By Mike Kays
It didn’t feel right being in Muskogee on Saturday evening.
Not since 1998 and only twice dating to 1986 has the area been without at least one prep basketball team playing on championship Saturday. The carnage wasn’t pretty on a very unlucky Friday the 13th as six of the eight teams that survived Thursday’s quarterfinals failed to make it another day.
Five of the teams faced tough draws Friday — all five boys teams. Oktaha hadn’t beaten Pawnee in two semifinals, Sequoyah and Muskogee were both going against once-beaten teams and Fort Gibson’s boys were going against what some call the best team money can buy — Bishop McGuinness. Tahlequah? A greatly anticipated season just ran out of go-go juice against a very athletic Guthrie squad destined to repeat.
The unexpected, if there was such, was the first game of the day. Breakfast at the Big House saw Fort Gibson’s girls denied a fourth consecutive finals spot with just one fourth-quarter field goal. The Lady Tigers swapped 1-2 spots in the rankings with Cache all year and few thought that matchup wasn’t in the cards. Instead it was Vinita, third in the Old Fort Classic, who won it all.
You didn’t see it, but I saw an ominous dark cloud creep into the area following that game and it proceeded to rain on five other parades. Call it a gut feeling I didn’t want to have. Even though the area was 0-for-3 in the gold battle a year ago on finals day, few days in championship history have ever matched a day where record-setters Keiton Page, Rotnei Clarke and Angel Goodrich shot their way into the prep sunset, or Pocola’s miracle shot and bizarre finish against Walters in the 2A girls title match.
This, a Saturday in my office, was the encore.
• You have to empathize with Fort Gibson boys’ position while at the same time, celebrate Star Spencer’s statement for public schools when it derailed McGuinness in Saturday’s 4A final. What the private catholic school has done since 1998 with seven championships is remarkable, but it’s a different playing field for the Irish, Cascia Hall, which won the 3A title, and other schools that have different admission requirements than the public schools do.
“It’s a little discouraging to play those kind of schools because the rules are different and those rules put them at an advantage,” FGHS coach Gary Hendrix said after his team’s season ended Friday.
Some public schools are so tired of it they’ve tried to mount an effort to split the OSSAA. It’s not likely to work and any split would have an ugly impact on prep sports in the state, period. But there’s some valid reasoning that something like Texas has done with a couple of private schools would work; that is, allow the privates to compete but send them to 5A or 6A, depending on their admission requirements and enrollment numbers.
“I think Class 4A is arguably the toughest classification. Star Spencer and Douglass are public schools that can play with anybody,” Hendrix said.
And besides, a Bishop McGuinness-Jenks matchup might excite the Jenks fandom, which would help enhance the state tournament because Friday’s contrast between the enthusiastic but small Rougher supporters and a comparably sized Jenks crowd that resembled an audience at a golf tournament was rather sad for a playoff atmosphere. If you’re that bored, go play McGuinness.
• Terry Scott put Muskogee’s boys program back on the map. Someone will have to step up in to Micah Smith’s scoring role and fellow seniors Daniel Moore and Lamont Lee were strong in the stretch run, but Oren Faulk’s significant improvement inside the block, a bang-up first year from Devante Wilson should provide a nucleus for next year, especially if young Eugene Timmons fills in at the guard spot and preseason all-state selection Dante Wartson, the Tulsa McLain transfer who didn’t play but one game due to a suspension, keeps his act clean.
There’s little doubt Fort Gibson and Oktaha’s boys and girls teams will once again be solid, and Sequoyah’s boys, with no returning starters from a 3A finalist a year ago, rebuilt in a hurry. Wagoner’s on the map with Jade Allison at the helm. Tahlequah, with four-year sensation Matt Qualls graduating, will have the biggest rebuilding job.
And don’t forget Sequoyah’s girls, who will return with a great deal of experience after missing the state tournament.
It’s been a great year, even if it ended a day too soon.
