Sports

Redlands Community College women’s basketball team will kick off the 2024 portion of its schedule in Texas with a little bit of revenge on the agenda against Frank Phillips College.

The Plainsmen ended Redlands’ four-game win streak in El Reno last month with an eight-point win. It was the first home loss for the Cougars on the season.

Redlands rebounded from the FPC loss with a 60-54 victory over Crowder to close out 2023 and will look to continue that momentum in the final game before the start of NJCAA Region 2 action.

A month ago, Rodney Haydon knew the extra practice time over the holiday break would be important to his El Reno High School’s boys basketball team as the Indians prepare for the 2024 portion of their schedule.

What he didn’t know was where his young squad would be positioned after the seven games on the 2023 side of the schedule.

“We’ve played some pretty good teams so far on our schedule and we have faced some talented players,” said Haydon.

Throughout his high school and college careers, Dallas Curtis was the type of football player that thrived on keeping his emotions in check and let his play on the field do all the talking.

However, the El Reno High School alumni could hardly contain those emotions as he sat in the crowd and listened to six influential “friends” heap praise on the standout linebacker.

Curtis was inducted into the Northeastern Oklahoma State University’s Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2023.

Though El Reno High School’s wrestling team placed only one grappler in the top 10 during the recent Kansas City Stampede, the entire roster got what was needed the most – mat time.

El Reno took 12 wrestlers to the meet, with each weight posting two matches or more. In total, the team logged 50 matches and placed 38th overall with 60.5 points.

“It was very important to get that mat time. We are a younger team that will improve each week.

“We did not lay down the second day and continued to wrestle tough,” said El Reno head coach Anthony McDonald.

Welcome to open hunting season in Oklahoma on high school coaches thanks in part to a cowardly unsigned two-page letter from “Concerned Members of the Town of Okarche” directed toward a well-respected leader.

The letter was a direct written assault (in our business it’s called libel) on the character and leadership of Okarche head girls basketball coach Haley Mitchel.

In the wake of the letter surfacing and spreading like an Oklahoma wildfire, Mitchel resigned her coaching duties as well as two of her assistant coaches, Kaylene Ullom and Skye Tilley.

CALUMET – Utilizing a two-platoon approach on offense and smothering defense, Calumet High School’s boys basketball team dominated Corn Bible Academy from the opening tipoff en route to an 80-37 win.

The 43-point decision sent the Chieftains, ranked No.1 in Class B for a third straight poll, into the holiday break with an 11-0 record.

Calumet has scored no lower than 62 points a game this season and the win over CBA was the 10th game with more than 70 points.

Union City High School’s girls basketball team slipped to the .500 mark in conference play, closing out the 2023 portion of its schedule with a 41-31 loss to Thomas/Fay-Custer.

The 10-point setback to the league’s newcomer left the Tigers with an 8-5 overall record and a 3-3 mark in the Washita Valley Conference standings.

The setback came on the heels of a 51-20 homecoming win over Mulhall-Orlando in non-conference action.