Tulsa HS Football

[TU_BLA]

So the weirdest things have gone down this week in area HS football as 3 of the big 5 were looking for new coaches. Union hired Antonio Graham, a Union alum, but more importantly the Owasso HS coach who took over for BB when BB retired. I don't think many people connected to Union saw that coming...many felt it would just be handed to Dub Maddox. Graham had a great season at Owasso. In turn, Owasso has re-hired Bill Blankenship as the HC. I see this as a 1-2 year thing until Owasso can find someone or they look at it as BB training the next head coach for the Rams. And maybe the best hire of all is BA getting Travis Hill away from Muskogee where he did a great job.

That leaves Jenks. I have no idea where they're looking but I'd be surprised if they didn't at least have a conversation with Loren Montgomery. I think it'd be hard for Montgomery to leave Bixby right now if it's not for a college gig. He's built a great program and culture at Bixby and now Bixby PS is in turn going to build a palace of a football stadium and complex to complement the status of his program.

 

[lawpoke87]

Loren runs the athletic department at Bixby. Throw in the new facilities and it’s hard to see him giving that up for anything but a college gig.

 

[TU_BLA]

Loren runs the athletic department at Bixby. Throw in the new facilities and it’s hard to see him giving that up for anything but a college gig.

Exactly but I can see some connected Jenks folks throwing a lot of stuff his way. He coached under Trimble there right? That's the only reason I could see him doing it. Sort of a nod and homage to Allen Trimble. Again, I wouldn't think this a likely thing but it wouldn't surprise me if that's where Jenks started their search and will move on from there if they can't lure him away.

I didn't think BB was going back to HS football either this year. I see him at some Union events, mainly basketball games as maybe one of his grandkids plays on one of the 8th grade teams. I said hi to him last week. He looked very content in full granddad mode

 

[T_Hans]

Jenks already announced their coach. They promoted someone from within.

 

[T_Hans]

So the weirdest things have gone down this week in area HS football as 3 of the big 5 were looking for new coaches. Union hired Antonio Graham, a Union alum, but more importantly the Owasso HS coach who took over for BB when BB retired. I don't think many people connected to Union saw that coming...many felt it would just be handed to Dub Maddox. Graham had a great season at Owasso. In turn, Owasso has re-hired Bill Blankenship as the HC. I see this as a 1-2 year thing until Owasso can find someone or they look at it as BB training the next head coach for the Rams. And maybe the best hire of all is BA getting Travis Hill away from Muskogee where he did a great job.

That leaves Jenks. I have no idea where they're looking but I'd be surprised if they didn't at least have a conversation with Loren Montgomery. I think it'd be hard for Montgomery to leave Bixby right now if it's not for a college gig. He's built a great program and culture at Bixby and now Bixby PS is in turn going to build a palace of a football stadium and complex to complement the status of his program.

Not sure who you know at Union, but Graham was always the guy from the people I know. Nothing about what Union did was surprising.

 

[TulsaRulzOSUdrools]

When in doubt, we regress to talking about Tulsa high school football, if I read the Tulsa World, our paper feels like we cover high school athletics over college and the NBA and Tulsa Oilers (which should get more coverage too).

Why does Tulsa World not have an NBA beat writer? Thunder is the most important thing ever to happen to this state in terms of sports, by miles, miles and miles. People in China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Serbia, and Rhawada watch the NBA. No one gives a about homeschool league football. Little kids love SGA. For some reason, the cronies at the Tulsa World would rather talk about Inola and hype Regent Christian's indoor football pad because they think it is relevant.

King Loren would be a fool to leave for anywhere but college.

 

[TU_BLA]

Not sure who you know at Union, but Graham was always the guy from the people I know. Nothing about what Union did was surprising.

Speculation from parents that have been around the program for a while.

 

[TU_BLA]

Jenks already announced their coach. They promoted someone from within.

Who is it? I hadn't seen any announcement and seeing as how it's one of the most noted programs in the state, you'd think it would be bigger news.

 

[T_Hans]

Who is it? I hadn't seen any announcement and seeing as how it's one of the most noted programs in the state, you'd think it would be bigger news.

Adam Gaylor. He was their DC. They literally had a press conference about it last week.

 

[T_Hans]

Speculation from parents that have been around the program for a while.

Parents 😂

 

[T_Hans]

When in doubt, we regress to talking about Tulsa high school football, if I read the Tulsa World, our paper feels like we cover high school athletics over college and the NBA and Tulsa Oilers (which should get more coverage too).

Why does Tulsa World not have an NBA beat writer? Thunder is the most important thing ever to happen to this state in terms of sports, by miles, miles and miles. People in China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Serbia, and Rhawada watch the NBA. No one gives a about homeschool league football. Little kids love SGA. For some reason, the cronies at the Tulsa World would rather talk about Inola and hype Regent Christian's indoor football pad because they think it is relevant.

King Loren would be a fool to leave for anywhere but college.

Easy answer is people read about local high school sports. Not sure why a Tulsa paper would cover the Thunder when OKC has its own paper. I agree TW needs more coverage of TU and other local colleges. And more coverage of Tulsa Oilers, FC Tulsa, Drillers.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

Easy answer is people read about local high school sports. Not sure why a Tulsa paper would cover the Thunder when OKC has its own paper. I agree TW needs more coverage of TU and other local colleges. And more coverage of Tulsa Oilers, FC Tulsa, Drillers.

Just because OKC has paper??? Tulsans don't have a subscription to the OKC paper. They barely have subscriptions to the Tulsa paper. That's like implying that the Houston papers shouldn't cover the Dallas Cowboys.

 

[TulsaRulzOSUdrools]

Easy answer is people read about local high school sports. Not sure why a Tulsa paper would cover the Thunder when OKC has its own paper. I agree TW needs more coverage of TU and other local colleges. And more coverage of Tulsa Oilers, FC Tulsa, Drillers.

That is why I feel this city is a high school city, and it hasn't stepped into the big leagues, but it may never.

Part of that is also how we decide to keep our high schools at 6,000 and 5,000 students. OKC decided to keep their high schools a lot smaller. They also have more colleges down there. For some reason, such as Blah, think that is awesome.

The paper can contribute to that.

It cracks me up that we think that the Thunder is just an OKC thing but we can write endless things about OU and OSU. Ridiculous. The Thunder is 100x more important, nationally and internationally, than friggin OU and it is closer than norman.

 

[T_Hans]

I see way more people that care about OU and OSU than the Thunder.

 

[TU_BLA]

Adam Gaylor. He was their DC. They literally had a press conference about it last week.

Well, missed that. I don't get the TW and it's not like the local stations cover anything HS football related outside of games on Friday nights.

As for the parent speculation thing...I get it. I am not saying they're the ones in the know, they're probably going off of gut feelings and thinking the guy who's been there the longest gets to take over.

 

[texcane1982]

Loren runs the athletic department at Bixby. Throw in the new facilities and it’s hard to see him giving that up for anything but a college gig.

Any possibility Lamb might try and lure the most successful HS Coach in Oklahoma to his staff?

TX

 

[TulsaRulzOSUdrools]

Any possibility Lamb might try and lure the most successful HS Coach in Oklahoma to his staff?

TX

Please god no. How often has this worked out for us? Never. The vibe never works.

 

[T_Hans]

Any possibility Lamb might try and lure the most successful HS Coach in Oklahoma to his staff?

TX

No. Keep the high school coaches at high school. Just recruit those kids like crazy. TU should be getting players from Bixby, Jenks, Union, BA and Owasso every year.

 

[T_Hans]

Well, missed that. I don't get the TW and it's not like the local stations cover anything HS football related outside of games on Friday nights.

As for the parent speculation thing...I get it. I am not saying they're the ones in the know, they're probably going off of gut feelings and thinking the guy who's been there the longest gets to take over.

I just saw it on Twitter.

 

[TU_BLA]

I just saw it on Twitter.

Well, that would explain why I didn't see it. Not on Twitter/X

 

[Gmoney4WW]

Please god no. How often has this worked out for us? Never. The vibe never works.

Blsnkenship worked out alright as an assistant. Was when we decided to give him HC love that it didn't work out.

 

[lawpoke87]

Any possibility Lamb might try and lure the most successful HS Coach in Oklahoma to his staff?

TX

He would be better off developing good relationships with the area coaches imo. Work which pays dividends year after year. Don’t underestimate the influence local coaches have over their players

 

[TU_BLA]

No. Keep the high school coaches at high school. Just recruit those kids like crazy. TU should be getting players from Bixby, Jenks, Union, BA and Owasso every year.

I agree with this 100%. Lamb should make it a point to get into those coaches' offices in the next 2-3 weeks in prep for the January signing date but also to start recruiting the top players in the '26 grad classes at those places. And I have a feeling the coaches around here are going to really like Lamb.

 

[lawpoke87]

I agree with this 100%. Lamb should make it a point to get into those coaches' offices in the next 2-3 weeks in prep for the January signing date but also to start recruiting the top players in the '26 grad classes at those places. And I have a feeling the coaches around here are going to really like Lamb.

Along those lines, I attended a college soccer ID camp at a large club last night. Lots of college coaches in attendance. Those college coaches spent as much time smooshing with the upper level club coaches as they did watching the players. Made perfect sense when I thought about it

 

[TU_BLA]

With that BB resigned from Union and was seeking a job on a college football staff. Point is, TU didn't approach him about leaving Union to be on staff. And I'm not saying Montgomery wouldn't make a good addition to a college football staff if for no other reason than to have an in with the Bixby players who are D1 worthy.

But for guys like Haisten and Peters and other local media suggesting that Montgomery should be considered for the TU HC job, they lose credibility and should lose certain amounts of access for pushing such BS. There are limited instances where such a direct move worked...and I can't think of any time in the last 10 years where it has been successful, and the current landscape with free agency and NIL, I can't imagine that such a move would work very often at all.

Art Briles- didn't he come directly to Houston from being a HS coach? It worked there (later issues notwithstanding). Not sure it would work in the current climate.

 

[TulsaRulzOSUdrools]

With that BB resigned from Union and was seeking a job on a college football staff. Point is, TU didn't approach him about leaving Union to be on staff. And I'm not saying Montgomery wouldn't make a good addition to a college football staff if for no other reason than to have an in with the Bixby players who are D1 worthy.

But for guys like Haisten and Peters and other local media suggesting that Montgomery should be considered for the TU HC job, they lose credibility and should lose certain amounts of access for pushing such BS. There are limited instances where such a direct move worked...and I can't think of any time in the last 10 years where it has been successful, and the current landscape with free agency and NIL, I can't imagine that such a move would work very often at all.

Art Briles- didn't he come directly to Houston from being a HS coach? It worked there (later issues notwithstanding). Not sure it would work in the current climate.

When those kinds of articles are, they should honestly be fired or, at the bare minimum, be made fun of until forever ends, given the disasters of Blankenship and John Phillips.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

So the weirdest things have gone down this week in area HS football as 3 of the big 5 were looking for new coaches. Union hired Antonio Graham, a Union alum, but more importantly the Owasso HS coach who took over for BB when BB retired. I don't think many people connected to Union saw that coming...many felt it would just be handed to Dub Maddox. Graham had a great season at Owasso. In turn, Owasso has re-hired Bill Blankenship as the HC. I see this as a 1-2 year thing until Owasso can find someone or they look at it as BB training the next head coach for the Rams. And maybe the best hire of all is BA getting Travis Hill away from Muskogee where he did a great job.

That leaves Jenks. I have no idea where they're looking but I'd be surprised if they didn't at least have a conversation with Loren Montgomery. I think it'd be hard for Montgomery to leave Bixby right now if it's not for a college gig. He's built a great program and culture at Bixby and now Bixby PS is in turn going to build a palace of a football stadium and complex to complement the status of his program.

Travis Hill will do fine in BA as long as he knows his place, which is in line behind the band director.

As for Owasso, people out here seem genuinely disappointed that coach Graham left. He seemed to add a spark that had been missing for a few years.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

That is why I feel this city is a high school city, and it hasn't stepped into the big leagues, but it may never.

Part of that is also how we decide to keep our high schools at 6,000 and 5,000 students. OKC decided to keep their high schools a lot smaller. They also have more colleges down there. For some reason, such as Blah, think that is awesome.

The only high school with over 5k students is Broken Arrow. They released a study a few years ago about splitting into 3 schools, but that was shot down as quickly as it went up.

It only takes about 700 band parents to show up at a school board meeting to change minds real quick.

 

[TU_BLA]

The only high school with over 5k students is Broken Arrow. They released a study a few years ago about splitting into 3 schools, but that was shot down as quickly as it went up.

It only takes about 700 band parents to show up at a school board meeting to change minds real quick.

He harps and harps on this and I can't figure out why. Don't know if he has a kid in Moore or Edmond schools where they split and now their football teams suck ass and that's why. I can only speak for our experience at Union. At no time did I ever feel like the school didn't have enough resources to assist my son if he needed something. What I do know is if they split the school up the number of available AP courses would be much lower. We had looked in to possibly moving him to BK for his sophomore year but they didn't offer certain AP classes he wanted to take...they simply don't have the resources to offer all of them OR the qualified teachers to teach those advanced classes. My son's math teacher at Union only taught advanced Calculus (Calc AB, Calc BC, Calc 3).

Union is also designed in such a way that a lot of the students are taking classes at TCC or Tulsa Tech early on...so not all of these kids are showing up and clogging the hallways of Union's physical building every day. Yes there are a lot of students but Union spreads them out pretty well. If I felt they needed to split it up because my son was not getting the attention and support he needed from his teachers or college counselors, I would be at the school board meeting to say it's time.

And just a note, I don't know how OSSAA counts its daily avg. attendance/enrollment figures. I'm pretty sure it's considered 9th-12th grades. Well Union's 9th graders are in an entirely different, really big ass building. So 1000 students there, maybe 3000 at the Mingo school location for grades 10-12. If I recall correctly, BA also has a freshman academy building with it's freshmen class. Now, BA has classes that are about 50% larger than Union's. Their district is listing about an avg. enrollment of 1500 for grades 9-12 (Union is about 1000). What Union doesn't have to face is an every growing district boundary and expansion of homes available in the district unlike BA, Owasso, Bixby, and Jenks where new subdivisions seems to pop up weekly. Union is pretty much done growing to be honest. There's not much space for more housing additions within the current district boundaries.

 

[TulsaRulzOSUdrools]

He harps and harps on this and I can't figure out why. Don't know if he has a kid in Moore or Edmond schools where they split and now their football teams suck ass and that's why. I can only speak for our experience at Union. At no time did I ever feel like the school didn't have enough resources to assist my son if he needed something. What I do know is if they split the school up the number of available AP courses would be much lower. We had looked in to possibly moving him to BK for his sophomore year but they didn't offer certain AP classes he wanted to take...they simply don't have the resources to offer all of them OR the qualified teachers to teach those advanced classes. My son's math teacher at Union only taught advanced Calculus (Calc AB, Calc BC, Calc 3).

Union is also designed in such a way that a lot of the students are taking classes at TCC or Tulsa Tech early on...so not all of these kids are showing up and clogging the hallways of Union's physical building every day. Yes there are a lot of students but Union spreads them out pretty well. If I felt they needed to split it up because my son was not getting the attention and support he needed from his teachers or college counselors, I would be at the school board meeting to say it's time.

And just a note, I don't know how OSSAA counts its daily avg. attendance/enrollment figures. I'm pretty sure it's considered 9th-12th grades. Well Union's 9th graders are in an entirely different, really big ass building. So 1000 students there, maybe 3000 at the Mingo school location for grades 10-12. If I recall correctly, BA also has a freshman academy building with it's freshmen class. Now, BA has classes that are about 50% larger than Union's. Their district is listing about an avg. enrollment of 1500 for grades 9-12 (Union is about 1000). What Union doesn't have to face is an every growing district boundary and expansion of homes available in the district unlike BA, Owasso, Bixby, and Jenks where new subdivisions seems to pop up weekly. Union is pretty much done growing to be honest. There's not much space for more housing additions within the current district boundaries.

Lmao, you can't be serious. It's because they are available for sports. You are more intelligent than that last paragraph.

Brohem, guess what? They have many advanced classes at the Edmond and Norman Schools, too.

 

[TU_BLA]

Lmao, you can't be serious. It's because they are available for sports. You are more intelligent than that last paragraph.

Brohem, guess what? They have many advanced classes at the Edmond and Norman Schools, too.

You're just upset they split the entirety of the HS into different schools and Union, Jenks, and BA got creative and are putting separate grades in different buildings and still including them as part of their average daily enrollment for the HS. Again, you think everything is driven by sports...it is not. And until you're part of one of those districts, stick to what you know. I haven't tried to say one way or the other if these decisions are good for any other district other than the one my kids are a part of and I have an interest in making sure my kids have the opportunities they need to be successful in school, academically and in any extra-curricular activities they may participate in.

If you want to talk the biggest issue, talk about the youth football atmosphere in those areas? Every kid playing Bixby youth football learns some of the Bixby HS playbook. Same at Union, same at Jenks, same at Union, same at Owasso. Every kid on those teams wears the Spartan or split U or the Jenks Trojan or the BA Tiger (BTW, it's the same with the youth cheer and pom programs...they're not affiliated with the school district at all but they all wear the district branded stuff). Every kid in those programs dreams of being the next big time player at their respective schools. The knock I've always heard about the OKC area is there is not the same level of connection between the schools and their youth football programs. And with the schools split, a bunch of kids who played together on a 7th grade team (not school sponsored) will potentially end up on different 8th grade teams.

I think in a few years you might actually have a valid argument for BA and maybe Jenks needing to split. Those districts (and the areas they are in) have the potential for growth through new housing additions. Union is about as big as it's going to get unless the district and BA or TPS or Jenks agree to new boundaries that put more neighborhoods and areas in the Union boundaries (the areas between Memorial and Yale, 7a1st St to 101st St get pretty wonky on what district you're in).

 

[HuffyCane]

Three things: the paper would literally go bankrupt without the click revenue from the photos of high school sports.

Briles left Stephenville to coach at Taco Tech where did running backs and was basically a high school coach ambassador. Then he left for Houston.

If Blankenship ever got hired back at TU, it should be in development and as a game day host in the Letterwinner’s Suite.

We should be bowling instead of talking about this stuff.