The clock has hit zero.
El Reno High School’s football team will open up the 2019 season Friday at Memorial Stadium with only one scrimmage under its belt.
“It’s here and we’ve got to get four good days of practice in this week before we open the season,” said El Reno head coach Chuck Atchison.
Friday’s game completes a two-game contract with Poteau in which the schools play in what the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association deems as Zero Week.
El Reno High School’s volleyball team snapped a two-match slide last week and earned its first road victory of the season with a 3-1 decision over Tuttle.
The 25-13/26-24/27-29/25-17 win lifted El Reno to 3-5 on the year and 1-3 in games away from Jenks Simmons Field House.
Football will have a very vanilla feel for El Reno High School come Friday night as the Indians host a triangular scrimmage with both Clinton and Lawton Eisenhower.
The event was originally set for just Clinton and will serve as the Indians only preseason work.
El Reno opens the 2019 season Aug. 30 with a home game against Poteau.
“I’m just looking for effort and people running to the football. We are not going to scheme either team, just go out there and run our plays,” said El Reno head coach Chuck Atchison.
School pride, some graduates say, is lost once a student leaves the hallowed halls of high school and enters college or the real world.
If that is a true statement, someone forgot to ask Massey Beard.
The 2018 graduate of El Reno High School begins her second year at Southern Nazarene University and her first term in the nursing program after a year of medical-related basic courses.
El Reno Mayor Matt White filed for re-election on Monday and drew at least one opponent in former longtime school board member Steve Jensen. The filing period closes at 4:30 today, Wednesday, Aug. 28. Filings are done at the Canadian County Election Board.
Election Board Secretary Wanda Armold said as of Monday afternoon no one had filed for the Ward 4 City Council seat that will be on the Nov. 12 ballot along with the mayoral race. Ward 4 is currently represented by Tracey Rider, who said recently she was contemplating whether or not to run.
A combination of events led to the closing of the Geary Community Nursing Home, said the owner.
On Aug. 11, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services terminated the provider agreement for the nursing home. The owner of the home said she then voluntarily closed the center last week.
Residents of the home were transferred to other nursing care centers on Aug. 15.
The closing of the home came as the result of an investigation by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, which had made survey visits to the center in February and June.
When SSM Saint Anthony’s became El Reno's primary health provider on May 1, the arrangement was described as a first for “rural Oklahoma.”
No other community, an SSM official said at the time, would have a 24-hour emergency room provided in conjunction with an Urgent Care Clinic.
Little did anyone know, three weeks later that arrangement would be credited with helping to care for dozens of people who were injured when a late-night killer tornado struck.
“We treated dozens of people,” said Kyle Nondorf, Chief Financial Officer for SSM Saint Anthony’s.
