Sports

What seemed a distant target date at the end of spring drills in May has become a quickly approaching fact of life.

Football season is almost here.

“We will start two-a-day drills at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 7,” said El Reno head coach Russell Cook.

El Reno began its final week of summer player conditioning and weightlifting, for all sports, on Monday. Once that session is complete, football will have 10 days before the start of preseason two-a-day drills.

Carrying a two-year win streak into the 2023 Smoke on the Water Drag Boat Races, El Reno’s Matt Miller wanted nothing more than to take the checkered flag once again in his signature event – Pro Stock.

While fate and physics had a different plan for a three-peat, Miller still drove into the winners circle with an undefeated record – in the Modified class.

“A win is a win no matter what class it is. Winning in front of your home crowd is always good and I really appreciate all the support and the city of El Reno for giving us a place to play with our hot rods.

NORTHEAST

Birch: July 15.
Elevation is 2 ft. below normal and stable, water temperature 80°F and stained.
Crappie fair on minnows around brush structure. Largemouth and spotted bass fair on plastic baits around creek channels and standing timber.

This is the second story in a recap of El Reno High School’s baseball team's work over the summer.

With three of its top five pitchers from the spring inactive for the Red Dirt League, El Reno High School head coach Keith Hill made the choice to develop young arms over the month-long summer campaign.

No matter how much it cost the Indians in the win-loss column.

“We decided to develop some young guys and take that route.

“It was a good choice and it was the right move,” said Hill.

After guiding El Reno High School’s wrestling program back from the brink of extinction, Coach Tyrone Lewis has resigned his position and is headed back to the college ranks.

Less than a day after signing his resignation letter in El Reno, Lewis was announced as the new men’s wrestling coach at Baker University based in Bolden, Kan., south of Lawrence. The Wildcats wrestle on the NAIA level.

For two seasons Josh Finnigan has served as crew chief for Matt Miller and his child, Radley, as the father-daughter duo race on the Southern Drag Boat Association series.

However, this year the crew added a new member who has made the trips to Texas even more of a family affair. Finnigan’s own daughter, Teagan, has joined the team as a driver.

“It’s 100 percent a family affair. My wife (Katrina) jokes this is how we spend our summer vacations, racing boats.

NORTHEAST

Birch: July 9.
Elevation is 2 ft. below normal and stable, water temperature 80°F and stained.
Blue and channel catfish fair on cut bait around channels and points. Crappie fair on jigs and minnows around brush structure.

This is the first of a two-part series recapping the summer baseball season for El Reno High School.

Consistency in the key basics of the game is what El Reno High School baseball coach Keith Hill was looking for during the month-long Red Dirt Summer League.

While he saw glimpses of it throughout the abbreviated eight-game season, Hill feels his varsity program still has work to do in the offseason – especially at the plate.

Losing players to graduation is nothing new to Kristen Koehler, but even the veteran El Reno High School volleyball coach can see the 2023 season will be a different venture.

El Reno recently completed the month-long Chickasha Summer League looking to fill the void of not one lost player but five starters from last year’s 11-17 team that lost in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs to Santa Fe South.

Pictured are the youth along with players and coaches who took part in last month’s El Reno High School’s Baseball Skills Clinic at the Hub Reed Complex.

Campers learned tips for better running, hitting, fielding and throwing.