Time to clean out the winter notebook

I tell people all the time that I have the best newspaper job in the state.

The past month or so of basketball playoffs has only cemented that belief.

In the next couple of editions, I’m going to offer some notes and personal thoughts on what transpired this past season (and beyond), plus what may lie ahead for some.

In other words, time to clean out the notebook:

• First, let’s talk facilities.

Okarche opened its new gym prior to the 2019-20 season.

Hennessey’s dome was debuted this year for basketball.

Before they built their respective basketball temples, their previous gyms weren’t big enough to rightfully host the Three Rivers Conference Tournament, much less one of the larger playoff rounds.

That’s all changed now.

Okarche hosted a regional for the first time and even served as an emergency host for a Class 2A regional championship the following weekend.

Hennessey not only played host to its own 2A regional, but then was the site of a Class 3A area tournament the following weekend.

Both facilities received RAVE reviews from all involved.

My hat - if I were wearing one - goes off to both school districts for the willingness to pursue such grand endeavors and then overwhelmingly voting to make them happen through bond issue elections.

Often times when the word “sports” gets attached to such projects, a number of noses turn up because the belief becomes that athletics is being given preferential treatment.

However, it usually turns out such projects benefit large groups of people, whether directly or indirectly.

Okarche and Hennessey now have facilities that will be used for so much more than athletics and will provide a benefit for every person living in those towns for years to come.

• It’s not always easy to use the word “historic” when talking about the Lomega girls basketball program.

The Lady Raiders own so much history - and so many records - that’s it’s no longer easy to “make it.”

Sometimes, the poor ol’ Lady Raiders just have to settle for matching history or adding to it.

That’s what they did this year by winning the Class B crown and going undefeated.

They “added to” the record of 14 girls state championships (now 15) owned by the program and “matched” the undefeated teams of 1983, 1987 and 1991.

Like I said in my game story of the Lady Raiders’ title win over Kiowa, this was the first Lomega team to go unbeaten in the 5-on-5 era.

That’s some history of their own.

• One thing I’ve kept track of, but overlooked for that final story is Lomega’s win streak.

The Lady Raiders have now won 54 straight games dating back to the 2019-20 season.

Lomega last loss on Nov. 19, 2019. That was a 47-44 setback to Calumet when the team was without Emma Duffy and Sydney Walker. The team was also still adjusting to Adysen Wilson and vice-versa.

It was just Lomega’s fifth game of the season and the Lady Raiders dropped to 3-2 with the loss.

Since then….54 games, no losses.

I’d say everyone adjusted quite well.

• 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).

• Kiowa entered state ranked fifth and in its first showdown with Lomega, was defeated 86-44, on Dec. 29.

With that in mind, I sent Lomega coach Kevin Lewallen the following text the day before Lomega played its first state tournament game:

“You and Kiowa in the finals. They’re going to make you earn it.”

Now, I don’t want to say I’m a basketball genius or anything, but…OK, nevermind.

• Lomega’s losing a couple of really, really good starters in Duffy and Wilson to graduation.

However, let’s not throw a pity party for Lewallen in 2021-22.

All he returns are the last two state tournament MVPs (Hensley Eaton in 2020 and Darcy Roberts in 2021) and the unheralded Walker, who impresses me each time I see her play.

Eaton will be a senior while Roberts and Walker will only be juniors.

Lewallen will also have back several other key contributors from this year’s title run, including Abby Swart, who was the first player off the bench this season as a freshman.

Someone else might very well win Class B in 2022, but they’re definitely going to have to earn it to beat Lomega.

• Several people said this year they felt Lomega’s second unit would make a deep run in the Class B playoffs.

On top of having talent, that unit also has the unenviable task of going up against the first string each and every day.

Iron sharpens iron.

I asked Roberts about that after the season...just what Lomega’s practices were like day in and day out with so much talent on the floor:

“Our practices are pretty competitive; we don’t waste time in the gym for sure,” she said.

“We get in and we get after it. Everyone is so motivated everyday we come to play. We come to get better.”

Lewallen talked about how this year’s team was so special in that the players didn’t care who won MVP or all-tournament or things of similar nature.

They only cared about winning.

The proof is in the pudding...or the gold balls and win streak in this case.

Roberts said the players just concentrated on improving.

“Our team is so close and we always push each other to be better,” she said. “We want everyone to be the best player they can be, while pushing ourselves to be the greatest we can be.

“I believe that’s where most of our success comes from.”

Impressive words from a sophomore.

• The Lomega boys and their coach, Justin Edsall, certainly deserved their spot at state.

Edsall has endured everything from a winless season to being on the cusp of making state during his time at his alma mater.

To reach that point with a group he’s coached since grade school was gratifying to watch from a distance.

One thing that stood out to me when watching this team the last couple of years was how hard they played each and every night.

It almost got them to state last year. This year, they got over the hump.

The Raiders deserved a better fate than the struggles they had shooting at State Fair Arena, but “thems the breaks” as they say.

Playing in the storied arena will be something that sticks with them forever.

• State championships also last forever and this year marked the 20th anniversary of Lomega’s boys winning that program’s only state title.

What a fun ride that was, though not altogether expected from my end.

And it’s ironic, because I lobbied to get that team into the top-eight late in the season with an Oklahoman writer.

My argument was multiple wins over some of the top teams in Class B and no losses to teams in their class.

It worked. They made their way into the top-eight (important when it comes to playoff assignments in Oklahoma).

Once they got to state, coach Ken Jones had a great game plan no matter the style of the team they faced.

Lomega faced pretty much every other contender in Class B that season and beat them all.

Those Raiders definitely were the best.

• It’s also the 20th anniversary of the Dover girls winning their first of three consecutive Class B state championships. They became the first-ever girls team to do that in the 5-on-5 era.

It was also the first of seven consecutive trips to the state finals for Dover, something I find hard to believe will be duplicated by another program moving forward.

Like the Lomega girls of the past two seasons, that was an historically good team - nay, stretch of teams.

Historically. Good.

• History wasn’t kind to the Cashion boys program, which couldn’t get beyond the regional tournament from 1998 through 2019.

That changed last year when the Wildcats not only reached area, but qualified for state for the first time since 1996.

But history provided Cashion - and so many other programs - a swift punch to the gut when COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the state tournament.

But John Hardaway and his troops made it back this season (and in thrilling fashion, might I add).

Now the Wildcats in just two years have doubled the program’s number of state qualifiers.

Like the Lomega boys, you hated to see Cashion struggle shooting from the field the way it did, especially with the game in the balance over the final two quarters.

It was a good matchup for Cashion, but a slow start and an inability to make that “one shot” late were too much to overcome.

As sad as it was to witness, I think we all did so with the expectation that it was a learning moment for this team, most of which returns next season.

• I put this on Facebook the day Cashion lost, but I want our other readers to see it here.

Reporters for hometown papers who cover multiple schools such as myself rely heavily on cooperation from coaches to get us their scores.

I cover one school a night meaning five or six others’ scores have to be provided.

Hardaway never fails to provide that information.

Each and every night after a ball game, myself and several other reporters receive an email from Hardaway (and also from Cashion girls coach Andrea Taylor) that lists the final score, score by quarter, individual scorers for both teams, Cashion’s record after the game and when is the next time Cashion plays.

Every single game, whether Cashion plays at home or two hours away.

Then, I’m among the more fortunate.

Hardaway watches his game film and stats each game and sends me a separate email with those stats broken down.

Usually that email comes at 1:30 or 2 in the morning.

When Cashion played its state tournament game at State Fair Arena, I didn’t NEED Cashion’s stats.

I kept my own running score tally and the OSSAA provides stats on-site thanks to Okarche’s own Jayme and Tony Williams.

However, an hour after his team’s gut-wrenching loss, I had that email in my inbox.

He didn’t have to, but he did.

That’s because Hardaway is a true pro.

• That’s not my way of trying to knock any other local coaches (or maybe it is!!).

Like I said, I have the best newspaper job in the state.

The night of games or the morning after, I send out a round of text messages and I get the flood of incoming information that I requested (man, how the times have changed in retrieving game info).

Nobody holds out.

• I’m encouraged by what I see at Dover.

Both the boys and girls teams have struggled in recent years - with a couple of exceptions.

Most of it without a doubt has been the reduced overall talent level.

However, that trend is starting to reverse.

The Lady Longhorns will surprise some outsiders next year and - you read it here first - will make a deep playoff run.

The boys have a lot of points to replace with Joriaun Caldwell graduating, but having Aaron Norton on the sidelines again is a step in the right direction.

The revolving door that had been Dover boys coaches has presumably been slowed by Norton and Dylan Blundell.

•I can’t think of many more difficult coaching situations than what Aaron West has faced at Okarche the last two years.

First, it was the death of his father, the legendary Ray West, prior to the start of the 2019-20 school year.

That thrust Aaron into the head coaching role with his father’s passing still lingering all year.

I don’t think I ever gave him proper credit for the job he did with LAST YEAR’S Okarche team...the improvements it made from the beginning of the year to the end.

Then there was the COVID-affected year of 2020-21 and the many interruptions, quarantines and other obstacles that came with it (obviously all coaches dealt with this).

On top of that, Okarche had a rash of key injuries during the year.

Added together, Aaron West has yet to have a “normal” season at the helm of the Warriors.

The same can be said for Haley Mitchel.

She just wrapped up her first season as coach of the Lady Warriors.

Not only does she carry the weight of being Cherie Myers’ daughter, but she, too, had to deal with a plethora of COVID issues in her initial season.

And, still, the Lady Warriors were within a win of the state tournament.

I look forward to when both of those coaches - as well as everyone in the state and nation) can have a typical season.

Lots more in the notebooks, but that’s all for now.

In the meantime, let’s do some spring sports.