2019 in SPORTS: The good, the bad and the tragic

The 2018-19 school year was arguably the most successful one ever for Kingfisher High School athletics.

From multiple team and individual state championships to school records and even academic successes, the year was a fruitful one for the Yellowjackets.

In this look back at 2019 in sports, we take a look at some of the moments that shaped the second half of that school year.

And news wasn’t just being made in Kingfi sher.

There were tons of accolades, achievements, awards, coaching changes - and, yes, the saddest of news - coming from the likes of Okarche, Dover, Hennessey, Lomega, Cashion and Crescent.

Here is Part 1 of our year in review of sports in and around Kingfi sher County in 2019:

January

• Kingfisher High School product Jace Sternberger declared for the NFL Draft on the first day of the year. Sternberger had just completed an All-American season at tight end at Texas A&M University in his only year with the Aggies.

• Cashion’s boys basketball team made history by winning the Three Rivers Conference Tournament for the first time in its 17 years of existence. The Wildcats defeated top-seeded and undefeated Hennessey 56-40 in the title game. The Cashion girls won their fourth straight title.

• Three Yellowjackets - Stone Snodgrass, Bryce Hawk and Presten Coughlan - won their weight classes as Kingfi sher took third as a team in the Western Conference Wrestling Tournament at the APB.

• During the next week, Snodgrass was crowned king and Abby Gray queen at wrestling homecoming.

• Kerri Lafferty was voted by her peers as the girls cross country coach of the year by the Oklahoma Cross Country and Track Coaches Association. The award covers all classes in the state. Lafferty had guided the KHS girls to the Class 4A state championship the previous fall.

• In the final big tournament week of the basketball season, the Kingfi sher boys won the Buckle of the Wheatbelt Invitational for the third straight year with a 72-35 victory over Weatherford. The KHS girls were runners-up as their upset bid against Weatherford fell short, 53-34. In other tournaments, Okarche’s squads swept the Coyle Invitational; Lomega’s girls won their fourth consecutive Cherokee Strip Conference crown.

• Kingfisher’s Jett Stern-berger and Crescent’s Hunter Bowers were named to the Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State football team.

• Katelyn Stolz was crowned queen and Trey Green the king at the KHS basketball homecoming on a night in which the home teams swept Bethany.

February

• The fi rst Wednesday in February was National Signing Day and it was a big one at KHS. Cole Cross-white signed to play football at East Central, Declan Haub to play football at Emporia State, Logun Burnham to play football at Southwestern Oklahoma State, Creighton Bugg to play baseball at NOC-Tonkawa, Jett Sternberger to play basketball at Rogers State and Trey Green to play basketball at Oklahoma Baptist. At Hennessey, Dalton Joyce signed to play football at Central Oklahoma.

• In the final varsity games played in a structure that housed Okarche basketball since the 1940s, the Lady Warriors and Warriors won Class A district championships to begin their playoff treks.

• Stone Snodgrass was the regional runner-up at 132 pounds and Blake Neal fourth at 182 pounds to qualify for the Class 3A state wrestling tournament. En route to the regional finals, Snodgrass stunned top-seeded Kobey Kizarr of Marlow with a fall at 1:26 of their semifinal match. Kizarr went on to win the state championship in the weight class.

• The Okarche boys put together their best performance of the season to hammer No. 2 Glencoe 73-37 in Enid to win their Class A area title tilt and qualify for the state tournament. It was the first time in six years for Okarche to reach state and the first time with father and son - head coach Ray West and assistant Aaron West - on the bench together.

• Lomega’s girls made it two teams from the county to reach state on small-school weekend as they beat Timberlake 50-33 to qualify in Class B. The team bounced back from a buzzer-beater loss to Boise City in the area final the previous night to win the consolation championship.

• Okarche waited until just the right time to employ its 1-3-1 trap - a Ray West staple - as it defeated Kiowa 58-51 with a dominant fi nal 3:29 in their Class A state tournament quarterfi nal at Mustang. “That’s old faithful,” West said of the trap. “I’ve been using it every year I’ve coached.” The win, on the last day of the month, turned out to be the final one in West’s legendary career.

March

• The first day of the month was a fruitful one for two county boys basketball teams. KHS held off Bethany 50-39 to win their Class 4A area title game in Washington. Over in Weatherford, the Hennessey Eagles continued their impressive run with a 62-52 victory over Northeast to win their Class 2A area title. The wins advanced both teams to state.

• There were some milestones in Kingfi sher’s win over Bethany, which got the program to state for the third straight year. Jett Sternberger’s 3-pointer with 1:00 left in the fi rst half gave him 2,000 points for his career. The win was also the 100th for Sternberger as a KHS starter, a feat never accomplished before in the boys’ program. Fellow senior Trey Green also won his 100th game as a starter. His first 19 wins were as a freshman at Waynoka prior to moving to Kingfi sher.

• Kingfisher County’s small-school teams’ runs ended in the state semifinals. Varnum knocked off Lomega’s girls 66-41 in Class B and Cyril dealt Okarche an 80-55 loss in Class A boys. Both of those teams went on to win their respective state championships.

• After his team’s season came to an end in the area tournament, KHS girls coach Jay Wood announced he was stepping down to take on the role of athletic director and assistant principal full time. Wood coached four years at his alma mater and led KHS to a 57-51 record in that time. It was announced later in the month that Wood was selected to be enshrined into the Oklahoma Girls Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

• One year after a crushing defeat, the Kingfi sher boys basketball team exacted revenge on Heritage Hall on the state’s biggest stage. The Yellowjackets defeated Heritage Hall 59-39 at State Fair Arena to win the Class 4A state championship. It was Kingfisher’s second title in three years. It was Heritage Hall who denied KHS the year before, beating an undefeated Jacket squad in the title game.

This time around, it was Kingfisher denying an undefeated Heritage Hall its repeat as it held the Chargers to their worst offensive performance of the season. Kingfisher capped a 28-1 season with the lone loss coming to Class 6A state champ Booker T. Washington in the Tournament of Champions semifi nal.

KHS also defeated Elgin (57-38) and Holland Hall (58-32) in the tournament. The 109 points was the lowest total ever allowed by a boys state tournament team in Classes 2A-6A (in a three-game span). It beat Kingfisher’s mark set in 2017. Jett Sternberger was named the state tournament MVP and ended his career with the most points for a KHS boys player (2,037) and most wins (103).

• Hennessey nearly made it two gold balls for Kingfi sher County. The Eagles made a spectacular run to the Class A state championship game before being defeated 54-42 by Rejoice Christian. It was just the third time in Hennessey’s history to reach the title game. The Eagles made a miraculous comeback the previous night when they trailed Rock Creek by four points with 17 seconds left…and the Mustangs were headed to the foul line. However, the Eagles eventually tied the game on a buzzer-beater and won in overtime. Hennessey’s season ended with a 26-3 record.

• Once the season was over, postseason honors started rolling in. For the second straight year, Trey Green and Jett Sternberger were named co-MVPs and Jared Reese the coach of the year in the Canadian Valley Conference. KHS assistant Danny Green was named an Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State coach.

• Totsy Manning announced she was stepping down as Cashion’s girls basketball coach after two seasons. The district didn’t go far for her replacement. In fact, just one seat down. Andrea Taylor was named the program’s new head coach. Taylor had been an assistant at Cashion for fi ve seasons.

• Paul Hix was named the new Hennessey High School head football coach and athletic director. He succeeds Rick Luetjen as head coach.

• Crescent’s Elizabeth Battelo and Hennessey’s Angel Rodriguez were named MVPs of the Three Rivers Conference after a vote of its coaches.

• In what turned out to be a duel of state champions, Cashion’s Madelyn McCabe cleared 5 feet, 4 inches to win the gold medal in the high jump at the Watonga Invitational Track and Field Meet. She defeated Kingfisher freshman Ally Stephenson, who had to settle for silver. However, her jump of 5-2 set a new Kingfisher High School record…one that wouldn’t be in place for long.

April

• The Kingfisher Board of Education voted to hire Gerrett Spears as the news girls basketball coach. Spears, a Garber native, spent the two previous seasons at Enid.

• Okarche’s Cris Avila and Kingfisher’s Trey Green and Jett Sternberger were named All-State basketball picks by the Oklahoma Coaches Association.

• Ally Stephenson’s school record in the high jump lasted all of a week. The KHS freshman cleared 5-5 to win the high jump at the Kathy Scoville Memorial Track Meet at Deer Creek. The jump was three inches better than the school record Stephenson set the previous week. Among those she beat at Deer Creek was Westmoore senior Tristen Robb, a 6-foot-2 senior who went on to win the Class 6A state championship. Stephenson, by the way, stands 5 feet, 3 inches.

TO BE CONTINUED...