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Blankenship can coach some prep ball

You know you live in smalltown America when the HS football teams gets a full police escort through town and back to the schools. First finals here in 43 years.
 
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Crowds were surprisingly sparse for both games today.
For Union/BA I wasn't surprised.
For Jenks/Owasso I was.
It seemed the Jenks crowd was way light which really shocked me given that it was likely Trimble's last game. Pretty disappointed in the town I grew up in.

The Owasso v Union game should have a great crowd.
Owasso fans will be there in mass and I'm sure Union fans will be as well given the regular season double OT game and Fredric's first chance at an undefeated title.
 
Yes! And the Valkyries were Norse (I think) goddesses of war who decided who lived and died on the battlefield, so when Wagoner lost, they sacrificied them.

Yes! It is Norse (Viking). They wouldn’t mind being sacrificed. It means they get to ride to Valhalla (heaven in Norse mythology) for dying/sacrificing for battle.

(Apologize for the side thread. I’m a budding Norse mythology geek)
 
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You know you live in smalltown America when the HS football teams gets a full police escort through town and back to the schools. First finals here in 43 years.

Hell, OU got a full police escort to Lawrence.

I Got pushed to the shoulder on highway 9 by their OHP escorts.
 
You know you live in smalltown America when the HS football teams gets a full police escort through town and back to the schools. First finals here in 43 years.

We (Memorial) used to wish that the police would give us an escort to BTW.
 
Is this thread going to rival in length "Royals Continue Making Moves" on the General Interest board?
 
Noble Bears to final 4 in 5A.
What's going on down in Noble? It's great to see that they are having a great year, but that was a program that was a mess just a couple years ago. They should have a real shot of taking down McG and making it to the final.
 
It's a Wagoner joke. Never mind.

How do you score marching bands? That seems very subjective.
It is subjective...sort of. The judges are all highly trained (most will also judge DCI drum and bugle corps shows as well in the summer) and have at one time been part of the marching arts in some way shape or form. Percussion is judged on musicality , general effect (how it fits with the rest of the show), and composition (the more difficult it is the more points you can score). Brass and Visual are judged the same way. You can't sacrifice musicality or refined performance for GE points. It all fits together. The subjectivity comes in at what point in the evening does your group go on. Those that perform first usually have slightly lower scores to give some room for improvement for scores throughout the night. Once you get into finals, your position is determined by your qualification. It is really difficult for anyone to make up more than .2-.3 of a point from night to night unless a group adds something that adds to their overall GE OR the group that goes after them really has a messy night.

BTW, the system used to be a "tic" based system. Judges would deduct tenths or one hundredths of points based on errors. The standard now is based on an overall performance review and compared from one unit to the next.
 
Wagoner....Wagner....Ride of the Valkyries?
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Yes! It is Norse (Viking). They wouldn’t mind being sacrificed. It means they get to ride to Valhalla (heaven in Norse mythology) for dying/sacrificing for battle.

(Apologize for the side thread. I’m a budding Norse mythology geek)
Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" was part of his Ring Cycle opera...and more noted in pop culture as the background for the "Kill the Wabbit" by Elmer Fudd. It is also speculated that it at least helped inspire Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" some 75 years later.
 
What's going on down in Noble? It's great to see that they are having a great year, but that was a program that was a mess just a couple years ago. They should have a real shot of taking down McG and making it to the final.

Coach has stayed longer than 2 yrs and the youth programs have developed great players.

Most of our kids have been together since 2nd grade. Many of our youth teams are undefeated in 4 yrs.

Our QB , Hayden Lingle, is A junior thats been groomed for the position.

Our stud RB, Arebalo, is a horse. Plays middle lb and drags defenders on runs. 212 yds against Ardmore.

Our nose guard, Largent, pushes the center into the backfield.

And our junior kicker consistently gets touch backs on kickoffs.

Solid crew and the next two yrs look good.

Note: I edited the class of our qb after NJ told me that Hayden is a junior. My bad. Hayden and NJ have played baseball together for so long that I thought they were in the same class.
 
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Per Owasso Athletics:

"The State Championship game will not be broadcast on http://owassorams.tv or our app due to OSSAA contract with Griffin Communications. We will post details about how to watch as we get closer to the game."

The early word is that the game will be telecast on KOTV-6 in Tulsa and channel 9 in OKC. I believe that you can also listen to the 100.1 KYFM radio broadcast on their website at BartlesvilleRadio.com.
 
Griffin Communications and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) have reached an agreement for Griffin stations to air and stream the upcoming Oklahoma Class 6A and 5A football championship games.


The games will be aired as follows:

• 6AI: Owasso High School vs. Tulsa Union High School will air on News 9 Plus (formerly KSBI) and News On 6 (KOTV) – 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1

• 6AII: Bixby High School vs. Booker T. Washington High School will air on News 9 Now and The Tulsa CW (KQCW) – 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1

• 5A: Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School vs. Carl Albert High School will air on KWTV and News On 6 Now – 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1

• All games will also be live streamed through www.news9.com and www.newson6.com.
 
Thanjs. They have different playoffs and champions? Any idea why 6AI didn't become 7A? I envision it having to do with vast warehouses of "6A" letterhead at Jenks, Union, etc.

6A is still combined for all sports except football. The split is in its 4th year and was pushed through by several of the smaller OKC area schools that thought they would have a better chance of winning a championship if they didn't have to compete with Jenks and Union.

That has seemed to backfire as Bixby has picked up the first 3 6A2 titles and is in line to wins its 4th on Friday.

It also forces teams to travel across the state for regular season games instead of playing opponents in the metro area. Revenues are down and expenses are up, but it looks like the split is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
 
Thanjs. They have different playoffs and champions? Any idea why 6AI didn't become 7A? I envision it having to do with vast warehouses of "6A" letterhead at Jenks, Union, etc.
The fact that the OSSAA felt it needed to separate 6A1 and 6A2 because Moore and Edmond PS griped about splitting their district into 3 separate HS and no longer being able to compete with Jenks, Union, and Broken Arrow (and now Owasso) who didn't (and won't) split is a joke. Want to play with the big boys? The coach better, work harder, and get better.
 
The fact that the OSSAA felt it needed to separate 6A1 and 6A2 because Moore and Edmond PS griped about splitting their district into 3 separate HS and no longer being able to compete with Jenks, Union, and Broken Arrow (and now Owasso) who didn't (and won't) split is a joke. Want to play with the big boys? The coach better, work harder, and get better.

Broken Arrow recently completed a study which resulted in a recommendation to add a 2nd high school fairly soon then eventually a 3rd. However, the plan met with serious resistance when it went out for public comments. The most vocal opponent was the Band Patrons organization, who wanted nothing to do with potentially splitting up their award winning marching band.

The last I heard, BA had scrapped the proposal and was going back to the drawing board.
 
Broken Arrow recently completed a study which resulted in a recommendation to add a 2nd high school fairly soon then eventually a 3rd. However, the plan met with serious resistance when it went out for public comments. The most vocal opponent was the Band Patrons organization, who wanted nothing to do with potentially splitting up their award winning marching band.

The last I heard, BA had scrapped the proposal and was going back to the drawing board.
I saw that. I got the survey from Broken Arrow because we live in BA...however we live in the small sliver of BA that is in the Union ISD. Union, BA, and Jenks are huge schools. However, I know that Union is able to offer a ton of support and other programs because of the number of students and the amount of interest in those programs which you might not be able to support in 2-3 different HS. Splitting may give a few more opportunities to kids to play football, basketball, soccer, etc. at those smaller schools but at what cost if you can't support it financially with quality training and coaching?
 
I saw that. I got the survey from Broken Arrow because we live in BA...however we live in the small sliver of BA that is in the Union ISD. Union, BA, and Jenks are huge schools. However, I know that Union is able to offer a ton of support and other programs because of the number of students and the amount of interest in those programs which you might not be able to support in 2-3 different HS. Splitting may give a few more opportunities to kids to play football, basketball, soccer, etc. at those smaller schools but at what cost if you can't support it financially with quality training and coaching?
I'd rather see more kids get to participate at a slightly lower support level. Having gone to BA myself, I was always disappointed that there was little chance to actually be on one of the athletics teams unless you have grown up playing serious competitive ball since you were in grade school which also meant your parents had to have the money to put you on a team and the time and money to drag you around to games. It's not like people are complaining about the level of coaching and training that kids at a place like Bixby are getting. They don't really compete with the 6A schools, but really there just shouldn't be college sized high schools anywhere. It's not good for the majority of the students. Having 30 kids playing a sport at a median level is better than 10 kids playing at a high level. (At least when it comes to High Schools) It wouldn't help TU at all.
 
I have mixed feelings about breaking up the larger schools. Students might get a better overall experience; it’s definitely easy to just kinda be lost in the crowd in a school with 4,000 students. And while it’s completely untrue that you have to be some kind of freak athlete to play(I’m probably the least athletic LB to ever start games at Union High School), I’m not sure that 140 player teams where 120 of the players only play in blowouts is good for anyone. At the same time, a massive diverse school district like Union( now 33% Hispanic and only 31% White), can probably do a lot more good than what would probably result in 2 or 3 mostly segregated districts
 
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It's game day, and the Owasso Rams will be playing for a state championship for the first time in 43 years tonight.

When I started this thread back in August, I had no idea that the team would still be playing in December. Win or lose, this group has far exceeded my expectations for the season.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion this year.
 
Not sure. I think I played against him in a 9th grade basketball game. Well, not really played. I was pretty busy keeping that bench warm.
 
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