Looking back at headline makers (Part II)

In the last edition we looked at five of the biggest headline makers for the 2021 calendar year as it pertains to sports in Kingfisher County (and if you read it, you know Crescent is included as well).

Here we take a look at five more. Again, these aren’t necessarily specific events, but more like a series of events that led to the overall stories of the year.

6. Cashion Football – There were some legitimate question marks coming into the 2021 season for Cashion and they could best be summed up by this: How in the world would they replace some of those studs they lost?

Pretty well, it turns out.

The Wildcats repeated as Class A state football champions and it wasn’t so much an improbable run to the title, but it also wasn’t as expected as 2020’s gold ball.

The 2020 squad was just superior to every team it put on the field and only Pawhuska had a legitimate shot to beat Cashion.

The 2021 team had some gaps to fill, but Lynn Shackelford and his staff were more than prepared.

They made some adjustments during the season. They coached kids up. Kids continued to work hard. They got better. And they won.

After dropping the first game of the season, Cashion didn’t lose again.

The Wildcats won yet another district title and cruised into the state semifinals.

There they beat Pawhuska - yet again - a team that itself has been good enough to win the last two state championships. Legitimately.

If it weren’t for Cashion, that is.

This group knew how to win. They expected to win. And they won.

They won a shootout with Pawhuska thanks to the late TD pass from Ben Harman to Mason Manning and then one final defensive stand.

They won a defensive slugfest against Ringling in the championship thanks to an even later TD from Harman to Manning.

Consider Harman’s career: 10,696 passing yards, which is fifth all-time in Oklahoma and one spot behind his brother Matt; 145 passing touchdowns, second all-time in Oklahoma.

Cashion’s seniors went on a four-year tear that saw them go 54-3, play in three state title games and win the last two.

They never lost a district game and had three undefeated regular seasons.

Legendary.

This championship solidified a rock solid legacy for Shackelford and his staff. A group that had knocked on the door three times since 2015 finally knocked it down in 2020.

They refused to leave in 2021. It’s been a great run to witness.

7. Maddi Kamas and Kingfisher High School Girls Golf – Talk about gratifying and heartbreaking all in one day.

First, Maddi.

She missed out on a shot at a state championship when the second day of state was canceled due to weather. Kamas wasn’t in the lead and winning would have been tough, but she felt she could have done it.

The disappointment was real.

Then came her sophomore season, one in which she won every single tournament…except state. A late bogey cost Kamas a chance at a playoff and she had to settle for second place.

The disappointment was even more real.

Then it was her junior season when she was the hands-down pick to claim an individual crown. That was 2020…when COVID ruined so many dreams. She never got to compete that year.

The disappointment continued to mount.

That brings us to 2021… Kamas’ senior season. She left no room for individual disappointment.

Kamas fired rounds of 69 and 67 at Cushing’s Buffalo Rock Golf & Venue. Her combined 4-under-par was 20 - yes, 20! - strokes better than the state runner-up.

Kamas - denied for three years by just about every reason imaginable - obliterated the Class 4A field.

She had finally achieved gold. But she also had to settle

But she also had to settle for some silver.

Kamas’ dominance kept Kingfisher in the team hunt.

As scores started to roll in, it appeared the chances of a team title had dissipated.

But a 67 in girls golf can make up a lot of ground and it did.

It put KHS into a team playoff with defending champ Hilldale.

Emotions and tempers raged on the first playoff hole, one which many in attendance will swear KHS won.

However, it was determined the teams tied the hole and Hilldale eventually won state on the second playoff hole.

Coach Audra Smalley gathered her team before the awards ceremony.

“Many girls had tears running down their faces,” Smalley said. “I told them we are not crying. We will not give anyone the satisfaction of seeing us upset.

“I told them in my heart we won, and that’s how we will carry ourselves.”

Not only Kamas, but Kari Shepard, Olivia Wilcox, Katey Brickman and Kylie Hood all showed me something that day. Whether it was hitting a big shot in a pressure situation or standing up for themselves and their team when talking with the tournament official and opposing coach….let’s just say they represented KHS very well.

8. Cashion Boys Athletics – We all know the success of the Cashion football program in 2020 and 2021. A 30-1 record and two gold balls speak for themselves.

But that’s far from the extent of success the boys program produced throughout the year.

The team won its first football crown in mid-December of 2020.

Several of those guys followed that up by winning the small-school powerlifting state championship.

Not long after that, the Cashion boys basketball team qualified for the 2A state tournament for the second straight year.

The success continued into the spring.

The Wildcats were Class 2A runners-up in golf despite it being just the fifth year of the program. STILL NOT DONE…

STILL NOT DONE… Cashion baseball qualified for state in Class 2A as well.

Sophomore Camden Maroney played a part in ALMOST all of that. After earning a spot on the offensive and defensive lines in football, he was also on the powerlifting team that won gold.

He carded Cashion’s second-best score at state golf and just days later was the starting second baseman for the baseball team.

Maroney epitomized Cashion boys’ athletics for the year.

It was quite the historic run…one that concluded with that second straight gold ball in Edmond in December.

9. Lomega Girls Basketball – How do you raise the bar at a place like Lomega, a place that’s won more gold balls than any other girls program in the state?

How about by winning a second straight title, going undefeated along the way and leaving with a 54-game win streak?

That’s a pretty good start and that’s exactly what Lomega’s Class of 2021 did.

After ending the 2019-20 season with a 27-game win streak and the Class B championship (they were able to play small school state before the larger schools had theirs canceled in 2020), the Lady Raiders won all 27 games in 2020-21.

Emma Duffy. Adysen Wilson. Sydney Walker. Hensley Eaton. Darcy Roberts. Abby Swart.

The team had an embarrassment of riches and it showed on the court. Here’s what I wrote in a column for the March 21 edition:

This Lomega team will go down as one of the best ever, especially offensively.

Even if two or three Lady Raiders were completely off their game, teams had two or three more - quite literally - to deal with.

It almost without fail resulted in loads of points.

In 27 games this season, Lomega scored:

– In the 100s 3 times (could have been a dozen more);

– In the 90s 7 times;

– In the 80s 6 times;

– In the 70s 7 times;

– In the 60s 3 times, and,

– In the 40s (40s?) once.

The Lady Raiders averaged 83.4 (EIGHTY-THREE-POINT-FOUR!) points a game.

That’s unreal.

No team played the Lady Raiders within single digits until Kiowa in the state finals (67-60).

That was a really good Kiowa team, one that did itself a favor by traveling to play Lomega in late December of last year (one of those great last-minute matchups made possible by other COVID cancellations).

Lomega beat Kiowa 86-44 that afternoon, but it prepared the Cowgirls for what Lomega does and proved beneficial when they met again in the finals.

Kiowa played great in that game. Great.

But Lomega was historically good…one of the best teams we’ll ever see and that’s saying something around here.

10. Kingfisher Boys Basketball - If you haven’t read the series of four columns I wrote entitled “Witnessing basketball history,” I encourage you to do so. (Ed. note: They appeared in the March 24, March 31, April 7 and April 21 editions.)

I’m going to re-print the first portion of the first column below to try to sum up what the KHS basketball program has accomplished over the last few years.

Before I get to that, though, just think back to the March evening at State Fair Arena when Maverick Ridenour made that 3-pointer to end the third quarter in the state championship game against Heritage Hall.

His reaction. Bijan’s reaction. Stoney’s reaction. The bench’s reaction. The fans’ reaction.

If that doesn’t give you chills thinking about it, then I feel sorry for you.

Now, here’s part of what I wrote on March 24:

We haven’t seen it before.

We won’t see it again.

It’s not a knock on groups of the past nor those yet to come.

But history is made because it rarely happens.

What we’ve been fortunate enough to witness since 2017 makes us blessed basketball fans.

Because you simply won’t see it again.

Proof?

Del City had a magical season.

The Eagles and head coach Lenny Hatchett won the Class 6A boys championship and went 22-4 along the way.

Four losses.

That’s a fantastic year.

Carl Albert. The 5A champs. The Titans were 23-4 this season (one of those L’s thanks to Kingfisher).

Four losses.

Tremendous year.

Cashion goes to the 2A quarterfinals for just the fourth time in the program’s history.

The Wildcats were 21-4.

Four losses. Undeniably a remarkable season. That brings us to Bijan

That brings us to Bijan Cortes, Matthew Stone and Jarret Birdwell in Kingfisher uniforms.

28-1.

28-1.

26-1.

25-1.

That’s 107-4.

When Kingfisher took the floor during that trio’s career, it won 96.4 percent of its games. That’s a better win clip

That’s a better win clip than any recorded four-year stretch in Oklahoma high school boys basketball history.

Other groups have won more games during a fouryear stretch (all of them in the A and B ranks, which can play more games in a season).

No program had lost as few as four games in a fouryear stretch. In fact, no team had lost as few as five.

Until Kingfisher.

It’s better than Oklahoma Christian School from 2004-07. The Saints were 104-6 (.945). They had a dude named Blake Griffin.

Hammon featured the Minor twins from 1989-92. They were 123-7 (.946).

The Jackets, again, were .964.

The losses are so rare, you can remember each of them:

- Heritage Hall in the 2018 state championship game;

- Booker T. Washington in the 2018 Tournament of Champions semifinals (2018-19 season);

- Bethany in the 2020 4A area championship;

- Edmond Memorial in the 2020 Edmond Open championship (2020-21 season).

“We went looking for two of those losses,” KHS head coach Jared Reese noted.

To beef up its schedule, the Jackets joined the Tournament of Champions fray in 2018-19. If not, the Jackets very well may have gone undefeated.

They were set to play in the TofC this season as well, but it was canceled due to COVID.

Two days after learning of the cancellation, Kingfisher was lacing it up as a late entry into the Edmond Open. They wanted to find someone capable of beating them.

Think about it.

107-4.

Garber was the Class A runner-up this season. The Wolverines were 22-5.

The average number of losses for this year’s 4A state tournament field not named Kingfisher?

Five-plus.

And this isn’t to take away from any team mentioned above. Without any hint of sarcasm or condescension, those teams had memorable seasons.

Historic in their own right.

But the groups Kingfisher put on the court, the last four years especially, were next level.

They had two undefeated regular seasons (2018 and 2020)...never before done at KHS.

They had a 47-game win streak that spanned parts of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons and was longer than a calendar year.

It’s the seventh best such streak for a high school boys program. Ever.

They were legendary.

They were truly historic.

The numbers prove it.

And we’ll never see it again.