Back to the sideline: Mitchel to coach OHS girls
Haley Mitchel signals in a play while her mother, Cherie Myers, directs her orders to the Okarche Lady Warriors during the 2017 Class A state championship game in Oklahoma City. Myers retired after that game and Mitchel stepped away from coaching for three seasons before rencely accepting the head coaching position at Okarche.
As she sat in the stands the last three years, there was a big part of Haley Mitchel that knew she wanted to be back on the sideline.
She now has that opportunity.
Mitchel will be the new Okarche High School girls basketball coach as she now guides the program she helped take to tremendous heights as both a player and assistant coach.
“It’s very exciting,” Mitchel said. “I’m really looking forward to get to work with the girls again.”
New Okarche Superintendent Josh Sumrall confirmed the move Wednesday just moments after Mitchel accepted the position. It will be approved at Okarche’s next board meeting in August.
Mitchel succeeds Kelli Jennings who last week took over the Northern Oklahoma College Enid women’s basketball program after three years at Okarche.
“Kelli told me she’d applied to NOC Enid and had been communicating with me through that process,” Sumrall said. “So I knew I needed a plan if that were to happen.”
As a player, Mitchel – then Haley Myers – started four years and helped Okarche to four consecutive state tournaments with her mom, Cherie Myers, as the head coach.
The Lady Warriors finished 2A state runners-up in 2002 and 2003, reached the Class A semifinals in 2004 and quarterfinals in 2005.
After college, Mitchel rejoined her mother as an assistant at Okarche and that’s when the program saw an unprecedented run of success.
From 2010 to 2017, Okarche reached state all but one season and played for a state title six times.
The Lady Warriors won Class A state championships in 2010 and 2013 and the Class B crown in 2014. Okarche reached the state finals four consecutive years beginning in 2012.
Myers retired after the 2017 season, putting an end to a hall of fame career.
Mitchel, with her own family growing, also decided to step away from the program.
She didn’t go far, however, as she remained a high school English teacher.
Jennings took over the program for three years, won 82 percent of her games and got Okarche to two Class A semifinals before the NOC Enid opportunity arose.
That left Sumrall, on his first official day on July 1, in need of a girls basketball coach for one of the most prolific programs in the state.
He needed to only look down the hallway. “From me coaching and
“From me coaching and being a basketball fan, I knew her from being an assistant here and the success that they had,” Sumrall said.
“And, of course, her mom is her mom. It was a no-brainer for me to pursue her.”
The two talked, Sumrall worked on class schedules and Mitchel discussed it with her family.
“He couldn’t have been more supportive and helpful,” Mitchel said of Sumrall. “I really appreciated how easy he made the decision for me.”
So now Mitchel has a head coaching job for the first time. However, she’s not only taking over a program with built-in expectations, but has the added pressure of living up to her lineage.
“Taking over a program like Okarche, being Cherie’s daughter or not, you know the expectations,” Mitchel said. “I’m just grateful for having the time I did with her and learn from her to know how to handle these expectations and maneuver through them.”
That doesn’t mean there isn’t some trepidation.
“There’s some nervousness mixed with some anxiety,” she said. “But I’ve got people like Coach (Larry) Black and Mr. Sumrall right there.”
Black, who preceded Myers, coached Okarche to multiple state tournaments and is still on staff at the school. Sumrall was a longtime coach at Coyle and won a state championship.
“Plus I’ve got my mom when needed,” Mitchel said. “I have them all right there. I’m surrounded by good basketball people.”
All that led to Mitchel returning to the game.
“It was a good hire for us,” Sumrall said. “She’s an Okarche graduate and has a ton of success here. She’s the right person for the job.”
As for Mitchel, she moves from the stands back to the bench.
“I always had an inkling that I’d get back to coaching,” she admitted. “I would miss it here and there the last three years, but I never knew if the right opportunity would come up.
“When Mr. Sumrall called about this, it opened opportunities I didn’t know were possible. With God’s help, it seemed like the right fit and the right timing. I knew if there was ever a time to try again, this was the time.”