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

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

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

“They selected us out of a group of schools to come down help work on the sixth and seventh grade locker rooms,” said Dibble coach Charlie North. “It was a really neat deal and we really, really appreciate their generosity.”

Former University of Oklahoma and NFL player J.R. Conrad is an assistant coach at Dibble. His mother works with Lowe’s and suggested the team submit its name for the annual “Hero’s Project” that Lowe’s provides for nonprofit organizations.

“They just drew our name out of a hat,” said North. “It was a nice thing that they did for us and it just makes our facilities even better.”

Class 6A
1. Tulsa Union (1)#1-0

2. Jenks (2)#1-0

3. Broken Arrow (4)#0-1

4. Owasso (5)#1-0

5. Del City (11)#1-0

6. Southmoore (6)#1-0

7. Edmond North (10)#1-0

8. Mustang (9)#1-0

9. Muskogee (8)#0-1

10. Norman North (13)#1-0

Rankings review

I take a little different approach when formulating rankings. I don’t drop teams every time when they lose. Never understood why a No. 10 team who lost to a No. 1 team had to drop. That’s why you’ll see Broken Arrow moved up a notch in 6A despite losing to Tulsa Union. The Tigers lost in a close game and couldn’t see jumping Owasso (who’s without its regular starting QB) or Southmoore (who struggled to run the ball in its opening win) over Broken Arrow. I struggled with how to order the bottom part of the rankings. Del City’s win was huge so I jumped them ahead of winners Southmoore, Edmond North and Mustang. There were flaws with each of those team’s wins (although I don’t hold North’s against them as much as the other two, since it was a rivalry game). We’ll see some more shaking out in the next couple weeks with some big matchups. Midwest City might still be a top 10 team by the time it’s all said and done. Along with the Bombers, Putnam North and Lawton are bubbling right outside the top 10.

Class 5A Rankings

1. Tulsa Washington (1)#1-0

2. Carl Albert (2)#0-1

3. El Reno (5)#1-0

4. Lawton MacArthur (6)#1-0

5. Bixby (4)#0-1

6. Guthrie (3)#0-1

7. Tulsa East Central (7)#1-0

8. Shawnee (8)#1-0

9. Duncan (11)#1-0

10. Ada (12)#1-0

It was tough at the top of 5A with Nos. 2, 3, 4, 9 and 10 all losing. In the end, I decided to keep Carl Albert at No. 2 because I can’t see jumping El Reno or Lawton MacArthur up over the Titans right now. And El Reno win next week would give serious consideration to a jump. Lawton Mac’s win was certainly impressive and the Highlanders could also be moving up with continued wins. I just think Tulsa Washington is heads and shoulders above everyone else in the class right now. It’s hard to judge just where Bixby and Guthrie are right now but we’ll find out soon enough. I don’t drop teams just because tey lost but Guthrie’s offense worries me and Bixby got hammered so I wasn’t hesitant of dropping them behind El Reno and Lawton Mac. Tulsa Kelley and Deer Creek are just outside the top 10, as is Ardmore and Coweta.

Class 4A

1. Glenpool (1)#1-0

2. Broken Bow (2)#1-0

3. Sallisaw (3)#1-0

4. Douglass (5)#1-0

5. McGuinness (6)#1-0

6. Grove (7)#1-0

7. Wagoner (8)#1-0

8. Weatherford (9)#1-0

9. Star Spencer (4)#0-1

10. Collinsville (10)#1-0

With just one team in the top 10 losing, the only real question here is how far does Star Spencer fall with its big loss to Millwood. The answer winds up being to No. 9 from No. 4. No. 1 Glenpool’s win wasn’t overly dominant but the Warriors are still No. 1. The others ahead of Star Spencer all had big wins, either in blowout fashion or in McGuinness’ and Weatherford’s cases, wins over highly regarded opponents. Poteau and McLoud are hanging around just outside the rankings.

Class 3A

1. Cascia Hall (1)#1-0

2. Tuttle (3)#1-0

3. Sequoyah-Claremore (4)#1-0

4. Clinton (2)#0-1

5. Purcell (5)#1-0

6. Madill (7)#1-0

7. Checotah (6)#1-0

8. Bethany (7)#1-0

9. Metro Christian (9)#1-0

10. Blanchard (10)#1-0

Another relatively stable class, with Clinton the only top 10 team with a loss. Figured they’need to go fall under at least Tuttle and Seq.-Claremore. Elgin and Newcastle ate just outside the top 10.

Class 2A

1. Lincoln Christian (2)#1-0

2. Millwood (3)#1-0

3. Kingfisher (5)#1-0

4. Davis (6)#1-0

5. Sequoyah-Tahlequah (7)#1-0

6. Heritage Hall (1)#0-1

7. Vian (9)#1-0

8. Chandler (4)#0-1

9. Lexington (13)#1-0

10. Sulphur (8)#0-1

Another class with some interesting dilemmas. How far does Heritage Hall drop? What about Chandler? Who fills out the bottom of the top 10? The answers: To 6th because their defense performed well yet they clearly have a ton of work to do on offense. Chandler drops four spots to eighth. Chandler should be significantly better by the end of the year but thhe Lions have to grow up quick. Sulphur stays in the top 10 in large part due to the rash of losses at the bottom and just outside the top 10.

Class A

1. Okeene (1)#1-0

2. Tonkawa (2)#1-0

3. Morrison (3)#1-0

4. Ringling (4)#0-0

5. Hennessey (6)#1-0

6. OCS (7)#1-0

7. Woodland (5)#0-1

8. Stroud (9)#1-0

9. Hominy (8)#0-1

10. Commerce (12)#1-0

I dropped Woodland down two spots after its 31-6 loss to No. 1 Okeene. Woodland’s going to be pretty good by season’s end but needs some ore consistency. Stroud and Hominy switch spots after Stroud beats Chandler and Cleveland beats Hominy.

Monday evening, James invited a large group of family and friends to Brix restaurant in Bricktown for a signing ceremony. It felt in a lot of ways like a college signing ceremony. But sitting just a couple feet to James’ left was a reminder of the difference. Florida scouting director Stan Meek, a former OU baseball coach, had a huge World Series ring on his finger, a reminder of the Marlins’ improbable 2003 run.

This is a real business.

Which is why, Friday, James had to undergo about six hours of tests, ranging from a workup by a cardiologist to blood work, before he could get the green light to sign. Because he went through the process on Friday, James had to sit overnight while waiting word.

“It was a long night,” James said. “You never know if they’re going to find something or what.”

But they didn’t, James was cleared and his professional career is about to get underway.

Just before the draft, James had said he wanted to sign quick. But while the Marlins hoped a long signing process would be condensed, economic realities with the Marlins made that really unlikely.

The Marlins, at least until they move into their new ballpark, at least compete like a small-market team. So they had to stick relatively close to the slot ranges, which MLB commissioner Bud Selig requested teams drop by anout 10 percent from last year. And James didn’t want to compromise that financial end just to get signed. So he sat. And sat. And sat.

He spent the summer working out but also did quite a bit of relaxing, enjoying a final summer withouth baseball.

“I know things are changing now,” James said. “I won’t be able to do that anymore. It was great being about to be around them and relax this summer.”

James, a left-handed pitcher, is impressive. I took a video of Chad tonight, as well, and he was dominant. It’ll be interesting to watching his development.

I’ll have a video interview with Chad that I’ll post tomorrow.

-Ryan Aber

Follow me on Twitter: @ryaber

 
(Mosier, center, two years ago flanked by Parker Burnett, Bryan Owen and Taylor Daniels. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman)

I really shouldn’t be the one writing a Brooks Mosier career retrospective. Two years ago, I hadn’t met the man and didn’t even know who he was.

I didn’t know about all of his various coaching stops (Southeast, Northwest Classen, John Marshall, U.S. Grant, Western Heights, Newcastle and OCS, to name a few) or his near 50 years in the coaching profession.

All I knew he was some legendary coach everyone talked about who was returning to coaching after beating cancer.

But it only took a couple of meetings to realize what a special human being he was. So maybe in that regard, I’m the perfect person to be writing this.

I only met Mosier a couple of times. I would call him occasionally to see how things were going at Community Christian. And in my brief conversations with him, I quickly learned what the fuss was all about.

After every conversation, I was either left laughing or smiling about something he said or about some odd comparison he made.

It reached a point where I would start to go out of my way to find out how things were going at the small Christian school in Norman.

I remember talking to Mosier the day after this year’s Christian schools championship where Destiny Christian defeated CCS on a hook-and-lateral.

The finish alone is worth talking about, but the fact that Mosier watched the game from his car is something I still can’t fathom.

He was just so weak from the cancer, but he wanted to be out there for those kids so bad. And in talking to CCS players and coaches and his wife, Wanda, that’s where the real legacy of Mosier will be: his kids.

Mosier passed away three weeks ago after another battle with cancer. He was 73. It happened during the state basketball tournaments, so it kinda got lost in the shuffle.

Former NFL and Oklahoma football player Josh Norman is taking over as the new head coach at CCS but within a couple of minutes of talking with Norman, easy to realize Mosier is not far from his heart as he got choked up a couple of times during our conversation.

I remember it was Brooks’ birthday during the season. It was a day before a game. So at the game, it was announced that it was his birthday. We brought out this big birthday card.

You figure it would be signed by the entire football team. It was signed by the entire school because that’s how much those kids loved him.

Norman said while Mosier taught him some things about football, what he taught him and the kids the most about was life and the importance of having Christ in their lives.

Norman said when he would visit with Mosier during this last season, all Mosier could talk about was being back out there with the kids.

No matter how sick he was or how weak he was feeling, that was always the first thing he would ask about.

Paul Potter, a long time friend who helped convince Mosier to come back to coaching, had this to say.

I remember it was just a couple of weeks before his death, and he was telling me ‘you know, I’m starting to feel better, and I think everything is going to be fine.’

He was always so optimistic and positive. He was such a special person, and I feel blessed to have gotten to spend all that time with him.

Potter coached CCS this year while Mosier was going through treatment. With that said, Mosier only missed one game his entire career.

It seems everyone has their own Brooks Mosier story. Here’s mine:

I remember talking to Brooks after that memorable championship game. And of course, the first thing I asked was: “well, how you feeling?”

He laughed and sighed and said “The sun still came up today. It’s still going to set at night. Everything will be fine.”

I remember him telling me how he was just trying to console those kids. But the kids, like Taylor Daniels and Chris Potter, didn’t need any real consoling. After seeing what Mosier had gone through all season, it hurt to not win that game for Mosier, but they knew they would be just fine.

But like I said, everyone has their own Brooks Mosier story. So I throw it out to you, what is your Brooks Mosier story?

(and Mosier one more time. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman)

Halfway through our look back at the state championships. This one will be abbreviated as I did not see one 4A boys game, so I’m not going to comment on it.

All I’ll say is I was shocked that McGuinness with Daniel Orton could not defend its title. Must really say something about how talented that Star Spencer team is when they put it all together.

But I did see a lot of the 4A girls.

Boys champion: Star Spencer, 67-61 vs. McGuinness

Girls champion: Vinita, 51-45 vs. Cache

One last time to watch Cache’s Taylor Thompson. What an absolute treat she’s been. She can just pull up from 25 feet and nail it. Or she can take you off the dribble and score. Not to mention, her defense.

But the Vinita team was clearly the best in the tournament. As Justin Harper pointed out to me while there, the Hornets beat No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6. Couldn’t beat No. 3 because that’s what they were.

Three girls really stood out for Vinita: Dana Downing, Tosha Tyler and Caitlyn Spurgeon.

Spurgeon is/was just a freshman, so it was kinda amazing to watch not only her poise but her big-time clutch performances in both the semifinals and the championship.

Thompson scored 20 points but didn’t score one in the fourth quarter. The lingering image for me from this year’s tournament is Thompson crouching down in tears with the Vinita team celebrating about 10-12 feet away from her.

Wow.

In fact, the whole Cache team really took that loss hard. Every team is disappointed about not winning it all, but some of those Cache girls were almost beyond devastated.

Anyway, congrats to Vinita and Thompson, hey, be keepin’ tabs on ya at Fresno State.

And finally, if you haven’t had a chance to catch Brandon Chatmon’s “Mic’d Up” with McGuinness coach Tondrell Durham, here is your chance. Special thanks goes to McGuinness for allowing Brandon to do this. It means a lot to us.

mpatterson@opubco.com

PERRY –Oklahoma State coach John Smith made an appearance at  the Perry tournament finals Saturday night and for good reason. At least six future Cowboys were on the mat.

One was Perry’s Ladd Rupp who easily won his 125 pound match by fall. And despite winning three state championships it was his first tournament win at his school’s signature event.

“I don’t know” Rupp said when asked how he could be so dominant without winning the Perry tournament. “I’ve run into some pretty tough competition here the last couple of years with Willie Gunter. I’m just glad I got it in my last  year.”

Chris Perry dominant:  In what could be a preview of this year’s Class 6A finals at 189 pounds, Stillwater’s Chris Perry beat Ponca City’s Blake Rosholt with a second period fall. Perry recently wrapped up another 1,000 yard season for Stillwater’s football team.

“I’m feeling pretty good  right now,” he said.  “If you’re not playing football and have all day to train, that’s an advantage but a lot of that stuff is mental.”

Perry and Rosholt will also both wrestle at Oklahoma State.

“I roomed with him at Fargo,” Perry said of Rosholt. “He’s a tough kid.”

Match O’ the night: There were several close matches and several blowouts, but none were more interesting than the 171 pound bout between Woodward’s Zach White and Catoosa’s Dallas Bailey. Bailey ultimately prevailed in a 3-2 grinder.

Heisman cheers: Perry might be deep in the heart of Oklahoma State country, but the between matches announcement  that Sam Bradford had won the Heisman trophy brought a cheer from the crowd at John Divine Aren, though there was a smattering of boos.

jharper@opubco.com

The Del City girls basketball season couldn’t get off to a more interesting (or challenging) start. The Eagles, who are ranked second in Class 6A, open the season playing No. 3 and No. 1 in consecutive games.

Del City, which was 22-5 last year, hosts second-ranked Norman tonight at 6 p.m. The team’s next outing, on Dec. 9, is a game at top-ranked Midwest City. All three schools in the 1-2-3 triumvirate made the state tourney last year and each defeated and lost to one of the three teams.

“I think it’s OK,” said coach Karri Seals. “We’ve opened up with Norman for a couple of years and we opened with Jenks last year. We’re used to it.”

The Eagles are led by a pair of Oklahoma State signees, Desiree Jeffries and Toni Young.

mpatterson@opubco.com

 Mustang’s semi-final game with Jenks is a tough assignment, but it’s better than Midwest City’s. The Bombers face the hottest team in Oklahoma and a week after they defense was shredded by Stillwater running back Chris Perry.

Perry is arguably one of the top five high school athletes in the state. He is Oklahoma’s top recruit in wrestling, and one of the most valued in the country and on the gridiron he’s been a thousand-yard rusher the last three years. But he’s not as good as Union’s Jeremy Smith who ran all over Norman North Friday night.

Back to Mustang. The Broncos get Jenks at Broken  Arrow, which is more or less a home game for the Trojans. Still, Mustang coach Ty Prestidge didn’t seem to mind.

“We don’t think that’s a big deal at all,” he said. “It’s not in our control anyway.”

In Tuesday’s story about Norman North quarterback Tyler Tettleton, there was a reference to the senior making the T-Wolves more balanced this year than they were in 2007 when Tettleton missed the season. Here are some numbers to clarify that:

In terms of total yardage, there’s hardly any difference between last season and this one, but a major difference in how the yards were gained. In 2007, the T-Wolves averaged 347.6 yards per game in total offense and this season they’re averaging 342.0.

But last year they averaged 236.6 yards rushing and 111.0 passing.

This season it’s 154.2 yards rushing and 187.7 passing.

In Thursday’s paper I wrote about El Reno’s turn around from a 3-7 team in 2007 to an 8-2 team in 2008. But in doing some number-crunching for the story I noticed an amazing trend: In terms of yards and points, the Indians give as much as they take  —  and vice versa.

Actually, if you looked at stats alone and didn’t see the scores to El Reno’s games this season the only logical conclusion would be that every game was a tie.

Let’s start out talking about rushing stats. The Indians have run for 933 yards and allowed 916. That’s an average of 93.3 yards for El Reno and 91.6 yards for the opponent. After 10 games, there’s less than two yards difference.

Now let’s look at passing. The Indians have thrown for 1,091 yards and allowed just two yards more, 1,093. That’s just amazing. El Reno averages 109.1 yards a game and the opponent 109.3. Since the rushing and passing numbers are so close, obviously the total offense stats will be similar —2,024 yards for El Reno, 2,009 for the opponent. That equates to less than two yards difference by average — 202.4 for El Reno, 200.9 for foes.

But that’s not the end of the similarities. Taking a look at the scores you see that El Reno has a blowout/shutout loss (35-0 to Guthrie) and a blowout/shutout win (42-0 over Western Heights). The Indians have two games with the exact same score (19-7 wins over Woodward and Elk City) and two just a point off (21-6 win over Northwest and 21-7 win over Duncan). And to top everything off, the Indians have two juniors with almost identical names, twins Cody Dauphin and Cory Dauphin.

mpatterson@opubco.com

If there’s one reason Mustang has a shot at its first undefeated regular season in school history, look no further than the ever-productive Broncos offense.

Mustang has scored 30 or more points in 8 of their first 9 games. The one time they didn’t reach the 30 point plateau came against Edmond Santa Fe, but Mustang still won that game 27-26.

How does that compare with the last 2 seasons? Fairly favorably. Mustang averaged 24 points last season and 42 points per game during their 2006 season.

mpatterson@opubco.com

 Midwest City linebacker Kameron Stewart said he was feeling better late Thursday afternoon after he suffered a knee injury during the Bombers’ Week 9 game with Norman. Stewart left the stadium on crutches but said he was no longer using them Thursday.

Stewart said he would know more about his injury Monday when he visits the doctor. The senior has 84 tackles and 4 sacks this season for undefeated Midwest City.

mpatterson@opubco.com

 Putnam North is 6-3 overall and while the Panthers’ defense has had its issues, the team does have a couple of clock killing running backs in its backfield.

Josh Booker sits at 965 yards, needing just a handful more to top the 1,000 mark for the second consecutive season. He has an 8.94 YPC average and has scored 15 touchdowns.

Not far behind is Greg Lewis who has 830 yards and a seven touchdowns. He’s averaging over 6 yards per carry.

“As a quarterback both of those guys give you a lot of confidence because you know you can just feed them the ball and they’ll get the yards,” PCN’s Hunter Frantz said. “They’re both great players.”

mpatterson@opubco.com

High school kicking games are usually more about adventure than anything approaching reliability but there are a few players in Class 6A who have distinguished themselves with the art of the punt.

Austin Brasher, Edmond North: 28 punts for a 43-yard average

Ronson Calfy, Moore: 45 punts for a 39-yard average

Gavin Little, Claremore: 50 for a 34-yard average

Trent Williams, Putnam North: 35 for a 34-yard average.

mpatterson@opubco.com

Putnam City is fighting for a spot in the playoffs, and a win over Edmond Memorial would go a long ways in determing that. The Pirates (4-2), Edmond Northan (4-2) and even Westmoore (3-3) are all the mix for the third and fourth spots with Midwest City and Edmond Memorial locking up the top two.

“This game has huge implications for the playoff seedings,” PC coach Mark Little said. “It goes without saying it’s critical. There’s a lot of figuring going on. We could be out or we could be third.”

The Pirates are getting healthy at the right time.

“We’re getting there,” Little said. “We’re still not 100 percent but we’re better off than we were.”

mpatterson@opbuco.com

PC North quarterback Hunter Frantz had one his better games in a win over Lawton Thursday. The senior scored on an 81 yard run, his ninth rushing touchdown this year.

 Frantz said he thinks he and his teammates have shaken off the duldrums that was present during consecutive losses to Mustang and Edmond Santa Fe.

“We wanted to get back on the right track,” he said. “Two weeks in a row we had  fallen short. We practiced harder and showed a lot more desite. We didn’t change any of our schemes, but we changed metnally. We learned a lot from two weeks of losing.”

 PCN (5-3) could have their hands full with Del City who has played well in recent weeks, including an upset of Norman North.

“We don’t take them lightly,” Frantz said. “They beat one of the best teams in the state. We can’t afford to look past them. They’ve got a lot of speed.”

mpatterson@opubco.com

 Putnam City will face Edmond Memorial this week in their regular season finale and for the Pirates it may tell the story on where or if they will play in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs.

Both teams are coming off wins over rivals. Memorial (7-2) handled Edmond North and PC took down PC (5-4) West Friday. But Memorial would have to be consdiered the favorite.

 ”For us to beat them we’re going to have to play our best,” PC coach Mark Little said. “It’s going to take an extreme effort. Their defense is outstanding and their offense has been improving. We’ve basically nickled and dimed our way to this point.”

jharper@opubco.com

If you read the story in today’s section about the split of the Moore school district you may wonder how such splits affected other schools. Here is a look at how several large schools fared after a school district split, with their season record the year the new school(s) opened:

Putnam City

1968: Putnam City West added. Record: 7-2-1

1978: Putnam City North added. Record: 7-5

Putnam City West

1978: Putnam City North added. Record: 12-1

Moore

1988: Westmoore added. Record: 2-8

2008: Southmoore added. Current record: 0-8

Edmond Memorial

1994: Edmond Santa Fe and Edmond North added. Record: 4-6

Norman

1998: Norman North added. Record: 5-5

Westmoore

2008: Southmoore added. Current record: 3-5

* Here is a look at how the new schools fared after opening:

Putnam City West

First season: 1968, 3-5-1

First winning season: 1969, 7-3

Best season: 1981, 14-0, Class 4A champions

Putnam City North

First season: 1978, 1-9

First winning season: 1979, 9-2

Best season: 1991, 14-0, Class 5A champions

Westmoore

First season: 1988, 4-7

First winning season: 1991, 8-6

Best season: 1991, 5A runner-up

Edmond Santa Fe

First season: 1994, 5-5

First winning season: 1995, 11-2

Best season: 2003, 12-2, Class 6A runner-up

Edmond North

First season: 1994, 3-7

First winning season: 1998, 6-5

Best season: 2003, 10-2

Norman North

First season: 1998, 2-8

First winning season: 2007, 9-3

Best season: 2007

Southmoore

First season: 2008, currently 2-6

mpatterson@opubco.com

Playing in 6A-1 has afforded Mustang with plenty of challenges this year. The Broncos survived a tough game with Santa Fe earlier this year, giving them the upper hand in the district title race. Their win over pre-season No. 1 Norman North was a gut wrenching 30-29 squeaker that came down to a blocked extra point.

All of this should help the Broncos when they reach the playoffs.

“We’ve been tested a lot this year because of our district,” Mustang coach Ty Prestidge said. “Some of those games have been close, but it gives us experience in winning close games and that’s something that can only help us down the road when we get into the playoffs where every game has the potential of being close.”

mpatterson@opubco.com

Del City might not make the playoffs this season, but the Eagles are clearly a team that has what could be a bright future in the coming years.

The Eagles core players on offense are all underclassmen.

QB: Chazten Gonzalez (soph) has 11 touchdown passes and 1,300 yards.

RB: Greg Johnson (Jr.) is averaging 5 yards per carry with five touchdowns.

WR: Chris McAlister (Jr.) has 39 catches for 639 yards and five tochdowns.

Del City is 3-5 with an outside shot at the playoffs. But if the Eagles fall short this year, this season won’t be without its benefits.

I wrote about Cody Wilson in the preseason, but he doesn’t get the publicity of most of the Division-IA signees in the state because of playing in Class 2A. However, the Lincoln Christian linebacker is having an impressive year on and off the field. So here’s an update.
In its first season as an OSSAA sanctioned school, Lincoln Christian is 7-1 overall and 5-0 in District 2A-7. Wilson, who has signed with Tulsa is a big reason why. He has 84 tackles (37 solo), four sacks and 20 tackles for loss despite playing past the third quarter just three times this season.  Wilson will graduate early in December (as valedictorian with a 4.17 GPA) and will be able to get a head start at TU by participating in spring drills.
Wilson, whose father Curtis played at Missouri, has shared the spotlight with his little brother. Roman Wilson has 53 receptions for 883 yards and 12 touchdowns to go along with 25 tackles, two interceptions and three fumble recoveries. He’s also kicked 35 extra points and a pair of field goals. Lincoln hosts Wyandotte Friday and then will have a showdown at Nowata, likely for the district crown.

mpatterson@opubco.com

 At first I thought it was me, but after nearly nine weeks of high school football it’s become clear that the already shaky high school kicking games have been just plain abysmal this season.

Extra points cost Norman North in a loss to Mustang. Many of the city schools don’t even bother to line up for PATs, opting to go for two instead. And it also extends to punting where we’ve seen snaps over punters heads just about every week.

PC coach Mark Little has noticed it, too.

“We’ve noticed it every week,” Little said. “We’ve talked about it as a staff. I don’t know if it’s just an an anomoly or what. Putnam North and Norman North have fairly good kickers, but this is as poor as I’ve ever seen the kicking games in Class 6A.”

mpatterson@opubco.com

Mustang might be on the cusp of capturing the 6A-1 title, but the Broncos aren’t looking past Del City this week. The Eagles have won two in a row, including a stunning upset of Norman North.

 “They will be ready to play us,” Mustang coach Ty Prestidge said. “They beat Norman North and they beat Moore pretty badly. I feel like they can play and we’re looking for a tough old ball game.  We’re not thinking past them at all.”

 Prestidge said he has been informed that if the Broncos go undefeated it will be the first time in school history they’ve gone 10-0 in the regular season.

mpatterson@opubco.com

Since their Class 6A runner-up finish in 2005, Mustang has made a name for itself on offense with players like Matt Edmonds and Josh Cooper. But the Broncos have also played pretty good defense this year. Friday night’s 38-14 win over Putnam North is case in point as defensive lineman Qynton Harris finished of the Panthers with a key fourth down sack in the fourth quarter.

“I really believe we’re sound defensively,” Mustang coach Ty Prestidge said. “I’d put our defense against a lot of teams. We’re not real big but we run to the football.”

Harris might be the biggest of the bunch at 280 pounds. The noseguard is a three-year starter.

“He’s a very talented athlete,” Prestidge said. “He’s a three-year starter and his first step is unbelievably quick. He’s a good nose guard and very strong in the weight room.”

mpatterson@opubco.com

When Bethany opened this season, they were searching for a quarterback to replace JP Grasmick. They found what they were looking for in Silas Day who has 1,605 yards and 15 touchdowns with just four picks through seven games. He’s a big reason why Bethany is poised to win a district title.

“We knew he had the ability but he had never been tested in a varsity game,” coach Reagan Roof said. “He literally never played and we weren’t sure how he would handle it but he has exceeded our expectations in every way.  He makes his reads and he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. That’s what you want out of a high school quarterback.”

mpatterson@opubco.com

If Douglass had a question mark heading into this season it might have been at quarterback. But the Trojans (5-2) have solved that problem thanks to junior Antyoun Smith who has helped lead an offense that has scored 289 points in seven games and came within a whisker of beating Star Spencer.

“We had guys who had just four varsity snaps between them at the start of the year,” coach Willis Alexander said. “And anytime you break in a new quarterback it’s tough. But Antyoun has exceeded our expectations. He makes good decisions and moves the chains when we need it. He’s playing well and should continue to get better.”

In two of its last three games, Norman has been held to single digits in rushing on more than 25 carries in each outing. It’s a frustrating thing for a Tigers program that has long run the ball with success.

However, Norman isn’t scrapping the playbook heading into Thursday’s game against Westmoore.

“We’re just trying to get better at what we’re doing,” said senior quarterback Trenton Wright. “We just need to focus and try to make more big plays.”

Still, Wright said more emphasis on the passing game may be required for the Tigers (2-5) to have more success.

“Maybe throw the ball more,” he said when asked for a solution. “If your run game isn’t working, that may be the best idea.”

Either way, Norman remains confident despite the tough start under first-year coach Greg Nation.

“We’re still going out there playing the same game as usual,” Wright said. “We’re not giving up or anything.”

“We need to learn how to make plays at the end of the game when it matters,” coach Willis Alexander said. “But nobody is over here getting crazy or losing their minds over it.”

 “I’ve seen them on film and they’ve got a lot of speed,” Cocannouer said.

 But like a lot of people, he wonders how good MWC would be if they played in a tougher district. 6A-2 is down this year with only three teams posting winning records through seven games. In contrast, 6A-1, where Santa Fe plays, has six teams who are 5-2 or better.

 “I think if they were over here they’d be fighting for their life like the rest of us,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve had anyone challenge them. We know they’re a very good team, but until you get tested you never know how good .We’ve been in that position over here before.”

jharper@opubco.com

Norman linebacker Zach Ladner brokehis right leg against Edmond North 12 days ago and has since had season-ending surgery. But despite the injury, Ladner will probably still get a Division I-A scholarship. Some schools may back off because of the broen leg, but they shouldn’t. It’s not a knee injury. It’s not something that he won’t come back from at full strength.

Regardless, some school is going to luck into a strong player. Ladner had compiled 51 tackles (14 for losses) in four and a half games for the Tigers. The break happened when an offensive lineman from Edmond North fell on him. Ladner has been hearing from Air Force, Tulsa, Dartmouth, SMU and Drake. However, he’s wondering what missing half of his senior season will do to his chances. On the other hand, Ladner’s not feeling sorry for himself.

“It’s football, injuries happen,” he said. “I hated that my senior season had to end early, but I think I’ll still get a chance to play (in college).”

He will, it’s just a question of if the D-I schools that had been talking to him will stick with him. They should.

When Edmond Santa Fe volleyball player Heather Harkness died suddenly in September after an appendectomy, players for Heritage Hall’s volleyball team began wearing hunter green (Santa Fe’s colors) ribbons in their hair at matches. The tribute had a happy ending as Heritage Hall completed a 32-1 season with a fourth straight Class 4A state title. In an interesting twist of fate, the 4A state tournament was played at Edmond Santa Fe. Heritage Hall’s Adrienne Tortoro noticed the irony that the Chargers were playing for both school history and Heather on Heather’s former home court.

jharper@opubco.com

The Woods brothers have the title as Millwoods’ first family because of the success they had as Falcons and at Oklahoma State. And considering the records and state titles that triumvirate produced, it’s hard to imagine they would ever lose the title. However, time will tell if the Sanders family will challenge.

Senior Cameron Sanders is a star receiver for the Falcons. He’s already won a combined four team state titles in track (2), football and basketball and he’s coming off a game in which he had 109 yards and two touchdowns receiving and 113 yards rushing and two TDs while filling in at quarterback. He’s also the favorite to win a state crown in the 400 meters come spring. But Cameron is just the first of several Sanders to come. He has three younger brothers who are or will be Falcons. Deon, a junior, starts in the secondary for Millwood. Dametric is a freshman on the team, while fifth-grader Micah is waiting for his turn.

“People tell us we could be the new Woods family,” Cameron said. “But they just had three. We have four.”

With the way Sanders played Friday in double duty, he should count for two.

 But while the Cowboys might be the favorite, add Penn State to the list. His older brother Mark has taken an assistant coaching job with the Nittany Lions as some Iowa fans speculate below…..

http://iowa.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=813&tid=114955295&mid=114955295&sid=940&style=2

 Penn State is an up and coming program and is ranked No. 9 nationally preseason by WIN.

 And coach Chris Jensen said Monday at practice the team may be without one of its best linemen for this week’s game with Lawton.

Cashion’s star quarterback, senior Cayden Cochran, is likely out for the year after hurting his knee Friday night in his team’s 40-14 win over Thomas.

On the first drive in the second half of that game, Cochran was running up the middle and cut to avoid a safety. He went down with what Cashion coach Lynn Shackelford said is likely an ACL tear.

The MRI was scheduled for this morning, and when those results come back we will know for sure how bad it is. If Cochran is out, sophomore Jeremy Seaton will take over at quarterback. Shackelford expressed full faith in Seaton.

For more, be sure to pick up tomorrow’s Oklahoman.

Hey hey, Thursday starts the scrimmages. Yours truly will be at PC Stadium for Edmond Memorial and Putnam North. How will studs Josh Booker and Anthony Morales (among others) look? Friday, I head to the old stomping grounds. I’ll be at Shawnee for the Wolves and Tecumseh. My first look at Brett Davis since he was a sophomore trying to replace the injured Tucker Brown. Should be fun at both stops. I’ll have thoughts about both here on the blog.

Last week I wrote a feature on Rick Roop, the Altus athletic director who amazingly recovered from a severe case of pneumococcal meningitis that put him in a coma. You can read that story here. Soon after it was published, I received the following e-mail from the Meningitis Foundation of America, wanting spread awareness about the disease. Here is the information in its entirety.

“The Meningitis Foundation of America (MFA), a national organization, would like the public and media to know that information is available regarding the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of meningitis.

MFA was founded by parents whose children were affected by meningitis. In addition to supporting vaccines and other means of preventing meningitis, the MFA provides information to educate the public and medical professionals so that the early diagnosis, treatment and, most important, prevention of meningitis, will save lives.

Meningitis is a dangerous and sometimes fatal inflammation of the brain and/or spinal cord that can leave survivors with serious life-long physical problems such as deafness, brain damage and other disabilities, meningitis can sometimes result in loss of limbs. MFA would like to be considered as a news resource for the disease.

If you would like to arrange an interview please call Jamie Callahan, General Manager of the MFA. For further information, visit the MFA website at www.musa.org.

MFA is proud to announce the new C.I.S.S. Container Identification Scratch System
When we participate in sporting events or mingle at social gatherings it is possible to lose track of our water bottles and/or beverage cans, especially those served in containers that are very similar or identical to a container from which you are drinking.

This carries the risk of transmitting an illness, such as meningitis or the common cold or flu.

The Container Identification Scratch System, or C.I.S.S., is a fun way to make sure you always know your drink from others. Use it at sporting events or at a family gatherings and reduce the waste from forgotten drinks. Simply scratch your number from the C.I.S.S. label and identify your drink.

For more information please contact Bob Gold at Ciss.bob@gmail.com”

After one year back on the sidelines, Woody Roof has resigned as Weatherford’s head football coach to concentrate solely on being the school’s athletic director.

Roof announced the resignation late last week, and immediately turned over head coaching duties to assistant Mickey Seifried.

Roof returned to the gridiron last fall to coach the Eagles for the third time, and 13th season overall. Weatherford finished 8-4, losing to Broken Bow in the state quarterfinals. With a daughter in the sixth grade, Roof said he originally planned on coaching for six or seven more years, but Weatherford’s increased emphasis on fundraising and finding corporate sponsorship for athletics left him with a decision to make.    

“I just felt like with the things that I’m going to have to do in the summer time and the things that I’m going to have to do through the season that I couldn’t be there all the time with the kids and they needed me to be there,” Roof said. “I just didn’t think I could be fair with the kids and be both.”

Roof steps down with 206 career wins and five state championships – two of which came at Weatherford (1991, 1992). At 58-years-old, Roof did not rule out an eventual return to the sidelines.

“I just take it one day at a time – that’s the best I can tell you,” Roof said. “I don’t know what’s in store for tomorrow, but right now I’m looking forward to trying to get the fundraisers going and looking forward to getting out and visiting with the people about corporate sponsors and doing the athletic directorship and raising some money for our program.

“We feel like we have an outstanding program here in Weatherford in an excellent community. They want us to be very successful in all sports – and to do that, it takes money. We’ve had great success in the last 20 years and been successful in quite a few sports and want to continue that.” 

Seifried has been an assistant for six years at Weatherford, Roof said, and served as the offensive coordinator last season.

“Football is a 12-month around job. You’ve got to run a summer program, you’ve got to get them up and lifting weights, you’ve got to do things to try to keep up with the Joneses. That takes a lot of energy,” Roof said. “I think that’s Mickey’s deal. He’s very energetic. He loves to work in the weight room, he loves to have the time to do it in the summer time … so I think he’ll be a good fit here for us.”

 Four games, four double-digit victories.

 That pretty much summarizes my day covering the 5A girls quarterfinals.

 (That is, unless you count the 30 minutes I spent frantically trying to figure out if people were just goofing off or if Putnam City really did get upset in the 6A boys tournament. Yup, they lost somehow. And I nearly lost my mind trying to send texts and call people while writing a deadline story.)  

Anyways back to 5A girls. Thursday was pretty boring - just a bunch of dominant teams easily handling weaker opponents. Fortunately, this dominance means we have some pretty sweet semifinal match-ups coming up on Friday.

First, there’s Carl Albert and Coweta playing at 10:30 a.m. in the Ford Center. For starters, Carl Albert’s ranked No. 3 and Coweta is No. 2, which means fireworks should fly. What really piques my interest in this game, however, is that both teams essentially played identical games on Thursday. They came out, shot horribly in the first half, and then rebounded in the second half behind the stellar play of one particular player (Jenni Bryan for Coweta, Kylie Mayes for Carl Albert). So can both players – sophomores, mind you - keep up the hot streak? And are the teams going to come out affected by nerves again? We’ll soon find out … 

 (Um, sorry if I sound a bit like the 1960′s era Batman TV show there. Not intentional, I assure you. It’s just that it’s past midnight and I can’t really think straight)

The second match-up could be even better than the first. At 1:30 p.m. in the Ford Center, 5A No. 1 Tulsa Washington will square off against the only 5A team that it has lost to this year – rival Tulsa Edison. The teams have played three games against each other this season, with the Hornets winning two, but losing at Tulsa Edison. After talking to the Edison players, I’m pretty stoked. Not only did they say there’s a pretty intense rivalry, but one player told me she thinks both sides will play harder and more aggressive because of the rivalry.

Um, yeah, I think I’d like to see that, considering both teams already play extremely hard and aggressive.

Well, there’s my pointers for tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the games! Remember, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel …

I’ve been involved with small-school state basketball tournaments for nearly 10 years running now, and let me tell you, there aren’t too many days like the day Class B girls had on Thursday at Midwest City High School.

For starters, the day started and ended with huge upsets. In the opening game, Mason — who hadn’t been to the state tournament since 1957 — shocked No. 3 Seiling 35-33. Having seen a lot of small-school blowouts, especially in the opening rounds, I was convinced that would be the best game of the day, hands down.

Boy, was I wrong.

The day closed out with an instant classic, as Vici’s Hannah Guthrie and Kiowa’s Katy Clift staged an epic duel that came down to the last second. Two Guthrie free throws helped Vici finish off Kiowa - the No. 2 team in Class B – by a score of 52-50. 

Not only was this a huge upset, but it even had a little controversy thrown in for good measure. After a Clift jumper hit back iron with time winding down (seemingly the only shot she missed all half), Vici’s Jonna Gregory grabbed the rebound, but was then called for traveling. The officials checked with the scorer’s table, however, and determined she grabbed the rebound with 1.4 seconds remaining – meaning that by the time she was called for traveling, the clock had run out. Game over.

Um, needless to say, this did not please the Kiowa faithful, who let out a chorus of disbelief, obscenities and tears. The Vici side, however, erupted in jubilation. Understandable, seeing as how the best season in school history just got extended to the Big House.

 Anyways, if those two games weren’t enough for you, the two in between were no slouches themselves. In the first, Tamara Brown helped Sentinel pulled off a semi-upset of Varnum. The same Varnum that beat defending champ Lomega by 20 in its last game.  Brown absolutely torched Varnum to the tune of 22 second half points. Not too shabby, eh?  

In the third game of the day, unheralded Cyril stood toe-to-toe with the very same Lomega for the better part of three quarters. Remember, Lomega has all starters returning from its state title team.  But the upset wasn’t to be, as Lomega showed exactly why it is the defending champ – namely, depth.

Up by only three at the end of the third quarter, Lomega’s Britney Geis – the Raiders’ fifth leading scorer at only four points per game, mind you – drilled a buzzer-beater to stretch the lead to five. Lomega would never look back.

“That was the biggest shot of the game,” Lomega head coach Kevin Lewallen said. “If she misses that, we’re only up by three, and anything can happen.”

Instead, Lomega used that momentum to pull away to a comfortable victory. 

Well, that’s a recap of the exciting day of games. If you missed it, well, that’s a shame because it was one heck of a good time.  

Here’s some more tidbits that didn’t make it into the paper …

Stuck on the shot clock:

In 23 years of officiating, Rick Bales had never seen anything like it.  

In the most amusing moment of the night, a fourth quarter shot by Cyril’s Shelbie Laughlin got stuck between the top of the backboard and the shot clock.

After a few moments of deliberating it was decided that A. the ball was out-of-bounds, and B. the only way to get it out was to knock it out.

So Bales began attempting what seemed like an extremely difficult shot angle. Despite missing badly on his first four attempts, he drilled it on the fifth, popping the ball free and causing the crowd to break out in applause.

“I was just hoping it would come out if I hit it,” Bales said, laughing. “I used to be a pretty good shot.”

A long ways to play Cowgirls and Indians:

While this is strictly an unofficial guess, Vici and Kiowa likely had the longest separation distance of the Class B girls match-ups. The towns are located on opposite sides of the state (Vici – NW, Kiowa SE) and are 268 miles apart, according to mapquest.com — a driving distance of four hours and 17 minutes. Thankfully, they just had to meet in the middle at Midwest City High School.

mpatterson@oklahoman.com 

The 87th Annual Oklahoma High School Wrestling Championships is in the books and it didn’t dissapoint. There were upsets, vengeance and suprises galore.

 Here’s a few things that caught my eye:

 - Midwest City’s improable championship in Class 5A was the biggest surprise, followed closely by Grove in Class 3A.  The Bombers won in different fashion this year, relying on Sand Springs’ Znick Ferell to upset Ponca City’s Reno Redleaf to secure the title. The Bombers wrestled well in both bracekts to put themselves into a position to win.  

 Coach Jody Marple squeezed every ounce of ability out of his team this year. MWC was hurt by Seth Johnson’s loss in the semi-finals (Johnson was never 100 percent after his elbow injury early in the season) but found a hero in Mark Meyer who won at 152 and Drew Hill who battled his way into the finals.

- Del City would have won the Class 5A t itle had Derrick Jackson been able to pin Stacy McGee in the heavyweight finals. Jackson lost, but the fact Del City put itself into a postion to even have a chance at the title with just six wrestlers is amazing. Mike Brady and Tyler Dorrell came home winners Friday and Zack James placed third.

- This year’s crowd was the biggest I’ve seen in 8 years of covering the tournament. I think the fact that there is an ever growing pool of stars (Chris Perry, Dallas Bailey and Ladd Rupp all have a chance to be 4 time champs next year) contributed to the strong turnout. The arena was virtually full at the beginning of the finals.

 - Grove winning 3A came out of nowhere.  The Ridgerunners were alone in thinking they could win a championship when the tournament started.

 - Star Spencer’s Raymond Lane winning his second title in overtime was perhaps the most dramatic single match of the night and it drew a large crowd on the floor. The Lane-Tyson Yoder storyline is a good one and both are grossly underrated, which is saying something considering Yoder is going to Oklahoma State.

 It’s unknown where Lane will end up (he talked to OCU coach Archie Randall after his win) but beating the OSU bound Yoder twice under the lights clearly shows Lane has Division I talent.

The Moore School Board will vote to approve or disapprove tonight of Scott Myers as the next head football coach for Moore High School, according to the meeting agenda.

 Myers has been the head coach at Woodward for the past three years. This year, he led the Boomers to their first playoff appearance in seven seasons. Before his tenure at Woodward, he was an assistant at Moore under Tom Noles from 2001-2004, coaching the secondary. He also served as an assistant at Plainview and Chickasha.

 Myers graduated from Chandler in 1985 after leading the Lions to a state title in football his senior season. He went on to graduate from East Central.

 Myers was chosen from approximately 25-30 applications and eight interview candidates, district athletic director Carl Franks said.

With the new Southmoore High School (and football program) set to open in the fall, Myers would step into a competitive position. He would replace Bill Bays, who resigned at the beginning of the spring semester and has accepted the head coaching position at Choctaw. Bays — who had an 11-20 record at Moore and one playoff appearance — cited the desire to coach in a district with just one school as a part of his reason for resigning.

When KJ Williams arrived late at football camp last summer, he temporarily lost his identity. Who knew that would help him find a scholarship?

Williams signed with Texas A&M Wednesday morning, becoming the first football player from Norman North to earn a Division-IA full ride. The 6-foot-5, 240-pounder will play tight end for the Aggies.

The way A&M coaches were introduced to Williams is a recruiting tale that no doubt will make the rounds in College Station when the 19-year-old arrives on campus. Williams was a late arrival to a Nike camp in Fort Worth last summer, causing a mix-up at registration. He was given a jersey with a number that was not assigned to a player. So, when this big, unknown kid started putting up big-time numbers in combine drills and making big plays in live action, coaches wanted to know who the mystery stud was. His performance drew coaches attention and his anonymity only raised their curiosity.

“Since my name and number didn’t match, (coaches) were coming up and talking to me,” Williams said. “And before I even got out of the parking lot I had an offer.”

Williams verbally committed to A&M right away. However, when Dennis Franchione resigned as Texas A&M coach in November, Williams briefly thought about looking into other options. And he had plenty as all but three Big 12 schools offered a scholarship.

“Once everything happened with Coach Fran, I started to wonder about some things,” said Williams. “I opened up my options.”

After a visit to College Station on Jan. 11 and a one-on-one meeting with new A&M coach Mike Sherman, Williams knew he would stick with his first choice.

“With Coach Sherman being from the NFL, I wanted to play for someone like that, who has that kind of experience,” Williams said. “And with all new coaches, everyone is starting from scratch. Even the (returning players) will all be in the same position as me in trying to make an impression and win a position.”

Williams, who grew up in Louisiana before moving to Norman prior to his sophomore season, played quarterback when he was younger. He earned All-State honors as a defensive end for Norman North and helped the Timberwolves to the most successful season (9-3) in school history. Williams had 47 tackles, seven sacks and three fumble recoveries this past season. On offense he made four catches, two going for touchdowns.

“I wanted to play tight end (at A&M) and the situation they’re in (at that position) is a good for me,” Williams said. “I made my name on defense, but I can’t wait to let everyone see what I can do on offense.”

Tyson Gale, an honorable mention All-State linebacker from Alva, has committed to play football for Marshall next season.

Tyson made his decision Sunday night after a weekend visit to the school. He picked the Thundering Herd over New Mexico, his only other Division-I offer.

Tyson is the twin brother of Alva quarterback Mitchell Gale and son of Alva head coach Steve Gale. While Steve’s brother, Mark Gale, is the Marshall assistant athletic director for football operations and is the longest serving member of the Marshall coaching staff, the connection was initially just a helpful recruiting tool. Steve would send the videos to Mark, looking for his professional opinion.

“Then they started looking at the videos,” Steve said. “I was just sending it out just to get an idea, but they really liked what they saw. There was a need for them at middle linebacker, and (that connection) did nothing but help.”

Last season, Tyson had 157 tackles (16 for a loss) and five interceptions to go along with 448 yards receiving and six touchdowns. Tyson had 174 tackles and three picks his junior season.

Steve said Tyson was attracted to Marshall in part because of the impressive weight room and head coach Mark Snyder. Snyder, who visited Alva last week to watch Tyson play basketball, was a defensive coach at Ohio State from 2001-04, and coached future-NFL linebackers such as A.J. Hawk (Green Bay) and Bobby Carpenter (Dallas)

“That’s the type of player (Tyson)’d like to be,” Steve said.

Tyson will sign tomorrow at 10 a.m. at Alva, along with Mitchell (Abilene Christian,
Tex.) and free safety Derek Lohman (Emporia State, Kan.)

I must admit, I got a little carried away at Friday night’s send-off to historic Boney Matthews Fieldhouse in Purcell. With so many old-timers, former players and coaching legends around, I ended up chatting with way more people than I needed to for the story I had to write. Because of this, I decided to put a couple of the good tales I heard here on the blog.

Former Lindsay coach Charlie Heatly provided the first laughs of the night as he presented the game ball before the girls game. Heatly is a legend in his own right in girls basketball, with around 640 wins, 14 state tournaments, and 2 titles in 28 years at Linsday. Between 1964 and 1971, however, Heatly also coached the Lindsay boys team – meaning he matched up directly with Boney Matthews’ Purcell squad around 15 times.

As Heatly tells it, it’s around ’68 or ’69, and his Lindsay squad is soundly beating Purcell late in one game. All of the sudden, Boney appears directly behind him.

“Scoot over,” Boney says. “I’m not doing no good down there on my bench.”

So Boney – the Purcell head coach, mind you – plops down on the Lindsay bench and stays there for the last couple of minutes.

“He just sat there,” Heatly recalls, laughing. “The Purcell players didn’t know where to go for the rest of the game. During time-outs, they couldn’t figure out if they should come to our bench or stay at theirs.”

I was lucky enough to stumble across 74-year-old Grant Frankenberg, a 1951 Purcell graduate, as the evening progressed. Frankenberg played on Boney’s first state championship team, and he also played alongside and graduated with Purcell’s most renowned basketball player, Lester Lane. 

(For a quick history lesson, after winning the state title at Purcell, Lane went on to become an All-American at OU, and was a starting guard on the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medalist basketball team. Some of his teammates? Just a couple guys named Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas and Jerry West)

Anyways, Frankenberg had an interesting take on Boney’s legendary playing days. Although he was only 5-7 or 5-8, Boney was one heck of an athlete. While it has never been completely verified, Boney supposedly scored 98 points for Roff in a 142-0 win over Leigh in 1927 - an Oklahoma state record (I mentioned this in the regular story).  As the story goes, Boney had 14 touchdowns and 13 or 14 extra points, although no statistics have ever been found of the game.

Frankenberg, however, said Boney may have nearly equaled that amazing feat while playing basketball.

“He told us he scored 99 points in a basketball game,” Frankenberg recalled of his playing days under Boney.

While I first thought Frankenberg was joking – or he was insinuating that Boney was joking – I quickly found out he was completely serious.

“I believed him,” Frankenberg said. “He was a great basketball player when we played against him. He was so small, but so quick and athletic.”

My last story comes not from an older person, but from one of the current Purcell basketball players. While most of the young people I talked to at the event had little idea of the history involved in the evening’s proceeding, not all of Boney Matthews legacy is forgotten in the younger generation. Hunter Marcum, a freshman on the team, said current boys basketball head coach Lee Reimer makes sure of that. Reimer has been at Purcell for 24 years.

“Coach talks about (Boney) a lot,” Marcum said. “A bunch of the younger guys don’t really know much about him, but we’ve learned from his stories.”

“Guys have sacrificed to make this a program,” Reimer said of his history lessons. “It’s up to us to carry on that program.”  

As is my norm, here are some excerpts of material that didn’t make it into Thursday’s feature on Capitol Hill head coach Donny Tuley and his efforts to reach players over the years.

The first interesting tidbit is this background info on Tuley’s early years.

In 1977, Tuley’s collegiate basketball career ended after two years at East Central. The 5-9 point guard knew he didn’t have the talent to play at the next level, but he definitely wasn’t going back to work in the oil fields or farming in his tiny hometown of Elmore City. The fiery, passionate young man with a wealth of basketball IQ was determined to make it big as a coach.

“My goal was to go as high up the ladder as I could,” Tuley recalls. “I wanted to coach in college or get even further on than that.”

That ties into this next sidebar, which was hardest part to leave out – by far - and was one of the more amazing facts about Tuley. In the story, I mention that, over the years, Tuley turned down several opportunites to fulfill his college coaching goal so he could stay at Capitol Hill.

Donny Tuley never completely gave up on coaching college hoops. While he passed up several opportunities in the mid-90s so he could stay close to and take care of his ailing parents, another door soon opened that allowed him the best of both worlds. For the past 10 years, Tuley has been an assistant coach at Redlands Community College while continuing his work at Capitol Hill.

You read that right. Not only is Tuley the head coach of a high school basketball team, he also is an assistant coach in college. Talk about a balancing act. Tuley often will leave his high school practice, take a car-load of players home, and then head directly to Redlands to help coach a game that night.  

“It’s difficult (balancing the two), but the guys I work for at Redlands have given me a schedule, and I can work around their schedule,” Tuley said. “And it’s worked out quite well for us.”

At Redlands, Tuley has been a part of several successful teams, including a national champion in 2002, and has coached players like former OU standout Taj Gray.

Of course, another tough choice was picking and choosing which stories to tell. And my goodness were there stories. It seems like every person I talked to had a favorite memory of Tuley, or a touching moment to share, or a sob story to tell. Possibly one of the saddest was the following told to me by Tuley’s wife, Sherry.

Several years ago, a former player of Tuley’s named Fasha Norman was killed. The point guard was attending Langston, but his body was found in a Dallas park. At the funeral, Norman’s parents asked Donny to speak.

“Now Donny’s a very non-emotional kind of person,” Sherry said. “But at this kid’s funeral, he just broke down. He had to stop several times during this speech to compose himself.”

Unfortunately, this blog probably couldn’t hold all of the Tuley stories I heard, but I’ll close it off on a positive note. In the main story, I started off talking about the life struggles of senior forward Remy Boswell and his mother. What I wasn’t able to get to, however, was how much things have improved for the Boswell family. 

Remy’s mom now has a job teaching in the Oklahoma City Public Schools system. Because of that – for the first time ever – Remy has a washer and dryer where he lives. He also believes his family’s story is a testimony, and he has a new motto for life: “The struggles are over.”

Choctaw has hired former Moore and Edmond North coach Bill Bays to lead its football program. The hire was approved at a Choctaw school board meeting on Monday night. Fifty people had applied for the position, athletic director Greg Skaggs said, and eight were brought in for interviews.

“We think that with his track record of playoff experience and being a head coach … (Bays) was the best man for the job,” Skaggs said.

Bays, who resigned from Moore at the beginning of the spring semester, said getting the opportunity to coach in a school district with a single high school intrigued him. Next season, Moore will have to compete with Westmoore and Southmoore, which will be in its inaugural season.

“It’s just on this side of the state you have a limited number of single high school districts,” Bays said. “I coached at Yukon … and we enjoyed some opportunities there that the multiple high school districts don’t have.”  

At Choctaw, Bays is replacing Ted Dorrell, who resigned at the end of last season. The Yellow Jackets were 13-37 in five seasons under Dorrell, including a 1-9 finish this year, and have not made the postseason since 1984.

“I like to look to the future. I’m excited about the opportunities that I see at Choctaw. We want to give the players a chance to win football games,” Bays said. “It’s a long process, but that’s fine with me. We’ve got a lot of challenges, a lot of hard work ahead of us, but that’s part of the process.”

With teaching responsibilities at Moore, Bays was unsure of when he would be able to start full-time at Choctaw.

“I can’t answer that question for you,” Bays said. “I don’t know how that’s going to play out.”

I must admit, summarizing the start-up process for Southmoore football into a small enough space to fit the newspaper was no easy task. Thankfully, I was given enough room to do an adequate job, but certain humorous or interesting items still had to be whittled down or cut out completely. Of course, that extra information is why we have a sports blog (or so I’m told), so here ya go.  

One of the tidbits that didn’t survive the final cut was the following excerpt comparing Southmoore to Oklahoma City’s Centennial High School, which underwent a similar ‘starting from scratch’ process leading up to this past football season.

When Oklahoma City’s Centennial High School started its inaugural two-a-days last fall, 14 players showed up for the first practice. During a 1-9 opening season, the Bison often played with 20 or so players, and managed to finish the season with 34. Centennial head coach Randy Wilson said, however, that Southmoore has two distinct advantages over the situation the Bison were in. First, with the size of the Moore school district, overall numbers shouldn’t be a big problem. Second, since Southmoore head coach Chris Jensen was hired in December, he has a good head start on player identification and training. 

“I was hired late (in May), and I didn’t have an opportunity to identify many of the athletes and get them in our program, and summer pride program,” Wilson said “It’s important to be able to identify your kids and know who they are, and what they can and cannot do. He’s going in knowing some of the kids, and that’s a big positive.”  

Another intriguing aspect of the story that hit the cutting room floor was the situation facing the players who have a choice between going to Southmoore or staying at their original school (Moore or Westmoore). As you can see from the following excerpt, many of the players I talked to were torn in their decision, and for good reason. Choosing between the school you’ve grown up with and a new, exciting opportunity is a heavy load for a high school student. (Note: This idea was cut from the story because I’m going to develop it for a new story in a week or so, around when the players have to decide)

After several weeks of administrative discussion, it was decided that all upcoming seniors who live in the Southmoore district will have a choice between staying and switching. The only other players with a choice are upcoming juniors who lettered their first two years of high school.

Knowing which kids can choose, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Tracking them down and convincing them to play is a whole different story, especially when they’re scattered among two high schools and three junior high schools.

“We don’t get to run into them on a daily basis … that’s one of the first things that we’ve had to do is sit down and try to figure out how we’re going to go to four different schools and meet with all of these kids that are potentially Southmoore SaberCats,” Jensen said. “We want to communicate to the kids that we want them to come to Southmoore, but we’ve got to make sure that we can’t make promises that we can’t keep.”

For players who have grown up cheering and playing for Moore and Westmoore, changing loyalties can be extremely difficult. Detrek Wallace, a current Moore sophomore, has gone back and forth for weeks trying to decide.

“A lot of people are going, and I know a lot of people there. But I also know a lot of people here (at Moore),” said Wallace, who indicated he’s about 60 percent in favor of Southmoore. “It’s been one of those choices that you have to make when you grow up.” 

When he chose Southmoore, fellow Moore sophomore Kyaunn Thompson felt the sting of disappointing his former teammates.

“Some of them are upset, because they really depended on me to play with them this year. It’s hard leaving because Moore is the first team that I’ve played for, and I didn’t really want to play for another team,” Thompson said. “But I wanted to try a new thing, and I’m hoping that my decision will be a good one.”            

One of the more humorous stories came from assistant head coach Jason Melot. This was probably the hardest cut, just because it effectively shows just how overlooking the smallest detail could potentially cause major problems down the road for an upstart football program. 

Jason Melot couldn’t believe it. Scanning the inventory – a checklist of 85 items supposedly covering all equipment needed by the team – he couldn’t find one of the most basic football items.

“The one thing I didn’t see was mouth pieces,” Melot said, laughing. “That always comes up late, you know: ‘Where’s the mouthpieces?’”

Sure enough, despite having everything from goal post covers to elbow pads, mouthpieces were nowhere to be found. Thanks to Melot’s catch, the players won’t be short in the mouth department for spring practice. Every item on the list, however, still has to be purchased, with many of them needed by May for 10 days of practice in pads.

Also, just as a reminder, you can go to gosabercats.com for more information on the team.

Girls basketball notes from Friday’s action at the Oklahoma’s Best Tournament at Tulsa University’s Reynolds Center:

Sequoyah-Tahlequah winning streak snapped

Tulsa Washington defeated Sequoyah-Tahlequah Friday in the semifinals of the Oklahoma’s Best Tournament in Tulsa to advance to Saturday’s final against Sapulpa.

The loss snapped a 41-game winning streak for Sequoyah-Tahlequah, the three-time defending champion and top-ranked team in Class 3A. Tulsa Washington, ranked No. 1 in Class 5A, ended the Indians’ run with a 57-47 victory. The Hornets will meet 6A No. 1 Sapulpa in the 8:30 p.m. championship game at the Reynolds Center. Sapulpa knocked off Washington, ranked second in 3A, 65-40 in the other semifinal.

In what could be a preview of the 3A state final, Washington and Sequoyah-Tahlequah will square off in Saturday’s 7 p.m. consolation game.

Adair’s Luper injured again

Adair junior Kevi Luper, a member of the Oklahoman’s 2007 Super Five team as a sophomore, will miss five to six weeks after breaking a bone in her right arm Thursday night in an opening-round loss to Sapulpa.

Luper, who is being recruited by numerous Division I schools, had just recently returned to action after breaking a bone near her right wrist in June. The first break, which happened at the University of Oklahoma Team Camp, kept Luper sidelined for four months. The injury suffered Thursday, a distal radius hairline fracture about three and a half inches above the wrist, was not in the same place as the broken bone suffered in June.

Luper, who led Adair to the 3A state final last season while averaging more than 21 points per game, has had a run of bad luck to start the season. Even before the injury Thursday, Luper had been ill in the days leading up to the tournament and had a 102-degree temperature as recently as Wednesday.

She’ll be in a brace until Tuesday and will be confined to conditioning and left-handed drills until late January.

Washington’s Beaty also hurt

Washington senior Krista Beaty sprained her right ankle in Friday’s semifinal loss to Sapulpa and will not be available for the Warriors’ game against Sequoyah-Tahlequah Saturday. Beaty injured the ankle in the third quarter.

“I think she just landed on her other foot and rolled her ankle,” said Washington coach Rocky Clarke. “Right now we don’t know for sure when she’ll be able to come back, but she won’t be able to play (Saturday).”

A day after beating 4A No. 1 Fort Gibson, Washington saw any chance to upset 6A No. 1 Sapulpa end just as the first half came to a close. Trailing by 10, the Warriors ran a play that opened up for a layup, but the shot rimmed out with four seconds left in the half. Sapulpa star Alyssia Brewer, who will play fort Tennessee next year, grabbed the ball and launched a half-court shot that went through just before the horn. Instead of trailing by eight, Washington found itself down by 13. Then with Beaty going out in the third, Sapulpa cruised.

College atmosphere

Aside from the fact that the tournament is being played in a college gymnasium, Tulsa University’s Reynolds Center, there is a heavy college presence at the Oklahoma’s Best Tournament as dozens of coaches from around the region have gathered to see a handful of the state’s top players. Saturday there will be even more college atmosphere as Tulsa will host No. 9 Oklahoma at 3 p.m. prior to the consolation and championship games.

jharper@oklahoman.com 

Guthrie receiver Kent McDonald went out with a bang Friday night in trhe Bluejays’ 16-3 win over Bixby in the Class 5A state final. With Guthrie’s running game being slowed by Bixby, the senior wideout came through with four catches for 76 yards and a touchdown.

“All us receivers can be counted on, too,” McDonald said. “We’re all big targets and can make things happen. Tonight was our chance to step up and we did.”

Fellow receiver Israel Escoe also had a nice showing with three grabs for 54 yards.

In the midst of one of the best seasons in school history, Henryetta players needed little motivation going into a second-round playoff game against Verdigris on Friday night. 

They got some anyways, as school legend and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman surprised the team by giving the pre-game speech in the locker room. It was the first Henryetta game Aikman had seen in over 20 years, head coach Kenny Speer said.

“Everyone was surprised, shocked, and excited,” said Colby Blondell, a senior running back who, thanks to family ties with Aikman, was one of the few who knew the former Dallas Cowboy was coming. “He just talked about how he used to be a Hen … and encouraged us to have fun and play hard.  A lot of (the players) wanted to play harder and better, to impress him.”

Aikman, who graduated from Henryetta in 1984, has worked as a color analyst for Fox Sports since his retirement from the Cowboys in 2001. Friday night, the three-time Super Bowl winner flew in before the game and flew back out immediately after, Speer said. But while he only was there a short time, his speech definitely impacted the team, who went on to defeat Verdigris 35-0. 

“That’s a heck of a deal for the kids for him to come back and show the interest he shows in his old team,” Speer said. “He enjoys football, and he’s proud of what Henryetta has done.”

What Henryetta has done hasn’t been seen in a long time. By winning 2A-5, the team picked up its first district title since 1951. And Henryetta hadn’t finished 10-0 in a regular season since 1942. With the win over Verdigris, Henryetta secured a return trip to the Class 2A quarterfinals, where they will face No. 2 Heritage Hall.

This week, the players plan on writing a thank-you letter to Aikman, in which they will also hint they would like him to return for another playoff game.  

“It means a lot to me just to see him coming,” Blondell said. “I’ve been a big Dallas Cowboys fan since I was a kid, and it just means a ton.” 

Being in the playoffs can sometimes mean traveling to face teams hundreds of miles away.

The longest such trip in the state this week belongs to Velma-Alma, which must travel 349 miles for its Class A second-round game against Texhoma, a panhandle town which borders Texas to its immediate south. According to Google Maps, that’s a road trip of six hours and 32 minutes and includes a lengthy trek through the Lone Star State.

Honorable mention goes out to Weatherford, located on I-40 in Western Oklahoma, which must travel 320 miles (4 hours, 54 minutes) to Broken Bow, located in southeastern Oklahoma just 20 minutes from Arkansas.

Also making a lengthy trip is Class B’s Laverne, located in northwestern Oklahoma, which must go 272 miles to Dewar (4 hours, 39 minutes).

A score that may have shocked some last night wasn’t an upset, but almost was.

Unbeaten Plainview, a team thought by many to have a legitimate shot at the 3A state championship, survived a scare at home from Newcastle, 40-34.

The surge by the Racer offense is something not many people expected. It’s no secret that Newcastle’s top strength was its run defense, but the Racers hung with the high-powered Plainview offense led my NCAA Division I recruit Justin Blackmon at wideout.

I picked Plainview to win the 3A title, and I stand by that pick, but Newcastle was beaten badly by Kingfisher, Clinton and Tuttle, three other serious state title contenders. Does that say anything about Plainview? Only time will tell.

mpatterson@oklahoman.com

Took in the Kingfisher-Marlow game (scrimmage) Friday night. If Kingfisher had any hangover from their 4 OT loss to Clinton there was no sign of it in their 48-7 drubbing of the Outlaws.

 If Kingfisher advances far, it will be because of their defense which held Marlow to under 100 total yards. Jakob Gaither and Co. were dominating, picking off 5 passes and returning a fumble for a TD.

Mild surprise: I was surprised to see Edmond Memorial hang around with Norman North in the T-Wolves’ lackluster 24-14 win. Memorial had a solid year but if Norman North is to be considered the best team in the West, they need to pick it up a little. As of now, Putnam City is the superior team.

 Buyer’s remorse: I picked Carl Albert to win 5A and I’m beginning to regret it. Guthrie steamrolled Ardmore in round one, putting up 61 on the Tigers. Guthrie may be the best high school football team in Oklahoma right now. Nobody is playing better in all three phases of the game, including Jenks and Union.

Well, this is the first time I’ve posted in about a year or so.  That’s kind of what happens when you work full-time and try to finish school - you start forgetting things.

My bad.

Anyways, before I forget why I started to write this post in the first place, here are my Top 10 picks for the week.           

Midwest City over Putnam City
Rush Springs over Washington
Texhoma over Okeene
Morris over Henryetta
Corn Bible over Temple
Cashion over Dewar
Seq. Tahlequah over Keys (Park Hill)
Bethany over Lexington
Panama over Pocola
Vinita over Seq. Claremore

Clinton over Kingfisher LOCK

mpatterson@oklahoman.com 

High School wrestlers are preparing to hit the mats. This year should be an interesting season. Can El Reno get back on top in 4A or will Catoosa cotinue to reign? Can Midwest City repeat?

 Here’s a look at how Amateur Wrestling News ranks some Okie wrestlers

 112: Willie Gunter, MWC (7), Ladd Rupp (10)

119: Casey Rowell, Duncan  (12)

130: Jeremy Goree (11)

135: Ben Morgan, Catoosa (7), Matt Bryan, Broken Arrow (12)

152: Dallas Bailey, Catoosa (10)

189: Chris Perry, Stillwater (5)

215: Tyson Yoder, Weatherford (3)

The one thing that makes me slightly question that now is the schedule the two teams played. Guthrie has blown away every opponents on its schedule so far this year, but hasn’t really played anyone that was that tough. And the 69-0 drubbing of Noble (who has already clinched a playoff spot and could be third in the district) doesn’t really mean anything because of the huge dropoff after Carl Albert and Guthrie in District 5A-2.

Carl Albert, on the other hand, played a tough non-district schedule and won convincingly in each game (Tulsa Washington, Duncan and Ada).

But, I’m sticking with my pick and taking the Bluejays.  

Guthrie 31, Carl Albert 24

Guthrie over Carl Albert
Wagoner over Grove
Tuttle over Clinton
Ringling over Velma-Alma
Lawton MacArthur over Western Heights
Pawnee over Woodland
Broken Bow over Stilwell
Plainview over Marlow
Norman North over Lawton
Sequoyah-Tahlequah over Wyandotte

While the Clintons, Tuttles and Kingfishers of the world get all the attention in Class 3A, this little school down in Ardmore is flying under the radar. No one seems to talk about Plainview, but that is just fine by Indians coach Corey Cole.

Plainview has won only three district championships in its history. The team hasn’t won a playoff game since 1999. But I’m telling you, this team is for real.

Consider this: Plainview is averaging 42.5 points per game, which is just below Clinton (46.62) and just above Tuttle (39.38)

Plainview has outscored opponents this year by an average of just over 29 points per game.

The explosive Indian offense can be traced right to its passing game. The unstoppable combo of quarterback Brandon Allen to receiver Justin Blackmon has created problems for Plainview opponents all year.

Even in the Sulphur game, when Blackmon was contained because of double and triple team coverage, he was used to perfection as a decoy.

This week, the Indians have Marlow (6-2, 4-1). Last season, Plainview won the game, 16-14. Lots of people have forgotten about Marlow after the whooping it took from Tuttle in Week 1, but the Outlaws have quietly climbed back into contention. This game Friday between Marlow and Plainview could be for the District title.

The foregone conclusion that one of the powers from District 3A-1 will win the Class 3A state championship this year needs to be reconsidered. Plainview has a good shot to shock some people.  

Class 6A’s third-ranked Muskogee fell 28-13 at the hands of Tulsa Washington Thursday night. The loss came as a surprise, given that BTW has had a mediocre season at best.

But Muskogee coach Matt Hennesy said the Hornets are better than people think.

“They are healthy for the first time all season,” Hennesy said. “They have some really great athletes,”

Each of Washington’s TDs came on plays of more than 40-yards.

“They just played better than we did,” Hennesy said.

Trae Cook, the states leading passer was sidelined in the fourth quarter with a concussion. He had less than 50-yards passing when he left the game. Hennesy said after watching game film he thinks the concussion took place mid-way through the second quarter.

Standout receiver Jameel Owens took snaps for the remainder of the game. Earlier in the week Owens was selected to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, which will feature the nation’s top 84 high school football players. (See Sunday’s Okahoman for more details on Owens)

Hennesy said Cook could return Friday against Owasso, but Owens will continue to take snaps this week in practice.

“He has a lot of poise and has the best arm of anyone on the team,” Hennesy said. “He wants the ball in his hands all the time.”

Midwest City over Westmoore
Tuttle over Kingfisher
McAlester over Shawnee
Putnam North over Norman North
Grove over Miami
Metro Christian over Berryhill
Seq. Tahlequah over Colcord
Tulsa Union over Broken Arrow
Pond Creek-Hunter over Laverne
Shattuck over Sharon-Mutual

Friday night’s contest between Heritage Hall and Oklahoma Christian is more than just another game for both schools. Serious bragging rights are at stake.

Many players on both teams know each other well, and OCS’s head coach Tracy Holland left Heritage Hall three years ago to take over at OCS.

“It will be somewhat of a neighborhood battle,” Heritage Hall coach Andy Bogert said. “These seniors know coach
Holland really well and many of these kids are friends.”

Heritage Hall is undefeated, and will look to avenge last year’s 12-6 loss to the Saints.

“They (OCS) throw the ball really well,” Bogert said. “It is something we don’t see all the time and our pass defense will have to be really ready for them.”

If the Chargers win, a top playoff seed is pretty much a guarantee. They will face Wellston, Meeker and Bethel in the last three games, none of which should cause them problems.

There are playoff implications for OCS as well. The Saints, Millwood and Bethel each have one district loss. Bethel though, has Heritage Hall and Millwood left on its schedule. The OCS-Millwood game next week could depict second place in 2A-2.  

mpatterson@oklahoman.com

Took the short drive from HQ down to Midwest City today to talk with John and Tim Flanders for a story that will run Wednesday.  It’s interesting that another tandem of brothers are making a name for themselves.

Cale and Mike Gundy starred at MWC in the 1980s. Ditto for the Dequasie brothers. Now, a new generation is helping the Bombers (6-0) re-claim their spot among the big dogs in Class 6A.

- I’m not a big fan of the two game suspension rule for football players ejected from games. McGuinness will be without its best offensive lineman as Gabe Moyer serves a two game suspension for being ejected in the Irish’s win over Weatherford Friday.

Regardless of who started it ( Moyer didn’t), he shouldn’t have fought back. Still, to lose two games during your senior year is excessive, especially considering Moyer hasn’t been a discipline problem before and what he did might not have earned an ejection with another officiating crew. Ejections are highly subjective and as an eye witness to what happened, both players should have been tossed, not just one.

There’s no denying that Rush Springs senior Dustan McClenny has had a stellar career.

Friday night against Dibble, the running back broke the all-time school rushing record of 4,362 yards that was set in 1989 by Tim Beard, now a coach at Lone Grove.

But while McClenny has always had the stats, he hasn’t always played to his potential. At least, not until this year.

“He’s playing better than he has ever played,” said Rush Springs coach Barry Foster. “We had to stay on him the last couple of years, because you would tell him to do something, and sometimes it just wouldn’t register. But he’s getting it done now. He’s taking on blockers at linebacker. He’s seeing the field like he never has. He’s doing a good job of calling our defenses and getting us lined up right. He’s definitely a leader of our team, and the guys look up to him and depend on him.”

Behind McClenny, the Redskins have dominated, winning five games by a combined score of 182-7. Friday night, however, will provide a tougher test as the No. 4 Redskins travel to take on upstart No. 10 Minco.

“Minco is the best team we’ve played,” Foster said. “It’s going to be tough.”

While Class 5A’s No. 7 Duncan (4-1, 2-0) is off to its best start in 10 years, coach Jim Holloway isn’t getting caught up in the hype. Heading into the Demons’ crucial match-up with Lawton MacArthur — the winner will take sole possession of first place in the brutal 5A-1 — Holloway is realistic. After all, he’s seen this before.

Just last year, in fact, the Demons were 2-0 in district heading into the Lawton MacArthur game, where they lost 13-7 after officials ruled a last-second fumble recovery came up just short of the goal line. The next week, the Demons lost two key players to injury, and the season snowballed from there to a 4-6 finish, with Duncan missing the playoffs.

But while Holloway knows just how fast things can go south, he also has confidence that this year’s team — with 18 returning starters — has the fortitude and experience to withstand adversity.

“This is a whole different football team on the field this year than what it was last year,” Holloway said. “These kids know how to practice. Three to four of these kids have started every game since (they were) sophomores. Let me tell you — that’s huge. It’s like redshirt seniors on the college level. They bring so much experience.”

That experience helped the Demons stay within striking distance of No. 1-ranked Carl Albert a year after being blown out 50-7 by the Titans. It also helped them hold off fellow upstart Western Heights on Friday night.

“We were learning how to crawl and walk last year. Now at least we’re on our feet, and we’re competitive,” Holloway said.

Of course, if the Carl Albert game showed how good the Demons can be, the team’s inability to hang onto the football in the 34-21 loss showed how much room the Demons have for improvement.

“I don’t think we’ve played that perfect game,” Holloway said. “We played the socks off of Carl Albert, but we turned the ball over seven times. We’ve got a chance to be really good when we’re error free, and that’s going to give us a chance to win every ball game.”

That and having senior Trent Wilkins behind center, of course. The Tulsa commitment has dominated, with 717 yards rushing, 680 yards passing, and 19 total touchdowns. Oh, and his defense isn’t too shabby, either.

“He’s a tremendous safety,” Holloway said. “Make no bones about it, when we’ve got No. 7 back there, we’ve got a chance.”

NOTE: This blog has been updated at several points during the day.  

Not only is Norman junior basketball player Terrence Boyd ineligible to play this season, but his amateur status is now under investigation as well, the state athletic association ruled Tuesday.

The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Association Board of Directors denied Boyd’s final hardship appeal during a Tuesday morning meeting.  During that meeting – an executive session closed to the public – unexpected information came to light that raised a question about Boyd’s amateur status, OSSAA attorney Mark Grossman said.  After hearing the information, the board directed OSSAA staff to further investigate Boyd’s amateur standing, OSSAA chairman Danny Rennels said.

“It wasn’t something that was anticipated. No question had been raised before,” Grossman said. “Everybody felt it needed further investigation. We want to get the facts before rumors start flying around.”

Boyd, a 6-5, 225-pound junior and three-star recruit on Rivals.com, needed a hardship waiver to play at
Norman this season because he established eligibility at Oak Hill Academy (Va.) in 2006.

Boyd presented his case Tuesday with his mom, Darla Bell, and a Norman school official. Both Boyd and his mother were visibly upset after the decision — Boyd leaving the meeting with tears running down his face.

Boyd has said before that he would like to play at Arlington Country Day in Jacksonville, Fla., if the appeal was denied. Grossman, however, said the family indicated before the meeting that Terrence intended to stay in Norman.

“After the decision, they did not indicate anything different,” Grossman said.

While the hardship decision was final, Rennels said the OSSAA would reconsider the case if new information came to light in Boyd’s favor.      

As a freshman at Norman, Boyd averaged 16.5 points and 9.2 rebounds. He played his sophomore season at Oak Hill.

mpatterson@oklahoman.com 

I jumped on the Mark Ginther bandwagon after watching him play in a 3OT loss to Tulsa Washington last season. I liked his football smarts and poise.

 The Jenks quarterback is a bit of a string bean, and doesn’t look at all menacing, but there is no better high school quarterback in this state than the 6-foot-2, 175 pound Ginther.

 The senior completed a staggering 17 of 18 passes in a 48-7 blowout of top 10 Owasso. He had TD passes of 35 and 45 yards. Afterwards, Jenks coach Allan Trimble mentioned that most of Ginther’s completions came on his second or third read.

 And therein lies the secret to his game. What makes him so good isn’t his arm, but what’s between his ears. Trimble has raved about his quarterback’s inteligence on and off the field in the past. It shows up during games. He doesn’t make noticable mistakes and appears incapable of being rattled. Most high school quarterbacks, even the best, often struggle with reading defenses. But for a player completing over 75 percent of his passes this year, it isn’t a problem.

 Over the years I’ve covered some great high school quarterbacks like Paul Smith when he was at Deer Creek,  Zac Taylor at Norman, Aso Pogi during a 10-0 season in 1998 and Sam Bradford during his hey days at Putnam North. Ginther is as good (or better) than any of them were in high school.

Verdigris star Rotnei Clarke has narrowed his list to five: Arkansas, Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Oklahoma State and Gonzaga.

OSU recently got into the mix for Clarke and apparently he’s just as interested since they made his final five. I think OSU would be a great fit for Rotnei. He stays near home and he could be the sharp shooter the Cowboys need, not to mention he’d be playing with a team which boasts several good passers.

Arkansas and Gonzaga would be a good fits for him also.

Don’t count out Tulsa. People have been overlooking them and rarely mention them when talking about his recruitment yet there they are in his final five.

Notably missing is OU. I’ve heard OU liked Rotnei a lot but they liked him at the point, which I’m not sure about. Rotnei would be perfect on the wing, killing defenses which slacked off. Thus, having him run the offense doesn’t take advantage of his exceptional ability to score.

Westmoore running back Craig Ralls had an outstanding game with 19 carries for 126 yards and two touchdowns in the Jag’s 17-14 loss to Putnam City.

But he was overshadowed by the Pirates’ late game heroics to pull out the win. Going against a defense which entered the game allowing 81 rushing yards per outing, Ralls showed excellent balance and great toughness on his way to 126 yards on 6.5 yards per carry.

Judged by what I saw tonight, Ralls is a guy who should probably be getting a little more attention from college coaches…

After covering Putnam City’s 17-14 win over Westmoore, one thing is clear to me now:

Putnam City may not have a team stacked full of playmakers and top recruits, but they have a very good team. And the respond with a vengence when backed against a wall.

As the game unfolded, I thought PC was left for dead. The ball was deep in their own territory with just over three minutes left and Westmoore lining up for a 4th-and-inches conversion attempt. PC showed me a lot, not only by stepping up and stopping the Jaguars, but also taking the ball the length of the field in 1:47 and scoring. The Pirates then stepped up and stopped Westmoore’s offense again to secure the win.

I’m not sure how far PC will go in the playoffs, but one thing is clear. They will have to be BEATEN. They WILL NOT give up and WILL NOT beat themselves.

Jenks over Owasso
Westmoore over Putnam City
Duncan over Western Heights
Shawnee over Bixby
Sequoyah-Claremore over Berryhill
Alva over Perkins
Morrison over Christian Heritage
Edmond Santa Fe over Putnam North
Midwest City over Edmond Memorial
Douglass over Weatherford

Junior linebacker Seth Bowerman has been a key to the 3-1 start for the Millers.

In talking to coach Todd Wilson today, he said Bowerman was a pleasant surprise for his team, ranking amongst the top tacklers for Yukon.

“He’s a very good athlete,” Wilson said.

So keep in eye out for #22 next time you watch a Yukon Millers game.

Newcastle lost last Friday at Clinton, 42-6, but senior quarterback and safety Trevor Evans said he still feels like the team has a great defense.

“We have a really good defense,” Evans said. “We didn’t really show it last week, but our defense is stacked. Even though Clinton beat us really bad, they couldn’t run up the middle on us at all. That’s something positive we could take from that game; well, it was about the only positive thing.”

Through its first three games, Newcastle gave up just 28 points, and one of them was on a punt return touchdown against Jones. In fact, Jones’ other touchdown was scored after return down inside the Racer 5-yard line.

 At Putnam City, the Pirates are getting ready for their showdown with Westmoore. This game could be over in about an hour, not because one team will blow the other out, but because both love to run the ball. Both PC coach Mark Little and Westmoore coach Mike Whaley played college football at Southwstern under Otis Delaporte who preached defense, running the ball and good special teams.

 It’s worked for both. Westmoore has been highly successful under Whaley and PC has seen some of its best seasons under Little.

Claremore started the season 2-0. They opened with an impressive win against cross-town rival Oologah. Things were looking up for the Zebras, who won only three games a year ago.

Three weeks later, things aren’t so great in Claremore.

In weeks three’s loss to Owasso, Zebra running back Timmy Butcher suffered a high ankle injury, and will remained sidelined until at least week six. Claremore coach Keith Bell said of the injury “He’s our workhorse and one of our senior leaders. We are losing a lot more than just him on the field.”

In the district opener against Tulsa Kelley, Claremore lost another senior leader. Quarterback Blake Grauer suffered a broken hand during the Zebra’s first possession, and Kelley cruised 24-0.

Grauer passed for over 1400 yards last season, and will be out at least 4-6 weeks.

Its bad news for the Zebras, who face Coweta on Friday. With their two most productive offensive weapons watching from the sidelines, the playoffs are becoming more and more of a stretch.

Bell is optimistic though, and says a few changes in the offense should put Claremore back on track. Cody Baskas will take the snaps. He’ll start for the first time ever on Friday and, while he doesn’t have the cannon that Grauer did, Bell says he’s a great runner.

“We just have to change a few things with the offense,” Bell said. “But the team had a great week of practice after an emotional let down last week. Cody is a great runner and I think we will be ok.”

If Claremore can somehow stay in playoff contention, they could be full strength when the post-season begins. This could be bad news for class 5A. After all, they haven’t lost a game at full-strength yet.

Carney head softball coach Kendra Barnes wasn’t sure what was more amazing – her team of just nine players winning districts for the first time ever, or the way in which it was done. 

Last weekend, it was probably both.

In an astounding series of high-scoring contests, the Bulldogs won their Class B district over Paden and Mason.  In five games spanning two days, 170 total runs were scored, the most coming in a 28-26 Paden victory over Carney in the first game Friday. In the four games they played, the Bulldogs averaged 18.5 runs and failed to score in only one out of 27 innings.     

“It was one of those deals where the teams were scoring six or seven runs each inning,” said Barnes, in her first year as the Carney coach. “That was scary, coming into an inning knowing that you had to score a bunch of runs just to keep up. It was a lot of fun, though. It was better than sitting there walking runs in. They were hitting all over the place.”

After losing to Paden, Carney had to win two straight to advance. After winning the first contest 15-10, they took the second by a seemingly pedestrian tally of 15-7 – the lowest combined score of the tournament.     

“We were really pumped going in, but then we got beat on Friday,” Barnes said. “We had to battle back, suck it up and play ball.  When it was win or go home, we buckled down and won it. It was absolutely amazing.”

Even more amazing considering the Bulldogs team consists of just five seniors, one junior, two sophomores and one freshman – nine in total. With nary a winning season in school history, Carney is now 14-7 and will play at Red Oak in the regional tournament Thursday.   

“When we started the season, we didn’t even know that we were going to have enough to play. Four weeks ago, I didn’t know if we were going to have enough to finish the season,” Barnes said. “Now, we’re pretty excited.”

Other interesting tidbits from the scoring barrage at Carney:
- In Carney’s 28-26 loss to Paden, the Bulldogs’ Robin O’Donnell scored in all seven at-bats, and hit two inside-the-park home runs.  Teammate Haley Evans also had an inside-the-park home run in the game. 
- As is the case with many small schools, Carney had to rely heavily on just one pitcher during the tournament.  Rebeca Scott pitched 18 out of 20 innings on Friday, and while she gave up plenty of runs, she also notched 17 strikeouts in the process.    

Justin Blackmon, Plainview’s superstar receiver, didn’t catch a touchdown in the team’s 35-21 win over Sulphur yesterday. It was his first game this season to go without a touchdown, but Plainview coach Corey Cole said he was a big distraction to the Sulphur defense.

“They had Robert Thomas trailing him, and usually had two or three guys on him,” Cole said. “He didn’t have any touchdowns, but his presence was known. It opened up some running lanes for us.”

And running right through those lanes was no problem for the Indians.

Plainview running back Logan Russell ran for four touchdowns, and quarterback Brandon Allen ran for over 100 yards and a score.

* With the win, Plainview has conquered its toughest road test of the year. The other top three teams in the district (Purcell, Marlow and Pauls Valley) all must come to Plainview.

Cole wouldn’t say that Sulphur is the team’s biggest hurdle of the year.

“I still think we’ve got some big games coming up,” Cole said. “I think Marlow and Purcell are going to be very tough. One thing I learned from Coach (Jim) Dixon (of Sulphur) is that anything can happen so you have to stay focused.”

Through four games this year, Class A’s No. 4-ranked Rush Springs has given up a total of one touchdown and outscored its opponents 119-7, notching three shutouts.  While that may appear to be about as close to perfection as a team can get, head coach Barry Foster disagrees.

“We’re a good team, and we’re playing pretty well, but we’re not anywhere near where we want to be yet,” Foster said.

Oddly enough, the Redskins have struggled mightily at extra points, and have also had problems forcing turnovers, Foster said.

“It would be easier to count how many we’ve made,” Foster said when asked how many extra points his team has missed. “We’ve just been horrible at that.” 

Even that problem appears to be close to fixed, however. After trying several guys as the extra-point kicker, Foster has settled on junior Jeremy Sweat, who hit three out of five attempts Friday night. The other weakness may be in the past, as well. Friday night, Rush Springs notched its first interception of the season, running a pick back for a touchdown. 

So while he knows his senior-loaded team can get better, even Foster has to admit that his squad is on a roll.

“We knew we had a chance (to be good),” Foster said. “We take a lot of pride in our defense – we have for years – and we’re just playing pretty well.”    

The last decade or so hasn’t been kind to the Anadarko football team.  The Warriors haven’t finished above .500 since 1994.  In head coach Kent Jackson’s first three years after hiring on in 2004, the Warriors won only five games total. 

The 2007 Warriors, however, look well on their way to bucking that trend. In Week 3, Anadarko beat Chickasha for the first time since 1994. Friday in a 33-14 road win, the Warriors defeated Elk City for the first time since 1992 and moved to 3-1.

“It was a huge road win for us against a ranked opponent,” Jackson said. “It was a game that we had to win if we want to get into the playoffs.”

Even the Warriors lone defeat was nearly a victory.  Anadarko hung tough until the end against Cache in Week 1, losing 21-18 in a hard-fought battle. 

So what spurred the sudden resurgence?  Well, with 18 returning starters, the Warriors are experienced and confident … and showing that their No. 7 preseason district ranking may have been just a bit off.

“Our confidence is way up,” Jackson said. “The thing that sets us apart from the previous years is that we play through adversity.  In the past we used to roll over and let the bad things keep coming.  This year we play through the tough times and keep improving.” 

The quick-learning of Isreal Williams hasn’t hurt, either.  Despite all of the returning starters, the Warriors were lacking at one key area coming into the season – quarterback.  Enter Williams, who switched over from running back to take the reigns. 

In only his third game as the signal caller, Williams rushed for 230 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, and was 7-of-14 passing for 107 yards and two touchdowns Friday night.

 “He is getting better every week,” Jackson said. “He is making great cuts and helping us win ball games.” 

If the Warriors want to finish at .500 or above for the first time in 13 years, they’ll need two more wins.  If they want to make the playoffs (also for the first time in 13 years), they’ll likely need more than that. Glancing ahead at their schedule, Anadarko definitely has a shot.  Although they will have to face tough opponents in Bishop McGuinness, Douglass and Weatherford, the Warriors also have contests remaining against Piedmont, Northeast and Guymon.  While the latter three games are definitely winnable (and Anadarko could be the favorite in all of them), they’re still going to have to keep overcoming history to do so.  Friday, the Warriors will start with Piedmont – a team they’ve never beaten in school history.  Anadarko is 0-3 all-time against the Wildcats.

“It will take a big effort on our part,” Jackson said. “Piedmont has been a good football program and they really know how to win.”

- Ray Martin contributed to this blog

After watching Mustang/Putnam North in person, I think I may have found one of the best kept secrets in the state.

PC North running back Josh Booker is one of the best players I’ve seen in person this season. He has exceptional balance, agility and quickness. There were several times he had defenders one-on-one and simply embarrassed them, not allowing them to even get a hand on him. He’s NICE!!

He reminded me a lot of Cadillac Williams from Tampa Bay. He’s just a junior and I think if he continues to play like he did on Friday night he should be one of top recruits in the state last year. It reminds me of Mossis Madu when he was at Norman– he didn’t get a lot of attention but he was making moves and making plays few people can make– Josh is like that.

So if you have the chance go see him play, it’s worth the $$$

A year makes a big difference.

Just ask Tulsa Washington coach Antwain Jimmerson.  

“Our team is completely different than last year’s team,” he said.  

No kidding.  

Last year, Washington became a 6A contender after a triple overtime upset of then second-ranked Jenks (43-37). 

This year was a different story. 

Jenks pounded the Hornets, 69-0 Thursday night, avenging last year’s upset.  

What happened in a year? Washington isn’t quite sure.  

“You’ll have to ask Jenks,” Jimmerson said. “We aren’t sure what happened. They just totally dominated us.”  

Washington has been injury struck thus far this season. Division-1 prospect John Williams was injured in week two, and will remain sidelined for at least two more weeks.

“Anytime you lose a Division-1 player it hurts you,” Jimmerson said. 

But it doesn’t hurt you that bad. Not 69 points bad. 

It was the worst loss in Washington’s history. The previous worst was a 41-0 loss at the hands of Douglass in 1957. They hadn’t been shutout since 2001, since Tulsa Kelley blanked the Hornet’s 26-0. 

The Hornets still have plenty of time to bounce back. If they dont, things could be drastically better next year.  

bchatmon@oklahoman.com

While Douglass suffered its first loss last night against Bishop McGuinness, 37-0, the 2007 Trojans are still significantly better than last year’s version.

They had two solid drives during the game before the McGuinness defense stiffened and don’t forget it was McGuinness. The Irish have a target on their back with a 18-game winning streak and still are shutting out quality teams like Douglass and Millwood.

After seeing Douglass in person, I expect to see them in the playoffs this season. They have the will and talent to make it happen, and despite last night’s disappointment, I expect them to do so.

Due to the large amount of games played on Thursday night (I still can’t come up with a rational reason why OU and Tulsa are playing on a Friday night, by the way), the ’Top 10′ is more along the lines of a Top 6. Oh well, I guess that’s less chances to mess up a pick.   

Ringwood over Deer Creek-Lamont
Foyil over Woodland
Sulphur over Plainview
Shawnee over Durant
Midwest City over Yukon LOCK
Western Heights over Ardmore UPSET 

Deer Creek-Lamont over Ringwood
Woodland over Foyil
Plainview over Sulphur
Shawnee over Durant
Midwest City over Yukon
Ardmore over Western Heights

I won’t pick the McGuinness-Douglass game, Edmond Santa Fe-Norman North or the Jenks-Tulsa Washington game because, obviously, they are already over.

I didn’t take any big chances this week. No big upsets will be predicted, because I don’t think any are likely enough to risk being ridiculed by commenters and the Boneman.

I almost picked Western Heights over Ardmore. The Jets look good this year, sitting at 3-0 heading into district play. Also, JoJo Durham, who transferred in from Westmoore, has been spectacular thus far for Western Heights.

But at the end of the day, I think Ardmore is much too talented to be defeated by, while improved, still Western Heights.

How do you see things coming out in Week 4?

Thanks to The Oklahoman’s partnership with Cox Communications, I spent over an hour this morning compiling bullet points for tonight’s Tulsa Kelley-Claremore matchup. While the points will be featured on Cox’s broadcast of the game tonight, I figured I would give our blog readers a sneak peak at what to watch for.  

3  keys for Claremore

- Despite the loss of  standout running back Timmy Butcher (239 yards, 3 TDs) to a leg injury last week against Owasso, the Zebras should still be in good shape in the backfield, as senior Jesse Bickell (189 yards, 2 TDs) has been moved over from fullback to fill the hole.

- Since Claremore and Tulsa Kelley have relatively similar talent at the skill positions, Claremore will attempt to jump-start a playoff run in the trenches with a ball control offense.  The Zebras missed the playoffs last year for the first time in 12 seasons, and they’re plenty fired up to make sure it doesn’t happen again.   

- Keep an eye on senior fullback Jeremy Irving.  Irving was the starting fullback a year ago until he blew out his knee, and has been behind Bickell ever since.  With Bickell gone to tailback, Irving will once again be in the starting line-up. 

3 keys for Tulsa Kelley

- The Comets will try to forget the results and learn from the experience after a brutal non-district schedule  -  which included games against 4A No. 1 Bishop McGuinnes and 5A No. 5 Bixby  -  left them 1-2.  

- Talented sophomore running back Stephen Sherwood, 6-1, 190, will play a larger role in the offense, as the Comets try to ignite a unit that has struggled, scoring only 16 points in the last two games.

- Although starting kicker Cameron Craig is out with a knee injury, head coach JJ Tappana isn’t worried.  He feels that freshman Daniel Clark is a more than capable replacement.

 Well, I hope you enjoyed the preview.  The game will be televised tonight at 7:30 p.m. on Cox.   

Although Westmoore’s 38-13 loss to Norman North Friday night was the school’s biggest defeat since 2002 and first loss to the Timberwolves in 10 games, don’t count on head coach Mike Whaley to shake anything up on his team. 

“We’re not going to make any wholesale changes,” Whaley said during Tuesday’s practice. “We’re getting there. The improvement’s been steady. We just need to make sure we improve from here to game four.”

After all, the Jaguars are still 2-1. And to Whaley and most coaches in the state, the first three games are nothing more than glorified scrimmages.

“Would you have liked to have won the first three? Always. But it really doesn’t matter, it’s a whole new season. Everybody starts 0-0 again.” Whaley said.

That being said, any leniency Whaley might have given his players after the first three games is sure to disappear come Friday against Choctaw, where the Jaguars will start their difficult 6A-2 slate. 

“This is the week to show that you’ve improved,” Whaley said.

Whaley cited quarterback Tracey Norwood and recently returned defensive end Joey Fowler as two players who have plenty of room for improvement.

To read about Fowler’s situation, go here.

As for Norwood, the first-time quarterback has had an up-and-down season thus far for the Jaguars.  The Westmoore offense was shut down against Norman North, and Norwood had a miserable night passing, completing only three out of 20 throws for 41 yards.  He did, however, rush for a 43-yard touchdown in the game.  He also was in on both of the Jaguars’ touchdowns in a 14-7 close call against Del City, although the 0-3 Eagles held Westmoore to just 203 yards of total offense. Of course, for a guy who started at free-safety the last two years – not at quarterback – rust is expected … for a while.   

“He’s becoming more confident,” Whaley said. “He’s not anywhere close to where he needs to be, and he knows that and I know that, but he’s getting there.”    

“They each have different strengths, right now we think we need to stick with what we’re doing,” coach Steve Huff said.

Huff wouldn’t rule out going to a one-quarterback system, but added it would be down the road if and when that happens. One reason is Chilcoat’s health. He’s been recovering from a broken foot and Moore spent most of the off-season preparing to start at quarterback.

MOSIER STILL AT IT

Community Christian School football coach Brooks Mosier turns 72 next month, but it hasn’t slowed him down. Mosier returned to the coaching ranks this year after a two-year absence during which he battled colon cancer. We’ll have more about Mosier’s life in and out of coaching in Friday’s Oklahoman.