Sports Minded: Passion, excitement in small school basketball

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Published on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 11:32

By Justin Ediger

A few weeks ago my column was about small school basketball and about how passionate the small schools are about their sports.  Specifically I spoke of how the small school state basketball tournament is a sight to behold.  Of course the state tournament only involves 8 teams from each classification so that means a team’s road to “The Big House” makes its way through district, regional and area tournament play.     

Last weekend I had the privilege of traveling to Okeene to cover both Merritt teams in the regional championships. Both took on Frontier with the winners advancing to the area tournament in Enid this coming weekend.  A win on Saturday night meant one victory away from making it to the field of 8 for next week’s state tournament.

From the minute my partner (Gabe Edney) and I walked into the Whippet gym Saturday you could tell it was playoff time.   With many years of broadcasting small school basketball under our belts, Gabe and I are well aware of the importance of getting to a school early.  You never know what the set up is going to be or what kind of creative thinking a guy is going to have to use in order to get a phone line from an outlet that is often in a coaches office to the broadcast booth that could be just about anywhere.  In general, small schools like Okeene aren’t used to us media types showing up. 

As we entered the gymnasium in Okeene the first thing we noticed was that the place was a “throw back” facility.  “Throw back” meaning it was built before either of us had breathed our first breath of life.  That being said, it was like stepping back in time. Wooden pull out bleachers and high arching rafters gave it the feel of what it must have been like in the gym back in Hickory.  That small Indiana High School made famous in one of the greatest sports movies ever in my opinion…Hoosiers.

The next thing that drew our attention was the loud, rambunctious crowd that we heard cheering on the game that was in progress.  

It was loser’s bracket action between Medford and Garber.  No more than ten seconds after we stepped into the room, the volume was at peak level.  Come to find out, one of the officials didn’t like some of the things that were being said from the Garber side because he stopped play and found a Garber administrator and asked that he address the crowd about their sportsmanship.  

You would have thought it was the final thirty seconds of the “do or die” contest.  In actuality, there was less than 2:00 gone in the first quarter and the score was 7-5.  Talk about passionate.  

We later found out that the two teams had met in the district championship game the week before so there was some bad blood still brewing from that game.

Finally the time came for Merritt to take the floor.  Unfortunately for the Oilerettes, they ran into a buzz saw.  Frontier’s Lady Mustang team put on a clinic in the second quarter and never looked back.   The Oilerettes put up a battle but in the end it was a dynamic sophomore for Frontier that helped put the dagger in Merritt’s regional championship dreams.  However, the Oilerettes stayed alive and must now win three straight in the area to advance to Oklahoma City.

In the nightcap it was an epic battle between #10 Merritt and #11 Frontier and what an atmosphere it was.  It was two former state champion coaches (Russ Rundle and Bob Weckstein) going at it like a couple of Russian chess champions. Admittedly, Weckstein is a lot more animated and verbal than Rundle, and that’s an understatement.  Merritt would show a lot of guts and poise in coming back from being down at halftime.  It was one of the more entertaining small school boy’s basketball games I’ve had the pleasure of watching in quite some time.  

If you’re a fan of basketball and you want to see some heart pounding, fist pumping action I highly suggest you not miss out in traveling to Enid Friday night where the Oilers will take on rival Cheyenne for the Area title and the right to advance to the state tournament.  

No doubt it will be small school playoff basketball at its best.