April 2026

El Reno High School’s track teams continue to cut times and increase distances in the third outing of the 2026 season, the Chickasha Invitational.

The girls team was paced by its distance runners as freshman Raquel Seymour and junior Lilly Owen both trimmed over three seconds off times from the last meet in the 800-meter run.

Seymour was sixth with a time of two minutes and 39.26 seconds, while Owen (2:41.96) took ninth.

The pair placed in the top 10 of the 1,600-meter run, with Seymour (6:07.23) taking sixth and Owen (6:15.85) placing 10th.

While playing on opposite sides of the state, El Reno High School’s golf teams turned in top 10 performances, including a season-low round for the boys squad.

The Indians took fifth in the Tecumseh Invitational played at the Firelake Golf Course, shooting a 317, five shots better than Class 6A Yukon. Tishomingo (302) won the event, followed by Newcastle (304), Byng (313) and Lone Grove (313).

When Yukon High School agriculture instructors Dustin Beams and Scott Stevens brought the school’s FFA and special needs students together for an impromptu meet-and-greet in 2019, no one imagined what would grow from that simple gathering.

Seven years later, it’s evolved into the Third Annual Canadian County “United We Show” Special Needs Livestock Show.

“Flatbellies” is back. 

The 2001 work of fiction about the 1966 El Venito (Oklahoma) High School golf team as written through the lens of Dr. Alan B. Hollingsworth has been re-released celebrating its 25th year. 

While names were changed to protect the not-so-innocent, Flatbellies was actually the true life experiences, at least some of them, of Hollingsworth’s own El Reno High School golf team from the same year. 

The United States is not short on aviation museums. Nearly 350 of them are scattered across the 50 states. Most are privately funded, sustained by the passion of their founders and the cadre of volunteers who keep the lights on. In that respect, the Caldwell Collection is typical.

El Reno police are letting the public know there is a phone scam going on that has their attention. 

Assistant Police Chief Kirk Dickerson said residents have reported receiving fraudulent phone calls from individuals impersonating the El Reno Police Department. These callers are “spoofing” the department’s phone number (405-262-2121) so that it appears legitimate on caller ID. The caller may identify themselves as “Brent Adkison” and attempt to pressure individuals into answering questions under threat of arrest.

El Reno High School baseball player Leighton Wedman gulps down a cup of sports drink on a hot afternoon during a recent home game at the Hub Reed Complex.

Weather forecasts for the week call for temperatures in the 70s and 80s but chances of rain through the weekend and on Tuesday.

East and westbound I-40 will narrow to one lane in both directions near US-281 Spur just west of El Reno for bridge construction through mid-May. Drivers should expect delays and consider alternate routes.  

This project includes enhancing several safety features including replacing the existing two-lane bridge with a wider five-lane bridge, adding dedicated left-turn lanes for on-ramps and reconstructed roadway sections leading to the ramp areas.

The new bridge will also provide more clearance for taller vehicles.

As rent prices continue to climb across Oklahoma, many Cheyenne and Arapaho families are feeling the strain of finding safe, affordable places to live. For tribal leaders and housing advocates, the issue is not just about buildings, it’s about stability, dignity and keeping families close to home.

That belief is driving a long-awaited housing project by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Housing Authority, which aims to ease the burden of high rental costs through the construction of low-income family and elder duplexes on tribal land in Concho.

Call it a Legismander. Or a Referendamander

Either way, Republicans in the Legislature are trying to force state questions onto a likely GOP-heavy August primary runoff ballot. Some of them are pet projects of outgoing Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is in his second and final term.