, the score is correct. It took a miracle 3 by Taylor to bump this from being the headline and newsmaker of the day.

The Broncos just came out firing. Jacinto Biorato put ‘em up 7-0 before you could even blink. When the Bobcats finally contained Biorato, David Glidden stepped up.

He’s just a freak of an athlete, and those types can do special things. He ended up with 24 points and said the win was huge to the team’s confidence because they learned how to finish a game off.

Star got it down to 63-61 and looked like it would pull off a big come-from-behind victory but not to be.

My first time seeing Kendre’ Talley, and yeah, he’s good (23 points). Really enjoyed watching him work and penetrate. Weird to think Star/Deer Creek (my predicted semifinal) is a losers’ bracket game. Dems the breaks, I guess.

Other observations

- The Bishop McGuinness girls will have to play much better if they plan on playing for the championship. Senior Lissy Fuller was enough on this day vs. Putnam West, but the Irish will need to pick it up.

- Who means more to their respective Star Spencer team, Talley or Sharane Campbell? She leads this team in just about every way possible and had 26 points.

- Enid’s Chris Fitzpatrick can shoot from ANYWHERE in the building, but it wasn’t enough as Capitol Hill was so sound and executed. But really, you should try to watch Fitzpatrick shoot.

- Putnam North girls showed heart in turning it around in the second half. I still think the Irish get ‘em, but the Panthers will be ready to fight.

- OCS and Putnam North’s first half was one of the best I’ve seen this year, tied at 33-33. But the Panthers have so many options and can hurt you in so many ways that they overpowered the Saints in this one. Junior Armon Provo (18 pts) is going to be one to watch.

- Freshman Ashley Gibson might not have to wait too much longer before she starts to become the ‘it’ player on the loaded Deer Creek girls squad. That’s a nasty group with Gibson, A.J. Miller and Kelsey Glover leading the way.

- And one more time, what an ending with the Jets and Antlers. How will Western Heights build off of this and can Deer Creek bounce back?

- Good food, good company, ready for Day 2. Thought I would head to Edmond Memorial and North on Friday, but looks like camping out at Deer Creek is what I’ll be doing. I could think of worse things to be doing.

While fellow chum Ryan Aber will continue his Tournament Tour all week, yours truly will pretty much be camped out at Deer Creek this weekend.

I’ll take a break Friday night to attend Edmond Memorial and North, but other than that, I’ll be livin’ it up with the Antlers.

Here are your girls and boys pairings.

Thursday
Girls
Bishop McGuinness vs. Putnam West, 10 a.m.
Putnam North vs. Western Heights, 4 p.m.
OCS vs. Star Spencer, 1 p.m.
Deer Creek vs. Enid, 7 p.m.

Boys
Star Spencer vs. Mustang, 11:30 a.m.
Deer Creek vs. Western Heights, 8:30 p.m.
Enid vs. Capitol Hill, 2:30 p.m.
Putnam North vs. OCS, 5:30 p.m.

Not in chronological order because wanted to show that the winners of the pair of games will be the ones that play each other in the semifinals.

Boneman’s Prediction: I’m going to say the Deer Creek girls beat the McGuinness girls in the championship because of that strong home crowd advantage. And then the Star Spencer boys edge out Capitol Hill in the boys final. If you know my track record, I wouldn’t take too much stock in anything I say.

The Oklahoma City player of the week is Northwest’s T’aries Taylor. In a 60-57 win over McGuinness on the road Friday night, Taylor scored 22 points as the Knights wiped out a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Irish.

Others:
Kendre Talley, Star Spencer boys basketball: Talley scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half in an 86-54 win over Southeast. He also added 10 assists.

Darrius Bryson, Star Spencer boys basketball: Bryson scored 22 and pulled down 12 rebounds in the Bobcats win over Southeast.

Shola Adebayo, Southeast girls basketball: Adebayo had 11 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter as the Spartans beat Star Spencer 43-38.

West
Offense
QB: Jakeil Everheart, El Reno; Jake Barrios, Weatherford
RB: Darwin Rideau, Star Spencer; Delans Griffin, Clinton
WR: Tuswani Copeland, Lawton MacArthur; Donavan Dan, Del City; Ethan Gilbert, Pauls Valley; Jordan Woods, Kingfisher
TE: Austin Haywood, Southmoore; A.J. Clark, John Marshall; Hayden Vencl, Garber
OL: Bronson Irwin, Mustang; Nic Nealy, Douglass; D.J. Brown, Lawton; Colton Cline, Norman North; Tanner Newby, Enid; Cord Gothard, Velma-Alma
K: Bobby Stonebreaker, Tuttle

Defense
DL: Jordan Edwards, Washington; Devon Harris, Lawton MacArthur; Jonathon Sturgeon, Oklahoma Bible; Stanley Johnson, Douglass; Devante Harris, Duncan; Dominque Jones, Midwest City; Sonny Puletasi, Lawton
LB: Emmanuel Maxwell, Midwest City; Kale Sawatzky, Weatherford; Jameel Whitney, McGuinness; Ethan Biddy, Tuttle; Jerico Rogers, Davis; Trevor Ross, Timberlake
DB: Matt Luetjen, Hennessey; Trevon Hartfield, Watonga; Dustin Bohanan, Guthrie; Dillon Schooley, Putnam North; Markell Walker, Carl Albert; Nelson Medeiros, Edmond Memorial

Coaches: Byron Cordell, Durant; Justin Norman, Beggs; Chris Rivenhoover, Stigler; Larry Newton, Skiatook.

East
Offense
QB: Chase Boyce, Tulsa Union; Matt Oberste, Sallisaw
RB: Darryl Fields, Madill; Marco Nelson, Glenpool; Terrance Dixon, Sand Springs; Tyler Phillips, Davenport
WR: Roman Wilson, Lincoln Christian; John Henry Parsons, Stigler; Blair Williams, Beggs; Saulyer Saxon, Shawnee; Mike Thompson, Bartlesville; Trey Wiley, Sallisaw
OL: Ethan James, Gore; Cohle Fowler, Verdigris; Austin Bradshaw, Hilldale; Kevin Duke, Shawnee; John Saint, Tulsa Kelley; Jake Alexander, Jenks; Jeremy Burton, Muskogee

Defense
DL: Calvin Barnett, Tulsa Washington; Spencer Kingfisher, Salina; Chase Neumann, Dewey; Kerry Burks, Tulsa McLain; Cody Chance, Coweta; David Lore, Jenks; Dylon Gray, Davenport
LB: Cody Pritchard, Stroud; Gage Delozier, Sequoyah Claremore; Jesse Patton, McAlester; Luke Snider, Tulsa Union; Jon Bullock, Broken Arrow
DB: Tyler Langston, Tonkawa; Garrett Walker, Cascia Hall; Justin Fogle, Tulsa Hale; Demarco Cobbs, Tulsa Central; DeWitt Jennings, Bixby; Eric Bennett, Tulsa Washington

Coaches: Kevin Foster, Pauls Valley; Mark Harmon, Garber; Leo Holmes, Lawton MacArthur; Bruce Troxell, John Marshall.

MVP: Darwin Rideau, Star Spencer

Offensive MVP: Marco Nelson, Glenpool

Co-Defensive MVP: Garrett Evans, Cushing, Joseph Christian, Star Spencer

Co- Outstanding Lineman: Emmitt Jones, Star Spencer, Jake Watkins, Tecumseh

Outstanding Tight End: Marcus Alexander

Outstanding Receivers: Von Kendrick, McLoud, Anthony Haley, Glenpool, Chris Nunnally, Tecumseh

Outstanding Running Backs: Terence Olds, Star Spencer

Co- Outstanding Quarterback: Dillon Endecott, McLoud, Franky Jamison, Star Spencer

Outstanding Kicker: Garrett Hobbs, Glenpool, Zach Megee, Seminole

Outstanding Defensive Lineman: Johnny Pack, Seminole, Tanner Meister, Cleveland

Outstanding Inside Linebackers: Antoine Watson, Star Spencer

Outstanding Outside Linebackers: Mat Thomas, Glenpool, Dylan Brady, Tecumseh

Outstanding Cornerbacks: Keon Johnson, Star Spencer, Ryan Morrison, Tecumseh

Outstanding Safeties: Charles Mitchell, Star Spencer

Special Recognition Award: Clay Coy, McLoud, Conner Williams, Mannford

4A-2 Coach Of The Year: Darrell Hall, Star Spencer

All-District Players

Cleveland: Colton McEntire, CB, JC Luman, DE, Caleb Sparks, LB

Cushing: Tyler Farley, WR, Brett Aicher, WR, Paul Carpenter, TE

Glenpool: Derek Allen, QB, Bryan Alerson, CB, Marcus Sears, CB Aaron Espinoza, RB, Drew Molencupp, LB, Ethan Williams, DL, Jon Adams, DE, Shelby Rider, DL, Ben Atkinson, OL, Jason Shrinski, OL, Trevor Frank, OL

Mannford: Billy Broom, OL, Josh Caudle, OL, Jeremy Wright, OL, Dalton Tallent, DL

McLoud: Chris Guinn, DL, Charles Mills, OL, Dillon Shattuck, LB, John Dockery, S, Jake Rowland WR

Seminole: Josh Cramer, WR, Austen Harvey, WR, Nolan Davenport, TE, Keith Johnson, LB, Caleb Sullivan, OL, Clayton Yancey, OL, Seth Hallum, DB

Star Spencer: Helven Christian, OL, Irvin Caldwell, DL, Cody Endecott, OL

Tecumseh: Garrett Matlock, OL, Colten Williams, OL, Jeff Henderson, OL, Andrew Phillips, DL, Alex Hickman, DL

Honorable Mention

Cleveland: Tim Hodson, OL

Seminole: Shea Knighton, WR, Blake Lozano, DB, Kalone Blackwell, TE

Star Spencer: Isaiah Williams

2009 Football Team

Coach of the Year: Darrell Hall, Star Spencer

Player of the Year: Darwin Rideau, Star Spencer

Defensive Player of the Year: Stanley Johnson, Douglass

Offensive Player of the Year: Quinton Neil, Douglass

Special Teams Player of the Year: Antoine Watson, Star Spencer

Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year: Norris White, Douglass, Joe Christian, Star Spencer

Co-Linebacker of the Year: Corey Mitchell, Douglass, Ken Berry, John Marshall

Co-Defensive Back of the Year: Keon Johnson, Star Spencer, Derrick Hurst, Millwood

Co-Offensive Lineman of the Year: Nicholas Nealy, Douglass, Emmitt Jones, Star Spencer

Co-Offensive Back of the Year: Terrance Olds, Star Spencer, Brendon Jordan, John Marshall

Receiver of the Year: Derrick Allen, John Marshall

All-City Athletic Conference 1st Team Defense

Defensive Line: Niko Davis, Millwood, Rafael Watts, Capitol Hill, Daryl King, Northeast, Marcus Alexander, Star Spencer, A.J. Clark, John Marshall

Linebackers: Aaron James, Douglass, Deon Sanders, Millwood, Antonio Evans, Centennial

Antonio Simpson, Southeast, Deontay Turner, U.S. Grant

Defensive Backs: Rico Ivy, Douglass, Michael Post, John Marshall, Charles Mitchell, Star Spencer; Terrance Johnson, Northwest Classen

Punter: Julian Manzo, Northeast

All-City Athletic Conference 1st Team Offense

Quarterback: Antyoun Smith, Douglass, Franky Jamerson, Star Spencer

Receivers: Deandre Vick, Douglass, Asjah Ferguson, Star Spencer, Dimitri Braggs, Millwood

Offensive Line: Kody Wood, U.S. Grant, Trevor Parks, Southeast, Andre Thompson, Douglass; Dorian Bacy, Douglass, Rickye Henderson, Centennial, James Williams, John Marshall; Helvin Christian, Star Spencer, Brian Hall, Northeast

Honorable Mention: Capitol Hill, Calvino Muse

Centennial, Tyrell Larkins, Earnest Lacour

Douglass, Teontez Fortune, Kevin Forbes,

John Marshall, Miles Jackson, Jeff Trailer

Northeast, Trevor Kelley

Northwest Classen, Michael Kressy

Southeast, Jose Lopez, Josh Capehart, Jacob Young, Justin Arnette

Star Spencer,  Cody Endacott, Irvin Caldwell

U.S. Grant, Enos Moaning

There are some moments that still stand out to me, and I think I saw one last night. After the Star Spencer victory, the players ran to the bench, and the crowd and players started singing and waving their arms in unison.

Doesn’t sound like much, but you had to be there. It was something incredible.

Star Spencer 34, Douglass 21

Yeah, that’s right, 55 points in this one. To be fair that wasn’t all that shocking to me. I picked Star to win 26-24. The two teams found holes in the regular season matchup, so I figured it might be the same.

That is the first time I’ve seen Star’s Darwin Rideau LIVE in two years. Wow, he is some kind of player. Running, receiving, tackling, punting, he did it all. In a game full of men, he was THE MAN.

But that’s not to say Douglass didn’t test the Bobcats every step of the way. Junior Aliston Cobb is going to be a force next season for the Trojans. Quinton Neil closed out his career in style as both teams rushed for more than 200 yards.

Douglass was up 21-18 late in the first half when the Trojans fumbled. Not too long after, Franky Jamison found Rideau for the final touchdown of the half. It proved to be huge.

Field position, said coach Willis Alexander, was the game-changer in the second half. Douglass was always behind the eight ball as Rideau had a punt at the 10 yard line and at the 5 yard line.

Best player I hadn’t heard of before last night: Star’s Jamonte Mitchell. He played a heckuva game with some bone-crunching hits.

I havta give a lot of credit to Douglass QB Antyoun Smith. His numbers won’t reflect much of anything, but he played a gritty game. He also rushed for a touchdown and threw one.

I don’t know how the game came off on TV, but I thought it was a great statement on what the Oklahoma City Public Schools system is all about. It was a clean game, a great game and both teams represented OKCPS well.

Couldn’t happen to two better guys in Alexander and Star coach Darrell Hall. We’ve seen them for years at our media days, and every year it seems like their teams have been closer and closer. Well, they’re there. Now can they keep ‘em there?

Alexander, understandably, didn’t want to reflect too much on what last night meant to him and the school. Give it a couple days, weeks, and they’ll realize how special it was.

Congrats to Star Spencer on its first state championship. Hope you enjoyed our extensive coverage in Sunday’s paper as well as the Live Blog last night. I know I had fun, and I know there were a lot of Star followers on it.

We brought the house last night with myself, Ryan Aber, Berry Tramel and Brandon Chatmon doing video. Hey, this game deserved it.

For Berry’s story, go here. For Ryan’s story on Rideau and Star, go here. For my take on Douglass’ season, go here. And for my news and notes from the historic game, go here.

Look for video from the game later this week.

Douglass Trojans
Record: 10-3
Ranking: No. 3
Coach: Willis Alexander, third season at Douglass.
Previous state titles: 1956 (2A), 1961 (B), 1976 (3A),
Road to 2009 final: Beat Glenpool 14-0, beat Wagoner 14-0, beat Weatherford 22-6.
2008 record (playoffs): 9-3 (Beat Seminole 42-30, lost to Broken Bow 27-18)
Last week: Douglass avenged a 14-7 regular-season loss to Weatherford using a balanced running attack and a suffocating defense. The Trojans ran for 327 yards, with junior RB Aliston Cobb leading the way with 152 and Quinton Neil adding 139.
Player to watch: Corey Mitchell, LB. Mitchell has more than 105 tackles and seven sacks. He’s also the Trojans’ punter, averaging more than 34 yards per kick.
Key stat: 11. Average opponents scoring against the Trojans. No team has scored more than 14 on Douglass since a 34-28 win over fellow 4A finalist Star Spencer on Sept. 18. The Trojans have allowed just six total points in the playoffs.
News to know: The championship game with Star Spencer will be the first meeting of Oklahoma City Public Schools teams for a football state title. … Norris White, Devante McKinney and Stanley Johnson each have 10 or more sacks with White leading the way with at least 14. … Douglass’ average of 327.3 rushing yards per game is the best in 4A. … Quinton Neil and Kevin Forbes each have more than 1,100 rushing yards this season. They’ve combined to score 29 TDs. … Antyoun Smith has more than 600 rushing yards and has thrown for more than 700 yards. 

Star Spencer Bobcats
Record: 11-2
Ranking: No. 4
Coach: Darrell Hall, seventh season at Star Spencer
Previous state titles: None
Road to 2009 final: Beat Elk City 44-33, beat Oologah 44-29, beat Sallisaw 46-13.
2008 record (playoffs): 9-3 (Beat Elk City 35-7, lost to Grove 15-14)
Last week: Star Spencer ran for 462 yards and sacked Sallisaw QB Matt Oberste eight times as the Bobcats dominated at Sapulpa’s Collins Stadium. Three Star Spencer runners had more than 100 yards, with Darwin Rideau racking up 200 rushing yards.
Player to watch: Terence Olds, RB/LB. Olds has battled back from early season injuries to rush for more than 1,00 yards and 16 TDs and recorded four sacks for the Bobcats.
Key stat: 297.8. Star Spencer’s average rushing yardage this season, just behind Douglass near the top of Class 4A.
News to know: Darwin Rideau has more than 1,500 yards rushing, while QB Franky Jamison has around 900. … Jamison has the most passing yards (nearly 1,000) for a Bobcats QB during Hall’s tenure at the school. … The Bobcats’ offensive coordinator is former Millwood, OSU and NFL wide receiver Rashaun Woods. … Antoine Watson leads the Bobcats with around 130 tackles. Jamonte Mitchell also has more than 120. … Watson and Kenneth Turner each had multiple sacks in last week’s win. … Charles Mitchell had three interceptions in the second-round win over Oologah.

I picked Star Spencer to win it all when the playoffs started, but I was super impressed with Douglass in the win against Weatherford. Should be a classic showdown.

Star Spencer vs. Douglass
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Boone Pickens Stadium, Stillwater (Ryan Aber and myself will be there)

Star Spencer (11-2)
Week 1: Millwood – L, 40-6
Week 2: Southeast – W, 54-26
Week 3: Douglass – L, 34-28
Week 4: McLoud – W, 35-0
Week 5: Tecumseh – W, 40-0
Week 6: Cushing – W, 50-0
Week 7: Seminole – W, 60-0
Week 8: Cleveland – W, 60-8
Week 9: Mannford – W, 58-15
Week 10: Glenpool – W, 34-20
Playoff Week 1: Elk City – W, 44-33
Playoff Week 2: Oologah – W, 44-29
Playoff Week 3: Sallisaw – W, 46-13

Douglass (10-3)
Week 1: Capitol Hill – W, 54-0
Week 2: Millwood – L, 32-28
Week 3: Star Spencer – W, 34-28
Week 4: Elk City – W, 24-9
Week 5: Southeast – W, 55-6
Week 6: Guymon – W, 48-6
Week 7: Bishop McGuinness – L, 14-7
Week 8: Weatherford – L, 14-7
Week 9: Woodward – W, 29-14
Week 10: Piedmont – W, 54-14
Playoff Week 1: Glenpool – W, 14-0
Playoff Week 2: Wagoner – W, 14-0
Playoff Week 3: Weatherford – W, 22-6

Looks like the final will be Star Spencer 46, Sallisaw 13. Still 1:42 left.

9:09 What a start to the half for Star Spencer. First, the Bobcats defense holds the Black Diamonds to 3 and out, then on the first play, Darwin Rideau breaks one up the middle for a 55-yard touchdown.

Star Spencer 26, Sallisaw 7 10:06 remaining in the third

Jeff, I’m efforting to see if someone is braodcasting the game online. A Sallisaw writer tells me he thinks they are, on a radio station called “DiamondNet” but I’ll see if I can get more information.

Back to the action, we’re at halftime here at Collins Stadium and Star Spencer leads 20-7.

The Bobcats have done it with the ground game, rushing for 210 yards so far on 25 carries, and defense, sacking Sallisaw quarterback Matt Oberste six times. The Black Diamonds have just 22 yards on the ground.

Sallisaw did it early with the passing game, as Matt Oberste threw for 71 yards, completing 8 of his first 11 passes early. Since then, though, Oberste has completed just one of his seven passes and been intercepted once.

Darwin Rideau has 130 yards rushing so far, while Terence Olds has 56.

Jeremy Davenport has done most of the damage for Sallisaw, with six catches for 36 yards amd four carries for 26 yards

8:31 Star Spencer is taking control. Darwin Rideau’s 47-yard TD run puts the Bobcats up by two scores.

Star Spencer 20, Sallisaw 6 1:57 remaining in the second quarter

8:21 Sorry I missed the last score but Terence Olds just scored on a 39-yd run. Earlier, Darwin Rideau had a 17-yd TD run and the Bobcats added a two-point conversion.

Star Spencer 14, Sallisaw 7 4:04 remaining in the second

7:47 An early warning, not sure how much I’m going to be able to update since Sallisaw’s no-huddle offense leaves me scrambling while doing stats but the Black Diamonds are driving once again. But a sack, an incompletion and a pass for a loss have Sallisaw facing 4th and 28.

7:35 Star Spencer gets the ball first but loses it quickly on a Franky Jamison fumble that’s recovered by Trevor Fitzsimmons. And Matt Oberste immediately makes them pay with a 29-yard completion to Trey Wiley. Matt Oberste’s 2-yard TD run on fourth down puts Sallisaw ahead.

Sallisaw 7, Star Spencer 0 7:30 remaining in the first

Here at Collins Stadium in Sapulpa for Sallisaw vs. Star Spencer. Should be a heck of a game. I’ll keep things as updated on here as much as possible. You can also follow me on Twitter (@ryaber). For information on the other 4A semifinal between Douglass and Weatherford, check out Bob Przybylo (@bprzybylo).

Sallisaw (11-1) vs. Star Spencer (10-2)
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Sapulpa High

Winner plays: Douglass-Weatherford winner in next week’s Class 4A state championship game.

Sallisaw (W, Stilwell; W, Seminole; W, Tahlequah; W, Broken Bow; W, Muldrow; W, Fort Gibson; W, Poteau; W, Hilldale; L, Wagoner; W, Tulsa Webster; W, Collinsville; W, McGuinness)
Why the Black Diamonds can win: Because Sallisaw’s defense is back at full strength and Matt Oberste and Trey Wiley are the best quarterback-receiver tandem in Class 4A and offenses like Sallisaw’s have given Star Spencer problems.

Sallisaw quote:

If we don’t win this one, then the win vs. McGuinness just doesn’t mean as much. We can’t be content that we’ve just made it here.” — senior Matt Oberste

Star Spencer (L, Millwood; W, Southeast; L, Douglass; W, McLoud; W, Tecumseh; W, Cushing; W, Seminole; W, Cleveland; W, Mannford; W, Glenpool; W, Elk City; W, Oologah)
Why the Bobcats can win: Because if Sallisaw has the best QB-WR tandem in 4A, Star Spencer has the best running combo in Darwin Reideau and Terence Olds. The Bobcats also feature massive linemen on both sides.

Star Spencer quote:

Even after that rough start, we talked about all of our goals being intact. Now, we have the chance to make those things happen. It’s not so much about worrying about what the team we’re playing is doing than about doing what we need to do.” – Star Spencer coach Darrell Hall

Stat leaders
RUSHING
Sallisaw
Matt Oberste: 168 carries, 1,035 yards, 12 TDs
Jeremy Davenport: 201 carries,s 919 yards, 17 TDs

Star Spencer
Darwin Rideau: 132 carries, 1,543 yards, 20 TDs
Terence Olds: 89 carries, 964 yards, 14 TDs
Franky Jamison: 97 carries, 789 yards, 8 TDs

PASSING
Sallisaw
Matt Oberste: 129-230, 1,914 yards, 17 TDs, 10 INTs

Star Spencer
Franky Jamison: 48-90, 995 yards, 10 TDs, 7 INTs

RECEIVING
Sallisaw
Trey Wiley: 73 catches, 890 yards, 6 TDs
Chase Hunt: 18 catches, 266 yards, 2 TDs
Andrew Miller: 23 catches, 239 yards, 3 TDs

Star Spencer
Stevo Henderson: 11 catches, 294 yards, 4 TDs
Asja Ferguson: 10 catches, 218 yards, 2 TDs
Darwin Rideau: 9 catches, 214 yards, 3 TDs

TACKLES
Sallisaw
Jake Fitzsimmons: 133
Dakota Petree: 80

Star Spencer
Antwone Wilson: 113
Jamonte Mitchell: 105
Kenneth Davis: 85
Joe Christian: 78

Bob’s Key matchup: Matt Oberste and Trey Wiley vs. Star defense. There is no question Oberste and Wiley are the ones that stir the drink for the Black Diamonds. And while Star’s defense has been incredible (at times), I’m wondering what the Bobcats will do against this aerial attack.

Ryan’s Key matchup: Terence Olds and Darwin Rideau vs. Sallisaw’s front seven. The Bobcats have been able to run effectively all season. But for the first time all year really, the Black Diamonds defense is back at full strength. They’ll be tested tonight.

Bob’s pick: Star Spencer 24, Sallisaw 15. Star has always had solid runners, but the addition of a serviceable passing game puts this team in a different category. Bobcats move to final.

Ryan’s pick: Star Spencer 28, Sallisaw 26. This is definitely a game that could go either way but in the end, I think the Bobcats get it done and set up an all-OKCPS final.

Why does my name always come first in these double bylines? The advantages of having a last name that starts with “Ab” when you don’t have a co-worker whose last name is Aaron. For better or worse, though, it also meant I always sat in the front of the class in elementary school. Anyway, on to the three questions on Star Spencer vs. Sallisaw:

Star Spencer (10-2) vs. Sallisaw (11-1)
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Sapulpa HS

Robert Przybylo: The Star Spencer defense was absolutely dominant in district play but boy have Elk City and Oologah tested the Bobcats. Is this team starting to wear down or has it been matchup problems or something else?

Ryan Aber: Against Elk City, it was a bit of both, wearing down and matchup problems. The Elks’ no-huddle spread didn’t allow Star Spencer to substitute as much as it would like and that took its toll on the Bobcats. Last week, the score was a bit deceiving. Star trailed early but dominated from late in the second quarter on pretty much. Darrell Hall is confident in his team, though certainly Sallisaw will be a test.

Przybylo: Some kids just start to ‘get it.’ I don’t think there has been a better example of this than Terence Olds. Always a dynamic player, he’s matured by leaps and bounds this year. What led to this and has it rubbed off on his teammates?

Aber: It hasn’t rubbed off as much as Hall would like, but it’s certainly had an effect. Olds and Joe Christian, who I wrote about in Monday’s paper, really are the heart and soul of the Bobcats. As far as what led to Olds’ maturation, he told me he just “woke up” this summer and realized there were more important things in life than just hanging around Spencer and being a high school football star.  He made a choice to apply himself fully, not only on the field but in the classroom, and it’s certainly paid off. You can hear the pride in Hall’s voice whne he talks about both of those guys.

Przybylo: In big games, sometimes it’s the player you don’t expect that makes the big play. If it’s not Darwin Rideau or Olds, who might become that player that takes center stage for Darrell Hall’s club?

Aber: Well, you’ve got to start with Franky Jamison, the Bobcats’ quarterback. You don’t hear a lot about him because of the gaudy numbers that Olds and Rideau have but Jamison has really come on this year after taking over for Jeremy Harris. Bobcats offensive coordinator Rashaun Woods has really done a good job with Jamison and the Star Spencer passing game, and he’s a threat to break off a big run, too.

Over Thanksgiving Dinner (or afterward in a turkey-induced haze), here are three questions on Sallisaw heading into Saturday’s Class 4A semifinal between the Black Diamonds and Star Spencer (7:30 p.m., Sapulpa High):

Ryan Aber: We’ve got to start here: How good is Matt Oberste? Obviously he’s a great thrower but he’s not bad running the ball either. He had a critical 14-yard run late in the game last week and has more than 1,000 yards rushing.

Robert Przybylo: He just has that certain something, that ‘it’ quality. He doesn’t look like he should be able to do anything out there, but he gets out of sacks and has a good arm. And he’s tough. The one play that stood out to me more than any other last week was the Irish were attempting a reverse with Kyle Ahmad, and Oberste leveled him for a big loss. This is the same guy who had the collarbone injury. He did not care, that’s what that game meant to him.

Aber: Oberste’s obviously really good but we don’t hear much about his top target, Trey Wiley, who is approaching 900 receiving yards. Are those numbers a product of good hands and Oberste’s arm or is there something more there?

Przybylo: Like all great QB-WR combos, they have excellent chemistry. Oberste knows when he’s in trouble, he can throw it up to Wiley, and he’ll make a play. I’ve said it before that Wiley has the height (6-2 or 6-3), but only being 175 pounds or so doesn’t make him an attractive recruit. That’s too bad because he was able to stretch the McGuinness defense deep and showed the grit to be able to come across the middle when it was needed. I don’t know what else you want from a receiver.

Aber: What makes Sallisaw’s defense good? They did a good job slowing McGuinness down last week. Can they perform the same way against a Star Spencer team with three guys on the field at once who can score on any play?

Przybylo: Based on what I saw, I don’t understand how Sallisaw has had so much trouble overall on defense (based on previous stats). The pass rush opened my eyes. Camden Tharp had no time at all to throw it for the Irish. The Fitzsimmons boys (Trevor and Jake) are a lot for anybody to handle while Hayden Spencer also dominates. Oh yeah, and Oberste is pretty dang good in the secondary.

(Mark Oberste fills us in saying the Sallisaw defense was finally 100 percent healthy and started eight seniors against the Irish. Basically, tried to rest up those seniors so they would be ready to go both ways when it mattered most. Thanks for the info.)

Class 4A
Weatherford vs. Douglass, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Yukon
Star Spencer vs. Sallisaw, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Sapulpa

Weatherford Eagles
Record: 12-0
Ranking: No. 1
Coach: Mickey Seifried, second season at Weatherford.
Previous state titles: 1991 (3A), 1992 (4A), 1999 (4A)
Road to 2009 semifinal: Beat Seminole 24-14, beat Broken Bow 20-2
2008 record (playoffs): 4-6 (None)
Last week: Weatherford forced seven turnovers to stay undefeated, shutting out the Savages’ offense. The Eagles built a quick advantage, taking a 17-0 lead into halftime.
Player to watch: Kale Sawatzky, RB/LB. Sawatzky has more than 850 yards and 16 TDs rushing and 144 tackles and a pair of sacks on defense.
Key stat: 4,000. Weatherford’s offensive production through 12 games this season, an average of 333 per game.
News to know: Weatherford QB Jake Barrios has rushed for more than 950 yards and 13 TDs and thrown for more than 1,600 yards and 18 TDs. … Kyler Skinner has more than 500 receiving yards. … Kale Sawatzky and Kenny Johnson have 300 or more receiving yards each. … Chris Ramey has seven sacks. … Garrett Howell (126), Ryan Wilson (104) and Brandon Pounds (101) all have more than 100 tackles. 

Douglass Trojans
Record: 9-3
Ranking: No. 3
Coach: Willis Alexander, third season at Douglass.
Previous state titles: 1956 (2A), 1961 (B), 1976 (3A),
Road to 2009 semifinal: Beat Glenpool 14-0, beat Wagoner 14-0
2008 record (playoffs): 9-3 (Beat Seminole 42-30, lost to Broken Bow 27-18)
Last week: Douglass scored two fourth-qaurter touchdowns to break a scoreless tie and held on to record its second consecutive playoff shutout. Kevin Forbes and Quinton Neil each ran for more than 100 yards and a touchdown.
Player to watch: Corey Mitchell, LB. Mitchell has 98 tackles and seven sacks. He’s also the Trojans’ punter, averaging more than 34 yards per kick.
Key stat: 12.5. Average opponents scoring against the Trojans. No team has scored more than 14 on Douglass since a 34-28 win over fellow 4A semifinalist Star Spencer on Sept. 18.
News to know: Norris White, Devante McKinney and Stanley Johnson each have 10 or more sacks. … Douglass’ average of 334.4 rushing yards per game is the best in 4A. … Quinton Neil and Kevin Forbes each have more than 1,000 rushing yards this season. They’ve combined to score 26 TDs. … Antyoun Smith has more than 600 rushing yards and has thrown for more than 700 yards. 

Star Spencer Bobcats
Record: 10-2
Ranking: No. 4
Coach: Darrell Hall, seventh season at Star Spencer
Previous state titles: None
Road to 2009 semifinal: Beat Elk City 44-33, beat Oologah 44-29.
2008 record (playoffs): 9-3 (Beat Elk City 35-7, lost to Grove 15-14)
Last week: Terence Olds ran for 143 yards and two touchdowns as the Bobcats overcame a slow start to beat Oologah. Charles Mitchell had three interceptions for Star Spencer, including a 65-yard touchdown on an interception return.
Player to watch: Terence Olds, RB/LB. Olds has battled back from early season injuries to rush for more than 900 yards and 14 TDs and recorded four sacks for the Bobcats.
Key stat: 309.9. Star Spencer’s average rushing yardage this season, second to only Douglass in 4A.
News to know: Darwin Rideau has more than 1,500 yards rushing, while QB Franky Jamison has more than 750. … Jamison has the most passing yards (nearly 1,000) for a Bobcats QB during Hall’s tenure at the school. … The Bobcats’ offensive coordinator is former Millwood, OSU and NFL wide receiver Rashaun Woods. … Antwone Watson leads the Bobcats with more than 110 tackles. Jamonte Mitchell also has more than 100. 

Sallisaw Black Diamonds
Record: 11-1
Ranking: No. 5
Coach: Craig Benson, third season at Sallisaw
Previous state titles: 1980 (2A), 1981 (2A)
Road to 2009 semifinal: Beat Collinsville 31-28, beat Bishop McGuinness 20-14.
2008 record (playoffs): 10-2 (Beat Oologah 40-6, lost to Bishop McGuinness 33-30)
Last week: Sallisaw jumped to a 20-7 lead at halftime then held on in the second half to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2003. Sallisaw had just 62 yards of offense in the second half but Matt Oberste’s 14-yard run on third and nine with two minutes left sealed the Black Diamonds’ semifinal berth.
Player to watch: Matt Oberste, QB. Oberste is one of the top QBs in the state, throwing for more than 1,900 yards and 17 TDs. He’s also rushed for more than 1,000 yards. Oberste missed much of Sallisaw’s only loss, 35-16 to Wagoner on Oct. 30, after suffering an injury early.
Key stat: 2,132. Passing yards for the Black Diamonds this season, nearly 500 more than the next best passing team remaining in the 4A semifinals.
News to know: Trey Wiley leads 4A with 890 yards receiving. He scored six times. … Jake Fitzsimmons has 133 tackles. … Hayden Spencer leads 4A with 16 sacks. Trevor Fitzsimmons is second with 13. … Phillip Lefler has six interceptions.

Football talent has never been a question for Star Spencer’s Terence Olds.

Dedication to classroom work, though, has been a different story.

Over the summer, though, Olds made a decision to dedicate himself in the classroom. The choice has paid off.

Olds has more than 900 yards rushing despite missing time early in the season. He’s also getting more recruiting looks, including interest lately from Oregon State, in large part to what he’s done off the field.

“I was just being lazy over the last three years,” Olds said. “I realized that there is more to life than just what’s here and I’ve got to work hard to be able to accomplish the things I want to.”

Now, Olds has a 4.0 grade-point average so far and plans to take the ACT early next month.

“It’s been easier than I thought it would be,” Olds said. “I feel better about myself and I feel better about my life. It’s been great.”

We’ll do the same with the Oklahoma City players, as several turned in clutch performances during last week’s second round:

Offense
It’s hard to separate Douglass running backs Kevin Forbs and Quinton Neil. The senior pair have each passed the 1,000 yard mark rushing. It’s hard to imagine now but Douglass’ running game looked even scarier before the season, until Cortez Threatt, who was considered a possible All-State candidate, was lost with a torn ACL.

But Forbes and Neil have filled in just fine. Douglass coach Willis Alexander likes to rotate backs to keep them fresh and he’s certainly done that with this pair.

In Friday night’s 14-0 win over Wagoner, Forbes ran for 103 yards on 21 carries while Neil had 107 yards on 20 carries. Each scored a fourth-quarter touchdown, earning OKC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Defensive
Star Spencer’s Charles Mitchell was a safety until this week, when cornerbacfk Keon Johnson was out and Mitchell moved over to corner. The move paid off for the Bobcats, as Mitchell intercepted three passes — his first interceptions of the season — and returned one 65 yards for a touchdown in Star Spencer’s 44-29 win over Oologah.

Others:
Kevonte Richardson, Millwood: Richardson threw for 147 yards and two touchdowns in the first half in Millwood’s 33-23 win over Washington. He also ran for 103 yards.

Emilio Gatewood, Millwood: Gatewood kept up his streak of impressive performances, rushing for 123 yards and three touchdowns in helping the Falcons advance to the third round.

Terence Olds, Star Spencer: Olds has become almost as much a fixture on this list as Gatewood. In the win over Oologah, Olds ran for 143 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Darwin Rideau, Star Spencer: Late in the second quarter of the Bobcats’ win over Oologah, Rideau caught a pass from Star Spencer quarterback at the Oologah 40 and broke a handful of tackles in taking it into the end zone to give the Bobcats a 22-15 lead going into half. Rideau also scored on a 36-yard run earlier in the quarter.

Miles Jackson, John Marshall: Jackson had an 84-yard touchdown run to give the Bears a 7-7 tie against undefeated Davis in the third quarter in Davis’ eventual 20-13 win.

There might’ve been a state tournament feel to the finals of the All-City Athletic Conference basketball preview on Thursday night at Northwest and it’s not hard to see why.

In the boys championship game, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Star Spencer-Douglass could be a preview of the 4A title game in a few months.

It certainly looked like it could’ve been in the preview. Star Spencer, the defending 4A champions, won 25-24 over Douglass. While each team lost some key players, both teams returned some stars as well, led by Star Spencer PG Kendre Talley and Douglass’ big inside presence Marquis Buxton-Hill.

On the girls side, there was a bit of a surprise as Northeast outlasted Millwood in the title game 18-16.

If you’re a basketball fan and looking for a game fix this weekend, check out Northeast on Saturday night. Two teams that could be state contenders in their respective classes face off when Northeast hosts Metro Christian. The boys game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

BOYS
Tuesday
at Northwest
Game 1: Millwood 27, Centennial 18
Game 2: Northwest 21, Capitol Hill 20
Game 3: Douglass 31, Millwood 14
at Capitol Hill
Game 4: John Marshall 20, Classen SAS 11
Game 5: Northeast 33, U.S. Grant 13
Game 6: Southeast 28, John Marshall 20
Game 7: Star Spencer 39, Northeast 20

Thursday
at Capitol Hill
Game 8: Millwood 27, Classen SAS 7
Game 9: John Marshall 49, U.S. Grant 14
Game 10: Northeast 30, Centennial 24
Game 11: John Marshall 35, Millwood 27
Game 12: Capitol Hill 36, Northeast 24
Game 13: John Marshall 37, Capitol Hill 30
at Northwest
Game 14: Douglass 40, Northwest 29
Game 15: Star Spencer 40, Southeast 21
Championship: Star Spencer 25, Douglass 24

GIRLS
Tuesday
at Northwest
Game 1: U.S. Grant 23, Northwest 18
Game 2: Douglass 17, Southeast 16
Game 3: Millwood 21, U.S. Grant 3
at Capitol Hill
Game 4: Centennial 36, Capitol Hill 6
Game 5: John Marshall 17, Classes SAS 13
Game 6: Northeast 19, Centennial 7
Game 7: Star Spencer 34, John Marshall 9

Thursday
at Capitol Hill
Game 8: U.S. Grant 25, Capitol Hill 8
Game 9: Centennial 36, Classen SAS 6
Game 10: Northwest 27, John Marshall 15
Game 11: Centennial 32, U.S. Grant 10
Game 12: Southeast 14, Northwest 10
Game 13: Southeast 24, Centennial 23
at Northwest
Game 14: Millwood 16, Douglass 14
Game 15: Northeast 22, Star Spencer 15
Championship: Northeast 18, Millwood 16

Last week, Elk City used its no-huddle, spread offense to give Star Spencer a scare before the Bobcats pulled out a 44-33 first-round win over the Elks.

“Elk City wore us out a little bit,” Star Spencer coach Darrell Hall said. “With the depth we have, the no-huddle gave us some problems.”

Tonight, though, 9-2 Star Spencer hosts Oologah in a second-round matchup.

The Mustangs like to throw the ball — quarterback Alex Brunson has thrown for 1,428 yards and 13 touchdowns this season — but the pace is more to the Bobcats liking.

“It’ll be tough, though,” Hall said.

The winner of tonight’s game will play the McGuinness-Sallisaw winner next weekend at a neutral site to be determined.

Oologah (8-3) at Star Spencer (9-2)
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Carl Twidwell Stadium, Spencer

Winner plays: McGuinness-Sallisaw winner next Friday-Saturday at neutral site TBD.

Oologah (L, Claremore; W, Coweta; L, Seq. Claremore; W, Locust Grove; W, Catoosa; L, Jay; W, Grove; W, Vinita; W, Tulsa McLain; W, Collinsville; W, Poteau)
Why the Mustangs can win: Oologah has a very balanced attack, with explosive passing and rushing options. Star Spencer hasn’t had much problems stopping teams that run the ball primarily but the Bobcats pass defense might be a bit suspect. If Oologah can get Star Spencer back on its heels like Elk City did at times last week, the Mustangs could pull off the upset.

Star Spencer (L, Millwood; W, Southeast; L, Douglass; W, McLoud; W, Tecumseh; W, Cushing; W, Seminole; W, Cleveland; W, Mannford; W, Glenpool; W, Elk City)
Why the Bobcats can win: Star Spencer faced a unique situation last week in going against Elk City’s offense. Oologah is a much more familiar offensive look so Star Spencer’s defense should be fine. Star Spencer also has a three-pronged rushing attack (sometimes stretching into four) that figures to give Oologah problems.

Stat leaders
RUSHING
Oologah
Josh Collier: 275 carries, 1,478 yards, 21 TDs
Ryan Swindell: 58 carries, 286 yards, 1 TDs

Star Spencer
Darwin Rideau: 123 carries, 1,476 yards, 19 TDs
Terence Olds: 71 carries, 812 yards, 12 TDs
Franky Jamison: 86 carries, 724 yards, 8 TDs

PASSING
Oologah
Alec Brunson: 92-177, 1,428 yards, 13 TDs, 10 INTs

Star Spencer
Franky Jamison: 46-83, 922 yards, 9 TDs, 5 INTs

RECEIVING
Oologah
Ryan Swindell: 12 catches, 333 yards, 5 TDs
Ryan Kirkendall: 17 catches, 322 yards, 3 TDs
Taylor Scott: 20 catches, 310 yards, 3 TDs

Star Spencer
Steve Henderson: 11 catches, 294 yards, 4 TDs
Asja Ferguson: 9 catches, 215 yards, 2 TDs

TACKLES
Oologah
John VanSingel: 147
Josh Wilson: 122
Chris James: 86

Star Spencer
Antwone Wilson: 113
Jamonte Mitchell: 105
Kenneth Davis Jr.: 85

Key matchup: Oologah’s offensive line vs. Star Spencer’s front seven. If the Mustangs line can hold off the Bobcats rush, Oologah has a chance. That’s easier said than done, though, as Star Spencer’s front is as good as anyone in the class.

The pick: Star Spencer 28, Oologah 14. After a scare last week, the Bobcats snap back to form and set up a sensational Class 4A semifinalswhere Star Spencer will be the only non-4A-1 or 4A-4 team still alive.

Northwest will meet Douglass and Southeast will play Star Spencer in the semifinals and I’m thinking Douglass and Star will meet in the championship but it’s hard to count out teams coached by Walter Brewer (Southeast) and Leroy Combs (Northwest).

On the girls side, no real surprises there. It’ll be Douglass-Millwood and Northeast-Star Spencer for the championships. The guess here is Millwood-Star Spencer in the championship.

BOYS
Tuesday
at Northwest
Game 1: Millwood 27, Centennial 18
Game 2: Northwest 21, Capitol Hill 20
Game 3: Douglass 31, Millwood 14
at Capitol Hill
Game 4: John Marshall 20, Classen SAS 11
Game 5: Northeast 33, U.S. Grant 13
Game 6: Southeast 28, John Marshall 20
Game 7: Star Spencer 39, Northeast 20

Thursday
at Capitol Hill
Game 8: Millwood vs. Classen SAS, 3:30 p.m.
Game 9: U.S. Grant vs. John Marshall, 4:30 p.m.
Game 10: Centennial vs. Northeast, 5:30 p.m.
Game 11: Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 6:30 p.m.
Game 12: Game 2 loser vs. Game 10 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 8:30 p.m.
at Northwest
Game 14: Northwest vs. Douglass, 6 p.m.
Game 15: Southeast vs. Star Spencer, 7 p.m.
Championship: Game 14 winner vs. Game 15 winner, 8 p.m.

GIRLS
Tuesday
at Northwest
Game 1: U.S. Grant 23, Northwest 18
Game 2: Douglass 17, Southeast 16
Game 3: Millwood 21, U.S. Grant 3
at Capitol Hill
Game 4: Centennial 36, Capitol Hill 6
Game 5: John Marshall 17, Classes SAS 13
Game 6: Northeast 19, Centennial 7
Game 7: Star Spencer 34, John Marshall 9

Thursday
at Capitol Hill
Game 8: Capitol Hill vs. U.S. Grant, 3 p.m.
Game 9: Classen SAS vs. Centennial, 4 p.m.
Game 10: Northwest vs. John Marshall, 5 p.m.
Game 11: Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 12: Southeast vs. Game 10 winner, 7 p.m.
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 8 p.m.
at Northwest
Game 14: Douglass vs. Millwood, 5:30 p.m.
Game 15: Northeast vs. Star Spencer, 6:30 p.m.
Championship: Game 14 winner vs. Game 15 winner, 7:30 p.m.

BOYS
Tuesday
at Northwest
Game 1: Centennial vs. Millwood, 6 p.m.
Game 2: Capitol Hill vs. Northwest, 7 p.m.
Game 3: Douglass vs. Game 1 winner, 8 p.m.
at Capitol Hill
Game 4: Classen vs. John Marshall, 6 p.m.
Game 5: Northeast vs. U.S. Grant, 7 p.m.
Game 6: Southeast vs. Game 4 winner, 8 p.m.
Game 7: Star Spenver vs. Game 5 winner, 9 p.m.

Thursday
at Capitol Hill
Game 8: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 3:30 p.m.
Game 9: Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser, 4:30 p.m.
Game 10: Game 1 loser vs. Game 7 loser, 5:30 p.m.
Game 11: Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 6:30 p.m.
Game 12: Game 2 loser vs. Game 10 winner, 7:30 p.m.
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 8:30 p.m.
at Northwest
Game 14: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 15: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 7 p.m.
Championship: Game 14 winner vs. Game 15 winner, 8 p.m.

GIRLS
Tuesday
at Northwest
Game 1: U.S. Grant vs. Northwest, 5:30 p.m.
Game 2: Southeast vs. Douglass, 6:30 p.m.
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Millwood, 7:30 p.m.
at Capitol Hill
Game 4: Capitol Hill vs. Centennial, 5:30 p.m.
Game 5: John Marshall vs. Classen, 6:30 p.m.
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Northeast, 7:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 5 winner vs. Star Spencer, 8:30 p.m.

Thursday
at Capitol Hill
Game 8: Game 4 loser vs. Game 3 loser, 3 p.m.
Game 9: Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser, 4 p.m.
Game 10: Game 1 loser vs. Game 7 loser, 5 p.m.
Game 11: Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 12: Game 2 loser vs. Game 10 winner, 7 p.m.
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 8 p.m.
at Northwest
Game 14: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 5:30 p.m.
Game 15: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 6:30 p.m.
Championship: Game 14 winner vs. Game 15 winner, 7:30 p.m.