KHS to play at Paycom Center

A series of events have led to the Kingfisher High School basketball teams getting the opportunity to play on the home court of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Kingfisher was originally scheduled to play at Bethany on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

However, COVID-19 issues forced the teams to postpone the game until Monday, Feb. 14.

On top of that, a busted sprinkler head at Bethany High School’s gym destroyed the school’s basketball court over the Christmas break.

Bethany has no home gym the rest of the season.

At least for one night, that home gym will be the Paycom Center in downtown Oklahoma City.

The KHS squads will take on Bethany at 6:30 and 8 p.m. in an NBA arena.

“This will be a once-in-alifetime experience for our kids,” said boys coach Jared Reese. “The surroundings will take some getting used to, but not a lot of people get a chance to do something like this.”

• • • That was the second bit of “exciting” news for the KHS boys team in the last week.

Reese informed his squad on Friday that the Yellowjackets had been invited to play in the 2022 Tournament of Champions in Tulsa.

It’s the third time KHS has been invited since 2018.

The Jackets took third in that tournament en route to the 2019 4A state championship.

KHS was set to play in the 2020 Tournament of Champions, but it was ultimately canceled due to COVID-19 precautions.

The complete list of teams for the 2022 tournament has not yet been released.