Sports

With last week’s shutout of Southeast, El Reno High School’s football team clinched the District 5A-1 title outright, the Indians first league title since 2009. However, that’s not good enough for El Reno head coach Chuck Atchison.

With three time and location changes and no real practices leading up to its game with Southeast last week due to a freak October ice storm, El Reno High School’s football team was missing its usual spark.

After a 21-year hiatus from having a player elevated to elite status with a spot on the Oklahoma Coaches Association’s All-State Volleyball Team, El Reno High School has been honored yet again after voting from state coaches.

El Reno High School’s softball team reached the regional finals this season with only two starting seniors on the roster, a feat which was rewarded with four players being named to the 2020 All-District 5A-1 team.

After emerging unscathed through a run of games against the other four teams in the top half of the District 5A-1 standings, El Reno High School’s football team is now the odds-on favorite to claim the league championship.

While all the teams in District 5A-1 will enter the playoffs this season after last week's decision by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, the order of finish may have settled itself on the field.

Forced by a growing number of teams losing games due to the spread of COVID-19, the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association opened up the 2020 football playoffs to every team in the state.

Redlands Community College’s golf team had its perfect run through the fall portion of the 2020-21 schedule snapped in the final tournament before breaking until spring.

With three games left in the regular season, the four schools headed for the playoffs from District 5A-1 seem to have been determined, even though the records have been skewed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stealing a page from Bill Belicheck’s NFL playbook, El Reno High School’s football team rolled out a long-practiced trick play to score a 2-point conversion and a defeat of Duncan in overtime, 43-42. “It’s like what the Patriots ran in the Super Bowl with Tom Brady.