SPECIAL DELIVERY

As the time ran down on the clock of last Saturday night’s game in Cleveland, the Okarche faithful were in a frenzy.
The Lady Warriors had just completed a three-day torture trek through the consolation bracket of their Class A area tournament, which was also their fourth game in six days.
It culminated with a 57-45 victory over No. 7 Red Oak, which punched the Lady Warriors’ ticket to the state tournament.
It proved to be quite the turnaround for a team that started the season 3-4 and was a pedestrian 10-7 after a Jan. 21 loss to Hennessey.
But since then, the Lady Warriors have gone 12-2 with their only losses to No. 5 Amber-Pocasset (by one point) and No. 1 Seiling in a regional championship game last Monday.
The turnaround proved quite the testament to the Lady Warriors, but also to first-year head coach Brett Tahah and her husband, Scott, who is her assistant and also coaches the Okarche softball teams.
“They have both been really great for our girls’ programs,” said Superintendent Josh Sumrall, who hired the Tahahs late last spring.
Returning to the state tournament was proof of that.
But as big as that moment was on Saturday night, it wasn’t even the biggest news for the Tahahs over the weekend.
That was going to happen about 16 hours later.
• • •
Brett Tahah admittedly didn’t feel well all of Saturday.
It wasn’t the nerves of the upcoming “do or die” game with Red Oak that evening.
Brett’s Lady Warriors had already defeated Porter and Mooreland in back-to-back days and were playing with as much confidence as any time this season.
In the back of her mind, Brett had an idea of what was going on.
She was 36 weeks and four days into a pregnancy.
Her baby wasn’t due until March 25, but the mother of three knows the signs.
She also felt she had to power through the day.
“I just wasn’t feeling good all day, if I’m being honest,” she said.
“But I just kind of pushed through because I needed to be there.”
Brett showed up and so did her team, upsetting Red Oak to earn the Lady Warriors’ 32nd trip to the state tournament.
After celebrating in Cleveland, the Lady Warriors stopped in Stillwater on the way home for a team dinner.
The bus arrived back in Okarche around 11:30 p.m., greeted by the town’s tradition of a “honk in” in which residents line the streets and honk as the team that just earned a trip to state gets a police escort into town.
“I really can’t thank the community enough for that,” said Brett, who got to experience it for the first time. “That’s quite the tradition.”
Players and coaches were at the gym until after midnight, soaking in the last bits of the night.
Brett left with their children, 8-year-old daughter Zoey, 7-year-old son Maddox and 2-year-old son Heston to put them to bed.
Scott stayed to chat a bit longer with Sumrall, OHS Principal G.W. Parham and boys basketball coaches Aaron West and Brandon Treece.
Brett got the children to bed and Sumrall dropped off Scott at their home around 12:30 a.m.
Finally, Brett and Scott Tahah could catch their breath and relax.
Or maybe not.
• • •
The Tahahs are coaches.
Sumrall is a former coach.
And, as coaches do, they’d been game planning for quite some time.
“Ever since Brett and Scott came into my office in early fall and let me know they were pregnant, we have been planning for a situation,” Sumrall said. “So, around early February, we made sure there was a getaway car available at all road games and I was on standby to coach the girls if she went into labor during a game.”
All the while, Brett’s superintendent and husband kept a watchful eye.
“We have stayed on her during the season about standing too much during games and recently asking her during games if she was feeling okay,” Sumrall said.But it was all precautionary, because time was on their side.After all, this baby was supposed to be the one Tahah baby who made it through basketball season before being born.
Zoey was born a couple of weeks before her mom’s first game of the season eight years ago.
Maddox was born on a Wednesday, one day after Brett coached in a game. She was back on the bench coaching on the next Friday.
Heston made his appearance the day before a game and Brett had to miss one.
But this baby wasn’t set to arrive until March 25, more than two weeks clear of the Class A state basketball tournament.
The Tahahs were in the clear.
Or maybe not…
• • •
Shortly after dropping off Scott and then Parham, Sumrall got a call from Scott.
“Come back,” Scott said.
“Brett’s water just broke.”
He needed to get her to the hospital, but it was the middle of the night and their kids were sleeping.
The children had already been through a long week, which included three straight days of trips to Cleveland and back.
Brett’s parents lived an hour away, but the Tahahs couldn’t wait that long to leave for the hospital.
Of course, they had game planned for this as well.
“Mr. Parham and I had told the Tahahs to give us a call to come help with their other children if she ever went into labor in the middle of the night,” Sumrall said.  “So, yes, Mr. Parham and I went back and stayed with the other children while they slept and until their grandparents got there.”
Jenny Parham, G.W.’s wife, also came over to stay with them.
“We never hesitated and planned to help whenever needed,” Sumrall said.
• • •
The Tahahs made it to the hospital safely.
Denver Hayes Tahah was born at 11:24 a.m. Sunday, March 2, 2025.
He was named “Denver” after Scott’s grandfather, but will go by his middle name, “Hayes.”
“My middle name is Brett and I swore I wouldn’t do that to one of my children,” said Brett. “But here I am doing it.”
Hayes weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.
He and mom were both healthy after the delivery.
As Brett put it in a Facebook post: “He is perfect.”
• • •
The story would be fascinating enough if Okarche’s season was over.
But it’s not.
The Lady Warriors play in the state tournament this week, but not on the traditional Thursday of years past.
The format was changed a handful of years ago to accommodate every team getting to play at least a quarterfinal game at “The Big House.”
Adding to the schedule this year is the fact Class 2A is joining A and B for the first weekend of state tournaments.
Okarche played Tuesday night (after press time of this edition), just two days after Hayes was born.
Even before she knew whether it was going to be a morning or night game, Brett was insistent.
“I will be coaching Tuesday,” she said.
It turns out Okarche played Amber-Pocasset at 7:30 p.m., giving her a precious few more hours to recover.
But being at State Fair Arena is only part of the equation.
The Lady Warriors still have to prepare.
Giving birth and being confined to a hospital haven’t slowed down Brett.
When the Sumralls visited her Sunday, Brett was at work.
“She was on the phone while I was at the hospital, getting scouting reports and getting started on the game plan for their opponent,” he said. “I know she has been watching a lot of game film at the hospital, too.”
Sumrall saw her work ethic in two lights.
“As a former coach myself, I love the passion and commitment she has for the game and to the Okarche girls,” Sumrall said.
“As an administrator, I have been constantly telling her to take care of herself and her baby during this season and this week.
“I think it’s just her tough, grind-it-out personality to want to get back and coach the girls in the state tournament.”
Brett is somewhat aided by the fact Okarche is playing a familiar foe in Am-Po.
She also trusts her team, whether she’s able to be there or not.
“I have to attribute a lot of the success to the girls,” she said. “We give them the game plan and they do an amazing job of going out there and getting it done.
“We tell them that this time of year, every team is going to be good and it’s not going to be about what you do, but how you do it.
“When it comes to preparation, I trust my team that they’re going to keep doing what they’ve been doing.”
• • •
Doctors originally told Brett that she would likely be released from the hospital sometime Tuesday morning.
She apparently was very convincing that it needed to be earlier.
After all hurdles were cleared, they were released to go home around 9 p.m. Monday.
Had they let her leave earlier, she would have been at the team’s walk-through and shoot-around Monday evening.
Scott took care of that task on his own.
The team planned another shoot-around and walk-through Tuesday before leaving for the game.
“I will be at that shootaround on Tuesday,” she declared.
And she was.
And, just as she declared, the Tahahs were on the bench Tuesday night as Okarche played in the state tournament.
In fact, all of the Tahahs were there.
Brett. Scott. Zoey. Maddox. Heston.
And Hayes.
“He will be making the trip to the last dance at ‘The Big House,’” said Brett, referring to this being the final year of state tournament games at State Fair Arena before they move to a new arena next season.
Hayes certainly won’t be on the bench or in the crowd, but will be with a family member somewhere in the arena.
“It may be the locker room,” she said. “We’re not sure yet, but he will be there.”
Sumrall theorized that Hayes’ early arrival was by design…by Hayes.
Said Sumrall: “I made the comment that Baby Hayes heard the excitement and cheering of winning the game Saturday night and said ‘get me out of here so I can see the state tournament!’”
Regardless of the reason, the entire family was together at The Big House.
It will be a closing chapter not just on the arena, but a wild few days for the Tahahs.
Or, as Brett understated from her hospital bed: “It definitely was an exciting weekend.”