Sports

El Reno High School’s football team dominated voting last week for the 2020 District 5A-1 All-District Team, picking up nine honors including four superlative awards.

“When you go undefeated in the district, the guys should be awarded for making that happen. The kids that we had named deserved the honors for all their hard work and what they have done. Many of those kids have played on varsity for three or four years,” said El Reno head coach Chuck Atchison.

After hitting just 59 percent from the charity stripe during regulation play, Calumet High School’s girls basketball team pulled out a nail-biter over Okeene in overtime by hitting 83 percent of its free throws.

Kyle Axton’s team went 5-of-6 from the line in the extra period to open the 2020 Canton Tourney with a 46-65 win over the Whippets. Calumet, ranked No.13 in the latest Class A poll, improved to 4-1 on the season.

After a three-year hiatus, Rodney Haydon will return to the bench to coach El Reno High School’s boys basketball team as the Indians open the 2020-21 season Thursday night against Harrah.

“It’s been an adjustment period in the fact of time management and getting back into the routine of dealing with the kids and practice every day. I’ve had to manage my time between my athletic director duties and basketball,” said Haydon.

After a two-week break due to COVID-19 concerns, Canadian County’s three small schools resumed their 2020-21 basketball seasons last week, with four of the six teams finding their way into the win columns.

Calumet High School’s basketball teams picked up two wins each, with the CHS girls defeating Hinton (54-43) and Cement (57-27). The wins moved the team, ranked No.13 in the first Class A poll of the season, to 3-1 on the year.

With local cases of COVID-19 remaining high and Canadian County moving into the red zone on the Oklahoma State Department of Health Alert System, El Reno Public Schools has issued new policies concerning winter sports.

“We decided to do this as our way to battle the spread and trying to give the kids a chance to play. That is our number one goal. They signed up to play and that’s what we want them to do,” said El Reno Athletic Director Rodney Haydon.

A quick glance at her roster and it’s not hard to see why El Reno High School girls basketball coach Jennifer Douglas is excited to get the 2020-21 season started.

El Reno is coming off a 15-12 season which took the Indians to within one basket of making a fourth straight trip to the Class 5A state tournament.

From that squad, Douglas returns four starters and 10 total players with experience in one of the toughest conferences in the state.

In an eerie twist of fate, El Reno High School’s football team found itself in the same scenario in which it started the 2020 season – at home and in an overtime cliffhanger.

Unfortunately, the Indians would not have the same outcome.

McAlester’s defense knocked down a 2-point conversion pass in the back of the end zone as the Buffaloes defeated El Reno 43-41 in the Class 5A quarterfinals.

The loss halted a seven-game win streak for the Indians, who ended the season with a 9-3 record.

Larry Annuschat just lost three brothers and a sister in his longtime Okarche family to COVID-19, and he has battled the virus himself, hanging on and fighting through it.

His sister, Victoria Lynn Marks, 66, lost her battle Nov. 22.

Ronald “Ron” Annuschat, 58, died of COVID-19 Oct. 30. Then older brother, Paul “Mac” Joseph Annuschat, 68, died of the virus Oct. 31. Nicholas “Nick” Thomas Annuschat, 59, died Nov. 6.

All died at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City, devastating the Okarche farming family and community.

The last time El Reno High School’s football team reached the quarterfinal round of the Class 5A playoffs, the Indians did so with a district championship in hand along with a multi-game winning streak.

As fate would have it, Chuck Atchison’s district championship team finds itself on a similar path as that of the 2009 Indians as El Reno rides a seven-game win streak into Friday night’s quarterfinal game at Memorial Stadium.

Ironically, the Indians face the same team it did back in 2009 – the McAlester Buffaloes.

In the regular-season meeting with Piedmont, El Reno High School’s football team struggled to put points on the scoreboard off opportunities provided from its defense.

The two teams met again in the bi-district round of the Class 5A playoffs, and this time, both units for the Indians were on the same page.